Court Opinion

ID: 9431379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:32:10.909912+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:28.213243
License: Public Domain

Justice Scalia,
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
I agree with the opinion of the Court that respondent acted under color of state law for purposes of § 1988. I do not believe that a doctor who lacks supervisory or other penological duties can inflict “punishment” within the meaning of that term in the Eighth Amendment. Cf. Johnson v. Glick, 481 F. 2d 1028, 1031-1032 (CA2) (Friendly, J.), cert. denied sub nom. John v. Johnson, 414 U. S. 1033 (1973). I am also of the view, however, that a physician who acts on behalf of the State to provide needed medical attention to a person involuntarily in state custody (in prison or elsewhere) and prevented from otherwise obtaining it, and who causes physical harm to such a person by deliberate indifference, violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection against the deprivation of liberty without due process. See Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U. S. 307, 315, 324 (1982) (dictum); see generally Daniels v. Williams, 474 U. S. 327, 331 (1986); Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U. S. 651, 672-674, and n. 41 (1977); Rochin v. California, 342 U. S. 165, 169-174 (1952); Johnson, supra, at 1032-1033. I note that petitioner’s pro se complaint merely claimed violation of his rights, and it is the courts that have specified which constitutional provision confers those rights.