Court Opinion

ID: 9429241
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:26:09.733272+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:18.213437
License: Public Domain

Justice Marshall,
with whom Justice Blackmun joins,
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion because I agree that there are “special factors counselling-hesitation in the absence of affirmative action by Congress.” Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S. 388, 396 (1971). I write separately only to emphasize that in my view a different case would be presented if Congress had not created a comprehensive scheme that was specifically designed to provide full compensation to civil service employees who are discharged or disciplined in violation of their First Amendment rights, cf. Carlson v. Green, 446 U. S. 14, 23 (1980); Sonntag v. Dooley, 650 F. 2d 904, 907 (CA7 1981), and that affords a remedy that is substantially as effective as a damages action.
Although petitioner may be correct that the administrative procedure created by Congress, unlike a Bivens action,* does *391not permit recovery for loss due to emotional distress and mental anguish, Congress plainly intended to provide what it regarded as full compensatory relief when it enacted the Back Pay Act of 1966, 5 U. S. C. § 5596 (1982 ed.). The Act was designed to “pu[t] the employee in the same position he would have been in had the unjustified or erroneous personnel action not taken place.” See S. Rep. No. 1062, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 1 (1966). See H. R. Rep. No. 32, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., 5 (1965); cf. Sampson v. Murray, 415 U. S. 61, 82-83 (1974). Moreover, there is nothing in today's decision to foreclose a federal employee from pursuing a Bivens remedy where his injury is not attributable to personnel actions which may be remedied under the federal statutory scheme.
I cannot agree with petitioner’s assertion that civil service remedies are substantially less effective than an individual damages remedy. See ante, at 372. To begin with, the procedure provided by the civil service scheme is in many respects preferable to the judicial procedure under a Bivens action. See Brief for Respondent 18-21. For example, the burden of proof in an action before the Civil Service Commission (now the Merit Systems Protection Board) must be borne by the agency, rather than by the discharged employee. See Civil Service Commission, Conducting Hearings on Employee Appeals 11 (1968); cf. Finfer v. Caplin, 344 F. 2d 38, 41 (CA2), cert. denied, 382 U. S. 883 (1965); Pelicone v. Hodges, 116 U. S. App. D. C. 32, 34, 320 F. 2d 754, 756 (1963). Moreover, the employee is not required to overcome the qualified immunity of executive officials as he might be required to in a suit for money damages. See Butz v. Economou, 438 U. S. 478 (1978). Finally, an administrative action is likely to prove speedier and less costly than a lawsuit. These advantages are not clearly outweighed by the obvious and significant disadvantages of the civil service procedure — that it denies the claimant the option of a jury trial, see Carlson v. Green, supra, at 22-23, and that it affords *392only limited judicial review rather than a full trial in federal court, see Chandler v. Roudebush, 425 U. S. 840, 851-853 (1976).
As the Court emphasizes, “[t]he question is not what remedy the court should provide for a wrong that would otherwise go unredressed.” Ante, at 388. The question is whether an alternative remedy should be provided when the wrong may already be redressed under “an elaborate remedial system that has been constructed step by step, with careful attention to conflicting policy considerations.” Ibid. I agree that a Bivens remedy is unnecessary in this case.

 See, e. g., Halperin v. Kissinger, 196 U. S. App. D. C. 285, 300-301, 606 F. 2d 1192, 1207-1208 (1979), aff’d in pertinent part by an equally divided Court, 452 U. S. 713 (1981).