"The same way a reasonable police officer would never suffocate an unarmed man to death, a reasonable justice system would recognize its roots in white supremacy and end qualified immunity," tweeted Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP. Despite skepticism from both progressive Democrats and libertarian-minded Republicans, qualified immunity has remained largely intact. Several experts said they don't expect the Chauvin trial to change the political calculation or the Supreme Court's reluctance to explore the issue broadly – at least not right away. The nation's highest court dodged the issue last year, declining to hear a number of cases dealing with the doctrine. Those decisions came after George Floyd's death and the nationwide protests and riots that it sparked. On the other hand, the court has more recently instructed the lower courts to reconsider claims of qualified immunity in a handful of cases.