Court Opinion

ID: 9429108
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:25:40.692593+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:17.098080
License: Public Domain

Justice Brennan,
dissenting.
Justice Marshall’s dissenting opinion, post, presents an eloquent argument that Congress, in enacting § 1983, did not intend to create any absolute immunity from civil liability for “government officials involved in the judicial process . . . .” Post, at this page and 347. Whatever the correctness of his' historical argument, I fear that the Court has already crossed that bridge in Pierson v. Ray, 386 U. S. 547 (1967), and Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U. S. 409 (1976).
I entirely agree with Justice Marshall, however, that the policies of § 1983 and of common-law witness immunity, as they apply to witnesses who are police officers, do not justify any absolute immunity for perjurious testimony. I therefore dissent for the reasons stated in Part IV of Justice Marshall’s opinion.