Court Opinion

ID: 9429110
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:25:40.706176+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:17.153605
License: Public Domain

Justice Blackmun,
dissenting.
I join all of Justice Marshall’s dissenting opinion except Part I. I cannot join its Part I, for I adhere to the views I expressed for the Court in City of Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc., 453 U. S. 247, 258-259 (1981), regarding the role played by history and policy in determining whether § 1983 incorporates a particular common-law immunity. It is proper to assume — indeed, the Court in the past has assumed — “that members of the 42d Congress were familiar with common-law principles . . . and that they likely intended these common-law principles to obtain, absent specific provisions to the contrary.” Id., at 258. If an immunity was well established in the common law in 1871, careful analysis of the policies supporting it, and those supporting § 1983, governs the determination whether that immunity was retained.
In my view, Justice Marshall’s dissent convincingly demonstrates that the Court finds little support for its decision in the present case either in the language of the statute, the history of the common law, the relevant legislative history, or policy considerations.
I therefore dissent.