Court Opinion

ID: 9429587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:27:15.779868+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:19.682667
License: Public Domain

Justice Powell,
with whom The Chief Justice, Justice Rehnquist, and Justice O’Connor join, dissenting.
The Court today reaffirms the rule that judges are immune from suits for damages, but holds that they may be sued for injunctive and declaratory relief and held personally liable for money judgments in the form of costs and attorney’s fees merely on the basis of erroneous judicial decisions. The basis for the Court’s distinction finds no support in common law and in effect eviscerates the doctrine of judicial immunity that the common law so long has accepted as absolute.
The Court recognizes that the established principle of judicial immunity serves as the bulwark against threats to “independent judicial decisionmaking,” ante, at 531. Yet, at the same time it concludes that judicial immunity does not bar suits for injunctive or declaratory relief with the attendant claims for costs and attorney’s fees. The Court reasons that “[f]or the most part, injunctive relief against a judge raises concerns different from those addressed by the protection of judges from damages awards.” Ante, at 537. This case illustrates the unsoundness of that reasoning. The Court affirms a $7,691.09 money judgment awarded against a state Magistrate on the determination that she made erroneous judicial decisions with respect to bail and pretrial detentions. Such a *545judgment poses the same threat to independent judicial deci-sionmaking whether it be labeled “damages” of $7,691.09 or “attorney’s fees” in that amount. Moreover, as was held a century and a half ago, an “action before one Judge for what is done by another... [is a] case . . . against the independence of the Judges.” Taaffe v. Downes, reprinted in footnote in Calder v. Halket, 13 Eng. Rep. 12, 18, n. (a) (P. C. 1840). The burdens of having to defend such a suit are identical in character and degree, whether the suit be for damages or prospective relief. The holding of the Court today subordinates realities to labels. The rationale of the common-law immunity cases refutes the distinction drawn by the Court.
I
Since 1869, this Court consistently has held that judges are absolutely immune from civil suits for damages. See, e. g., Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U. S. 349 (1978); Pierson v. Ray, 386 U. S. 547 (1967); Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335 (1872); Randall v. Brigham, 7 Wall. 523 (1869). We have had no occasion, however, to determine whether judicial immunity bars a § 1983 suit for prospective relief. See Supreme Court of Virginia v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc., 446 U. S. 719, 735 (1980).1 It is clear that Congress did not limit the *546scope of common-law immunities in either § 19832 or § 1988.3 We, therefore, have looked to the common law to determine when absolute immunity should be available. A review of the common law reveals nothing that suggests — much less requires — the distinction the Court draws today between suits for prospective relief (with the attendant liability for costs and attorney’s fees) and suits for damages.
The doctrine of judicial immunity is one of the earliest products of the English common law.4 It was established to protect the finality of judgments from continual collateral attack in courts of competing jurisdiction5 and to protect *547judicial decisionmaking from intimidation and outside interference.6 Gradually, the protection of judicial independence became its primary objective. The specific source of intimidation articulated by the English common-law cases was the threat of vexatious litigation should judges be required to defend their judicial acts in collateral civil proceedings. In Taaffe v. Downes, supra, at 18, n. (a), the justices observed: “If you once break down the barrier. . . and subject [judges] to an action, you let in upon the judicial authority a wide, wasting, and harassing persecution . . ..” The common-law cases made no reference to the effect on judicial independence of particular remedies such as an award of damages.
The early opinions of this Court echo the principal justification for the immunity doctrine articulated at English common law. In Bradley v. Fisher, supra, the emphasis was on the *548burden of harassing and vexatious litigation. The Court observed:
“If... a judge could be compelled to answer in a civil action for his judicial acts,... he would be subjected for his protection to the necessity of preserving a complete record of all the evidence produced before him in every litigated case, and of the authorities cited and arguments presented, in order that he might be able to show to the judge before whom he might be summoned by the losing party . . . that he had decided as he did with judicial integrity; and the second judge would be subjected to a similar burden, as he in his turn might also be held amenable by the losing party.” Id., at 349.
Addressing the need for judicial independence, the Court therefore concluded:
“‘The public are deeply interested in th[e] rule [of judicial immunity], which . . . was established in order to secure the independence of the judges, and prevent them being harassed by vexatious actions.’” Ibid, (quoting Fray v. Blackburn, 3 B. & S. 576, 578, 122 Eng. Rep. 217 (1863)).
The justification for the immunity doctrine emphasized in Bradley has been repeated in subsequent decisions by this Court. See, e. g., Pierson v. Ray, 386 U. S., at 554; Butz v. Economou, 438 U. S. 478, 512 (1978). In these cases as well, the burdens of litigation, rather than the threat of pecuniary loss, are cited as posing a threat to judicial independence and occasioning the need for immunity. These burdens apply equally to all suits against judges for allegedly erroneous or malicious conduct. It is immaterial whether the relief sought is an injunction as in this case, or damages as in Pierson v. Ray or Stump v. Sparkman. Indeed, the Court today, largely ignoring that it was the burden of litigation that motivated the common-law immunity, makes no argument to the contrary. Unless the rationale of Bradley and *549the common-law cases is rejected, judicial immunity from suits against judges for injunctive relief must be coextensive with immunity from suits for damages.
I — I
A
The Court nevertheless argues that the common law of England can be viewed as supporting the absence of immunity where the suit is for injunctive relief. The Court concedes, as it must, that suits for injunctive relief against a judge could not be maintained either at English common law or in the English courts of equity. Ante, at 529. Injunctive relief from inequitable proceedings at common law was available in equity “to stay [a common-law] trial; or, after verdict, to stay judgment; or, after judgment, to stay execution.” J. Story, Equity Jurisprudence ¶ 874, p. 72 (11th ed. 1873). But such relief was available only against the parties to the common-law proceedings and not against the judge. Id., ¶875, at 72. The suit for injunctive relief at issue here is precisely the type of suit that the Court concedes could not have been maintained either at common law or in equity. The Court, however, reasons that the writs of prohibition and mandamus present a “common-law parallel to the § 1983 injunction at issue here.” Ante, at 529.
The prerogative writs of mandamus and prohibition are simply not analogous to suits for injunctive relief from the judgments of common-law courts, and the availability of these writs against judicial officials has nothing to do with judicial immunity. It has long been recognized at common law that judicial immunity protects only those acts committed within the proper scope of a judge’s jurisdiction, but provides no protection for acts committed in excess of jurisdiction.7 *550Because writs of prohibition and mandamus were intended only to control the proper exercise of jurisdiction,8 they posed no threat to judicial independence and implicated none of the policies of judicial immunity. Thus, the judges of England’s inferior courts were subject to suit for writs of mandamus and prohibition, but judicial immunity barred all suits attacking judicial decisions made within the proper scope of their jurisdiction.9 There is no allegation in this case that petitioner exceeded her jurisdiction. The suit for injunctive relief is based solely on an erroneous construction and application of law. It is precisely this kind of litigation that the common-law doctrine of judicial immunity was intended to prohibit.
B
The Court’s observation that prerogative writs may have been used at English common law to correct errors of judgment rather than excesses of jurisdiction is irrelevant to the case at bar. We “rely on the common-law practice in shaping our own doctrine of judicial immunity,” ante, at 536, only to the extent that the common-law practices consulted are consistent with our own judicial systems. The Court’s reliance on English common-law practice ignores this constraint. It was the rivalry between the English temporal and spiritual courts that induced the King’s Bench to adopt the myth that *551misapplication of substantive common law affects the court’s jurisdiction.10 As the Court points out, the relationship between the King’s Bench and its rival ecclesiastical courts finds no parallel in our judicial system. Ante, at 535. There is no indication that the courts of this country ever resorted to the fictional use of prerogative writs found at English common law. To the contrary, our courts expressly have rejected the fiction and have limited the use of mandamus and prohibition to jurisdictional issues or to cases where the court has a clear duty to act. See Roche v. Evaporated Milk Assn., 319 U. S. 21, 26 (1943). See also Bankers Life & Casualty Co. v. Holland, 346 U. S. 379, 382-383 (1953); Will v. United States, 389 U. S. 90, 103-104 (1967).
Nor is there any indication that the expansive use of prerogative writs in England modified the doctrine of judicial immunity in this country.11 Indeed, the sparing use of the *552writs of prohibition and mandamus in American jurisprudence has been motivated in large part by the concern for judicial independence. Cases counseling restraint in the use of prerogative writs repeatedly have observed that such writs have “the unfortunate consequence” of “plac[ing] trial judges in the anomalous position of being litigants without counsel other than uncompensated volunteers.” La Buy v. Howes Leather Co., 352 U. S. 249, 258 (1957). See also Kerr v. United States District Court, 426 U. S. 394, 402 (1976); Bankers Life & Casualty Co., supra, at 384-385; Ex parte Fahey, 332 U. S. 258, 259-260 (1947). In response to this concern, the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure have provided that the respondent judge in a proceeding for mandamus or prohibition may elect not to appear in the proceeding without conceding the issues raised in the petition. Fed. Rule App. Proc. 21(b).12 Finally, courts consistently have held that concerns for judicial independence require that any award of costs to a prevailing party in an action for mandamus or prohibition be made only against the party at interest and not against the judge. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit explained:
“It would be contrary to the fundamental rules protecting the freedom of judicial action to tax costs against a judge of any one of the constitutional courts of the United States by reason of any failure to apprehend the *553law correctly.” In re Haight & Freese Co., 164 F. 688, 690 (1908).
Accord, Cotler v. Inter-County Orthopaedic Assn., 530 F. 2d 536, 538 (CA3 1976).
In sum, the perceived analogy to the use of prerogative writs at English common law simply does not withstand analysis. As shown above, the analogy rests on a peculiar practice at English common law that was occasioned by the unique relationship between the King’s Bench and England’s ecclesiastical courts. That relationship finds no parallel in this country. Moreover, our courts, and the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, have sought to limit the use of mandamus and prohibition for the very purpose of protecting judicial immunity. It is extraordinary, therefore, that the Court today should rely on the use of prerogative writs in England to justify exposing judicial officials in this country to harassing litigation and to subj ect them to personal liability for money judgments in the form of costs and attorney’s fees.
III
The Court suggests that the availability of injunctive relief under § 1983 poses no serious “risk that judges will be harassed and their independence compromised by the threat of having to defend themselves against suits by disgruntled litigants.” Ante, at 537-538. The reasons advanced for this optimism are that equitable relief will be unavailable unless the plaintiff can show “an inadequate remedy at law and . . . a serious risk of irreparable harm.” Ibid. Again, this suit refutes the Court’s argument. Adequate remedies were expressly available to each of the respondents under state law.13 *554Nor was there any showing in this case of irreparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief. Nevertheless, petitioner was forced to bear the burdens of extended litigation, making clear the need for absolute judicial immunity.14
As discussed, both the English common-law cases and the decisions of this Court identify the burdens of harassing litigation, rather than the threat of pecuniary loss, as threatening judicial independence. In suits for injunctive relief, just as in suits for damages, the likely scenario was well stated by one of the justices in Taaffe v. Downes:
“[Without the doctrine of judicial immunity, judges] become amenable to every other species of correction by a Court.... One hour at the bar — the next at the bench, of the same or some other Court. They would have a busy and harassing time, getting from one station to the other — from the Judge to the accused — from the corrector to the corrected.” 13 Eng. Rep., at 20, n. (a).
The ever-present threat of burdensome litigation, made realistic by today’s decision, may well influence judicial determinations, particularly in close cases where the decision is likely to be unpopular.
*555Suits for injunctive relief may pose even greater threats to judicial independence if they are successful and an injunction is ordered. The specter of contempt proceedings for alleged violations of injunctive orders is likely to inhibit unbiased judicial decisionmaking as much as the threat of liability for damages. Again, this suit is a case in point. The injunctive order entered here was of unlimited duration and enjoined petitioner from authorizing the pretrial detention of any person charged with a certain class of misdemeanor, unless that person was “lawfully deemed likely to be a danger to himself or to others,” and “only so long as such danger persists.” App. 22. Whether a particular defendant is “likely to be a danger to himself or to others” and how “long [that danger will] last” are questions normally and necessarily left to the discretion of the presiding judge. The threat of contempt— with the possibility of a fine or even imprisonment — could well deter even the most courageous judge from exercising this discretion independently and free from intimidation.16
Finally, harassing litigation and its potential for intimidation increases in suits where the prevailing plaintiff is entitled to attorney’s fees. Perhaps for understandable reasons, the Court’s opinion passes lightly over the effect of § 1988. In fact, that provision has become a major additional source of litigation. Since its enactment in 1976, suits against state *556officials under § 1983 have increased geometrically.16 Congress enacted § 1988 for the specific purpose of facilitating and encouraging citizens of limited means to obtain counsel to pursue § 1983 remedies. But §§ 1983 and 1988 are available regardless of the financial ability of a plaintiff to engage private counsel. The lure of substantial fee awards,17 now routinely made to prevailing §1983 plaintiffs, assures that lawyers will not be reluctant to recommend and press these suits.18 The Court again ignores reality when it suggests *557that the availability of injunctive relief under § 1983, combined with the prospect of attorney’s fees under § 1988, poses no serious threat of harassing litigation with its potentially adverse consequences for judicial independence.

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In sum, I see no principled reason why judicial immunity should bar suits for damages but not for prospective injunc-tive relief. The fundamental rationale for providing this protection to the judicial office — articulated in the English cases and repeated in decisions of this Court — applies equally to both types of asserted relief. The underlying principle, vital to the rule of law, is assurance of judicial detachment and independence. Nor is the Court’s decision today in the broader public interest that the doctrine of absolute immunity is intended to serve. Bradley, 13 Wall., at 349.

 Respondents’ argument that this Court has “at least implied that judicial immunity did not bar [declaratory or injunctive] relief” misreads the precedents. Brief for Respondents 12. Respondents rely on the cases cited in note 14 of the Court’s opinion in Consumers Union, 446 U. S., at 735. None of those cases addressed the issue of judicial immunity from prospective relief. In Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U. S. 225 (1972), appellant filed a § 1983 claim against state judicial and law enforcement officials seeking to enjoin state-court proceedings under an allegedly unconstitutional state law. The only issue considered by this Court was whether § 1983 was an authorized exception to the anti-injunction statute that allowed federal courts to enjoin state-court proceedings. In Boyle v. Landry, 401 U. S. 77 (1971), appellees filed a § 1983 claim against state judicial and law enforcement officials seeking to enjoin the enforcement of state statutes on the ground that such enforcement was used to harass and deter appellees from exercising their constitutional rights. This Court found that appel-*546lees had not been threatened with prosecution and held that the lower court had lacked Art. Ill jurisdiction. The suit against judicial officials in O’Shea v. Littleton, 414 U. S. 488 (1974), was dismissed on the same ground. Although the lower court in Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U. S. 103 (1975), had ordered injunctive relief against judicial officers, only the state prosecutor sought review. Thus, the Court did not consider the propriety of the relief awarded against the judicial officers.

 See Pierson v. Ray, 386 U. S. 547, 554-555 (1967).

 In Consumers Union, supra, at 738, the Court observed that “[tjhere is no. . . indication in the legislative history of the Act to suggest that Congress intended to permit an award of attorney’s fees to be premised on acts for which defendants would enjoy absolute legislative immunity.” Similarly, there is no indication in the legislative history of the Act to suggest that Congress intended to diminish the scope of judicial immunity.

 The doctrine was recognized as early as the reign of Edward III (1327-1377). See 6 W. Holdsworth, A History of English Law 234-235 (2d ed. 1937).

 During the early medieval period, there was no such thing as an appeal from court to court. Judges were not immune from suits attacking their judicial acts, and the common procedure for challenging a judicial ruling was to file a complaint of “false judgment" against the judge. 1 W. Holdsworth, A History of English Law 213-214 (7th ed. 1956); 6 Holdsworth, at 235. At this time, the King’s Bench was the central common-law court, and it vied for jurisdiction with the local feudal courts and the ecclesiastical courts. To protect the finality and authoritativeness of its decisions from collateral attack in these competing courts, the King’s Bench borrowed the idea of appellate procedure from the ecclesiastical *547courts. R. Pound, Appellate Procedure in Civil Cases 25-26 (1941). To ensure this procedure, it was necessary to immunize the judicial acts of common-law judges from collateral attack — hence the doctrine of judicial immunity.

 Because the judge rather than the prevailing party to the original suit became the named defendant in a complaint for false imprisonment, it was the judge who suffered the burdens of litigation and the consequences of any adverse judgment. The burdens of litigation could be substantial. In the early days, the defendant judge was required, at his own expense, to prepare a record setting forth the proceedings upon which his challenged judicial decisions were made and to send four suitors of the court to bring the record before the King’s Bench. Id., at 26. If the judgment was found to be false, the judge was amerced or fined. 6 Holdsworth, at 235. The common law recognized that the threat of personal litigation would jeopardize the independence of judicial decisionmaking: judges, to avoid being called before a hostile tribunal to account for their judicial acts, could be deterred by personal considerations from judging dispassionately the merits of the cases before them. See Taaffe v. Downes, 13 Eng. Rep., at 23, n. (a) (“A Judge . . . ought to be uninfluenced by any personal consideration whatsoever operating upon his mind, when he is hearing a discussion concerning the rights of contending parties; otherwise, instead of hearing them abstractedly, a considerable portion of his attention must be devolved to himself”).

 See 6 Holdsworth, supra n. 4, at 236-237:
“[I]n The Case of the Marshalsea, ‘a difference was taken when a court has jurisdiction of the cause, and proceeds . . . erroneously, there ... no action lies [against a judge]. . . . But when the court has not jurisdiction of *550the cause, then the whole proceeding is coram non judice, and actions [against the judge] will lie’ ” (quoting Case of the Marshalsea, 10 Co. Rep. 68b, 76a, 77 Eng. Rep. 1027, 1038 (K. B. 1613)).
See also Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335, 351-353 (1872).

 See 1 Holdsworth, supra n. 5, at 228-229.

 Holdsworth observed:
“ ‘[I]t is agreed that the judges in the king's superior courts are not liable to answer personally for their errors in judgment. . . . [I]n courts of special and limited jurisdiction ... a distinction must be made, but while acting within the line of their authority they are protected as to errors in judgment; otherwise they are not protected.’” 6 Holdsworth, supra, at 239, n. 4 (quoting Miller v. Seare, 2 Bl. W. 1141, 1145, 96 Eng. Rep. 673, 674-675 (K. B. 1777)).

 For example, the Court cites Gordon, The Observance of Law as a Condition of Jurisdiction, 47 L. Q. Rev. 386, 393 (1931), which provides:
“The idea that to misapply or fail to apply substantive . . . law affects a judicial tribunal’s jurisdiction, even when it acts within its province, is now generally recognized as wrong. That there was at one time doubt upon the point was due to the former hostility of the King’s Bench toward . . . the ecclesiastical Courts. Although the King’s Bench admitted it could not redress mere error in such Courts, it could, of course, restrain their excesses of jurisdiction through the writ of prohibition. And under the pretext that it was merely keeping them within their jurisdiction, it issued prohibitions to these Courts whenever they applied or construed any statute in a way the King’s Bench did not approve of.” (Footnotes omitted.) See also 3 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *113 — *115; Dobbs, The Decline of Jurisdiction By Consent, 40 N. C. L. Rev. 49, 60-61 (1961).

 As early as the decision in Bradley v. Fisher, this Court drew a clear distinction between erroneous judicial acts committed within a judge’s jurisdiction, for which there was absolute immunity, and acts committed in excess of jurisdiction, for which there was none. 13 Wall., at 351-353. This distinction, coupled with the principle that writs of mandamus and prohibition could issue only to correct clear jurisdictional errors, hardly suggests that the easy availability of prerogative writs against England’s ecclesiastical courts limited the scope of judicial immunity in this country.

 Rule 21(b) provides in relevant part:
“If the judge or judges named respondents do not desire to appear in the proceeding, they may so advise the clerk and all parties by letter, but the petition shall not thereby be taken as admitted.”
Indeed, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has not even required that the judge be joined as a party. In United States v. King, 157 U. S. App. D. C. 179, 183, 482 F. 2d 768, 772 (1973), the court reasoned: “In the federal courts, when the purpose of mandamus is to secure a ruling on the intrinsic merits of a judicial act, the judge need not— and desirably should not — be named as an active party, but at most only as a nominal party with no real interest in the outcome.”

 The Court says that “it may have been impossible for respondents to avail themselves” of other remedies provided by Virginia law. Ante, at 542, n. 22. Virginia law, however, provides two specific remedies for alleged unlawful detention. Virginia Code § 8.01-654 (Supp. 1983) provides that a “writ of habeas corpus . . . shall be granted forthwith by any circuit *554court” to any person who shows there is probable cause to believe he is being unlawfully detained (emphasis added). Moreover, Virginia Code § 19.2-124 (1983) provides a specific procedure for appealing unreasonable bail determinations “successively to the next higher court ... up to and including the Supreme Court of Virginia.” The Court suggests that in view of the short duration of pretrial detention here, these remedies may not have been available. There has been no showing to this effect. In any event, Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U. S. 349 (1978), indicates that judicial immunity does not depend upon the availability of other remedies.

 Responding to this dissent, the Court states that there has been no showing of unavailability of alternative remedies because petitioner never challenged the injunctive relief awarded. Ante, at 542, n. 22. The point, however, is that this suit for injunctive relief was allowed to proceed against a judicial official without a showing, or finding by the District Court, that alternative remedies were unavailable, or that there would be irreparable harm.

 The Court states that “[n]o judgment calls are required in following the court’s [injunctive] order that petitioner no longer impose bond for offenses for which no incarceration is authorized by statute.” Ante, at 542, n. 22. This statement is inaccurate. The Virginia statute (now repealed) under which respondents’ bail was set permitted jail time for nonincarcerable offenses if the magistrate determined that the arrestee posed a danger to himself or to others. The determination of dangerousness, of course, requires a “judgment call” by the judicial official. By enjoining petitioner from authorizing pretrial detention for arrestees charged with nonin-carcerable offenses “solely because they cannot meet bond,” the District Court’s order threatened mistaken “judgment calls” with contempt proceedings. Injunctive relief often will limit a judicial officer’s discretion by increasing the risk of contempt.

 Civil rights cases accounted for 8.3% of the total civil litigation in the Federal District Courts for the 12 months ended June 30, 1982, and in 1982 civil rights suits filed by state prisoners against state officials had increased 115.6% over the number of similar suits filed in 1977 before the prospect of a fee award under § 1988 became an added incentive to § 1983 claims. Annual Report of the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts 100-103 (1982).

 Recent fee awards under §1988 have increased with the precipitous rise in hourly rates. In Blum v. Stenson, 465 U. S. 886 (1984), for example, hourly rates of $95 to $105 for second- and third-year associates were found to be the “prevailing rates” in the community. Indeed, large fee awards recently have been awarded against state-court judges. See, e. g., Morrison v. Ayoob, No. 78-267 (WD Pa. 1983) (fees of $17,412 and $5,075 awarded against state-court judges in suit for injunctive and declaratory relief), aff’d, 727 F. 2d 1100 (CA3), rehearing denied, 728 F. 2d 176 (1984), cert. denied, post, p. 973.

 Nor, as this case illustrates, do the burdens of litigation necessarily end when a district court approves a fee as reasonable. The Court’s decision makes it likely that a request for an additional fee will be made for services rendered in the Court of Appeals and this Court. Such a request could result in ongoing litigation. Regrettably, disputes over the reasonableness of § 1988 fee awards often become the major issue in the entire litigation. This is demonstrated by the fact that two attorney’s fees cases have been litigated in this Court in successive Terms. Hensley v. Eckerkart, 461 U. S. 424 (1983); Blum v. Stenson, supra. See also Copeland v. Marshall, 205 U. S. App. D. C. 390, 641 F. 2d 880 (1980) (en banc); National Assn. of Concerned Veterans v. Secretary of Defense, 219 U. S. App. D. C. 94, 675 F. 2d 1319 (1982). Moreover, work on fee petitions may be compensated at higher hourly rates than work on the merits. See, e. g., Morrison v. Ayoob, supra (hourly rates of $40 and $75 awarded to legal services firm that initially prosecuted the § 1983 claim; fees of $45 and $110 awarded to private firm hired to prepare and litigate the fee petition).