Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/491/701
Timestamp: 2017-10-22 00:55:27
Document Index: 168825479

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 717', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1', '§ 3', '§ 1981', '§ 1', '§ 5', '§ 1', '§ 2', '§ 18', '§ 1983', '§ 1', '§ 2', '§ 1983', '§ 2', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1983', '§ 1', '§ 1979', '§ 1', '§ 563', '§ 629', '§ 629', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1988', '§ 1981', '§ 1988', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 717', '§ 717', '§ 1981', '§ 717', '§ 717', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1981', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1981', '§ 2', '§ 1', '§ 2', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 2', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 7', '§ 7', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 717', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1', '§ 1981', '§ 2', '§ 1', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1']

Norman JETT, Petitioner, v. DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT. DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Petitioner v. Norman JETT. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
491 U.S. 701 (109 S.Ct. 2702, 105 L.Ed.2d 598)
Petitioner Jett, a white male, was employed by respondent Dallas Independent School District (DISD) as a teacher, athletic director, and head football coach at a predominantly black high school. After repeated clashes with the school's Principal Todd, a black man, over school policies and Jett's handling of the school's football program, Todd recommended that Jett be relieved of his duties as athletic director and coach. The DISD's Superintendent Wright affirmed Todd's recommendation and reassigned Jett to a teaching position in another school, where he had no coaching duties. Alleging, inter alia, that Todd's recommendation was racially motivated, and that the DISD, acting through Todd and Wright, had discriminated against him on the basis of race in violation of 42 U.S.C. 1981 and 1983 and the Equal Protection Clause, Jett brought this action in the District Court, which upheld a jury verdict in his favor on all counts. The Court of Appeals reversed in part and remanded, finding, among other things, that the District Court's jury instructions as to the DISD's liability under § 1983 were deficient, since (1) they did not make clear that, under Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611, such liability could be predicated on the actions of Todd or Wright only if those officials had been delegated policymaking authority or acted pursuant to a well settled custom that represented official policy; and (2) even if Wright could be considered a policymaker for purposes of the transfer of personnel, the jury made no finding that his decision to transfer Jett was either improperly motivated or consciously indifferent to the improper motivations of Todd. The Court of Appeals also rejected the District Court's conclusion that the DISD's § 1981 liability for Todd's actions could be predicated on a respondeat superior theory, noting that Monell had held that Congress did not intend that municipalities be subject to vicarious liability under § 1983 for the federal constitutional or statutory violations of their employees, and declaring that to impose such liability for only certain wrongs based on § 1981 apparently would contravene the congressional intent behind § 1983.
1. A municipality may not be held liabl for its employees' violations of § 1981 under a respondeat superior theory. The express "action at law" provided by § 1983 for the "deprivation of . . . rights secured by the Constitution and laws" provides the exclusive federal damages remedy for the violation of the rights guaranteed by § 1981 when the claim is pressed against a state actor. Cf., e.g., Brown v. GSA, 425 U.S. 820, 96 S.Ct. 1961, 48 L.Ed.2d 402, where the Court, in holding that § 717 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 constitutes the exclusive remedy for racial discrimination in federal employment despite the possibility of an implied damages remedy under § 1981, invoked the general principle that a precisely drawn, detailed statute pre-empts more general remedies. Monell, supra, specifically held that a municipality cannot be liable under § 1983 on a respondeat superior theory, while the Courts of Appeals in post-Monell decisions have unanimously rejected the contention, analogous to petitioner's argument here, that that theory is available against municipalities under aBivens-type action implied directly from the Fourteenth Amendment. Given this Court's repeated recognition that the Fourteenth Amendment was largely intended to embody and expand the protections of § 1981's statutory predecessor as against state actors, this Court declines petitioner's invitation to imply a damages remedy broader than § 1983 from § 1981's declaration of rights. Creation of such a remedy would allow § 1983's carefully crafted remedial scheme to be circumvented by artful pleading. Nor can a respondeat superior standard be implied from 42 U.S.C. 1988, since, although that statute does authorize district courts in civil rights actions to look to the common law if federal remedies are deficient, the statute specifically withdraws that authority where, as here, the common law remedy is inconsistent with federal law; i.e., with § 1983. See Moor v. County of Alameda, 411 U.S. 693, 706, 710, n. 27, 93 S.Ct. 1785, 1794, 1796, n. 27, 36 L.Ed.2d 596. Thus, to prevail against the DISD, petitioner must show that the violation of his § 1981 "right to make contracts" was caused by a custom or policy within the meaning ofMonell and subsequent cases. Pp. 731-736.
(a) The legislative history of the 1866 Act, which was originally enacted to implement the Thirteenth Amendment, demonstrates that that Act neither provided an express damages remedy for violation of its provisions nor created any original federal jurisdiction which could support such a remedy against state actors, and that the Act's penal sectionthe only provision explicitly directed at state officialswas designed to punish only the official committing a violation and not the municipality itself. Two congressional actions subsequent to the passage of the 1866 Actthe submission of the Fourteenth Amendment to the States for ratification, which Amendment was based upon, and widely viewed as "constitutionalizing," that Act's protections, and the reenactment of that Act's substance in the Enforcement Act of 1870, a Fourteenth Amendment statutefurther evidence the relationship between §§ 1981 and 1983 and demonstrate that § 1981 is both a Thirteenth and a Fourteenth Amendment statute. Pp. 713-722.
(b) The text and legislative history of the 1871 Act, which was expressly enacted to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment, establish that: (1) unlike any portion of the 1866 Act, that statute explicitly exposed state and local officials to liability for damages in a newly created "action at law" for deprivation of constitutional rights; (2) the Act expanded federal jurisdiction by explicitly providing original jurisdiction in the federal courts for prosecution of such actions; and (3) the provision of the Act which is now § 1983 was explicitly modeled on the penal provision of the 1866 Act and was intended to amend and enhance the protections of that provision by providing a parallel civil remedy for the same violations. Thus, Jett's contention that the 1866 Act had already created a broader federal damages remedy against state actors is unpersuasive. Moreover, the fact that Congress rejected the Sherman amendment to the 1871 Actwhich specifically proposed the imposition of vicarious liability on municipal governments for injuries caused by mob violence directed at the enjoyment or exercise of federal civil rightsdemonstrates an awareness of, and a desire to comply with, the then-reigning constitutional doctrine of "dual sovereignty," which indicated that Congress did not have the power to assign the duty to enforce federal law to state instrumentalities by making them liable for the constitutional violations of others. Given this constitutional background, Jett's contention that the 1866 Act had already silently created a form of vicarious liability against municipal governments is historically untenable. Furthermore, the addition, in 1874, of the phrase "and laws" to the remedial provision of what is now § 1983 indicates an intent that the guarantees contained in what is now § 1981 were to be enforced against state actors through § 1983's express damages remedy. Pp. 722-731.
Justice SCALIA concluded that the respondeat superior question is properly decided solely on the rudimentary principles of construction that the specifichere, § 1983, which precludes liability on that basis for the precise category of offense at issuegoverns the generalhere, § 1981and that, where the text permits, statutes dealing with similar subjects should be interpreted harmoniously. P. 738-739.
The questions before us in these cases are whether 42 U.S.C. 1981 provides an independent federal cause of action for damages against local governmental entities, and whether that cause of action is broader than the damages remedy available under 42 U.S.C. 1983, such that a municipality may be held liable for its employees' violations of § 1981 under a theory of respondeat superior.
Petitioner brought this action against the DISD and Principal Todd in his personal and official capacities, under 42 U.S.C. 1981 and 1983, alleging due process, First Amendment, and equal protection violations. Petitioner's due process claim alleged that he had a constitutionally protected property interest in his coaching position at South Oak, of which he was deprived without due process of law. Petitioner's First Amendment claim was based on the allegation that his removal and subsequent transfer were actions taken in retaliation for his statements to the press regarding the sports program at South Oak. His equal protection and § 1981 causes of action were based on the allegation that his removal from the athletic director and head coaching positions at South Oak was motivated by the fact that he was white, and that Principal Todd, and through him the DISD, were responsible for the racially discriminatory diminution in his employment status. Petitioner also claimed that his resignation was in fact the product of racial harassment and retaliation for the exercise of his First Amendment rights and thus amounted to a constructive discharge. These claims were tried to a jury, which found for petitioner on all counts. The jury awarded petitioner $650,000 against the DISD, $150,000 against Principal Todd and the DISD jointly and severally, and $50,000 in punitive damages against Todd in his personal capacity.
The Court of Appeals then turned to the DISD's claim that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding of municipal liability under 42 U.S.C. 1983. The Court of Appeals found that the District Court's instructions as to the school district's liability were deficient in two respects. First, the District Court's instruction did not make clear that the school district could be held liable for the actions of Principal Todd or Superintendent Wright only if those officials were delegated policymaking authority by the school district or acted pursuant to a well settled custom that represented official policy. Second, even if Superintendent Wright could be considered a policymaker for purposes of the transfer of school district personnel, the jury made no finding that Superintendent Wright's decision to transfer petitioner was either improperly motivated or consciously indifferent to the improper motivations of Principal Todd. Id., at 759-760.
The Court of Appeals also rejected the District Court's conclusion that the DISD's liability for Principal Todd's actions could be predicated on a theory of respondeat superior under § 1981. The court noted that in Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), this Court held that Congress did not intend municipalities to be subject to vicarious liability for the federal constitutional or statutory violations of their employees. The Court of Appeals reasoned that "to impose such vicarious liability for only certain wrongs based on section 1981 apparently would contravene the congressional intent behind section 1983." 798 F.2d, at 762.
In essence, petitioner argues that in 1866 the 39th Congress intended to create a cause of action for damages against municipal actors and others who violated the rights now enumerated in § 1981. While petitioner concedes that the text of the 1866 Act itself is completely silent on this score, see Brief for Petitioner 26, petitioner contends that a civil remedy was nonetheless intended for the violation of the rights contained in § 1 of the 1866 Act. Petitioner argues that Congress wished to adopt the prevailing approach to municipal liability to effectuate this damages remedy, which was respondeat superior. Petitioner concludes that with this federal damages remedy in place in 1866, it was not the intent of the 42d Congress, which passed present day § 1983, to narrow the more sweeping remedy against local governments which Congress had created five years earlier. Since "repeals by implication are not favored," id., at 15 (citations omitted), petitioner concludes that § 1981 must provide an independent cause of action for racial discrimination against local governmental entities, and that this broader remedy is unaffected by the constraints on municipal liability announced in Monell. In the alternative, petitioner argues that even if § 1981 does not create an express cause of action for damages against local governmental entities, 42 U.S.C. 1988 invites this Court to craft a remedy by looking to common law principles, which again point to a rule of respondeat superior. Brief for Petitioner 27-29. To examine these contentions, we must consider the text and history of both the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Civil Rights Act of 1871, the precursors of §§ 1981 and 1983 respectively.
Justice BRENNAN's dissent errs in sserting that we have strayed from the question upon which we granted certiorari. See post, at 739-740. Jett's petition for certiorari asks us to decide "whether a public employee who claims job discrimination on the basis of race must show that the discrimination resulted from official 'policy or custom' in order to recover under 42 U.S.C. 1981." Pet. for Cert. in No. 87-2084, p. i. In answering this question, the lower court looked to the relationship between §§ 1981 and 1983, and refused to differentiate "between sections 1981 and 1983 with respect to municipal respondeat superior liability." 837 F.2d, at 1247. In both his petition for certiorari and his brief on the merits in this Court, petitioner Jett took issue with the Court of Appeals' conclusion that the express damages remedy under § 1983 militated against the creation or implication of a broader damages remedy under § 1981. See Pet. for Cert. in No. 87-2084, pp. 14-16; Brief for Petitioner 14-25. Moreover, petitioner concedes that "private causes of action under Sections 1981 and 1982 do not arise from the express language of those statutes," Brief for Petitioner 27, and asks this Court to "look to state law or to fashion a single federal rule," of municipal damages liability under § 1981. Id., at 28-29 (footnote omitted). We think it obvious that the question whether a federal damages remedy broader than that provided by § 1983 should be implied from § 1981 is fairly included in the question upon which we granted certiorari.
"This bill proposes that the humblest citizen shall have full and ample protection at the cost of the Government, whose duty it is to protect him. The Bingham amendment . . . recognizes the principle involved, but it says that the citizen despoiled of his rights, instead of being properly protected by the Gove nment, must press his own way through the courts and pay the bills attendant thereon. . . . The highest obligation which the Government owes to the citizen in return for the allegiance exacted of him is to secure him in the protection of his rights. Under the amendment of the gentleman the citizen can only receive that protection in the form of a few dollars in the way of damages, if he shall be so fortunate as to recover a verdict against a solvent wrongdoer. This is called protection. This is what we are asked to do in the way of enforcing the bill of rights. Dollars are weighed against the right of life, liberty and property." Ibid.
Senator Trumbull then went on to indicate that "if it be necessary in order to protect the freedman in his rights that he should have authority to go into the Federal courts in all cases where a custom of discrimination prevails in a State . . . I think we have the authority to confer that jurisdiction under the second clause of the constitutional amendment." Ibid. Two days later, on April 6, 1866, the Senate overrode the President's veto by a vote of 33 to 15. Id., at 1809. On April 9, 1866, the House received both the bill and the President's veto message which were read on the floor. Id., at 1857-1860. The House then promptly overrode the President's veto by a vote of 122 to 41, id., at 1861, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 became law.
Several points relevant to our present inquiry emerge from the history surrounding the adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. First, nowhere did the Act provide for an express damages remedy for violation of the provisions of § 1. See Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409, 414, n. 13, 88 S.Ct. 2186, 2189, n. 13, 20 L.Ed.2d 1189 (1968) (noting "that 42 U.S.C. 1982 is couched in declaratory terms and provides no explicit method of enforcement"); Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, Inc., 396 U.S. 229, 238, 90 S.Ct. 400, 405, 24 L.Ed.2d 386 (1969); Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U.S. 677, 690, n. 12, 99 S.Ct. 1946, 1954, n. 12, 60 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); id., at 728, 99 S.Ct., at 1947 (WHITE, J., dissenting). Second, no original federal jurisdiction was created by the 1866 Act which could support a federal damages remedy against state actors. See Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 99, n. 14, 101 S.Ct. 411, 417, n. 14, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980) (§ 3 of the 1866 Act embodied remedy of "post-judgment removal for state-court defendants whose civil rights were threatened"); Georgia v. Rachel, 384 U.S. 780, 788-789, 86 S.Ct. 1783, 1788-1789, 16 L.Ed.2d 925 (1966); Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303, 311-312, 25 L.Ed. 664 (1880). Finally, the penal provision, the only provision explicitly directed at state officials, was, in Senator Trumbull's words, designed to punish the "person who, under the color of the law, does the act," not "the community where the custom prevails." Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., 1758 (1866).
Two events subsequent to the passage of the 1866 Act bear on the relationship between §§ 1981 and 1983. First, on June 13, 1866, just over two months after the passage of the 1866 Act, a joint resolution was passed sending the Fourteenth Amendment to the States for ratification. As we have noted in the past, the first section of the 1866 Act "constituted an initial blueprint of the Fourteenth Amendment." General Building Contractors Assn., Inc. v. Pennsylvania, 458 U.S. 375, 389, 102 S.Ct. 3141, 3149, 73 L.Ed.2d 835 (1982). Many of the Members of the 39th Congress viewed § 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment as "constitutionalizing" and expanding the protections of the 1866 Act and viewed what became § 5 of the Amendment as laying to rest doubts shared by both sides of the aisle concerning the constitutionality of that measure. See, e.g., Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., 2465 (1866) (Rep. Thayer) ("As I understand it, it is but incorporating in the Constitution of the United States the principle of the civil rights bill which has lately become a law"); id., at 2498 (Rep. Broomall); id., at 2459 (Rep. Stevens); id., at 2461 (Rep. Finck); id., at 2467 (Rep. Boyer). See also Hurd v. Hodge, 334 U.S., at 32, 68 S.Ct., at 851 ("As the legislative debates reveal, one of the primary purposes of many members of Congress in supporting the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment was to incorporate the guaranties of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 in the organic law of the land") (footnote omitted).
Second, the 41st Congress reenacted the substance of the 1866 Act in the Fourteenth Amendment statute, the Enforcement Act of 1870. 16 Stat. 144. Section 16 of the 1870 Act was modeled after § 1 of the 1866 Act. Section 17 reenacted with some modification the criminal provisions of § 2 of the earlier civil rights law, and § 18 of the 1870 Act provided that the entire 1866 Act was reenacted. See Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3, 16-17 (1883). We have thus recognized that present day 42 U.S.C. 1981 is both a Thirteenth and a Fourteenth Amendment statute. Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U.S. 160, 168-169, n. 8, 96 S.Ct. 2586, 2593-2594, n. 8, 49 L.Ed.2d 415 (1976); id., at 190, 96 S.Ct., at 2604 (STEVENS, J., concurring); General Building Contractors, supra, at 383-386.
What is now § 1983 was enacted as § 1 of "An Act to Enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and For other Purposes," Act of April 20, 1871, ch. 22, 17 Stat. 13. The immediate impetus for the bill was evidence of widespread acts of violence perpetrated against the freedmen and loyal white citizens by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. On March 23, 1871, President Grant sent a message to Congress indicating that the Klan's reign of terror in the Southern States had "rendered life and property insecure," and that "the power to correct these evils was beyond the control of State authorities." Cong. Globe, 42nd Cong., 1st Sess., 244 (1871). A special joint committee consisting of 10 distinguished Republicans, 5 from each House of Congress, was formed in response to President Grant's call for legislation, and drafted the bill that became what is now known as the Ku Klux Act. As enacted, §§ 2 through 6 of the bill specifically addressed the problem of the private acts of violence perpetrated by groups like the Klan.
Three points are immediately clear from the face of the Act itself. First, unlike any portion of the 1866 Act, this statute explicitly ordained that any "person" acting under color of state law or custom who was responsible for a deprivation of constitutional rights would "be liable to the party injured in any action at law." Thus, "the 1871 Act was designed to expose state and local officials to a new form of liability." Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc., 453 U.S. 247, 259, 101 S.Ct. 2748, 2755, 69 L.Ed.2d 616 (1981). Second, the 1871 Act explicitly provided original federal jurisdiction for prosecution of these civil actions against state actors. See Will v. Michigan Dept. of State Police, 491 U.S. 58, 66, 109 S.Ct. 2304, 2309, 105 L.Ed.2d 45 (1989) ("A principle purpose behind the enactment of § 1983 was to provide a federal forum for civil rights claims"); accord, Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U.S. 225, 239, 92 S.Ct. 2151, 2160, 32 L.Ed.2d 705 (1972). Third, the first section of the 1871 Act was explicitly modeled on § 2 of the 1866 Act, and was seen by both opponents and proponents as amending and enhancing the protections of the 1866 Act by providing a new civil remedy for its enforcement against state actors. See Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Organization, 441 U.S. 600, 610-611, n. 25, 99 S.Ct. 1905, 1912, n. 25, 60 L.Ed.2d 508 (1979) ("Section 1 of the 1871 Act generated the least concern; it merely added civil remedies to the criminal penalties imposed by the 1866 Civil Rights Act"); Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 185, 81 S.Ct. 473, 483, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961); Mitchum, supra, 407 U.S., at 238, 92 S.Ct., at 2160.
Again Senators addressed § 1 of the Act as creating a new civil remedy and expanding federal jurisdiction to accommodate it in terms incompatible with the supposition that the 1866 Act had already created such a cause of action against state actors. See Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 1st Sess., 653 (1871) (Sen. Osborn) ("I believe the true remedy lies chiefly in the United States district and circuit courts. If the State courts had proven themselves competent . . . we should not have been called upon to legislate upon this subject at all. But they have not done so"); id., at App. 216 (Sen. Thurman) ("Its whole effect is to give to the Federal Judiciary that which does not belong to ita jurisdiction that may be constitutionally conferred upon it, I grant, but that has never yet been conferred upon it"); see also id., at 501 (Sen. Frelinghuysen).
"The proposition known as the Sherman amendmentand to that I shall confine myself in the remarks which I may address to the Houseis entirely new. It is altogether without a precedent in this country. Congress has never asserted or attempted to assert, so far as I know, any such authority. That amendment claims the power in the General Government to go into the States of this Union and lay such obligations as it may please upon the municipalities, which are the creations of the States alone." Id., at 795 (Rep. Blair), partially quoted in Monell, 436 U.S., at 673-674, 98 S.Ct., at 2026-27.
Although the debate surrounding the constitutional principles established in Prigg, Dennison, and Day occurred in the context of the Sherman amendment and not § 1 of the 1871 Act, in Monell we found it quite inconceivable that the same legislators who opposed vicarious liability on constitutional grounds in the Sherman amendment debates would have silently adopted the same principle in § 1. Because the "creation of a federal law of respondeat superior would have raised all the constitutional problems associated with the obligation to keep the peace" embodied in the Sherman amendment, we held that the existence of the constitutional background of Prigg, Dennison, and Day "compelled the conclusion that Congress did not intend municipalities to be held liable under § 1 unless action pursuant to official municipal policy of some nature caused a constitutional tort." Monell, supra, 436 U.S., at 691, 98 S.Ct., at 2036.
As originally enacted, the text of § 1983 referred only to the deprivation "of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution of the United States. ' In 1874, Congress enacted the Revised Statutes of the United States. The words "and laws" were added to the remedial provision of § 1 of the 1871 Act which became Rev.Stat. § 1979. At the same time, the jurisdictional grant in § 1 of the 1871 Act was split into two different provisions, Rev.Stat. § 563(12), granting jurisdiction to the district courts of the United States to redress deprivations under color of state law of any right secured by the Constitution or "by any law of the United States," and Rev.Stat. § 629(16), granting jurisdiction to the old circuit courts for any action alleging deprivation under state authority of any right secured "by any law providing for equal rights." In 1911, Congress abolished the circuit courts of the United States and the Code's definition of the jurisdiction of the district courts was taken from Rev.Stat. § 629(16) with its narrower "providing for equal rights" language. This language is now contained in 28 U.S.C. 1343(3), the jurisdictional counterpart of § 1983. Chapman, 441 U.S., at 608, 99 S.Ct., at 1911.
"It may have been the intention of Congress to provide, by this enactment the Civil Rights Act of 1871, for all the cases of deprivations mentioned in the previous act of 1870, and thus actually to supersede the indefinite provision contained in that act. But as it might perhaps be held that only such rights as are specifically secured by the Constitution, and not every right secured by a law authorized by the Constitution, were here intended, it is deemed safer to add a reference to the civil rights act." 1 Revision of the United States Statutes as Drafted by the Commissioners Appointed for that Purpose 362 (1872).
"The jurisdiction in civil . . . matters conferred on the district courts by the provisions of this chapter and Title 18, for the protection of all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and for their vindication, shall be exercised and enforced in conformity with the laws of the United States, so far as such laws are suitable to carry the same into effect; but in all cases where they are not adapted to the object, or are deficient in the provisions necessary to furnish suitable remedies and punish offenses against law, the common law, as modified and changed by the constitution and the statutes of the State wherein the court having jurisdiction of such civil or criminal cause is held, so far as the same is not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, shall be extended to and govern the said courts in the trial and disposition of the cause. . . ." Far from supporting petitioner's call for the creation or implication of a damages remedy broader than that provided by § 1983, we think the plain language of § 1988 supports the result we reach here. As we noted in Moor v. County of Alameda, 411 U.S. 693, 706, 93 S.Ct. 1785, 1794, 36 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973), in rejecting an argument similar to petitioner's contention here: "Section 1988 expressly limits the authority granted federal courts to look to the common law, as modified by state law, to instances in which that law 'is not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States.' " Ibid. See also Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 421 U.S. 454, 465, 95 S.Ct. 1716, 1722, 44 L.Ed.2d 295 (1975). As we indicated in Moor, "Congress did not intend, as a matter of federal law, to impose vicarious liability on municipalities for violations of federal civil rights by their employees." 411 U.S., at 710, n. 27, 93 S.Ct., at 1796, n. 27. Section 1983 provides an explicit remedy in damages which, with its limitations on municipal liability, Congress thought "suitable to carry . . . into effect" the rights guaranteed by § 1981 as against state actors. Thus, if anything, § 1988 points us in the direction of the express federal damages remedy for enforcement of the rights contained in § 1981, not state common law principles.
Our conclusion that the express cause of action for damages created by § 1983 constitutes the exclusive federal remedy for violation of the rights guaranteed in § 1981 by state governmental units finds support in our decision in Brown v. GSA, 425 U.S. 820, 96 S.Ct. 1961, 48 L.Ed.2d 402 (1976). In Brown, we dealt with the interaction of § 1981 and the provisions of § 717 of Title VII, of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-16, which proscribe discrimination in federal employment and establish an administrative and judicial enforcement scheme. The petitioner in Brown had been passed over for federal promotion on two occasions, and after the second occasion he filed a complaint with his agency alleging that he was denied promotion because of his race. The agency's Director of Civil Rights concluded after investigation that race had not entered into the promotional process, and informed Brown by letter of his right under § 717(c) to bring an action in federal district court within 30 days of the agency's final decision. Forty-two days later Brown filed suit in federal court, alleging violations of both Title VII and § 1981. The lower courts dismissed Brown's complaint as untimely under § 717(c), and this Court affirmed, holding that § 717 of Title VII constituted the exclusive remedy for allegations of racial discrimination in federal employment.
Since our decision in Monell, the Courts of Appeals have unanimously rejected the contention, analogous to petitioner's argument here, that the doctrine of respondeat superior is available against a municipal entity under a Bivens-type action implied directly from the Fourteenth Amendment. See, e.g., Tarpley v. Greene, 221 U.S.App.D.C. 227, 237, n. 25, 684 F.2d 1, 11, n. 25 (1982) (Edwards, J.) ("Because Congress has elected not to impose respondeat super or liability under § 1983, appellant invites this court to expand the remedial options under Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971) . We can find no good logic nor sound legal basis for this view; we therefore decline the invitation"); accord, Owen v. Independence, 589 F.2d 335, 337 (CA8 1978); Thomas v. Shipka, 818 F.2d 496 (CA6 1987); Ellis v. Blum, 643 F.2d 68, 85 (CA2 1981); Cale v. Covington, 586 F.2d 311, 317 (CA4 1978); Molina v. Richardson, 578 F.2d 846 (CA9), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1048, 99 S.Ct. 724, 58 L.Ed.2d 707 (1978). Given our repeated recognition that the Fourteenth Amendment was intended in large part to embody and expand the protections of the 1866 Act as against state actors, we believe that the logic of these decisions applies with equal force to petitioner's invitation to this Court to create a damages remedy broader than § 1983 from the declaration of rights now found in § 1981. We hold that the express "action at law" provided by § 1983 for the "deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws," provides the exclusive federal damages remedy for the violation of the rights guaranteed by § 1981 when the claim is pressed against a state actor. Thus to prevail on his claim for damages against the school district, petitioner must show that the violation of his "right to make contracts" protected by § 1981 was caused by a custom or policy within the meaning of Monell and subsequent cases.
I join Parts I and IV of the Court's opinion, and Part III except insofar as it relies upon legislative history. To hold that the more general provisions of 42 U.S.C. 1981 establish a mode of liability for a particular category of offense by municipalities that is excluded from the closely related statute ( 42 U.S.C. 1983) which deals more specifically with that precise category of offense would violate the rudimentary principles of construction that the specific governs the general, and that, where text permits, statutes dealing with similar subjects should be interpreted harmoniously.
To an one familiar with this and last Terms' debate over whether Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U.S. 160, 96 S.Ct. 2586, 49 L.Ed.2d 415 (1976), should be overruled, see Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 105 L.Ed.2d 132 (1989), today's decision can be nothing short of astonishing. After being led to believe that the hard question under 42 U.S.C. 1981the question that prompted this Court, on its own initiative, to set Patterson for reargument, 485 U.S. 617, 108 S.Ct. 1419, 99 L.Ed.2d 879 (1988)was whether the statute created a cause of action relating to private conduct, today we are told that the hard question is, in fact, whether it creates such an action on the basis of governmental conduct. It is strange, indeed, simultaneously to question whether § 1981 creates a cause of action on the basis of private conduct (Patterson) and whether it creates one for governmental conduct (these cases)and hence to raise the possibility that this landmark civil rights statute affords no civil redress at all.
In granting certiorari in these cases we did not, as the plurality would have it, agree to review the question whether one may bring a suit for damages under § 1981 itself on the basis of governmental conduct. The plurality hints that petitioner Jett offered this issue for our consideration, ante, at 711 ("In essence, petitioner argues that in 1866 the 39th Congress intended to create a cause of action for damages against municipal actors and others who violated the rights now enumerated in § 1981"), when in fact, it was respondent who raised this issue, and who did so for the first time in its brief on the merits in this Court. 1 In six years of proceedings in the lower courts, including a jury trial and an appeal that produced two opinions, respondent never once suggested that Jett's only remedy was furnished by § 1983. Petitioner was able to respond to this argument only in his reply brief in this Court. While it is true that we often affirm a judgment on a ground not relied upon by the court below, we ordinarily do so only when that ground at least was raised below. See, e.g., Heckler v. Campbell, 461 U.S. 458, 468, n. 12, 103 S.Ct. 1952, 1958, n. 12, 76 L.Ed.2d 66 (1983); Washington v. Yakima Indian Nation, 439 U.S. 463, 476, n. 20, 99 S.Ct. 740, 749, n. 20, 58 L.Ed.2d 740 (1979); Hankerson v. North Carolina, 432 U.S. 233, 240, n. 6, 97 S.Ct. 2339, 2344, n. 6, 53 L.Ed.2d 306 (1977); Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Ludwig, 426 U.S. 479, 96 S.Ct. 2158, 48 L.Ed.2d 784 (1976); Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 475, n. 6, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 1156, n. 6, 25 L.Ed.2d 491 (1970).
* Title 42 U.S.C. 1981, originally enacted as part of § 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (1866 Act), provides in full: "All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other."
The plurality approaches this issue as though it were new to us, recounting in lengthy and methodical detail the introduction, debate, passage, veto, and enactment of the 1866 Act. The story should by now be familiar to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with this statute. This is so because we have reviewed this history in the course of decidingand reaffirming the answer tothe very question that the plurality deems so novel today. See Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409, 88 S.Ct. 2186, 20 L.Ed.2d 1189 (1968); Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, Inc., 396 U.S. 229, 90 S.Ct. 400, 24 L.Ed.2d 386 (1969); Tillman v. Wheaton-Haven Recreation Assn., Inc., 410 U.S. 431, 432, 93 S.Ct. 1090, 1091, 35 L.Ed.2d 403 (1973); Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 421 U.S. 454, 95 S.Ct. 1716, 44 L.Ed.2d 295 (1975); Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U.S. 160, 96 S.Ct. 2586, 49 L.Ed.2d 415 (1976); McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co., 427 U.S. 273, 96 S.Ct. 2574, 49 L.Ed.2d 493 (1976); Delaware State College v. Ricks, 449 U.S. 250, 101 S.Ct. 498, 66 L.Ed.2d 431 (1980); General Building Contractors Assn., Inc. v. Pennsylvania, 458 U.S. 375, 102 S.Ct. 3141, 73 L.Ed.2d 835 (1982); Saint Francis College v. Al-Khazraji, 481 U.S. 604, 107 S.Ct. 2022, 95 L.Ed.2d 582 (1987); Shaare Tefila Congregation v. Cobb, 481 U.S. 615, 107 S.Ct. 2019, 95 L.Ed.2d 594 (1987); Goodman v. Lukens Steel Co., 482 U.S. 656, 107 S.Ct. 2617, 96 L.Ed.2d 572 (1987); Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 105 L.Ed.2d 132 (1989). An essential aspect of the holding in each of these cases was the principle that a person injured by a violation of § 1 of the 1866 Act (now 42 U.S.C. 1981 and 1982) may bring an action for damages under that statute against the person who violated it.
We have had good reason for concluding that § 1981 itself affords a cause of action against those who violate its terms. The statute does not explicitly furnish a cause of action for the conduct it prohibits, but this fact was of relatively little moment at the time the law was passed. During the period when § 1 of the 1866 Act was enacted, and for over 100 years thereafter, the federal courts routinely concluded that a statute setting forth substantive rights without specifying a remedy contained an implied cause of action for damages incurred in violation of the statute's terms. See, e.g., Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 162-163, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803); Kendall v. United States, 12 Pet. 524, 624, 9 L.Ed. 1181 (1838); Pollard v. Bailey, 20 Wall. 520, 527, 22 L.Ed. 376 (1874); Hayes v. Michigan Central R. Co., 111 U.S. 228, 240, 4 S.Ct. 369, 374, 28 L.Ed. 410 (1884); De Lima v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 1, 176-177, 21 S.Ct. 743, 745, 45 L.Ed. 1041 (1901); Texas & N.O.R. Co. v. Railway Clerks, 281 U.S. 548, 569, 570, 50 S.Ct. 427, 433, 433, 74 L.Ed. 1034 (1930); Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 684, and n. 6, 66 S.Ct. 773, 777, and n. 6, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946); J.I. Case Co. v. Borak, 377 U.S. 426, 433, 84 S.Ct. 1555, 1560, 12 L.Ed.2d 423 (1964). The classic statement of this principle comes from Texas & Pacific R. Co. v. Rigsby, 241 U.S. 33, 39-40, 36 S.Ct. 482, 484, 60 L.Ed. 874 (1916), in which we observed: "A disregard of the command of the statute is wrongful act, and where it results in damage to one of the class for whose especial benefit the statute was enacted, the right to recover the damages from the party in default is implied, according to a doctrine of the common law." These cases fit comfortably within Rigsby § framework. It is of small consequence, therefore, that the 39th Congress established no explicit damages remedy in § 1 of the 1866 Act. 2
Indeed, the debates on § 1 demonstrate that the legislators' worry was not that their actions would do too much, but that they would do too little. In introducing the bill that became the 1866 Act, Senator Trumbull explained that the statute was necessary because "there is very little importance in the general declaration of abstract truths and principles contained in the Thirteenth Amendment unless they can be carried into effect, unless the persons who are to be affected by them have some means of availing themselves of their benefits." Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., 474 (1866) (emphasis added). Representative Thayer of Pennsylvania echoed this theme: "When I voted for the amendment to abolish slavery . . . I did not suppose that I was offering . . . a mere paper guarantee." "The bill which now engages the attention of the House has for its object to carry out and guaranty the reality of that great measure. It is to give to it practical effect and force. It is to prevent that great measu e from remaining a dead letter upon the constitutional page of this country." Id., at 1151.
In these circumstances, it would be unreasonable to conclude that inferring a private cause of action from § 1981 is incompatible with Congress' intent. Yet in suggesting that § 2 of the 1866 Act demonstrates Congress' intent that criminal penalties serve as the only remedy for violations of § 1, ante, at 715-721, this is exactly the conclusion that the plurality apparently would have us draw. Not only, however, is this argument contrary to legislative intent, but we have already squarely rejected it. In Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., respondent argued that because § 2 furnished criminal penalties for violations of § 1 occurring "under color of law," § 1 could not be read to provide a civil remedy for violations of the statute by private persons. Dismissing this argument, we explained: "Section 1 was meant to prohibit all racially motivated deprivations of the rights enumerated in the statute, although only those deprivations perpetrated 'under color of law' were to be criminally punishable under § 2." 392 U.S., at 426, 88 S.Ct., at 2196. 3
This argument became available only after § 1983 was passed, and thus suggests that § 1983 changed the cause of action implicitly afforded by § 1981. However, not only do we generally disfavor repeals by implication, see, e.g., Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535, 549-550, 94 S.Ct. 2474, 2482-2483, 41 L.Ed.2d 290 (1974); Posadas v. National City Bank, 296 U.S. 497, 503, 56 S.Ct. 349, 352, 80 L.Ed. 351 (1936); Henderson's Tobacco, 11 Wall. 652, 656-658, 20 L.Ed. 235 (1871), but we should be particularly hostile to them when the allegedly repealing statute specifically rules them out. In this regard, § 7 of the 1871 Act is highly significant; it provided "that nothing herein contained shall be construed to supersede or repeal any former act or law except so far as the same may be repugnant thereto." § 7, 17 Stat. 15. 4
The Court's argument fails for other reasons as well. Its essential point appears to be that, in § 1983, "Congress has established its own remedial scheme" for the " 'state action' portion of § 1981." 5 Ante, at 731. For this argument, the Court may not rely, as it attempts to do, on the principle that " 'when legislation expressly provides a particular remedy or remedies, courts should not expand the coverage of the statute to subsume other remedies.' " Ibid., quoting National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. National Assn. of Railroad Passengers, 414 U.S. 453, 458, 94 S.Ct. 690, 693, 38 L.Ed.2d 646 (1974). That principle limits the inference of a remedy for the violation of a statute only when that same statute already sets forth specific remedies. It cannot be used to support the argument that the provision of particular remedies in § 1983 tells us whether we should infer a damages remedy for violations of § 1981.
The suggestion, moreover, that today's holding "finds support in" Brown v. GSA, 425 U.S. 820, 96 S.Ct. 1961, 48 L.Ed.2d 402 (1976), is audacious. Ante, at 733. Section 1983which, for example, specifies no exhaustion requirement, no damages limitation, no defenses, and no statute of limitationscan hardly be compared with § 717 of the Civil Rights of 1964, at issue in Brown, with its many detailed requirements and remedies, see 425 U.S., at 829-832, 96 S.Ct., at 1966-1968. Indeed, in Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 489, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 1836, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973), we emphasized the "general" nature of § 1983 in refusing to allow former prisoners to challenge a prison's withholding of good-time credits under § 1983 rather than under the federal habeas corpus statute, 28 U.S.C. 2254. We never before have suggested that § 1983's remedial scheme is so thorough that it pre-empts the remedies that might otherwise be available under other statutes; indeed, all of our intimations have been to the contrary. See, e.g., Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clammers Assn., 453 U.S. 1, 19-21, 101 S.Ct. 2615, 2625-2627, 69 L.Ed.2d 435 (1981).
Because § 1981 does not explicitly create a cause of action in damages, we would look in vain for an express statement that the statute contemplates liability based on the doctrine of respondeat superior. In Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, supra, however, our background assumption appears to have been that unless a statute subjecting institutions (such as municipalities) to liability evidences an intent not to impose liability on them based on respondeat superior, such liability will be assumed. Id., 436 U.S., at 691, 98 S.Ct., at 2036. The absolute language of § 1981 therefore is significant: "All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts . . . as is enjoyed by white citizens." 42 U.S.C. 1981. Certainly nothing in this wording refutes the argument that vicarious liability may be imposed under this law.
Section 1983, in contrast, forbids a person to "subject, or cause to be subjected" another person to a deprivation of the rights protected by the statute. It is telling that § 1981 does not contain this explicit language of causation. In holding in Monell that liability under § 1983 may not be predicated on a theory of respondeat superior, we emphasized that § 1983 "plainly imposes liability on a government that, under color of some official policy, 'causes' an employee to violate another's constitutional rights. . . . Indeed, the fact that Congress did specifically provide that A's tort became B's liability if B 'caused' A to subject another to a tort suggests that Congress did not intend § 1983 liability to attach where such causation was absent." 436 U.S., at 692, 98 S.Ct., at 2036. The absence of this language in § 1 of the 1866 Act, now § 1981, argues against the claim that liability under this statute may not be vicarious.
"First, is the plaintiff 'one of the class for whose especial benefit the statute was enacted'that is, does the statute create a federal right in favor of the plaintiff? Second, is there any indication of legislative intent, explicit or implicit, either to create such a remedy or to deny one? Third, is it consistent with the underlying purposes of the legislative scheme to imply such a remedy for the plaintiff? And finally, is the cause of action one traditionally relegated to state law, in an area
The Court's heavy emphasis on § 2 of the 1866 Act also ignores the fact that the modern-day descendant of § 1 of the Act, 42 U.S.C. 1981, includes no remedy or penalty at all. Section 2 of the 1866 Act now appears at 18 U.S.C. 242, see United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 327, n. 10, 61 S.Ct. 1031, 1043, n. 10, 85 L.Ed. 1368 (1941), a part of the Code entirely separate from § 1981, and is applicable to provisions other than § 1981. These facts strongly argue against placing too much weight on the availability of criminal penalties in deciding whether § 1981 contains an implied cause of action.
Amici assert, in addition, that "[i]n recognizing an implied cause of action" under § 1981, we "rested in part on congressional actions that post-date the creation in 1871 of an explicit civil cause of action for violations of Section 1981." Brief for International City Management Association et al. as Amici uriae 19. It is true that Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409, 412, n. 1, 88 S.Ct. 2186, 2189, n. 1, 20 L.Ed.2d 1189 (1968), and Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, Inc., 396 U.S. 229, 238, 90 S.Ct. 400, 405, 24 L.Ed.2d 386 (1969), cited 28 U.S.C. 1343(4) in support of federal jurisdiction over those cases. I do not understand, however, how this shows that the 1866 Act as originally enacted did not confer federal jurisdiction over actions to recover damages for violations of the statute. Moreover, even if the 1866 Act did not confer such jurisdiction, the jurisdictional question is separate from the question whether a cause of action may be inferred from the statute. Indeed, amici appear to recognize as much when they argue that although § 1 did not establish federal jurisdiction to hear civil actions based on the statute, Congress "left the task of civil enforcement to the state courts." Brief for International City Management Association et al. as Amici Curiae 17. I cannot imagine what "civil enforcement" amici have in mind, unless it is the civil remedy that Jett seeks.