Opinion ID: 421796
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Application of the Discretionary Function Exception In This Case

Text: 77 It is plain that Gray's FTCA claim was properly dismissed insofar as it incorporates the malicious prosecution claim and thus challenges the actual decision to institute prosecution against him. Prosecutorial decisions as to whether, when and against whom to initiate prosecution are quintessential examples of governmental discretion in enforcing the criminal law, and, accordingly, courts have uniformly found them to be immune under the discretionary function exception. 71 78 The separation of powers concerns justifying governmental immunity in this area were forcefully expressed by the Fifth Circuit in Smith v. United States, 375 F.2d 243. First, prosecutorial discretion is exercised pursuant to expansive constitutional and statutory authority delegated to the executive. The President of the United States is charged in article 2, section 3, of the Constitution with the duty to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, the Attorney General is the President's surrogate in the prosecution of all offenses against the United [229 U.S.App.D.C. 200] States, and each Assistant Attorney General is the delegate of the Attorney General in exercising this broad well-spring of enforcement authority. See Smith v. United States, 375 F.2d at 246-47. Second, each individual decision whether or not to initiate prosecution is part of a national enforcement policy and involves the weighing of competing resources and priorities. The federal government's decisions concerning enforcement of its criminal statutes comprise a part of its pursuit of national policy. If the government could be held liable for prosecuting or failing to prosecute [a particular] ... case, its choices in [an entire] area ... could quite conceivably be affected by ... a [private] suit. Thus, a policy decision of the federal government might be influenced by a plaintiff with no governmental responsibility. Id. at 247. Finally, the prosecutor's decision whether or not to initiate prosecution has historically been subject to little or no judicial scrutiny and is not readily amenable to evaluation by courts. The discretion of the Attorney General in choosing whether to prosecute or not to prosecute, or to abandon a prosecution already started, is absolute. Id. 79 Gray contends that the concerns expressed in Smith v. United States do not apply here because the challenged prosecutorial decision in that case was central to national civil rights policy. The [prosecutors] ... in Smith had to decide whether to prosecute black civil rights activists for alleged illegalities in their boycotting and picketing of a white merchant. Reply Brief for Appellant 20. No such complex issues of political responsibility are involved in the instant case, Gray observes. Id. at 21. We do not think the separation of powers concerns articulated in Smith may be read so narrowly. Given the nature of the discretion inherent in any prosecutorial decision to initiate proceedings, it is clear that judicial review in tort suits would--at some point--trench on the traditional boundaries of separation of powers. The test suggested by Gray, focusing on complex issues of political responsibility, is both impractical and plainly at odds with the underlying purpose of the discretionary function exception. We think there can be no serious question over the applicability of the discretionary function exception to the decision to initiate prosecution. 72 80 Disposition of the remaining portions of Gray's FTCA claim is only slightly more problematic. These portions of Gray's FTCA claim incorporate the allegations of Counts One and Two of the complaint, both of which rest on constitutional tort theories under the Grand Jury and Due Process clauses of the Fifth Amendment. Because the FTCA's general waiver of immunity extends only to acts or omissions that would be tortious under state law, there is a question whether constitutional torts that do not also constitute torts under state law are cognizable under the FTCA. 73 We do not [229 U.S.App.D.C. 201] resolve that issue, however, because it was neither addressed below nor briefed before this court. 74 81 Even assuming Gray's allegations of illegal preindictment conduct are cognizable under the FTCA, they too are barred under the discretionary function clause. Gray contends that he is not complaining of the initial decision which may have been made by one or more of the defendants to conduct a broad scale investigation of the FBI [, but, rather,] of the improper, tortious, and constitutionally defective manner in which that investigation was carried out. Brief for Appellant 41. There is, indeed, much validity to the distinction between routine execution of discretionary decisions and discretionary decisions themselves, 75 with the discretionary function exception of the FTCA immunizing the latter but not the former. But this presupposes that the implementing activities in any particular case are sufficiently separable from the purely discretionary decisions to which they are related. In an area of governmental functions, such as those involving decisions of a prosecutor, where courts traditionally have been quick to find immunizing discretion, we must examine carefully the allegations made to determine whether they are sufficiently separable from protected discretionary decisions. If such separability exists, then the conduct of the prosecutor may be actionable under the FTCA. 82 Although the decision whether or not to prosecute clearly falls within the FTCA's discretionary function clause, other prosecutorial actions that directly relate to this fundamental policy decision are not so easily characterized. Indeed, there can be cases where conduct of the prosecutor prior to, or even after, the initiation of Grand Jury proceedings is removed sufficiently from the decision to prosecute so that the discretionary function clause would not provide any protection. For example, participation by prosecutors in illegal searches and seizures during the course of an investigation, or the dissemination of defamatory information to the media, easily could be disassociated from the discretionary decision to prosecute. Cf. note 23 supra (citing cases). Disassociating such activities from protected prosecutorial decisions is relatively simple because the harm alleged in such cases is distinct from the harm caused by the ultimate prosecution itself. Without delving further into specific factual situations not now before us, we can only suggest that application of the FTCA's discretionary function clause to actions taken by prosecutors will continue to evolve on a case-by-case basis. 83 In the present case, the improper and tortious actions allegedly undertaken by the defendants are too intertwined with purely discretionary decisions of the prosecutors to be sufficiently separated from the initial [229 U.S.App.D.C. 202] decision to prosecute. Taking the facts as alleged in the complaint, we note that each allegation of improper investigatory conduct is inextricably tied to the decision to prosecute and the presentation of evidence to the Grand Jury. In this case, there is no meaningful way in which the allegedly negligent investigatory acts could be considered apart from the totality of the prosecution. Indeed, the gist of Gray's complaint focuses on alleged causal links between the negligent investigation, the presentation of false and misleading evidence, and the ultimate prosecution. Separating allegations in the complaint that focus on the investigation from the ultimate prosecution merely would elevate the form of Gray's complaint over its essence. Accordingly, although plaintiffs in other cases might allege prosecutorial misdeeds in investigating and presenting evidence to various Grand Juries that, if analyzed discretely, could be viewed as nondiscretionary, we think that the conduct as alleged in this case is insufficiently separable from the discretionary decision to initiate prosecution and therefore cannot by itself support suit under the FTCA. 84 Payton v. United States, 679 F.2d 475 (5th Cir. Unit B 1982) (en banc), involved a similar situation. In that case the plaintiff brought a wrongful death suit against federal parole authorities for a murder perpetrated by a psychotic federal parolee. The parole release determination was held to be a discretionary function, but the plaintiff drew his complaint--as Gray has done here--in disaggregative fashion, challenging the Parole Board's ministerial failure to acquire and examine certain records prior to making the parole decision. The court nevertheless dismissed all of the allegations, explaining that the plaintiff's challenge to the ministerial omissions 85 implicates the discretionary function of the Board. To withstand a motion to dismiss, an allegation challenging the Board's performance of any ministerial act must be sufficiently distinguishable from a complaint disputing the Board's exercise of its discretionary function. The plaintiff must therefore allege that the Board breached a duty sufficiently separable from the decision-making function to be nondiscretionary and outside of the exception. 86 Id. at 482. 87 The same reasoning applies here. We will not permit a suit for damages occasioned by activities that are not meaningfully separable from a protected discretionary function. We thus hold that section 2680(a) exempts the government from liability for exercising the discretion inherent in the prosecutorial function of the Attorney General, no matter whether [the challenged] decisions are made during the investigation or prosecution of offenses. Smith v. United States, 375 F.2d at 248.