In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police departments can’t be sued for failing to enforce restraining orders.

The case Castle Rock (Colo.) v Gonzales stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Jessica Gonzales, who charged that police repeatedly failed to enforce a restraining order against her violent husband, who kidnapped their three young daughters in 1999. The children were killed later that night.

As summarized by Oyez.org, the question before the High Court was, can the holder of a restraining order bring a procedural due process claim against a local government for its failure to actively enforce the order and protect the holder from violence?

The answer was no, in a 7-2 opinion. The Court ruled that Gonzales had no constitutionally-protected property interest in the enforcement of the restraining order, and therefore could not claim that the police had violated her right to due process. In order to have a “property interest” in a benefit as abstract as enforcement of a restraining order, the Court ruled, Gonzales would have needed a “legitimate claim of entitlement” to the benefit.

The opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia found that state law did not entitle the holder of a restraining order to any specific mandatory action by the police. Instead, restraining orders only provide grounds for arresting the subject of the order. The specific action to be taken is up to the discretion of the police.

The Court ruling does not mean that states can’t enact laws that insure citizens are entitled to certain protections. But Colorado had not created such an entitlement.

Likewise, government immunity will likely protect police in Uvalde, Texas, from lawsuits for failing to respond more quickly to a mass shooter in a school.

According to attorney P. Andrew Torrez, any state (that includes Kansas) could craft carefully worded laws that would require police to do their jobs. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said so in his dissenting vote in Castle Rock, in which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined. There would definitely be unintended consequences if police aren’t allowed some discretion on when to act sometimes, but narrow laws can be written. For example, Kansas is one of several states with a “mandatory arrest” law when there is probable cause of a domestic violence offense.

Acting to protect the lives children and teachers trapped in a school with a shooter should be on the “required” list. Even more important than affording citizens a reasonable chance at winning a lawsuit, such a law might actually save lives.