Justice for arrested black Alabama pastor, watered neighbor's flowers

The police officers who arrested a black pastor while he watered his neighbor's flowers can be sued, a federal appeals court has ruled, reversing a lower court judge's decision which had dismissed the pastor's lawsuit.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the three officers who arrested Michael Jennings in Childersburg, , in May 2022 lacked probable cause for the arrest and are therefore not shielded by qualified immunity.

Qualified immunity protects officers from civil liability while performing their duties as long as their actions don't violate clearly established law or constitutional rights which they should have known about.

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