Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/403/388/case.php
Timestamp: 2019-06-17 01:45:12
Document Index: 256640295

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1331', '§ 2', '§ 1331', '§ 1983', '§ 1', '§ 1983']

On July 7, 1967, petitioner brought suit in Federal District Court. In addition to the allegations above, his complaint asserted that the arrest and search were effected without a warrant, and that unreasonable force was employed in making the arrest; fairly read, it alleges as well that the arrest was made without probable cause. [Footnote 1] Petitioner claimed to have suffered great humiliation, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Respondents do not argue that petitioner should be entirely without remedy for an unconstitutional invasion of his rights by federal agents. In respondents' view, however, the rights that petitioner asserts -- primarily rights of privacy -- are creations of state, and not of federal, law. Accordingly, they argue, petitioner may obtain money damages to redress invasion of these rights only by an action in tort, under state law, in the state courts. In this scheme, the Fourth Amendment would serve merely to limit the extent to which the agents could defend chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We think that respondents' thesis rests upon an unduly restrictive view of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures by federal agents, a view that has consistently been rejected by this Court. Respondents seek to treat the relationship between a citizen and a federal agent unconstitutionally exercising his authority as no different from the relationship chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
First. Our cases have long since rejected the notion that the Fourth Amendment proscribes only such conduct as would, if engaged in by private persons, be condemned by state law. Thus, in Gambino v. United States, 275 U. S. 310 (1927), petitioners were convicted of conspiracy to violate the National Prohibition Act on the basis of evidence seized by state police officers incident to petitioners' arrest by those officers solely for the purpose of enforcing federal law. Id. at 275 U. S. 314. Notwithstanding the lack of probable cause for the arrest, id. at 275 U. S. 313, it would have been permissible under state law if effected chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
by private individuals. [Footnote 5] It appears, moreover, that the officers were under direction from the Governor to aid in the enforcement of federal law. Id. at 275 U. S. 315-317. Accordingly, if the Fourth Amendment reached only to conduct impermissible under the law of the State, the Amendment would have had no application to the case. Yet this Court held the Fourth Amendment applicable and reversed petitioners' convictions as having been based upon evidence obtained through an unconstitutional search and seizure. Similarly, in Byars v. United States, 273 U. S. 28 (1927), the petitioner was convicted on the basis of evidence seized under a warrant issued, without probable cause under the Fourth Amendment, by a state court judge for a state law offense. At the invitation of state law enforcement officers, a federal prohibition agent participated in the search. This Court explicitly refused to inquire whether the warrant was "good under the state law . . . since in no event could it constitute the basis for a federal search and seizure." Id. at 273 U. S. 29 (emphasis added). [Footnote 6] And our recent decisions regarding electronic surveillance have made it clear beyond peradventure that the Fourth Amendment is not tied to the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Third. That damages may be obtained for injuries consequent upon a violation of the Fourth Amendment by federal officials should hardly seem a surprising proposition. Historically, damages have been regarded as the ordinary remedy for an invasion of personal interests in liberty. See Nixon v. Condon, 286 U. S. 73 (1932); chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. at 327 U. S. 684 (footnote omitted). The present case involves no special factors counseling hesitation in the absence of affirmative action by Congress. We are not dealing with a question of "federal fiscal policy," as in United States v. Standard Oil Co., 332 U. S. 301, 332 U. S. 311 (1947). In that case, we refused to infer from the Government-soldier relationship that the United States could recover damages from one who negligently injured a soldier, and thereby caused the Government to pay his medical expenses and lose his services during the course of his hospitalization. Noting that Congress was normally quite solicitous where the federal purse was involved, we pointed out that "the United States [was] the party plaintiff to the suit. And the United States has power at any time to create the liability." Id. at 332 U. S. 316; see United States v. Gilman, 347 U. S. 507 (1954). Nor are we asked in this case to impose liability upon a congressional employee for actions contrary to no constitutional chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
5 U. S. 163 (1803). Having concluded that petitioner's complaint states a cause of action under the Fourth Amendment, supra,@ at 403 U. S. 390-395, we hold that petitioner is entitled to recover money damages for any injuries he has suffered as a result of the agents' violation of the Amendment.
In addition to holding that petitioner's complaint had failed to state facts making out a cause of action, the District Court ruled that, in any event, respondents were immune from liability by virtue of their official position. 276 F.Supp. at 15. This question was not passed upon by the Court of Appeals, and accordingly we do not consider chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
for acts such as those alleged. In his view, however, the critical point was recognition that some cause of action existed, albeit a state-created one, and, in consequence, he was willing, "as of now, to concur in the holding of the Court of Appeals." 409 F.2d 726 (emphasis in original).
The District Court dismissed the complaint for lack of federal jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a) and failure to state a claim for which relief may be granted. 276 F. Supp 12 (EDNY 1967). On appeal, the Court of Appeals concluded, on the basis of this Court's decision in Bell v. Hood, 327 U. S. 678 (1946), that petitioner's claim for damages did "[arise] under the Constitution" chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
I turn first to the contention that the constitutional power of federal courts to accord Bivens damages for his claim depends on the passage of a statute creating a "federal cause of action." Although the point is not chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Thus, the interest which Bivens claims -- to be free from official conduct in contravention of the Fourth Amendment -- is a federally protected interest. See generally Katz, The Jurisprudence of Remedies: Constitutional Legality and the Law of Torts in Bell v. Hood, 117 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1, 33-34 (1968). [Footnote 2/3] Therefore, the question chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
of judicial power to grant Bivens damages is not a problem of the "source" of the "right"; instead, the question is whether the power to authorize damages as a judicial chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The contention that the federal courts are powerless to accord a litigant damage for a claimed invasion of his federal constitutional rights until Congress explicitly authorizes the remedy cannot rest on the notion that the decision to grant compensatory relief involves a resolution of policy considerations not susceptible of judicial discernment. Thus, in suits for damages based on violations of federal statutes lacking any express authorization of a damage remedy, this Court has authorized such relief where, in its view, damages are necessary to effectuate the congressional policy underpinning the substantive provisions of the statute. J. I. Case Co. v. Borak, 377 U. S. 426 (1964); Tunstall v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen, 323 U. S. 210, 323 U. S. 213 (1944). Cf. Wyandotte Transportation Co. v. United States, 389 U. S. 191, 389 U. S. 201-204 (1967). [Footnote 2/4] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
If it is not the nature of the remedy which is thought to render a judgment as to the appropriateness of damages inherently "legislative," then it must be the nature of the legal interest offered as an occasion for invoking otherwise appropriate judicial relief. But I do not think that the fact that the interest is protected by the Constitution, rather than statute or common law, justifies the assertion that federal courts are powerless to grant damages in the absence of explicit congressional action authorizing the remedy. Initially, I note that it would be at least anomalous to conclude that the federal judiciary -- while competent to choose among the range of traditional judicial remedies to implement statutory and common law policies, and even to generate substantive rules governing primary behavior in furtherance of broadly formulated policies articulated by statute or Constitution, see Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U. S. 448 (1957); United States v. Standard Oil Co., 332 U. S. 301, 332 U. S. 304-311 (1947); Clearfield Trust Co. v. United States, 318 U. S. 363 (1943) -- is powerless to accord a damages chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
More importantly, the presumed availability of federal equitable relief against threatened invasions of constitutional interests appears entirely to negate the contention that the status of an interest as constitutionally protected divests federal courts of the power to grant damages absent express congressional authorization. Congress provided specially for the exercise of equitable remedial powers by federal courts, see Act of May 8, 1792, § 2, 1 Stat. 276; C. Wright, Law of Federal Courts 257 (2d ed., 1970), in part because of the limited availability of equitable remedies in state courts in the early days of the Republic. See Guaranty Trust Co. v. York, 326 U. S. 99, 326 U. S. 104-105 (1945). And this Court's decisions make clear that, at least absent congressional restrictions, the scope of equitable remedial discretion is to be determined according to the distinctive historical traditions of equity as an institution, Holmberg v. Armbrecht, 327 U. S. 392, 327 U. S. 395-396 (1946); Sprague v. Ticonic National Bank, 307 U. S. 161, 307 U. S. 165-166 (1939). The reach of a federal district court's "inherent equitable powers," Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U. S. 448, 353 U. S. 460 (Burton, J., concurring in result), is broad indeed, e.g., Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 401 U. S. 1 (1971); nonetheless, the federal judiciary is not empowered to grant equitable relief in the absence of congressional action extending jurisdiction over the subject matter of the suit. See Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, supra, at 353 U. S. 460 (Burton, J., concurring in result); Katz, 117 U.Pa.L.Rev. at 43. [Footnote 2/5] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
If explicit congressional authorization is an absolute prerequisite to the power of a federal court to accord compensatory relief regardless of the necessity or appropriateness of damages as a remedy simply because of the status of a legal interest as constitutionally protected, then it seems to me that explicit congressional authorization is similarly prerequisite to the exercise of equitable remedial discretion in favor of constitutionally protected interests. Conversely, if a general grant of jurisdiction to the federal courts by Congress is thought adequate to empower a federal court to grant equitable relief for all areas of subject matter jurisdiction enumerated therein, see 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a), then it seems to me that the same statute is sufficient to empower a federal court to grant a traditional remedy at law. [Footnote 2/6] Of course, the special historical traditions governing the federal equity system, see Sprague v. Ticonic National Bank, 307 U. S. 161 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Id. at 20-21; see 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Although conceding that the standard of determining whether a damage remedy should be utilized to effectuate statutory policies is one of "necessity" or "appropriateness," see J. I. Case Co. v. Borak, 377 U. S. 426, 377 U. S. 432 (1964); United States v. Standard Oil Co., 332 U. S. 301, 332 U. S. 307 (1947), the Government contends that questions concerning congressional discretion to modify judicial remedies relating to constitutionally protected interests warrant a more stringent constraint on chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The question, then, is, as I see it, whether compensatory relief is "necessary" or "appropriate" to the vindication of the interest asserted. Cf. J. I. Case Co. v. Borak, supra, at 377 U. S. 432; United States v. Standard Oil Co., supra, at 332 U. S. 307; Hill, Constitutional Remedies, 69 Col.L.Rev. 1109, 1155 (1969); Katz, 117 U.Pa.L.Rev. at 72. In resolving that question, it seems to me that the range of policy considerations we may take into account is at least as broad as the range of those a legislature would consider with respect to an express statutory authorization of a traditional remedy. In this regard I agree with the Court that the appropriateness of according Bivens chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
And I think it is clear that Bivens advances a claim of the sort that, if proved, would be properly compensable in damages. The personal interests protected by the Fourth Amendment are those we attempt to capture by the notion of "privacy"; while the Court today properly points out that the type of harm which officials can inflict when they invade protected zones of an individual's life chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Putting aside the desirability of leaving the problem of federal official liability to the vagaries of common law actions, it is apparent that some form of damages is the only possible remedy for someone in Bivens' alleged chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
On the other hand, if -- as I believe is the case with respect, at least, to the most flagrant abuses of official power -- damages to some degree will be available when the option of litigation is chosen, then the question appears to be how Fourth Amendment interests rank on a scale of social values compared with, for example, the interests of stockholders defrauded by misleading proxies. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In truth, the legislative record as a whole behind the Bill of Rights is silent on the rather refined doctrinal question whether the framers considered the rights therein enumerated as dependent in the first instance on the decision of a State to accord legal status to the personal interests at stake. That is understandable, since the Government itself points out that general federal question jurisdiction was not extended to the federal district courts until 1875. Act of March 3, 1875, § 1, 18 Stat. 470. The most that can be drawn from this historical fact is that the authors of the Bill of Rights assumed the adequacy of common law remedies to vindicate the federally protected interest. One must first combine this assumption with contemporary modes of jurisprudential thought which appeared to link "rights" and "remedies" in a 1:1 correlation, @cf. 5 U. S. 163 (1803), before reaching the conclusion that the framers are to be understood today as having created no federally protected interests. And, of course, that would simply require the conclusion that federal equitable relief would not lie to protect those interests guarded by the Fourth Amendment.
409 F.2d 723. The description of the remedy as "inferred" cannot, of course, be intended to assimilate the judicial decision to accord such a remedy to any process of statutory construction. Rather, as with the cases concerning remedies, implied from statutory schemes, see 403 U. S. 4, supra, the description of the remedy as "inferred" can only bear on the reasons offered to explain a judicial decision to accord or not to accord a particular remedy.
I dissent from today's holding, which judicially creates a damage remedy not provided for by the Constitution and not enacted by Congress. We would more surely preserve the important values of the doctrine of separation chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
This case has significance far beyond its facts and its holding. For more than 55 years, this Court has enforced a rule under which evidence of undoubted reliability and probative value has been suppressed and excluded from criminal cases whenever it was obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383 (1914); Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616, 116 U. S. 633 (1886) (dictum). This rule was extended to the States in Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643 (1961). [Footnote 3/2] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
From time to time, members of the Court, recognizing the validity of these protests, have articulated varying chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Even ignoring, however, the decisions of this Court that have held that the Fifth Amendment applies only to "testimonial" disclosures, United States v. Wade, 388 U. S. 218, 388 U. S. 221-223 (1967); Schmerber v. California, 384 U. S. 757, 384 U. S. 764 and n. 8 (1966), it seems clear that the Self-Incrimination Clause does not protect a person from the seizure of evidence that is incriminating. It protects a person only from being the conduit by which the police acquire evidence. Mr. Justice Holmes once put it succinctly, "A party is privileged from producing the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
I do not question the need for some remedy to give meaning and teeth to the constitutional guarantees against unlawful conduct by government officials. Without some effective sanction, these protections would constitute little more than rhetoric. Beyond doubt, the conduct of some officials requires sanctions as cases like Irvine indicate. But the hope that this objective could be accomplished by the exclusion of reliable evidence from criminal trials was hardly more than a wistful dream. Although I would hesitate to abandon it until some meaningful substitute is developed, the history of the suppression doctrine demonstrates that it is both conceptually sterile and practically ineffective in accomplishing its stated objective. This is illustrated by the paradox that an unlawful act against a totally innocent person -- such as petitioner claims to be -- has been left without an effective remedy, and hence the Court finds chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The presumed educational effect of judicial opinions is also reduced by the long time lapse -- often several years -- between the original police action and its final judicial evaluation. Given a policeman's pressing responsibilities, it would be surprising if he ever becomes aware of the final result after such a delay. Finally, the exclusionary chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
This Court's decision announced today in Coolidge v. New Hampshire, post, p. 403 U. S. 443, dramatically illustrates the extent to which the doctrine represents a mechanically inflexible response to widely varying degrees of police error, and the resulting high price that society pays. I dissented in Coolidge primarily because I do not believe the Fourth Amendment had been violated. Even on the Court's contrary premise, however, whatever violation chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
I submit that society has at least as much right to expect rationally graded responses from judges in place of the universal "capital punishment" we inflict on all evidence when police error is shown in its acquisition. See ALI, Model Code of Pre-Arraignment Procedure § SS 8.02(2), p. 23 (Tent.Draft No. 4, 1971), reprinted in the 403 U. S. Yet, for over 55 years, and with increasing scope and intensity, as today's Coolidge holding shows, our legal system has treated vastly dissimilar cases as if they were the same. Our adherence to the exclusionary rule, our resistance to change, and our refusal even to acknowledge the need chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
I do not propose, however, that we abandon the suppression doctrine until some meaningful alternative can be developed. In a sense, our legal system has become the captive of its own creation. To overrule Weeks and Mapp, even assuming the Court was now prepared to chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The problems of both error and deliberate misconduct by law enforcement officials call for a workable remedy. Private damage actions against individual police officers concededly have not adequately met this requirement, and it would be fallacious to assume today's work of the Court in creating a remedy will really accomplish its stated objective. There is some validity to the claims that juries will not return verdicts against individual officers except in those unusual cases where the violation has been flagrant, or where the error has been complete, as in the arrest of the wrong person or the search of the wrong house. There is surely serious doubt, for example, that a drug peddler caught packaging his wares will be able to arouse much sympathy in a jury on the ground that the police officer did not announce his identity and chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
(a) a waiver of sovereign immunity as to the illegal chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Once the constitutional validity of such a statute is established, [Footnote 3/7] it can reasonably be assumed that the States chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
APPENDIX TO OPINION OF BURGER, C.J.,DISSENTING
ALI, Model Code of Pre-Arraignment Procedure §§ SS 8.02(2), (3), pp. 23-24 (Tent.Draft No. 4, 1971) (emphasis supplied). chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
8. Oaks, Studying the Exclusionary Rule in Search and Seizure, 37 U.Chi.L.Rev. 665 (1970). chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In my opinion for the Court in Bell v. Hood, 327 U. S. 678 (1946), we did as the Court states, reserve the question whether an unreasonable search made by a federal officer in violation of the Fourth Amendment gives the subject of the search a federal cause of action for damages against the officers making the search. There can be no doubt that Congress could create a federal cause of action for damages for an unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Although Congress has created such a federal cause of action against state officials acting under color of state law, * it has never created such a cause of action against federal officials. If it wanted to do so, Congress could, of course, create a remedy against chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Even if we had the legislative power to create a remedy, there are many reasons why we should decline to create a cause of action where none has existed since the formation of our Government. The courts of the United States, as well as those of the States, are choked with lawsuits. The number of cases on the docket of this Court have reached an unprecedented volume in recent years. A majority of these cases are brought by citizens with substantial complaints -- persons who are physically or economically injured by torts or frauds or governmental infringement of their rights; persons who have been unjustly deprived of their liberty or their property; and persons who have not yet received the equal opportunity in education, employment, and pursuit of happiness that was the dream of our forefathers. Unfortunately, there have also been a growing number of frivolous lawsuits, particularly actions for damages against law enforcement officers whose conduct has been judicially sanctioned by state trial and appellate courts and, in many instances, even by this Court. My fellow Justices on this Court and our brethren throughout the federal judiciary know only too well the time-consuming task of conscientiously poring over hundreds of thousands of pages of factual allegations of misconduct by police, judicial, and corrections officials. Of course, there are instances of legitimate grievances, but legislators might well desire to devote judicial resources to other problems of a more serious nature. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
All of these considerations make imperative careful study and weighing of the arguments both for and against the creation of such a remedy under the Fourth Amendment. I would have great difficulty for myself in resolving the competing policies, goals, and priorities in the use of resources, if I thought it were my job to resolve those questions. But that is not my task. The task of evaluating the pros and cons of creating judicial remedies for particular wrongs is a matter for Congress and the legislatures of the States. Congress has not provided that any federal court can entertain a suit against a federal officer for violations of Fourth Amendment rights occurring in the performance of his duties. A strong inference can be drawn from creation of such actions against state officials that Congress does not desire to permit such suits against federal officials. Should the time come when Congress desires such lawsuits, it has before it a model of valid legislation, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, to create a damage remedy against federal officers. Cases could be cited to support the legal proposition which chanroblesvirtualawlibrary