Qualified Immunity.

If you understand one thing about suing the government, understand this: qualified immunity is the defense that decides most civil rights cases, often before a jury ever hears a word.

Qualified immunity is a judge-made doctrine that shields a government official from a civil rights suit unless two things are true: the official violated a constitutional right, and that right was clearly established at the time. Clearly established is the hard part. It generally means a prior court had already held that this kind of conduct, in a closely similar situation, was unconstitutional. A violation that is obvious but novel can still be immunized simply because no earlier case was close enough on its facts.

That is why these cases are won or lost on precedent. Overcoming immunity means finding the controlling decision, usually from the Supreme Court or the Fifth Circuit, that already condemned conduct like the conduct in your case, and framing the facts to fit it. It is exacting work, and it is the work I spend the most time on, because a case that cannot clear this wall never reaches the merits.

None of that means these cases cannot be won. They can, and they are, by lawyers who know the body of decisions cold and who build the record with immunity in mind from the first day. That is the whole discipline of this practice.