Des Moines Register
When Estherville police arrested Gregory Baldwin in 2013 for operating an ATV within city limits, the case quickly ran into a problem: No city ordinance actually prohibited doing so.
Baldwin sued police for false arrest, a case that in 2018 went before the Iowa Supreme Court. The question: What kind of immunity, if any, should Iowa police and other government officials have against suits for allegedly violating Iowans' rights? The court's answer was that defendants are entitled to so-called "qualified immunity," so long as they could prove they had "exercised all due care to conform to the requirements of the law."