Court Opinion

ID: 9471816
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:41:47.532989+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:35.553800
License: Public Domain

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
Lurking behind the specific question here presented is the larger issue that divided the Fourth Circuit in Norton v. United States, 581 F.2d 390, 396 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1003, 99 S.Ct. 613, 58 L.Ed.2d 678 (1978). That is whether in cases of this sort “the remedy against the government under FTCA is inextricably tied to the remedy against the individual officer under Bivens” (footnote omitted). Although, as shown by the opinions in Norton, that issue is a close one, I agree with the Fourth Circuit majority that analysis of the legislative history requires an affirmative answer even though a literal reading of 28 U.S.C. §§ 2680(h), 2674 and 1346(b) might indicate otherwise. Judge Kearse’s opinion produces that result here. I write only to make clear that nothing we are saying today would call for a conclusion contrary to that reached in Norton in a case where the state law of immunity was less favorable to an official than the law of immunity applicable to federal officers in Bivens cases, as defined, e.g., in Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 508-12, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 2911-13, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978) and Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2732-39, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982).