Court Opinion

ID: 9428842
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:24:57.331817+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:15.544622
License: Public Domain

Justice O’Connor,
with whom Justice Rehnquist joins, concurring.
As discussed in Justice Powell’s dissenting opinion, as well as in the opinion of the court below, considerations of sound policy suggest that a § 1983 plaintiff should be required to exhaust adequate state administrative remedies before filing his complaint. At the very least, prior state adminis*517trative proceedings would resolve many claims, thereby decreasing the number of §1983 actions filed in the federal courts, which are now straining under excessive caseloads. However, for the reasons set forth in the Court’s opinion, this Court already has ruled that, in the absence of additional congressional legislation, exhaustion of administrative remedies is not required in § 1983 actions. Perhaps Congress’ enactment of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U. S. C. § 1997 et seq. (1976 ed., Supp. IV), which creates a limited exhaustion requirement for prisoners bringing § 1983 suits, will prompt it to reconsider the possibility of requiring exhaustion in the remainder of § 1983 cases. Reluctantly, I concur.
Justice White,
concurring in part.
I fully agree with the Court that our frequent and unequivocal statements on exhaustion cannot be explained or distinguished away as the Fifth Circuit attempted to do. For nearly 20 years and on at least 10 occasions, this Court has clearly held that no exhaustion of administrative remedies is required in a § 1983 suit. Ante, at 500. Whether or not this initially was a wise choice, these decisions are stare decisis, and in a statutory case, a particularly strong showing is required that we have misread the relevant statute and its history. I have no difficulty in concluding that on the issue of exhaustion, unlike the question of municipal immunity faced in Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U. S. 658 (1978), the Court has not previously misapprehended the meaning of the 1871 debates in rejecting an exhaustion rule in McNeese v. Board of Education, 373 U. S. 668, 671-673 (1963), and adhering to that position ever since. Our precedents and the legislative history are sufficient to support reversal, and I accordingly join the judgment and all but Part III-B of the opinion of the Court.
In Part III-B, the Court unnecessarily and unwisely ventures further to find support where none may be had. The wisdom of a general no-exhaustion rule in §1983 suits was *518not at issue when Congress considered and passed the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U. S. C. § 1997 et seq. (1976 ed., Supp. IV). As Justice Powell persuasively points out in his dissenting opinion, and as reflected in the title of the Act, congressional attention was narrowly focused on procedures concerning the legal rights of prisoners and other institutionalized persons. Unsurprisingly, the legislation which emerged addressed only the specific problem under investigation; it indicates neither approval of a no-exhaustion rule nor an intent to preclude us from reconsidering the issue.
As the Court acknowledges, ante, at 513, the policy arguments cut in both directions. The Court concludes that “the very difficulty of these policy considerations, and Congress’ superior institutional competence... suggest that legislative not judicial decisions are preferable.” To be sure, exhaustion is a statutory issue and the dispositive word on the matter belongs to Congress. It does not follow, however, that, were the issue not foreclosed by earlier decisions, we would be institutionally incompetent to formulate an exhaustion rule. The lack of an exhaustion requirement in § 1983 actions is itself an exception to the general rule, judicially formulated, that exhaustion of administrative remedies is required in a civil action. Myers v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., 303 U. S. 41 (1938); McKart v. United States, 395 U. S. 185 (1969). Unlike other statutory questions, exhaustion is “a rule of judicial administration,” Myers v. Bethlehem Shipping Corp., supra, at 50, and unless Congress directs otherwise, rightfully subject to crafting by judges. Our resolution of this case as governed by stare decisis, reinforced by the legislative history of § 1983, should not be taken as undercutting the general exhaustion principle of long standing. The result today is also fully consistent with our decisions that a defendant in a civil or administrative enforcement proceeding may not enjoin and sidetrack that proceeding by resorting to a § 1983 action in federal court, Huffman *519v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U. S. 592 (1975); Juidice v. Vail, 430 U. S. 327 (1977); Trainor v. Hernandez, 431 U. S. 434 (1977); Moore v. Sims, 442 U. S. 415 (1979), and that a federal action should be stayed pending determination of state-law issues central to the constitutional dispute. Railroad Comm’n v. Pullman Co., 312 U. S. 496 (1941). On this understanding, I join all but Part III-B of the opinion of the Court.*

In my view, this case does not present a serious Eleventh Amendment issue. The Florida statute authorizing suits against the Board of Regents, Fla. Stat. § 240.205 (1981), is clear on its face. I see no reason to read a broad waiver to sue and be sued in “all courts of law and equity” as meaning all but federal courts. Nor am I aware of anything in Florida law that suggests a more limited meaning was intended than indicated by the unequivocal terms of the statute. Certainly, none of our cases have gone so far as to hold that federal courts must be expressly mentioned for an effective Eleventh Amendment waiver.
The statutes at issue in cases recited by Justice Powell, post, at 522-523, n. 5, presented more equivocal embodiments of state intent. For example, in Florida Dept. of Health v. Florida Nursing Home Assn., 450 U. S. 147 (1981) (per curiam), the authorization to sue and be sued was limited to contract actions and, unlike the instant provision, did not extend to “all courts of law and equity.” The same is true of the interstate compact involved in Petty v. Tennessee-Missouri Bridge Comm’n, 359 U. S. 275 (1959). The decision in Kennecott Copper Corp. v. Tax Comm’n, 327 U. S. 573 (1946), which involved a statute providing for suit in “any court of competent jurisdiction,” turned on the incongruity of federal courts’ interpreting state tax laws and the fact that “Utah employs explicit language to indicate, in other litigation, its consent to suits in federal courts.” Id., at 579.
Thus, while I do not object to the Court’s leaving the Eleventh Amendment issue for further consideration by the lower courts — at least where, as here, there is no logical priority in resolving Eleventh Amendment immunity before exhaustion — I find the issue sufficiently clear to be answered here and now. The statute means what it says.