Opinion ID: 520320
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Absolute Immunity Grounded in the Decisionmaking Process.

Text: 42 Because I believe that absolute immunity cannot flow in these circumstances from the parole board, as I discuss above in Part II(A), it must have its source, if it exists, in the decisionmaking process leading to conviction and sentencing. To the extent the majority holds that immunity flows from the adjudicatory decisionmaking process, I agree with this result. While this immunity will be overinclusive, and will allow a judge or prosecutor who acts with a retaliatory motive to escape civil liability in a particular case, I believe it is necessary to protect the systemic integrity of the adjudicatory process. 43 Although I have found no decision that addresses the problem we face, see Tyler v. Ryan, 419 F.Supp. 905, 907 (E.D.Mo.1976) (holding prosecutor immune for writing letter to parole board, citing for support only Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976), and offering no additional reasoning), I believe the step we are taking is weighted in the balance between the functional need for immunity and the need to consider claims under the Constitution carefully. We extend the existing law that defines the scope of absolute immunity with such a holding, however, and therefore my conclusion lies within close confines. We address judicial and prosecutorial immunity in an unusual context where (1) corrective process for unconstitutional acts shielded by immunity is insufficient; and (2) the acts of defendants are not formally within their jurisdiction in the terms our jurisprudence has emphasized. 44 Our jurisprudence has commonly afforded absolute immunity to judges from liability for damages for acts committed within their judicial jurisdiction. Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 1217-18, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967), citing, Bradley v. Fisher, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 335, 20 L.Ed. 646 (1872); Supreme Court of Virginia v. Consumers Union, 446 U.S. 719, 100 S.Ct. 1967, 1976, 64 L.Ed.2d 641 (1980). [T]he necessary inquiry in determining whether a defendant judge is immune from suit is whether at the time he took the challenged action he had jurisdiction over the subject matter before him. Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, 98 S.Ct. 1099, 1105, 98 L.Ed.2d 331 (1978). His act must constitute a judicial act. 98 S.Ct. at 1106. Similarly, prosecutors enjoy absolute immunity in initiating a prosecution and in presenting the State's case. Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 995, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976); Supreme Court of Virginia, 100 S.Ct. at 1977. The immunity attaches because a prosecutor's activities are an integral part of the judicial process. Imbler, 96 S.Ct. at 995 (quoting court of appeals decision below). 45 Several considerations underlie the need to grant absolute immunity to judges, including the need to assure that the individual can perform his functions without harassment or intimidation; ... the presence of safeguards that reduce the need for private damages actions as a means of controlling unconstitutional conduct; ... and ... the correctability of error on appeal. Cleavinger v. Saxner, 474 U.S. 193, 202, 106 S.Ct. 496, 501, 88 L.Ed.2d 507, 514-15 (1985),citing, Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978); see also Imbler, 96 S.Ct. at 944 (public not powerless to deter misconduct or to punish that which occurs given prosecutor's absolute immunity). I shall discuss the immunity issue primarily with reference to judges for the sake of clarity, although my conclusions apply to prosecutors as well. 46 As I have noted, one must perform a strict functional analysis in determining whether absolute immunity should attach in a particular case or class of cases. It is therefore essential to understand the world in which judges and prosecutors would live if they were not entitled to absolute immunity in the circumstances of this case. Prisoners file numerous complaints pro se and in forma pauperis. Cay v. Estelle, 789 F.2d 318, 324-25 (5th Cir.1986) (quoting Jones v. Bales, 58 F.R.D. 453 (N.D.Ga.1972), aff'd on basis of district court's reasoning, 480 F.2d 805 (5th Cir.1973)); see W.B. Turner, When Prisoners Sue: A Study of Section 1983 Litigation in the Federal Courts, 92 Harv.L.Rev. 610 (1979). If judges and prosecutors were required to defend suits like this one, they would be drawn into a significant number of cases not subject to dismissal under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1915(d), broad as the discretion of a district judge may be. Cay, 789 F.2d at 325. When prisoners allege in their pro se complaints that judges or prosecutors have retaliated against them for filing earlier lawsuits against the official, then because we give particularly liberal scrutiny to pro se complaints from prisoners, even in contexts where immunities come into play, a significant number of cases should proceed beyond the initial pleading stage. By the time a case goes beyond its earliest stage, the judge or prosecutor may have to hire a lawyer to, for example, file an answer if the complaint is served, or represent her at an evidentiary hearing where the prisoner's credibility would be tested. Spears v. McCotter, 766 F.2d 179 (5th Cir.1979). 47 Involvement in such litigations poses a grave systemic problem. If a judge or prosecutor faces numerous lawsuits like this one that she must defend, the quality of her decisionmaking during the adjudication of pending and future cases, and during sentencing, will be adversely affected. Prisoners could effectively intimidate judges and prosecutors from acting with the utter independence that their proper decisionmaking requires. The judge or prosecutor faced with such litigation would understandably keep an eye fixed on the possibility that a defendant on trial may later sue or harass the judge or prosecutor if her actions appear too harsh. Prosecutorial tactics before and during trial, judicial rulings before and during trial and judicial sentencing decisions would all be adversely affected. The resulting timidity would be hard to detect or control, and it would manifestly detract from independent and impartial adjudication. Forrester, 108 S.Ct. at 544. Unlike in Forrester, the significant nexus between the integrity of the decisionmaking process and the likely effect of prisoner litigation on the integrity of the decisionmaking process justifies our extension of absolute immunity. In Forrester, on the other hand, the relationship between the judge's administrative employment decisions and the integrity of the decisionmaking process was substantially more attenuated. 3 48 Still, extending absolute immunity in these circumstances raises perplexing issues that require pause and careful deliberation. In this case, as I note above, we confront two primary problems under these standards commonly used to determine a judge's entitlement to absolute immunity. 49 First, the judicial jurisdiction extends to aspects of the decisionmaking process leading to conviction and sentencing during the time period when the judge is empowered to make adjudicative decisions. These aspects of the decisionmaking process include, for example, rulings before trial on motions, rulings at trial on the admissibility of evidence, consideration of testimony and, finally, the imposition of a sentence if the defendant is convicted. It does not, for example, extend to every one of a judge's musings about a prison inmate whom the judge may have sentenced years earlier. If such a loose nexus sufficed, a judge would be protected from suit under Sec. 1983 based on anything she might write or say over the years stemming from a case she earlier decided. 50 Second, there is an absence of sufficient corrective process in this context for a judge's alleged retaliatory misdeeds, a factor which has played a central role in developing the jurisprudence of absolute immunity. See, e.g., McAlester v. Brown, 469 F.2d 1280, 1283 (5th Cir.1972). 4 Most immunity cases arise in temporal contexts where a judge is engaged in decisionmaking. Thus, our jurisprudence commonly has emphasized the correctability of unconstitutional judicial behavior on appeal, for example, as an important factor making the erasure of meritorious civil claims far less disturbing than it otherwise would be. Id. 51 These novel problems, although substantial, are not insurmountable for two reasons. First, although in formal terms a judge providing information to a parole board after conviction and sentence is not acting within her jurisdiction, such a temporal distinction should not defeat the substantive policy goals and systemic concerns underlying the need to immunize judges from the intimidation and harassment that may adversely affect the quality of their decisionmaking. The information properly provided to a parole board flows directly from the processes of trial, such as the taking of testimony and the admission of documentary evidence, during which time a judge and prosecutor would certainly be entitled to absolute immunity for their acts integral to the process. Pierson, 87 S.Ct. 1213; Imbler, 96 S.Ct. 984. To deny immunity to the official who properly provides information after conviction that was generated during a period of time shielded by immunity would lift form above substance. Forrester, 108 S.Ct. at 546. 52 My first point concerning the relation between temporality and substance leads directly to my second point, which concerns substance alone. I would hold that absolute immunity attaches only to the extent that the information provided to the parole board is reasonably derivative of the adjudicatory process leading to conviction and sentencing. This process includes the observation of witnesses and the defendant. Such a standard would prevent a judge or prosecutor from receiving absolute immunity for offering retaliatory opinions and observations based on information not reasonably derived from the adjudicatory process. At the same time, the standard would allow a judge or prosecutor to offer her opinions and observations reasonably derived from information generated during the adjudicatory process. Such inferences, opinions and observations surely constitute information desired by the Texas Parole Board, see Part II(A) supra, or else the Texas legislature would have been content to have the Board rely solely on the paper record created at trial. 53 By utilizing the standard I have set out, judges and prosecutors would be well-protected from personal capacity suits. First, the actions of a judge or prosecutor in providing information to the Board that flows substantively from the processes of adjudication would be protected, although the judge or prosecutor would not be acting within her jurisdiction in a formal, temporal sense. Second, because information offered to the Board that is not reasonably derivative of the adjudicatory process would not be blanketed by absolute immunity, a judge or prosecutor could be liable under Section 1983 for retaliatory misdeeds in certain circumstances. This liability potential addresses the formal problems resulting in this context from the lack of sufficient corrective process. 54 Applying the standard I have discussed, one cannot determine whether the information that Johnson alleges the defendants provided in the letters was reasonably derivative of the adjudicatory process. Our circuit demand[s] that the plaintiff's complaint state with factual detail and particularity the basis for the claim which necessarily includes why the defendant-official cannot successfully maintain the defense of immunity. Elliott v. Perez, 751 F.2d 1472, 1473 (1985); Helton v. Clements, 787 F.2d 1016, 1017 (5th Cir.1986) (plaintiff must state with particularity  'the facts which show that official immunity does not shield ... defendants' ). The pro se nature of this action eases the plaintiff's burden. Jacquez v. Procunier, 801 F.2d 789, 793 (5th Cir.1986). Johnson has met this burden by specifically contending that the defendants were acting outside of their jurisdiction, citing Pierson, 87 S.Ct. 1213, and Imbler, 96 S.Ct. 984. Thus, I would remand this case to allow Johnson to state, according to the standards enunciated in Elliott v. Perez, 751 F.2d at 1473, why the information allegedly provided to the parole board by the defendants was not reasonably derivative of the adjudicatory process. 55 In my view, the approach I have discussed meets two concerns at the core of our system of justice. First, it meets our systemic goals of protecting the integrity of the judicial and prosecutorial decisionmaking processes. And no less important, it leaves room for meritorious prisoner complaints that seek to vindicate rights guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.