A Judge Locked Two Kids in Holding Cells. The Court Just Said He Gets No Immunity.

Missouri Judge Eric Eighmy didn't like that two kids refused to go home with their mother after a 2019 custody hearing in Taney County. So he took them down a courthouse hallway, threatened them with foster care, and had a juvenile officer pat them down, take their socks and shoes, and lock them in separate holding cells until they gave in.

A jury awarded each child $5,000. Eighmy appealed, first claiming judicial immunity and then, once that failed, qualified immunity, arguing that no earlier case had said this specific thing was unconstitutional. On Tuesday a unanimous 8th Circuit panel rejected both. Judge David Stras wrote: "A reasonable judge should have known better." The verdict and $326,637 in attorney fees stand.

This is the second time the court has shut Eighmy down. In 2023 it held that "judges do not do double duty as jailers." Now it's held that an obvious violation doesn't need a matching precedent before someone can be held accountable. That's the argument the Institute for Justice has been pushing nationwide, and it's winning.

Qualified immunity is supposed to protect hard judgment calls. Locking up children for refusing to get in a car isn't one. Good ruling.

Sources: 8th Circuit opinion, Institute for Justice, Volokh Conspiracy

Photo: Taney County Courthouse, Forsyth, MO. Kbh3rd / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.