Back the Blue Bill to be considered in House Committee this week

February 11, 2025 – MONTGOMERY, AL – The Alabama Legislature is poised to consider legislation making it harder to sue law enforcement officers for actions taken during performance of their duties. The "Back the Blue" bill is part of Alabama Governor Kay Ivey's (R) effort to crack down on crime by giving law enforcement a freer hand,

House Bill 202 (HB202) is sponsored by State Representative Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville). Reynolds is the retired police chief of Huntsville. The same legislation was also introduced in the Alabama Senate by Senator Lance Bell (R-Pell City) as Senate Bill 129.

According to the synopsis: "Under existing law, a peace officer is protected from tort liability arising out of his or her conduct in performance of any discretionary function within the line and scope of his or her law enforcement duties. Under court precedents interpreting existing law, a peace officer is not entitled to this protection when he or she acts willfully, maliciously, fraudulently, in bad faith, beyond his or her authority, or under a mistaken interpretation of the law. This bill would repeal existing law concerning peace officer immunity and establish a new form of legal protection for law enforcement officers. This new protection would foreclose any claim that seeks to impose civil liability against a law enforcement officer premised on conduct performed within his or her discretionary authority unless: (1) the law enforcement officer acted recklessly without law enforcement justification or (2) the conduct violated a clearly established state or federal statutory or constitutional right of the plaintiff. This bill would also establish a heightened pleading standard and an also establish a heightened pleading standard and an automatic stay of proceedings to remain in effect while the law enforcement officer seeks to establish that the protection applies. This bill would also provide that a law enforcement officer is justified in, and immune from criminal prosecution for, the use of physical force against a person in the performance of conduct within his or her discretionary authority unless the use of force violates the person's constitutional rights to be free from excessive force. The bill would entitle a law enforcement officer to a pretrial hearing to establish the applicability of this protection. The bill would also provide for an automatic stay of any criminal prosecution while the law enforcement officer seeks to establish that the protection applies."

If passed into law, this legislation would make it much harder for a citizen to sue a member of law enforcement who is acting in performance of his or her duties as a member of law enforcement. The two exceptions are if the law enforcement acted recklessly or conduct that clearly violated the constitutional rights of the citizen(s) involved, The burden of proof on this would be squarely on the plaintiff and must be established before litigation can even proceed,

In calling for this legislation, Gov. Ivey said in her State of the State speech that she wanted law enforcement to be able to engage in their duties "without Monday morning quarterbacking by the courts."

The House Judiciary Committee is on the agenda of House Judiciary Committee to consider HB202 at their meeting on Wednesday in Room 200 at 1:30 p.m.

Some civil libertarians and plaintiff's attorneys have expressed concerns that HB202/SB129 may go too far. SB129 has been referred to the Senate Public Safety Committee. It

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