Brenna Goddard

I think the goal of these threats is to stop state and local officials from pursuing these types of cases.

And I think it's possible that federal officials could follow up on those threats.

I think it's highly unlikely that they would ultimately succeed in court if state and local officials are really just carrying out their jobs.

But that doesn't mean that federal officials couldn't try to bring those cases.

I think...

One difficult aspect of it is that it's not something that we are super familiar with in recent decades.

And so I think it's just unfamiliar to people that states actually have this power and have this role and that that is a proper role for states to play.

And then I think the other way it impacts it is that...

There are dynamics about the investigation process that are flipped, where instead of concerns about a state withholding information from federal investigators, that is now flipped as well, where there's concerns about federal investigators withholding information from state investigators.

There are several cases where federal courts have recognized that federal officers do not have absolute immunity and that even where the facts are sufficiently disputed, the case can go ahead.

So I would specifically point to the U.S.

Supreme Court deciding in a 1906 case

where two federal soldiers shot and killed a man who they believed was stealing from federal property.

And we've seen this in other cases, too, where if the facts are sufficiently in dispute and there's a version of them that seems to suggest that the officer was just not acting reasonably, those cases can go ahead.

Even if the officer ultimately wins at trial, that immunity step, I think, is really important for getting the case over that hurdle and to a trial and recognizing

But it doesn't have to be that the facts are all predetermined.

It can be enough that there is this debate over what the officer did was reasonable.

It is really unprecedented to see that type of extreme defense of an officer before watching the whole process play out and gathering all the facts.

And I think it is a point that really underscores how important it is to have states

protecting their residents as well.