5th Circuit Judge: ‘If We Want to Stop Mass Shootings, We Should Stop Punishing Police Officers’
One of President Donald Trump’s appointees to the federal bench issued a controversial opinion with a startling opening line that amounted to a ringing endorsement of law enforcement and a dire warning to its critics, reports CNN.
“If we want to stop mass shootings, we should stop punishing police officers who put their lives on the line to prevent them,” James Ho of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in an opinion.
His statement came in a dissent from a denial en banc. The case involved a wrongful death suit against Kaufman County, Texas, in the officer shooting of a man who was carrying a toy pistol.
A district court dismissed the case, holding that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity, according to CNN’s Ariane de Vogue. But a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit sent the case back down for further proceedings.
