The Need for Statutory Immunity to Protect Federal Appointees from Civil Suit
Ronnie R Gipson
What the paper says
This article considers the need for statutory immunity to protect federal appointees from civil suits. The author contends that Congress should pass legislation to provide immunity to federal government appointees from civil suits arising from the performance of official tasks and functions. The author uses the example of Designated Pilot Examiners to illustrate the need and positive impact of statutory immunity from civil suit. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires its employee Inspectors and appointed Examiners to administer oral and practical examinations to pilots and mechanics seeking FAA licensure, yet only the Examiners are open to suit under state torts law for performance of their official duties. Part I of the article describes the Federal Torts Claims Act and the case law created Governor Contractor Immunity Defense based on the doctrine of preemption. Part II reviews the basis and need for the creation of statutory immunity to protect federal appointee examiners from civil suit when administering exams to applications on behalf of the FAA. The author concludes by calling for Congress to pass into law upcoming legislation that protects these federal appointees from civil suit.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.00 × 0.4 = 0.00 |
| M · momentum | 0.20 × 0.15 = 0.03 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.