Qualified Immunity

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented in a case involving a Vermont state police sergeant's use of force against a nonviolent protester, warning that the majority granted officers a 'license to inflict gratuitous pain.' The decision reversed a lower court's ruling denying qualified immunity to Sgt. Jacob Zorn. Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, argued the action violated the Fourth Amendment.