Court Opinion

ID: 9934430
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-09 18:54:01.083687+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:24:57.803965
License: Public Domain

I concur in Part I and in Part II. I respectfully dissent from Part III, however, because the better analysis would seem to be that the judicial decision-making process consists of both the mental formulation of the decision and the physical communication of the decision. Without both, a decision does not exist for any practical purpose. A magistrate or other judge should not be subject to liability for mistakes in the communication aspect of the judicial decision-making process any more than he or she should be subject to liability for mistakes in the formulation aspect. The policy reasons for judicial immunity apply equally to both aspects. Thus, judicial immunity, properly construed, should immunize the magistrate in the case before us from liability for her mistake in the communication aspect of her judicial decision-making process.
Brown, J., concurs.