Opinion ID: 787920
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Effect of the Anderson Decision

Text: 21 We reverse for two reasons. First, Anderson expressly did not address the issue at hand. Second, Antoine forecloses Christian and Rodriguez's broad interpretation of Anderson . In Anderson , we considered what immunity should extend to the Chairman of the Oregon State Parole Board and the Assistant Director of the Oregon Interstate Compact. Anderson, 714 F.2d at 907-08. We held that the parole officials were entitled to absolute immunity for the imposition of parole conditions and for the decision to have a parolee arrested and placed on parole holds pending investigation of purported parole violations. Id. at 909. We explained that when parole board officials have a parolee arrested and placed on a parole hold, they are entitled to absolute immunity because[t]hese actions [are] directly related to the decision to revoke parole. Id. (emphasis added). 22 We also held, however, that the officials were only entitled to qualified immunity for the dissemination of information about a parolee to persons outside the parole board because that conduct does not relate to a parole official's duties in deciding to `grant, deny, or revoke parole.' Id. at 910 (quoting Sellars, 641 F.2d at 1303) (emphasis added). 23 Moreover, we explicitly did not address the possibility of a distinction for purposes of immunity analysis between a member of a parole board and a parole official with no role, or a lesser role, in the decision to grant, deny or revoke parole. Id. 24 California's parole system is effectuated by two separate and distinct entities, the CDC and the BPT: the [CDC] is authorized to supervise parolees and to detain them pending a revocation hearing ... while the [BPT] makes the decision as to whether or not to revoke parole. Swift, 11 Cal.Rptr.3d at 410 (citing Cal. Pen.Code §§ 5000-5003, 5077 and Cal.Code Regs. tit. 15, § 2600). Whether parole agents of the CDC are entitled to absolute immunity thus raises the question reserved in Anderson : whether parole officials who play no role ... in the granting or denying of parole[,] and only a preliminary role ... in a determination to revoke, are entitled to absolute immunity. Anderson, 714 F.2d at 910.