Harlow created a Kafkaesque loop where litigants can’t argue that cops violated “well established” principles until a court establishes those principles have been violated. The case is like telling people they can’t open a bank account without money, but it won’t give people money until they open a bank account. And that loop was made worse in 2009 when Samuel Alito, writing for a unanimous court, issued a ruling in Pearson v. Callahan. That case made it more difficult for litigants to get established constitutional principles on the record, thus making it functionally impossible to prove that
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