Opinion ID: 527859
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The State Defendants-Appellees' Absolute Immunity Claims

Text: 15 As the district court correctly stated, absolute immunity serves to shield a defendant from suit altogether rather than merely acting as a defense to liability. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). Consequently, the district court focused solely, and correctly, upon the state defendants' absolute immunity claims first, noting that it would only reach the liability issue if it found that they did not enjoy immunity. Chief Judge Grady then determined as a matter of law that the state defendants were immune and dismissed the action because Thompson did not join his request for damages with a claim for declaratory or injunctive relief. See, e.g., Pulliam v. Allen, 466 U.S. 522, 104 S.Ct. 1970, 80 L.Ed.2d 565 (1984); Scruggs v. Moellering, 870 F.2d 376, 378 (7th Cir.1989). 16 However, since the district court ruled upon the immunity issue, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Forrester in which the Court attempted to redefine the scope of the absolute immunity which judicial officers and persons performing quasi-judicial functions enjoy. The Court noted that [d]ifficulties have arisen primarily in attempting to draw the line between truly judicial acts, for which immunity is appropriate, and acts simply done by judges. Here, as in other contexts, immunity is justified by the functions it protects and serves, not the person to whom it attaches. 484 U.S. at ----, 108 S.Ct. at 544 (emphasis in original). With this distinction, the Court found that a judge's decision to demote and discharge a probation officer, as was his prerogative under Illinois law, was purely an administrative decision, which even though ... may have been essential to the very functioning of the courts, could not be regarded as [a] judicial act[ ]. Id. The Court ultimately held that such activity may not be shielded from review by a claim of absolute immunity. 17 Thompson does not contest that the state defendants generally enjoy absolute immunity because they in fact are persons who perform duties of an adjudicatory nature functionally comparable to the duties of a judicial officer. See, e.g., Walker v. Prisoner Review Bd., 769 F.2d 396, 398 (7th Cir.1985); Trotter v. Klincar, 748 F.2d 1177, 1180 (7th Cir.1984) (involving among others state defendants-appellees Klincar and Guthrie); United States ex rel. Powell v. Irving, 684 F.2d 494, 497 (7th Cir.1982); cf. Stanley v. Indiana Civil Rights Comm'n, 557 F.Supp. 330, 334 (N.D.Ind.1983) (members of Indiana Civil Rights Commission enjoy absolute quasi-judicial immunity); but see Fowler v. Cross, 635 F.2d 476, 481 (5th Cir.1981) (not addressing an absolute immunity claim, but stating that parole board members enjoy qualified immunity); Thompson v. Burke, 556 F.2d 231, 237-38 (3d Cir.1977) (stating that parole board members are not judicial officers, and instead are executive officers who enjoy qualified immunity). 3 Instead, Thompson contends that their actions in this case, which ultimately gave rise to his section 1983 action, cannot be characterized as part of their adjudicatory functions. He argues that their conduct was purely administrative in nature and thus is not protected after Forrester. 4 18 Specifically, Thompson argues that the state defendants had a duty to conduct, or at least to insure that he received, a timely preliminary parole revocation hearing. He argues that under Illinois law, Ill.Ann.Stat. ch. 38, p 1003-3-9(c) (Smith-Hurd Supp.1989), and the Supreme Court's holding in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 483-84, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 2601-02, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972), the state defendants had no discretion to deny or postpone a preliminary parole revocation hearing. Consequently, their duty to schedule and hold such a hearing in a timely manner is a purely administrative function and thus they cannot claim absolute immunity. Without addressing whether Thompson states a valid section 1983 claim at all, we are convinced that Forrester may not be read so broadly. 19 Forrester clearly was an attempt to stress that courts should recognize a difference between purely administrative activities and those which are a part of the judicial process. However, with this distinction made, the activity which Thompson challenges as administrative cannot in fact be so characterized. 20 In Trotter, a case decided before Forrester, we addressed a plaintiff-parolee's section 1983 claim against various officers, members, and employees of the Illinois Department of Corrections and Illinois Prisoner Review Board, including state defendants-appellees Klincar and Guthrie. There, the plaintiff relied upon Morrissey and alleged inter alia, that he had been improperly denied a prompt preliminary hearing because the defendants had failed to schedule and conduct a timely hearing. 748 F.2d at 1180. When confronted with the defendants' claims of absolute immunity, the plaintiff argued that the doctrine reaches only the adjudicatory functions of the defendants and that the actions he complain[ed] of relate[d] solely to the administrative or ministerial functions of [the defendants]. Id. at 1182. 21 We agree that this court had extended absolute immunity to parole boards for their adjudicatory functions only, id., a proposition which we later rejected in Walker, 769 F.2d at 398-99. Nevertheless, we recognized the distinction then, 5 and rejected the plaintiff's attempts to characterize the challenged activity as administrative, stating: 22 [W]e cannot agree that the actions that are the subject of this dispute are administrative or ministerial.... As the Supreme Court recognized in Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978), the grant of absolute immunity does not depend on the formal description of the official's activities, but rather on the nature of those activities. Id. 438 U.S. at 511-12, 98 S.Ct. at 2913. In light of Butz, we must consider whether the functions upon which the state officials would base their claim for immunity are functionally comparable to the activities of the judiciary. See id. at 513, 98 S.Ct. at 2914. These functions include not only the actual decision to revoke parole, but also the activities that are part and parcel of the decision process. See Anderson [v. Boyd, 714 F.2d 906 (9th Cir.1983) ]. All the actions contested here are inexorably connected with the execution of parole revocation procedures and are analogous to judicial action relating to the conduct of trial proceedings and to ruling on motions of counsel. 23 Trotter, 748 F.2d at 1182 (emphasis added). 24 Forrester does not vitiate our holding in Trotter as our recent decision in Scruggs illustrates. In Scruggs, we addressed a plaintiff's charge that a state judge and court reporter falsified the transcript of his criminal trial to prevent him from prosecuting a successful appeal of his conviction. 870 F.2d at 377. We upheld the district court's dismissal of the plaintiff's suit against the state judge and the court reporter on absolute immunity grounds. 25 Citing Forrester, we reaffirmed the fundamental principle that [a] judge has absolute immunity from damages liability for acts performed in his judicial capacity.... Id. The state judge in Scruggs had a duty under Indiana procedural rules to see to the correct preparation of the trial transcript. Such activity was judicial in nature because it concerned a judicial function. Acts carried out in a judicial capacity, whether based on statute, rule or inherent authority, are absolutely protected from damages liability. 26 In the continuum of judicial proceedings some judicial acts require extensive exercise of a judge's decision-making skills and others do not--yet all such acts make up the judicial function regardless of their isolated importance. In the judicial context, scheduling a case for hearing is part of the routine procedure in any litigated matter. However, the fact that the activity is routine or requires no adjudicatory skill renders that activity no less a judicial function. 27 Here, as in Trotter, the state defendants clearly had a duty to schedule and conduct a parole violation hearing. Such activity, while perhaps routine in many cases, is obviously an integral judicial (or quasi-judicial) function subject to absolute immunity. 28 Indeed, if we were to adopt Thompson's interpretation of Forrester, we would effectively subject judicial officers, as well as persons performing quasi-judicial functions, to unlimited litigation testing whether particular judicial functions, alleged to be mechanical or routine, were entitled to immunity from damages liability. We need not search far for a closely analogous example. If scheduling a hearing is not a part of an adjudicatory or judicial function, then an action could be maintained against a judge for injuries to an incarcerated defendant resulting from the judge's alleged failure to schedule a hearing or trial within an applicable speedy trial limitations period, or the judge's alleged failure to conduct a hearing or trial on the date scheduled. By the same token, if the judge purportedly failed to properly execute his duty to advise a criminal defendant of certain constitutional and statutory rights, yet accepted a guilty plea and incarcerated the defendant, under Thompson's rationale an action could be maintained against the judge for damages liability if the defendant is injured while in custody awaiting the outcome of his challenge to the court's methodology. 29 Such situations are foreclosed by Forrester, which confirmed absolute immunity from damages for all acts carried out as a part of the judicial function. Absolute judicial immunity was removed only for that narrow range of purely administrative acts, such as employment decisions, which are unrelated to the judicial function. 30 The policy reasons for affording absolute judicial immunity are set forth in Forrester. It is sufficient to say that judicial decision-making without absolute immunity would be driven by fear of litigation and personal monetary liability. Such opportunity for intimidation and retaliation constitutes a fundamental and unacceptable threat to an independent and impartial judiciary. The same rationale applies to those officers and agencies that perform quasi-judicial functions. 31 Thompson's contentions, to the extent that they are based upon the state defendants' duty to insure that other officials scheduled or conducted a timely parole revocation hearing, are likewise unmeritorious. We therefore affirm the district court's decision that the state defendants are absolutely immune from suit. 32