STORY

Case status: Beacon filed its amicus brief at the Supreme Court on July 16, 2026. The Court will decide whether to take this case in October. 

Richard Hershey wanted to distribute religious leaflets on a public sidewalk outside of a public arena hosting a Christian rock concert. He wasn’t breaking any law, but five police officers arrived and threatened to arrest him if he didn’t leave. Fearing arrest and imprisonment, Mr. Hershey left and hasn’t returned since. 

Mr. Hershey sued the officers for violating his First Amendment rights. But the court used a legal doctrine called qualified immunity to let the officers off the hook. Qualified immunity shields government officials from having to pay damages for violating someone’s rights unless the victim can point to a prior court case with nearly identical facts. In practice, this means that a public official can evade liability for violating someone’s constitutional rights simply because no one has violated those rights in exactly that way before. 

Represented by our friends at Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, Beacon filed a brief supporting Mr. Hershey’s request that the Supreme Court hear his case. Our brief urges the Court to eliminate qualified immunity—a doctrine that leaves Americans without a real way to hold officials accountable when the government violates their rights. We argue that qualified immunity conflicts with the Civil Rights Act of 1871, which requires courts to hold government officials accountable for violating a person’s constitutional rights.

It is a fundamental tenet of America that government serves the people and not the other way around. When government officials violate the people’s fundamental constitutional rights, Americans deserve the ability to hold those officials accountable. 

Read the brief here.