Opinion ID: 437447
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Applicability of Section 1985(3) to Federal Officers

Text: 68 We turn next to consider defendant Jones' contention that section 1985(3) does not contemplate actions against federal officers. The apparent source of this argument is an antiquated decision of the Second Circuit, whose holding has repeatedly been read out of context by District Courts, and has now effectively been overruled by the Supreme Court. Accordingly, we reject Mr. Jones' argument and hold that section 1985(3) encompasses actions against federal officers, subject, of course, to considerations of qualified immunity. 69 Initially, we note that this Circuit has previously permitted actions to be brought under section 1985(3) against federal officers. See Fitzgerald v. Seamans, 553 F.2d 220 (D.C.Cir.1977) (White House official may be liable in section 1985(3) action). As a result, we pause here only to resolve any lingering doubts about the rationale of the law of this Circuit, not to decide what the law should be. Because the law in this area for years was based on conclusory, unsupported statements, and misguided interpretations of an unfortunately cryptic opinion, we want to make absolutely clear the basis of our decision. 70 The source of confusion is Gregoire v. Biddle, 177 F.2d 579 (2d Cir.1949), cert. denied, 339 U.S. 949, 70 S.Ct. 803, 94 L.Ed. 1363 (1950), a delphic opinion by Judge Learned Hand, which has repeatedly been cited for the proposition that section 1985(3) does not contemplate suits against federal officers. See, e.g., Lofland v. Meyers, 442 F.Supp. 955, 957 (S.D.N.Y.1977); Williams v. Halperin, 360 F.Supp. 554, 556 (S.D.N.Y.1973). In Gregoire, the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a complaint against Francis Biddle, the Attorney General, and other federal officials, to recover for false arrest as an enemy alien. The complaint was grounded, inter alia, on the Civil Rights Act, including section 47(3), now 1985(3). The court began its analysis by summarizing a decision of that Circuit, affirmed by the Supreme Court, which had held United States Attorneys absolutely immune from a civil action for malicious prosecution. The Supreme Court, in affirming, cited to earlier cases establishing absolute immunity for judges for acts done in the exercise of their judicial function. 53 Judge Hand concluded that the Court's affirmance of the circuit court established absolute immunity for officers of the Department of Justice, when engaged in prosecuting private persons. 177 F.2d at 580. Defendants in Gregoire were officers of the Justice Department engaged in prosecuting a private person. Accordingly, Gregoire held only that the common law grants executive officers engaged in prosecution an absolute privilege from civil actions, not that all federal officers are thus sheltered. It concluded that, absent any indication that Congress intended to remove that immunity, the complaint required dismissal. 71 It was in this context that Gregoire turned to consider the Civil Rights Acts, presumably to determine whether they were meant to waive prosecutorial immunity. Judge Hand rejected plaintiff's argument that then-section 47(3), currently section 1985(3), created a claim against any two people, including federal officers, who conspire to injure another for spite or improper motives, or, in other words, rejected a reading of the section that would transform it into a general federal tort law. He remarked, it is apparent that [the words] could not have had such a scope without destroying their validity constitutionally. Id. at 581. Regardless whether Judge Hand was more concerned with the idea of private conspiracies under the statute or federalization of tort law, it is now clear that neither of these factors necessarily poses any obstacle to the section's constitutionality. In light of Griffin, which both established the constitutionality of the very statutory construction rejected by Judge Hand--that the conspiracy statute applies to wholly private conspiracies--and read into the statute a requirement of class-based discriminatory animus to assure the statute was not a general tort provision, Judge Hand's construction of the statute on these issues no longer merits consideration. 72 It is therefore apparent that cases relying on Gregoire to preclude suits against federal officials under section 1985(3) have no present force. First, these cases always have been in error to the extent they read into Gregoire an absolute privilege for persons other than prosecutors. Second, these cases have in any event been superseded in their analysis of section 1985(3), along with Gregoire itself, by Griffin. We have not found either in case law or in the language of the statute any reason to exclude all federal officers from the meaning of the word persons in section 1985(3). Pre-Griffin cases therefore are of no precedential weight on this point, and post-Griffin cases that rely only on Gregoire, or on other cases citing only Gregoire, without any mention of Griffin, similarly should not be followed. 73 Considerable recent case law rejects the proposed limitation on section 1985(3) and supports our conclusion. See Jafree v. Barber, 689 F.2d 640, 643 (7th Cir.1982) (section 1985(3) action against federal officer states cause of action); Gillespie v. Civiletti, 629 F.2d 637, 641 (9th Cir.1980) (same); Dry Creek Lodge, Inc. v. United States, 515 F.2d 926, 931 (10th Cir.1975) (same); Bergman v. United States, 551 F.Supp. 407, 414-15 (W.D.Mich.1982) (same); Peck v. United States, 470 F.Supp. 1003, 1008-12 (S.D.N.Y.1979) (construing section 1985(3) to permit suits against federal officers, rejecting contrary decisions in the district); Founding Church of Scientology v. Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 459 F.Supp. 748 (D.D.C.1978) (allowing section 1985(3) action against federal officer). As one Southern District of New York judge explained, in rejecting Gregoire and the cases that followed, 74 Unless there is a rationale, unknown to the past cases, for holding that federal officers are not persons under Sec. 1985(3), there is no longer any reason to exclude from coverage federal officers acting under color of federal law. Since such a rationale is inconceivable, Griffin 's holding that Sec. 1985(3) applies to any person requires that it apply to federal officers. 75 Moriani v. Hunter, 462 F.Supp. 353, 356 (S.D.N.Y.1978). We agree and hold that plaintiffs did not fail to state a claim upon which relief could be granted by naming either federal officers as defendants or, for reasons stated in section I(B), for naming as defendants the District of Columbia and its employees.