Index/People/Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald

Family name

Fact-Checks

5 results

Jan 13, 2026

What Supreme Court case changed qualified immunity doctrine and when was it decided?

The Supreme Court’s most consequential doctrinal shift for modern qualified immunity came in Harlow v. Fitzgerald, decided in 1982, where the Court reframed qualified immunity around an objective “cle...

Jan 27, 2026

How do legal immunity and presidential privileges affect lawsuits filed against sitting and former presidents?

and related privileges shape which lawsuits can proceed, which acts are insulated, and how courts balance separation-of-powers concerns against accountability; the law gives absolute civil immunity fo...

Jan 15, 2026

What precedents govern presidential immunity in civil suits for statements made while in office?

The Supreme Court’s civil-law precedents center on a binary: absolute immunity for official acts touching the “outer perimeter” of presidential duties, and no special immunity for unofficial or pre‑pr...

Dec 14, 2025

How do federal bankruptcy rules or presidential immunity claims affect collecting civil judgments against Donald Trump?

Federal law gives debtors limited tools to shield assets in bankruptcy, but available sources do not describe a clean path for Donald Trump to discharge or erase civil judgments through federal bankru...

Nov 27, 2025

What legal standards determine when a president loses immunity for official acts?

The Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Trump v. United States established that presidents enjoy immunity for some official acts—setting a multi-tiered approach that grants absolute protection for core c...