The Legal Aid Society filed an amicus brief at the Second Circuit in support of Adrian Thomas, who was coerced into a false confession by police under extreme circumstances and spent six years in prison before a higher court overturned his conviction. He was found not guilty at a second trial. However, when Mr. Thomas brought a civil suit against the officers involved, it was dismissed due to qualified immunity.

Qualified immunity routinely prevents Legal Aid’s clients from obtaining relief for the government’s violation of their constitutional rights. In this amicus brief, we argued that it is long past time for the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule its qualified immunity precedents and urged the Second Circuit to call for the doctrine’s abandonment.

In December 2024 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the District Court's decision granting summary judgment to the defendants.