Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/483/669/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 17:52:42+00:00

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A serviceman could not file a Federal Tort Claims Act suit against the federal government for personality changes that allegedly resulted from the negligent administration, supervision, and subsequent monitoring of an LSD testing program because his injuries were "incident to service."
the Court of Appeals also ruled that recent precedent indicated that respondent might now have a viable FTCA claim, and therefore remanded.
1. The Court of Appeals' reinstatement of respondent's FTCA claim was in error, since § 1292(b) authorizes an appeal only from the order certified by the District Court, and not from any other orders that may have been entered in the case. The Court of Appeals' jurisdiction was therefore limited to the order refusing to dismiss respondent's Bivens claim. The court's action was particularly erroneous, since the United States was not even a party to the appeal, the District Court having previously dismissed respondent's Bivens claim against the Government. Pp. 483 U. S. 676-678.
2. The Court of Appeals erred in ruling that respondent can proceed with his Bivens claims notwithstanding Chappell. Respondent's argument that there is no evidence that his injury was "incident to service" is unavailable to him, since the issue of service incidence was decided adversely to him by the Court of Appeals' original Feres ruling. The argument that the chain-of-command concerns allegedly at the heart of Chappell are not implicated here, since the defendants were not respondent's superior officers, is also unavailing, because the argument ignores Chappell's plain statement that its Bivens analysis was guided by Feres. Thus, a Bivens action should be disallowed whenever the serviceman's injury arises out of activity "incident to service." As in Chappell, the "special factors" that counsel against a Bivens action in these circumstances are the constitutional authorization for Congress, rather than the judiciary, to make rules governing the military, the unique disciplinary structure of the Military Establishment, Congress' establishment of a comprehensive internal system of military justice, and the greater degree of disruption respondent's chain-of-command rule would have on the military than does the "incident to service" test. It is irrelevant to a "special factors" analysis whether current laws afford servicemen an "adequate" federal remedy for their injuries. Similarly irrelevant is Chappell's statement that the Court was not there holding that military personnel are barred from all redress in civilian courts for constitutional wrongs suffered in the course of military service, since that statement referred to traditional forms of relief designed to halt or prevent constitutional violations, rather than to the award of money damages, a new kind of cause of action. Pp. 483 U. S. 678-684.
SCALIA, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and WHITE, BLACKMUN, and POWELL, JJ., joined, and in Part I of which BRENNAN, MARSHALL, STEVENS, and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined.
BRENNAN, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which MARSHALL, J., joined, and in Part III of which STEVENS, J., joined, post p. 483 U. S. 686. O'CONNOR, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, post p. 483 U. S. 708.
In February, 1958, James B. Stanley, a master sergeant in the Army stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, volunteered to participate in a program ostensibly designed to test the effectiveness of protective clothing and equipment as defenses against chemical warfare. He was released from his then-current duties and went to the Army's Chemical Warfare Laboratories at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. Four times that month, Stanley was secretly administered doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), pursuant to an Army plan to study the effects of the drug on human subjects. According to his Second Amended Complaint (the allegations of which we accept for purposes of this decision), as a result of the LSD exposure, Stanley has suffered from hallucinations and periods of incoherence and memory loss, was impaired in his military performance, and would on occasion "awake from sleep at night and, without reason, violently beat his wife and children, later being unable to recall the entire incident." App. 5. He was discharged from the Army in 1969. One year later, his marriage dissolved because of the personality changes wrought by the LSD.
On December 10, 1975, the Army sent Stanley a letter soliciting his cooperation in a study of the long-term effects of LSD on "volunteers who participated" in the 1958 tests.
This was the Government's first notification to Stanley that he had been given LSD during his time in Maryland. After an administrative claim for compensation was denied by the Army, Stanley filed suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. § 2671 et seq., alleging negligence in the administration, supervision, and subsequent monitoring of the drug testing program.
The District Court granted the Government's motion for summary judgment, finding that Stanley "was at all times on active duty and participating in a bona fide Army program during the time the alleged negligence occurred," No. 788141-Civ-CF, p. 2 (SD Fla., May 14, 1979), and that his FTCA suit was therefore barred by the doctrine of Feres v. United States, 340 U. S. 135 (1950), which determined that "the Government is not liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries to servicemen where the injuries arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service." Id. at 340 U. S. 146. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed that the Feres doctrine barred Stanley's FTCA suit against the United States, but held that the District Court should have dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, rather than disposing of the case on the merits. Stanley v. CIA, 639 F.2d 1146 (1981). The Government contended that a remand would be futile, because Feres would bar any claims that Stanley could raise either under the FTCA or directly under the Constitution against individual officers under Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S. 388 (1971). The court concluded, however, that Stanley "has at least a colorable constitutional claim based on Bivens," 639 F.2d at 1159, and remanded "for the consideration of the trial court of any amendment which the appellant may offer, seeking to cure the jurisdictional defect." Id. at 1159-1160.
was discharged constituted a separate tort which, because occurring subsequent to his discharge, was not "incident to service" within the Feres exception to the FTCA. See United States v. Brown, 348 U. S. 110 (1954). The District Court dismissed the FTCA claim because the alleged negligence was not "separate and distinct from any acts occurring before discharge, so as to give rise to a separate actionable tort not barred by the Feres doctrine." 549 F.Supp. 327, 329 (SD Fla.1982). It refused, however, to dismiss the Bivens claims. The court rejected, inter alia, the Government's argument that the same considerations giving rise to the Feres exception to the FTCA should constitute "special factors" of the sort alluded to in Bivens, supra, at 403 U. S. 396, and other cases as bars to a Bivens action. It cited as sole authority for that rejection the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit's decision in Wallace v. Chappell, 661 F.2d 729 (1981). Sua sponte, the court certified its order for interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b).
Clerk to "enter final judgment in favor of the United States forthwith," ibid., and vacated the portion of its prior order ruling on the Bivens claims against the individual defendants, giving Stanley 90 days to serve at least one individual defendant. The docket sheet for the case reflects the terms of that order ("The clerk to enter final judgment in favor of USA," App. to Brief in Opposition A4), but does not indicate that an additional "separate document," Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 58, containing the judgment was entered. See Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 79(a).
"a member of the military brings a suit against a superior officer for wrongs which involve direct orders in the performance of military duty and the discipline and order necessary thereto,"
574 F.Supp. at 479, factors that in its view were not involved in Stanley's claim. Nor could the court find in congressionally prescribed remedies, such as the Veterans' Benefits Act, 38 U.S.C. § 301 et seq., any expression of exclusivity of the sort Bivens contemplated would preclude recovery. See 403 U.S. at 403 U. S. 397. The court again certified its order for interlocutory appeal under § 1292(b), which petitioners sought and the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted.
"[t]hose intramilitary administrative procedures which the Court found adequate to redress the servicemen's racial discrimination complaints in Chappell are clearly inadequate to compensate Stanley for the violations complained of here."
require adherence to the 1982 holding that Stanley's FTCA claim was barred by Feres. It remanded with instructions to the District Court to "allow Stanley the opportunity to amend to plead consistent with recent precedent." 786 F.2d at 1499.
Because the Courts of Appeals have not been uniform in their interpretation of the holding in Chappell, [Footnote 3] and because the Court of Appeals' reinstatement of Stanley's FTCA claims seems at odds with sound judicial practice, we granted certiorari. 479 U.S. 1005 (1986).
such order. The Court of Appeals may thereupon, in its discretion, permit an appeal to be taken from such order. . . ."
"the scope of the issues open to the court of appeals is closely limited to the order appealed from [and] [t]he court of appeals will not consider matters that were ruled upon in other orders."
16 C. Wright, A. Miller, E. Cooper, & E. Gressman, Federal Practice and Procedure § 3929, p. 143 (1977). See Pritchard-Keang Nam Corp. v. Jaworski, 751 F.2d 277, 281, n. 3 (CA8 1984), cert. dism'd, 472 U.S. 1022 (1985); United States v. Bear Marine Services, 696 F.2d 1117, 1119, n. 1 (CA5 1983); Time, Inc. v. Ragano, 427 F.2d 219, 221 (CA5 1970).
"the issues involved in the Bivens claim and the alleged immunity of the individual defendants closely parallels [sic] the government's immunity due to the Feres doctrine . . . [and] that is what all parties were arguing about in the interlocutory appeal."
"explicit congressional declaration that persons injured by a federal officer's violation of the Fourth Amendment may not recover money damages from the agents, but must instead be remitted to another remedy, equally effective in the view of Congress."
"[t]he need for special regulations in relation to military discipline, and the consequent need and justification for a special and exclusive system of military justice. . . ."
"the Constitution contemplated that the Legislative Branch have plenary control over rights, duties, and responsibilities in the framework of the Military Establishment. . . ."
"establis[h] a comprehensive internal system of justice to regulate military life, taking into account the special patterns that define the military structure."
"[t]aken together, the unique disciplinary structure of the Military Establishment and Congress' activity in the field constitute 'special factors' which dictate that it would be inappropriate to provide enlisted military personnel a Bivenstype remedy against their superior officers."
Id. at 462 U. S. 304.
Stanley argues that there is no evidence that this injury was "incident to service," because we do not know the precise character of the drug testing program, the titles and roles of the various individual defendants, or Stanley's duty status when he was at the Maryland testing grounds. If that argument is sound, then even if Feres principles apply fully to Bivens actions, further proceedings are necessary to determine whether they apply to this case.
"[t]he 'special factors' that bear on the propriety of respondents' Bivens action also formed the basis of this Court's decision in Feres v. United States,"
"[a]lthough this case concerns the limitations on the type of nonstatutory damages remedy recognized in Bivens, rather than Congress' intent in enacting the Federal Tort Claims Act, the Court's analysis in Feres guides our analysis in this case."
service" test, it is plain that our reasoning in Chappell does not support the distinction Stanley would rely on.
for Congress "[t]o make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces," U.S.Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 14, and rely upon inference for our own authority to allow money damages. [Footnote 5] This is not to say, as JUSTICE BRENNAN's dissent characterizes it, post at 483 U. S. 707, that all matters within congressional power are exempt from Bivens. What is distinctive here is the specificity of that technically superfluous grant of power, [Footnote 6] and the insistence (evident from the number of Clauses devoted to the subject) with which the Constitution confers authority over the Army, Navy, and militia upon the political branches. All this counsels hesitation in our creation of damages remedies in this field.
the details of their military commands. Even putting aside the risk of erroneous judicial conclusions (which would becloud military decisionmaking), the mere process of arriving at correct conclusions would disrupt the military regime. The "incident to service" test, by contrast, provides a line that is relatively clear, and that can be discerned with less extensive inquiry into military matters.
"never held, nor do we now hold, that military personnel are barred from all redress in civilian courts for constitutional wrongs suffered in the course of military service."
462 U.S. at 462 U. S. 304. As the citations immediately following that statement suggest, it referred to redress designed to halt or prevent the constitutional violation, rather than the award of money damages. See Brown v. Glines, 444 U. S. 348 (1980); Parker v. Levy, 417 U. S. 733 (1974); Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U. S. 677 (1973). Such suits, like the case of Wilkes v. Dinsman, 7 How. 89 (1849), distinguished in Chappell, 462 U.S. at 462 U. S. 305, n. 2, sought traditional forms of relief, and "did not ask the Court to imply a new kind of cause of action." Ibid.
as the exception to the FTCA established by Feres and United States v. Johnson. We hold that no Bivens remedy is available for injuries that "arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service." 340 U.S. at 340 U. S. 146.
483 U. S. because the refusal to entertain a Bivens action has the same effect as a grant of unqualified immunity, we should find "special factors" sufficient to preclude a Bivens action only when our immunity decisions would absolutely foreclose a money judgment against the defendant officials. The short answer to this argument is that Chappell made no reference to immunity principles, and Bivens itself explicitly distinguished the question of immunity from the question whether the Constitution directly provides the basis for a damages action against individual officers. 403 U.S. at 403 U. S. 397. The analytic answer is that the availability of a damages action under the Constitution for particular injuries (those incurred in the course of military service) is a question logically distinct from immunity to such an action on the part of particular defendants. When liability is asserted under a statute, for example, no one would suggest that whether a cause of action exists should be determined by consulting the scope of common law immunity enjoyed by actors in the area to which the statute pertains. Rather, one applies that immunity (unless the statute says otherwise) to whatever actions and remedies the terms of the statute are found to provide. Similarly, the Bivens inquiry in this case -- whether a damages action for injury in the course of military service can be founded directly upon the Constitution -- is analytically distinct from the question of official immunity from Bivens liability.
to produce precisely the same results as a given definition of immunity. For example, if a State wanted to eliminate driver liability for automobile accidents, it could either prescribe that all automobile drivers are immune from suit for injuries caused by their negligent driving or prescribe that no cause of action exists for injuries caused by negligent driving. But what JUSTICE BRENNAN fails to produce is any reason for creating such an equivalency in the present case (and, presumably, in all Bivens actions). In the sole case he relies upon for his novel analysis, Davis v. Passman, 442 U. S. 228 (1979), there was a reason. There, the Constitution itself contained an applicable immunity provision -- the Speech or Debate Clause, Art. I, § 6, cl. 1 -- which rendered Members of Congress immune from suit for their legislative activity. The Court held that the "special concerns counseling hesitation" in the inference of Bivens actions in that area "are coextensive with the protections afforded by the Speech or Debate Clause." 442 U.S. at 442 U. S. 246. That is to say, the Framers addressed the special concerns in that field through an immunity provision -- and had they believed further protection was necessary, they would have expanded that immunity provision. It would therefore have distorted their plan to achieve the same effect as more expansive immunity by the device of denying a cause of action for injuries caused by Members of Congress where the constitutionally prescribed immunity does not apply.
JUSTICE BRENNAN proposes is not an application, but a repudiation, of the "special factors" limitation upon the inference of Bivens actions. That limitation is quite hollow if it does nothing but duplicate preexisting immunity from suit.
* JUSTICE STEVENS joins Part I of this opinion.
"When more than one claim for relief is presented . . the court may direct the entry of a final judgment as to one or more but fewer than all of the claims or parties only upon an express determination that there is no just reason for delay and upon an express direction for the entry of judgment."
The named defendants are Joseph R. Bertino, M.D.; Board of Regents of the University of Maryland; H. D. Collier; Albert Dreisbach; Bernard G. Elfert; Sidney Gottlieb, M.D.; Richard Helms; Gerald Klee, M.D.; Van Sim, M.D.; Walter Weintraub, M.D.; and unknown individual federal and state agents and officers. Klee and Weintraub, who are not parties to this appeal, were employees of the University of Maryland in 1968; the rest of the individual defendants, petitioners in this action, are alleged to have been federal employees or agents involved at some point in the drug testing program or followup. Stanley claims that these names first became available to him from the record in Sweet v. United States, 687 F.2d 246 (CA8 1982), a case raising nearly identical claims.
See Jorden v. National Guard Bureau, 799 F.2d 99, 107-108 (CA3 1986) (§ 1983); Trerice v. Summons, 755 F.2d 1081, 1082-1084 (CA4 1985); Mollnow v. Carlton, 716 F.2d 627, 629-630 (CA9 1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1100 (1984); Gaspard v. United States, 713 F.2d 1097, 1103-1104 (CA5 1983), cert. denied sub nom. Sheehan v. United States, 466 U.S. 975 (1984).
For the same reasons, however, it was proper for the Court of Appeals to decline to rule on the civil rights claims against Klee, Weintraub, and the University of Maryland Board of Regents, which were not addressed in the District Court's order. We similarly decline the Government's invitation, Brief for Petitioners 25, n. 17, to rule on those claims.
This distinction also explains why the author of this opinion, who dissented in United States v. Johnson, 481 U. S. 681 (1987), because he saw no justification for adopting a military affairs exception to the FTCA, see id. at 481 U. S. 692, believes that consideration of such an exception to Bivens liability is appropriate. And if exception is to be made, there is, as Chappell recognized, no reason for it to be narrower under Bivens than under the FTCA.
Had the power to make rules for the military not been spelled out, it would in any event have been provided by the Necessary and Proper Clause, U.S. Const, Art. 1, § 8, cl. 18 -- as is, for example, the power to make rules for the government and regulation of the Postal Service.
"1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential."
"The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity."
"designed to determine the potential effects of chemical or biological agents when used operationally against individuals unaware that they had received a drug,"
to EA 1729 [LSD] must be legally shown to have been due to the material. Proper security and appropriate operational techniques can protect the fact of employment of EA 1729.'"
Id. at 416-417 (quoting USAINTC Staff Study, Material Testing Program EA 1729, p. 26 (Oct. 15, 1959)). That is, legal liability could be avoided by covering up the LSD experiments.
"[I]n the Army's tests, as with those of the CIA, individual rights were . . . subordinated to national security considerations; informed consent and follow-up examinations of subjects were neglected in efforts to maintain the secrecy of the tests. Finally, the command and control problems which were apparent in the CIA's programs are paralleled by a lack of clear authorization and supervision in the Army's programs."
other soldiers, as for any citizen, lies in a Bivens action -- an action for damages brought directly under the Constitution for the violation of constitutional rights by federal officials. But the Court today holds that no Bivens remedy is available for service-connected injuries, because "special factors counse[l] hesitation." Id. at 403 U. S. 396. The practical result of this decision is absolute immunity from liability for money damages for all federal officials who intentionally violate the constitutional rights of those serving in the military.
First, I will demonstrate that the Court has reached this result only by ignoring governing precedent. The Court confers absolute immunity from money damages on federal officials (military and civilian alike) without consideration of longstanding case law establishing the general rule that such officials are liable for damages caused by their intentional violations of well-established constitutional rights. If applied here, that rule would require a different result. Then I will show that the Court denies Stanley's Bivens action solely on the basis of an unwarranted extension of the narrow exception to this rule created in Chappell v. Wallace, 462 U. S. 296 (1983). The Court's reading of Chappell tears it from its analytical moorings, ignores the considerations decisive in our immunity cases, and leads to an unjust and illogical result.
"a suit against a Congressman for putatively unconstitutional actions taken in the course of his official conduct does raise special concerns counseling hesitation"
under Bivens, but held that "these concerns are coextensive with the protections afforded by the Speech or Debate Clause," id. at 442 U. S. 246, which "shields federal legislators with absolute immunity," id. at 442 U. S. 236, n. 11. [Footnote 2/9] Absent immunity, the Court said, legislators ought to be liable in damages, as are ordinary persons. See id. at 442 U. S. 246. The same analysis applies to federal officials making decisions in military matters. Absent immunity, they are liable for damages, as are all citizens.
"The practical consequences of a holding that no remedy has been authorized against a public official are essentially the same as those flowing from a conclusion that the official has absolute immunity. Moreover, similar factors are evaluated in deciding whether to recognize an implied cause of action or a claim of immunity. In both situations, when Congress is silent, the Court makes an effort to ascertain its probable intent."
"the need to protect officials who are required to exercise their discretion and the related public interest in encouraging the vigorous exercise of official authority,"
wrongs and vindicating the rights of citizens, id. at 438 U. S. 504-505. [Footnote 2/13] After full consideration of potential adverse consequences, we decided that the extension of absolute immunity to federal officials would "seriously erode the protection provided by basic constitutional guarantees," id. at 438 U. S. 505, and undermine the basic assumption of our jurisprudence: "that all individuals, whatever their position in government, are subject to federal law." Id. at 438 U. S. 506 (emphasis added). Thus, we concluded that it is "not unfair to hold liable the official who knows or should know he is acting outside the law," and that "insisting on awareness of clearly established constitutional limits will not unduly interfere with the exercise of official judgment." Id. at 438 U. S. 506-507.
In Butz, we acknowledged that federal officials may receive absolute immunity in the exercise of certain functions, but emphasized that the burden is on the official to demonstrate that an "exceptional situatio[n]" exists, in which "absolute immunity is essential for the conduct of the public business." See Butz, supra, at 438 U. S. 507; Harlow, 457 U.S. at 457 U. S. 812. The official seeking immunity "first must show that the responsibilities of his office embraced a function so sensitive as to require a total shield from liability," and "then must demonstrate that he was discharging the protected function when performing the act for which liability is asserted." Id. at 457 U. S. 813.
"National security tasks . . . are carried out in secret. . . . Under such circumstances, it is far more likely that actual abuses will go uncovered than that fancied abuses will give rise to unfounded and burdensome litigation."
Id. at 472 U. S. 522. [Footnote 2/15] The Court highlighted the "danger that high federal officials will disregard constitutional rights in their zeal to protect the national security," and deemed it "sufficiently real to counsel against affording such officials an absolute immunity." Id. at 472 U. S. 523.
to all federal executive officials would seriously erode the protection provided by basic constitutional guarantees."
Id. at 438 U. S. 505. The case should be remanded and petitioners required to demonstrate that absolute immunity was necessary to the effective performance of their functions.
It is well accepted that, when determining whether and what kind of immunity is required for Government officials, the Court's decision is informed by the common law. See Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U. S. 731, 457 U. S. 747 (1982); Mitchell, supra, at 472 U. S. 521; Butz, supra, at 438 U. S. 508. My conclusion that qualified, rather than absolute, immunity is the norm for Government officials, even in cases involving military matters, is buttressed by the common law.
"It must not be lost sight of . . . that, while the chief agent of the government, in so important a trust, when conducting with skill, fidelity, and energy, is to be protected under mere errors of judgment in the discharge of his duties, yet he is not to be shielded from responsibility if he acts out of his authority or jurisdiction, or inflicts private injury either from malice, cruelty, or any species of oppression, founded on considerations independent of public ends."
"The humblest seaman or marine is to be sheltered under the aegis of the law from any real wrong, as well as the highest in office."
to government officials. See Butz, 438 U.S. at 438 U. S. 491. In addition, in Chappell v. Wallace, 462 U.S. at 462 U. S. 305, n. 2, the Court distinguished Wilkes, plainly indicating that Chappell did not hold that soldiers could never sue for service-connected injury inflicted by an intentional tort. Indeed, by preserving Wilkes, the Court suggested that even military officials would not always be absolutely immune from liability for such conduct.
Although Chappell reveals that we have moved away from the common law rule in cases involving the command relationship between soldiers and their superiors, our immunity cases and a close analysis of Chappell, see infra this page and 483 U. S. 701-707, reveal that there is no justification for straying further.
Chappell and the present case, namely, that the defendants are not alleged to be Stanley's superior officers. Instead, the Court seizes upon the statement in Chappell that our analysis in that case was guided by the concerns underlying the Feres doctrine, and dramatically expands the carefully limited holding in Chappell, extending its reasoning beyond logic, and its meaning beyond recognition.
The Court reasons as follows: in Chappell, we stated that the concern for "military discipline" underlying the Feres doctrine would guide our analysis of the soldiers' Bivens claims against their superior officers. 462 U.S. at 462 U. S. 299. In United States v. Johnson, 481 U. S. 681 (1987), we held that the concerns underlying the Feres doctrine precluded a soldier's FTCA claim for service-connected injury, even against civilian federal officials. Thus, the Court concludes, the concerns underlying the Feres doctrine preclude Stanley's Bivens action for service-connected injury against civilian federal officials.
This argument has a number of flaws. First, in Chappell, we said with good reason that our analysis would be "guided," not governed, by concerns underlying Feres. The Bivens context differs significantly from the FTCA context; Bivens involves not negligent acts, but intentional constitutional violations that must be deterred and punished. Because Chappell involved the relationship at the heart of the Feres doctrine -- the relationship between soldier and superior -- the Court found Feres considerations relevant, and provided direct military superiors with absolute immunity from damages actions filed by their subordinates. Here, however, the defendants are federal officials who perform unknown functions and bear an unknown relationship to Stanley. Thus, we must assure ourselves that concerns underlying the Feres doctrine actually do require absolute immunity from money damages before we take the drastic step of insulating officials from liability for intentional constitutional violations. This the Court utterly fails to do.
481 U.S. at 481 U. S. 700 (SCALIA, J., dissenting). [Footnote 2/27] Although the desire to limit the number of such cases might justify the decision not to allow soldiers' FTCA suits arising from negligent conduct by civilian Government employees, see United States v. Johnson, supra, it is insufficient to preclude suits against civilians for intentional violations of constitutional rights. Unless the command relationship (or some other consideration requiring absolute immunity) is involved, these violations should receive moral condemnation and legal redress without limitation to that accorded negligent acts.
that concerned us in Chappell are not implicated in this case, and neither the Government nor the Court offers any plausible reason to extend absolute immunity to these civilian officials for their intentional constitutional violations.
The Court decides that here (as indeed in any case) one might select a higher level of generality for the Chappell holding, and concludes that any Bivens action arising from a service-connected injury is foreclosed by "special factors counseling hesitation." Bivens, 403 U.S. at 403 U. S. 396. The Court concedes that "[t]his is essentially a policy judgment," which depends upon "how much occasional, unintended impairment of military discipline one is willing to tolerate." Ante at 483 U. S. 681. But the Court need not make a policy judgment; in our immunity cases, we have an established legal framework within which to consider whether absolute immunity from money damages is required in any particular situation.
Were I to concede that military discipline is somehow implicated by the award of damages for intentional torts against civilian officials (which I do not, see supra, at 483 U. S. 702-703), I would nonetheless conclude, in accord with our usual immunity analysis, that the decisionmaking of federal officials deliberately choosing to violate the constitutional rights of soldiers should be impaired. I cannot comprehend a policy judgment that frees all federal officials from any doubt that they may intentionally, and in bad faith, violate the constitutional rights of those serving in the Armed Forces: the principles of accountability embodied in Bivens -- that no official is above the law, and that no violation of right should be without a remedy -- apply.
The second "special factor" in Chappell -- congressional activity "provid[ing] for the review and remedy of complaints and grievances such as those presented by" the injured soldier -- is not present here. Chappell, 462 U.S. at 462 U. S. 302. [Footnote 2/29] The Veterans' Benefits Act is irrelevant where, as here, the injuries alleged stem (in large part) from pain and suffering in forms not covered by the Act. The UCMJ assists only when the soldier is on active duty and the tortfeasor is another military member. Here, in contrast to the situation in Chappell, no intramilitary system "provides for the . . . remedy" of Stanley's complaint. 462 U.S. at 462 U. S. 302. See also Bush v. Lucas, 462 U. S. 367, 462 U. S. 386, 462 U. S. 388, 462 U. S. 378, n. 14 (1983) (special factors counseling hesitation found because claims were "fully cognizable" within an "elaborate remedial system,"
providing "comprehensive," "meaningful," and "constitutionally adequate" remedies).
Nonetheless, the Court finds Congress' activity (and inactivity) of particular significance here, because we are confronted with a constitutional authorization for Congress to "make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces.'" Ante at 483 U. S. 679 (quoting U.S.Const. Art. I, § 8, cl. 14). First, the existence of a constitutional provision authorizing Congress to make intramilitary rules does not answer the question whether civilian federal officials are immune from damages in actions arising from service-connected injury. Second, any time Congress acts, it does so pursuant to either an express or implied grant of power in the Constitution. If a Bivens action were precluded any time Congress possessed a constitutional grant of authority to act in a given area, there would be no Bivens. In fact, many administrative agencies exist and function entirely at the pleasure of Congress, yet the Court has not hesitated to infer Bivens actions against these agencies' officials. This is so no matter how explicitly or frequently the Constitution authorizes Congress to act in a given area. Even when considering matters most clearly within Congress' constitutional authority, we have found that a Bivens action will lie. See Davis v. Passman, 442 U. S. 228 (1979).
In Chappell, the Court found that both the imperatives of military discipline and the congressional creation of constitutionally adequate remedies for the alleged violations constituted "special factors counseling hesitation," and refused to infer a Bivens action. In this case, the invocation of "military discipline" is hollow, and congressional activity nonexistent; a Bivens action must lie.
conscripted with his capacities to act, to hold his own or fail in situations, to meet real challenges for real stakes. Though a mere 'number' to the High Command, he is not a token, and not a thing. (Imagine what he would say if it turned out that the war was a game staged to sample observations on his endurance, courage, or cowardice.)"
"take into account the special importance of defending our Nation without completely abandoning the freedoms that make it worth defending."
Goldman v. Weinberger, 475 U. S. 503, 475 U. S. 530-531 (1986) (O'CONNOR, J., dissenting). But absent a showing that military discipline is concretely (not abstractly) implicated by Stanley's action, its talismanic invocation does not counsel hesitation in the face of an intentional constitutional tort, such as the Government's experimentation on an unknowing human subject. Soldiers ought not be asked to defend a Constitution indifferent to their essential human dignity. I dissent.
I agree with the Court that Stanley's cause of action under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) should not have been reinstated by the Court of Appeals. Thus, I join in Part I of the Court's opinion.
"[Human experimentation authorized by the state] dramatizes the notion that the state is free to treat its nationals in the manner it chooses because it perceives itself as the source of all rights, and therefore as beyond the reach of law, rather than regarding rights as inalienable, that is, not subject to arbitrary cancellation by the State."
Bassiouni, Baffes, & Evrard, An Appraisal of Human Experimentation in International Law and Practice: The Need for International Regulation of Human Experimentation, 72 J. of Crim.L. & C. 1597, 1607 (1981).
"conduct[ed] an investigation and study of governmental operations with respect to intelligence activities and of the extent, if any, to which illegal, improper, or unethical activities were engaged in by any agency of the Federal Government."
S.Rep. at 2. The Committee's function was "to illustrate the problems before Congress and the country." Id. at 5. Significantly, the Report added that "[t]he Justice Department and the courts, in turn, have their proper roles to play." Ibid.
"unethical and illicit activities would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles, and would be detrimental to the accomplishment of its mission."
Id. at 394 (quoting CIA Inspector General's Survey of the Technical Services Division, p. 217 (1957)).
In Jaffee v. United States, 663 F.2d 1226 (CA3 1981), a former enlisted member of the Army sought damages arising from injuries received in 1953 at Camp Desert Rock, Nevada, where his commanding officers ordered him and thousands of other soldiers to stand unprotected from nuclear radiation while an atomic bomb was exploded nearby. Jaffee developed inoperable cancer in 1977, and alleged that the radiation exposure was the cause.
Between 1945 and 1963, an estimated 250,000 military personnel were exposed to large doses of radiation while engaged in maneuvers designed to determine the effectiveness of combat troops in nuclear battlefield conditions. Veterans' Claims for Disabilities from Nuclear Weapons Testing: Hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, 96th Cong., 1st Sess., 2 (1979). Soldiers were typically positioned one to three miles from nuclear detonation. They were issued no protective clothing (although Atomic Energy Commission personnel were) and were not warned as to the possible dangers of radiation. They were instructed to cover their eyes at detonation; "soldiers with their eyes shut could see the bones in their forearms at the moment of the explosion." Schwartz, Making Intramilitary Tort Law More Civil: A Proposed Reform of the Feres Doctrine, 95 Yale L.J. 992, 994, n. 16 (1986) (discussing firsthand accounts in T. Saffer & O. Kelly, Countdown Zero 43, 75, 152 (1982)). The exposed servicemembers have been disproportionately likely to be afflicted with inoperable cancer and leukemia, as well as a number of nonmalignant disorders.
The Court made clear in Davis v. Passman, 442 U. S. 228, 442 U. S. 244 (1979) that the question whether a plaintiff has a cause of action under the Constitution is different from the question whether that plaintiff is entitled to damages if he or she prevails on the merits. The latter is the relevant inquiry when a Bivens claim is made. Of course, if the plaintiff fails either to plead a cause of action or to demonstrate the damages are appropriate as a matter of law, the complaint is dismissed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). In the first instance, the complaint is dismissed for "failure to state a claim," while in the latter instance, the complaint is dismissed because it is not one "upon which relief can be granted."
"a suit under the Constitution could provide no redress to the injured citizen, nor would it in any degree deter federal officials from committing constitutional wrongs."
Butz v. Economou, 438 U. S. 478, 438 U. S. 501, 438 U. S. 505 (1978) (internal quotation omitted).
The Court in Davis, supra, did not decide whether Passman was absolutely immune from damages, but instead remanded the action to the Court of Appeals for a determination of that question. Analytically, the Court therefore postponed decision on the propriety of damages until a lower court could ascertain whether immunity, a "special factor," shielded Passman from damages.
The Court does not provide an example of a situation in which the Bivens inquiry and the immunity inquiry might reach contrary conclusions. Of course, I cannot produce "any reason for creating" an equivalency between the two analyses as to this particular case. Ante at 483 U. S. 685. Neither I nor the Court has any idea what functions were performed by the petitioner officials, so I cannot argue that the considerations militating in favor of qualified immunity here also militate in favor of permitting a cause of action.
The Court's use of the doctrine of Feres v. United States, 340 U. S. 135 (1950), in its analysis of soldiers' Bivens actions reveals the connection between the "special factors" inquiry and the absolute immunity inquiry. In Feres, the Court decided that, in the FTCA, Congress had not waived sovereign immunity from damages for claims arising out of negligent acts of federal officials causing service-connected injury. When, as here, the Court decides whether a Bivens action exists, it necessarily decides whether the policies underlying Feres alter the usual rule of qualified immunity for federal officials. In both cases, the question is how policies underpinning Feres affect immunity from money damages.
The President, see Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U. S. 731 (1982), prosecutors, Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U. S. 409 (1976), and federal officials with prosecutorial and adjudicative functions, see Butz, supra, at 438 U. S. 508-517, possess absolute immunity from damages actions arising from the violation of clearly established constitutional rights. But most public servants receive qualified, rather than absolute, immunity. See Procunier v. Navarette, 434 U. S. 555 (1978) (prisop officials); O'Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U. S. 563 (1975) (state hospital administrators); Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U. S. 232 (1974) (state executive officers); Pierson v. Ray, 386 U. S. 547 (1967) (police).
Qualified immunity for executive officials is the result of the balancing of "fundamentally antagonistic social policies." Barr v. Mateo, 360 U. S. 564, 360 U. S. 576 (1959) (plurality opinion). Civil damages compensate victims of wrongdoing and deter tortious conduct, while immunity encourages participation in government, allows courageous action in public service, and provides officials with the freedom to concentrate on their public responsibilities.
"for the purpose of 'ascertain[ing] the effects of the drug on their ability to function as soldiers' and 'to evaluate the validity of the traditional security training . . . in the face of unconventional, drug enhanced interrogations.'"
Brief for United States 3, n. 1 (quoting S.Rep. 411-412).
Again in analysis equally applicable here, the Court observed that most officials who receive absolute immunity from suits for damages with regard to certain functions are subject to other checks "that help to prevent abuses of authority from going unredressed." 472 U.S. at 472 U. S. 522 (legislators are accountable to their constituents, and the judicial process is theoretically self-correcting by appellate review). But "[s]imilar built-in restraints on the Attorney General's activities in the name of national security . . . do not exist." Id. at 472 U. S. 523.
See also Butz, 438 U.S. at 438 U. S. 491-492 (In finding qualified immunity for federal officials, the Court relied in part upon "a case involving military discipline, [in which] the Court issued a similar ruling [authorizing immunity absent willful or malicious conduct]"); Burgess, Official Immunity and Civil Liability for Constitutional Torts Committed by Military Commanders After Butz v. Economou, 89 Mil.L.Rev. 25, 46-47 (1980) (reading Butz to militate against intramilitary immunity in suits alleging constitutional violations).
"special nature of military life -- the need for unhesitating and decisive action by military officers and equally disciplined responses by enlisted personnel"
"would be undermined by a judicially created remedy exposing officers to personal liability at the hands of those they are charged to command."
Id. at 462 U. S. 304. The unique requirements of intramilitary authority drove the Court in Chappell; those concerns do not govern here, where we address the immunity of officials whose relationship with Stanley is unknown.
See W. Winthrop, Military Law and Precedents 880-885 (2d ed.1920) (collecting decisions in which servicemembers sued their superiors for the intentional torts of libel, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, and other service-related injuries). The Winthrop treatise reveals that military officers had only a defense of an absence of malice respecting actions within the scope of their authority, a defense closely resembling qualified immunity.
Some English cases do suggest absolute immunity for intramilitary torts. See Sutton v. Johnstone, 1 T.R. 492, 99 Eng.Rep. 1215, 1246 (K.B. 1786) (dictum); Dawkins v. Lord Rokeby, 4 F. & F. 806, 841, 176 Eng.Rep. 800, 815 (N.P. 1866); Dawkins v. Lord Paulet, L.R. 5 Q.B. 94, 115 (1869). But there is strong authority on the other side, and, before the question became the subject of statutory law, see Crown Proceedings Act, 1947, 10 & 11 Geo. 6, ch. 44, the English courts considered the matter unresolved. See Fraser v. Balfour, 87 L.J.K.B. 1116, 1118 (1918) (court observed that the question of immunity in intramilitary torts was "still open").
See, e.g., Wilson v. MacKenzie, 7 Hill 95 (N.Y.Sup.Ct. 1845) (citing cases) (naval officer was sued for the beating and imprisonment of an enlisted man; court rejected defense of absolute immunity, stating that English courts had allowed suits for acts done under the rubric of military discipline); Maurice v. Worden, 54 Md. 233 (1880) (professor at the United States Naval Academy sued his superior officers for libel; state court rejected defense of absolute immunity).
See also Dinsman v. Wilkes, 12 How. 390, 53 U. S. 403 (1852) (although discipline may be endangered by civil damages suits, the Nation will be dishonored if a servicemember can "be oppressed and injured by his commanding officer, from malice or ill-will, or the wantonness of power, without giving him redress in the courts of justice").
"Stanley and the lower courts may well be correct that Chappell implicates military chain-of-command concerns more directly than do the facts alleged here,"
"hierarchical structure of discipline and obedience to command, unique in its application to the military establishment and wholly different from civilian patterns,"
Chappell, 462 U.S. at 462 U. S. 300 (emphasis added).
First, in Feres the Court feared that allowing FTCA recovery, which varies from State to State, would impinge upon the military's need for uniformity. In contrast, Bivens actions are governed by uniform federal law. Second, the "swift," "efficient," and "generous statutory disability and death benefits" of the Veterans' Benefits Act (VBA), 72 Stat. 1118, as amended, 38 U.S.C. § 301 et seq., constitute "an independent reason why the Feres doctrine bars suit for service-related injuries." United States v. Johnson, 481 U. S. 681, 481 U. S. 689 (1987). But the VBA fails to address the violation of constitutional rights unaccompanied by personal injury that is not defined as disabling. Those whose constitutional rights are infringed, resulting in humiliation or "in mere pain and suffering, but no lasting permanent physical injury, would not be compensated at all." Donaldson, Constitutional Torts and Military Effectiveness: A Proposed Alternative to the Feres Doctrine, 23 A.F.L.Rev. 171, 198-199 (1982-1983).
In Johnson, supra, when the Court extended the application of Feres to preclude suits for service-connected injuries against civilian officials, the Court did not refer to, or rely upon, Feres' concern with obedience to orders. Of course, this aspect of military discipline would not be implicated in Johnson, or in any cases involving tortious conduct by a civilian official. But in Johnson, two of the three major rationales underlying Feres -- the concern for uniformity and the congressional provision of thoroughgoing compensation -- were relevant. Neither of these rationales applies here. See n. 22, supra.
Stanley points out that he was administered LSD without his knowledge, so that he could not have disobeyed any order given him. Had his military superior surreptitiously administered the LSD to him, this fact alone might distinguish a suit for damages against that official from the suit in Chappell. Here, however, the fact that the LSD was given Stanley without his knowledge simply removes the case one step further from the concern for obedience to orders that the Court chose to protect in Chappell.
I do not mean to imply that Chappell suggests that Bivens actions against military officials other than direct superiors are precluded. Criticisms of the blanket application of Feres in the Bivens context have equal force in the context of intentional intramilitary torts that do not involve the direct chain of command.
"The policy argument for absolute immunity . . . rests on the dubious proposition that a serviceman is more likely to respect authority when he has no recourse for the intentional or malicious deprivation of his constitutional rights. The contrary argument -- that safeguarding rights compatible with military needs will engender respect for authority and promote discipline -- is more appealing."
Note, Intramilitary Immunity and Constitutional Torts, 80 Mich.L.Rev. 312, 328 (1981). Cf. Johnson, supra, at 481 U. S. 700 (SCALIA, J., dissenting) ("Or perhaps -- most fascinating of all to contemplate -- Congress thought that barring recovery by servicemen might adversely affect military discipline").
Nor does the military view the authority intentionally to violate the constitutional rights of soldiers as essential to its mission. See Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. §§ 938, 939, discussed infra, at n. 27. Moreover, the military does not require instinctive or reflexive obedience of the soldier in all contexts (combat being the obvious counterexample). Soldiers are subject to criminal sanctions if they obey certain orders. See United States v. Calley, 22 U.S.C.M.A. 534, 48 C.M.R.19 (1973) (obedience to orders no defense where defendant should have known that order to kill civilians was illegal); United States v. Kinder, 14 C.M.R. 742 (USAF Ct.Mil.Rev.1954) (obedience to orders no defense for soldier who executed order to shoot subdued prisoner at South Korean air base).
In addition, judicial involvement occurs when courts review court-martial proceedings (through federal habeas corpus jurisdiction), see Burns v. Wilson, 346 U. S. 137, 346 U. S. 142 (1953), when the Court of Claims reviews cases involving interference with military career advantage, see 28 U.S.C. § 1491, and when soldiers bring claims for injunctive and declaratory relief from statutory and constitutional violations. See also UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 938 (providing complaint procedure for "[a]ny member of the armed forces who believes himself wronged by his commanding officer"); § 939 (providing procedure for damages arising from willful damage to property of any soldier by another member of the Armed Services); Colson v. Bradley, 477 F.2d 639 (CA8 1973) (judicial review of § 938 claim); Cortright v. Resor, 447 F.2d 245 (CA2 1971) (same).
"freer to compromise military concerns . . . since we were confronted with an explicit congressional authorization for judicial involvement that was, on its face, unqualified,"
while in the Bivens context, we "rely upon inference for our own authority to allow money damages." Ante at 483 U. S. 681-682. One could approach the question from an entirely different angle. The usual rule with regard to suing the United States is sovereign immunity, so the FTCA creates an exception to that rule which must be narrowly interpreted. The usual rule is individual accountability for injury done, and qualified immunity of federal officials represents a judge-made exception to that rule. Our decision to find "special factors" in a Bivens case and grant absolute immunity to federal officials with regard to a certain class of injuries represents a further and indefensible enlargement of a special status.
In Chappell, the Court makes plain that, standing alone, the "special nature of [the] military" would not have sufficed to confer absolute immunity upon military superiors for wrongs inflicted upon those in their command. It was the "unique disciplinary structure of the Military Establishment and Congress' activity in the field" that, "[t]aken together," constituted those special factors precluding any damages award. 462 U.S. at 462 U. S. 304 (emphasis added).
injuries that arise out of the course of activity incident to military service. Ante at 483 U. S. 683-684. In Chappell v. Wallace, supra, this Court unanimously held that enlisted military personnel may not maintain a suit to recover damages from a superior officer for alleged constitutional violations. The "special factors" that we found relevant to the propriety of a Bivens action by enlisted personnel against their military superiors "also formed the basis" of this Court's decision in Feres v. United States, 340 U. S. 135 (1950), that the FTCA does not extend to injuries arising out of military service. Chappell, supra, at 462 U. S. 298. In my view, therefore, Chappell and Feres must be read together; both cases unmistakably stand for the proposition that the special circumstances of the military mandate that civilian courts avoid entertaining a suit involving harm caused as a result of military service. Thus, no amount of negligence, recklessness, or perhaps even deliberate indifference on the part of the military would justify the entertainment of a Bivens action involving actions incident to military service.
Nonetheless, the Chappell exception to the availability of a Bivens action applies only to "injuries that arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service.'" Ante at 483 U. S. 684 (quoting Feres v. United States, supra, at 340 U. S. 146). In my view, conduct of the type alleged in this case is so far beyond the bounds of human decency that, as a matter of law, it simply cannot be considered a part of the military mission. The bar created by Chappell -- a judicial exception to an implied remedy for the violation of constitutional rights -- surely cannot insulate defendants from liability for deliberate and calculated exposure of otherwise healthy military personnel to medical experimentation without their consent, outside of any combat, combat training, or military exigency, and for no other reason than to gather information on the effect of lysergic acid diethylamide on human beings.
to have occurred in this case. Indeed, as JUSTICE BRENNAN observes, the United States military played an instrumental role in the criminal prosecution of Nazi officials who experimented with human subjects during the Second World War, ante at 483 U. S. 687, and the standards that the Nuremberg Military Tribunals developed to judge the behavior of the defendants stated that the "voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential . . . to satisfy moral, ethical and legal concepts." United States v. Brandt (The Medical Case), 2 Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, p. 181 (1949). If this principle is violated, the very least that society can do is to see that the victims are compensated, as best they can be, by the perpetrators. I am prepared to say that our Constitution's promise of due process of law guarantees this much. Accordingly, I would permit James Stanley's Bivens action to go forward, and I therefore dissent.

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