For individuals there are things like police having qualified Immunity as individuals. So you can’t sue the police agency because of soverign immunity and the officer because of qualified immunity.
There are some limitations, but the bar is extremely high. Like you can sue an officer, but there has to be a massive mountain of evidence that their actions were not ‘doing their job’. There is no real chance of suing a SWAT team member for example, because they most likely have a warrant and expect violence to happen.
Government safety agencies shutting down businesses, newly formed potholes damaging cars, etc. are the common scenarios where the immunity makes some kind of sense because otherwise it would overwhelm the courts if every government action or lack of action could end up in court.
The bar is too high for a lot of those things though.
Does it protect all members of government from lawsuits?
That would be separate thing called qualified immunity. It protects the employee from personal liability when they are on the job.
For individuals there are things like police having qualified Immunity as individuals. So you can’t sue the police agency because of soverign immunity and the officer because of qualified immunity.
There are some limitations, but the bar is extremely high. Like you can sue an officer, but there has to be a massive mountain of evidence that their actions were not ‘doing their job’. There is no real chance of suing a SWAT team member for example, because they most likely have a warrant and expect violence to happen.
Government safety agencies shutting down businesses, newly formed potholes damaging cars, etc. are the common scenarios where the immunity makes some kind of sense because otherwise it would overwhelm the courts if every government action or lack of action could end up in court.
The bar is too high for a lot of those things though.