Civil rights litigation in the United States has a long and complex history, marked by landmark cases and legislative milestones that have shaped the nation’s approach to justice and equality — and attorney Sarah Schielke is continuing to fight the good fight.
The modern history of civil rights in the USA is a compelling one. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, set the stage for a new era of civil rights law. This watershed moment was followed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which provided new legal tools for combating discrimination.
Cases like Griggs v. Duke Power Co. in 1971 expanded the scope of civil rights protections, establishing the concept of disparate impact in employment discrimination. However, the path of progress has not been without its obstacles. The 1982 Supreme Court decision in Harlow v. Fitzgerald introduced the doctrine of qualified immunity, which has since become a significant hurdle in holding government officials accountable for misconduct.
Rodney King Shines Spotlight on Police Brutality
The late-20th and early-21st centuries saw a shift in focus toward police misconduct cases. The 1991 beating of Rodney King, captured on video by a bystander, brought national attention to the issue of police brutality and highlighted the power of visual evidence in civil rights cases. As technology advanced, the proliferation of cell phone videos and body cameras has continued to play a crucial role in documenting and litigating civil rights violations.
It was against this backdrop that Sarah Schielke entered the field of civil rights law in 2009. Fresh out of law school, Schielke initially focused on criminal defense work. However, she quickly recognized the potential for civil rights litigation to address systemic injustices she witnessed in the criminal justice system.
“I started doing criminal defense and while doing criminal defense, you’re on the front line of seeing police misconduct. It pissed me off. I don’t even feel like I had a choice. I was just like ‘You know what? I am going to learn how to do civil rights litigation, and I’m gonna sue this cop afterward because I’ve seen enough,'” Schielke recalls.
A pivotal moment in Schielke’s career came in 2019 with the case of Preston Sowl. Sowl, who had witnessed a motorcycle accident, was tackled by police when he refused to answer questions, resulting in a dislocated arm requiring surgery. This case secured a significant settlement for Sowl and also shaped Sarah Schielke’s innovative approach to civil rights litigation.
As Schielke delved deeper into civil rights law, she began to recognize systemic issues that hindered justice for victims of rights violations. She observed a troubling pattern of low settlements in civil rights cases, particularly those involving vulnerable populations.
“What I learned when I started doing these is I was like, we’d go into these settlement conferences and I would look for comparable settlements for similar injuries. And it was like, these numbers are low. They’re catastrophically low,” Schielke explains.
This realization sparked Schielke’s determination to challenge the status quo. She identified several barriers to justice, including the reluctance of many attorneys to take on risky civil rights cases (“the courts’ expansion of qualified immunity for cops over the past century is almost singularly responsible for this,” Schielke adds), the financial pressures that often led victims to accept inadequate settlements, and the lack of public awareness about the true extent of civil rights violations.
Moreover, she became increasingly critical of existing police accountability measures. She recognized that body camera policies, while a step in the right direction, often included loopholes that could be exploited to obscure misconduct. Her stance on body camera use is unequivocal: “Good cops don’t need mute. I don’t think that good cops need mute. Period. We don’t let bank tellers turn off or mute their cameras when they’re at work. What kind of society have we become where we expect constant surveillance on those handling our money but we accept police having discretion and control over surveillance on their policing? The system is broken. There is only one fix to problems like this: More transparency. No good cop needs a mute button on their camera. The ability to mute on these police cameras needs to go.”
As Sarah Schielke embarked on her crusade to reform civil rights litigation, she brought with her a unique combination of legal acumen, technological savvy, and unwavering commitment to justice. Her journey would challenge longstanding practices within the legal system while also redefining the role of civil rights attorneys in the digital age, and it is exciting and important to watch it continue today.
