In a scathing dissenting opinion in a Texas case, she distills how many cops, who wrongfully shoot civilians, are granted immunity.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote an opinion about an incident involving an officer shooting an unarmed man in Texas, pointing out that court has a pattern of jumping to immunize police officers, reports The Huffington Post.
Given this uncertainty, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a pointed dissenting opinion that the Supreme Court should have heard the case — if only to reaffirm the principle that juries, not judges, should be the ultimate arbiters of who’s being truthful when an officer is accused of violating a person’s civil rights.
More tellingly, the justice then expressed dismay at a “disturbing trend” in how the Supreme Court has played a role in jumping to immunize police officers who are quick to pull the trigger, while doing little to step in whenever an officer has been wrongly shielded.
Sotomayor — who said her colleagues were supporting a “shoot first, think later approach” for cops — has been the most outspoken justice on the issue of police officers getting away with misconduct, reports The Washington Post.