This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, February 17th, 2022.

I'm Caleb Brown.

For opponents of qualified immunity, that's the Supreme Court invented doctrine that lets many public officials off the hook

for violations of Americans' rights.

The focus has long been on police and how police engage with the rest of us.

But what about other public officials like school

administrators? Chris Kemmett is with the N-W-A-C-P Legal Defense Fund. That group is one around

in federal court against administrators who strip- a student twice for no clear reason.

We spoke last week.

With respect to constitutional rights, what do we broadly expect that the public sector owes to the private sector?

I mean, I think that what we expect is that the public sector adheres to the Constitution, that the Constitution

means what it says and that public sector employees are obligated by it, are

bound by it, and when they violate the rights of other

people as set out in the Constitution there has to be some sort of consequence

for that. Okay so in the context of police, police who violate Americans rights are rarely ever charged with crimes.

And in this case that you're dealing with, what do teachers and school administrators and public

schools in general, you know, how does that differ from when we talk about in the context of police

violating rights?

You know, I think that when people think about the Fourth Amendment and they think about

invasive searches and seizures or even qualified immunity.

Like the police are quite fairly the first the first kind of group of folks that

that spring to mind because they are the most likely party to be involved.

...