After Minneapolis shootings, California advances a bill allowing lawsuits against federal agents

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SACRAMENTO — Amid a national uproar over the recent killing of a Minnesota man by immigration agents, the California Senate on Tuesday approved proposed legislation that would make it easier to sue law enforcement officials suspected of violating an individual’s constitutional rights.Senate Bill 747 by Sen.Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) creates a pathway for residents to take legal action against federal agents for excessive use of force, unlawful home searches, interfering with a right to protest and other violations.The bill, which cleared a Senate committee earlier this year, passed in a 30-10 vote along party lines.Other states, including New York and Connecticut, are weighing similar legislation after widespread anger over actions during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Existing laws already allow lawsuits against state and local law enforcement officials.But it is much harder to bring claims against federal officers.

Wiener said his bill would rectify those impediments.Several state law enforcement agencies oppose the legislation, arguing it will also be used to sue local officers.

Tuesday’s vote follows the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday by federal officials, who tackled him to the ground, appeared to remove his holstered handgun and then shot Pretti several times in the back.During the debate on the state Senate floor Tuesday, several Democratic lawmakers called Pretti’s death an execution or murder.

Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was also shot and killed by an agent earlier this month in Minnesota in what federal officials have asserted was an act of self-defense when she allegedly drove her vehicle toward an officer — an assertion under dispute.The deaths, as well as the government’s insistence that immigration agents don’t require judicial warrants to enter homes, have outraged Democratic ...