ACLU Statement of Opposition to Sen. Tim Scott’s So-Called “Justice Act”

WASHINGTON — Today the United States Senate took up a rushed procedural vote on Sen. Tim Scott’s JUSTICE Act. The JUSTICE Act proposes a number of reforms to police accountability and transparency, but it is profoundly flawed and fails to address several issues at the core of America’s broken system of policing, including reforming qualified immunity and addressing police use of force.

Kanya Bennett, Senior Legislative Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, issued the following statement:

“Far from centering the justice necessary to meet the demands of a public who are tired of status quo policing, the JUSTICE Act throws billions of dollars at studies and commissions when we know the real problem at the core of American policing — Black people continue to die at the hands of police without consequence. More talk, more training, and more police is not the solution. This bill addresses not one systemic issue at the core of our broken system of policing in this country: not militarization; not use of force; not profiling; not qualified immunity. Ultimately, it does nothing to end the state sanctioned murder of Black people that is all too commonplace in our society.

Across the country, millions of people are demanding a complete reimagining of our public safety, shifting away from a rotten policing system that enables brutality, death and racial injustice, and toward alternatives that respect community autonomy and the sanctity of human life. Today’s vote shows that it is time that our elected officials take those calls seriously and propose solutions that answer that call to action.”