William O. Douglas

“ What about the judge who conspires with local law enforcement officers to 'railroad' a dissenter? What about the judge who knowingly turns a trial into a 'kangaroo' court? Or one who intentionally flouts the Constitution in order to obtain a conviction? Congress, I think, concluded that the evils of allowing intentional, knowing deprivations of civil rights to go unredressed far outweighed the speculative inhibiting effects which might attend an inquiry into a judicial deprivation of civil rights. [6]
The plight of the oppressed is indeed serious. ”

“ If the threat of civil action lies in the background of litigation, so the argument goes, judges will be reluctant to exercise the discretion and judgment inherent in their position and vital to the effective operation of the judiciary. ”

“ But it went on to state that the judge would be liable under the statute even if his actions were judicial. [3] It is one thing to say that the common-law doctrine of judicial immunity is a defense to a common-law cause of action. But it is quite another to say that the common-law immunity rule is a defense to liability which Congress has imposed upon 'any officer or other person,' as in Ex parte Virginia or upon 'every person' as in these cases.
The immunity which the Court today grants the judiciary is not necessary to preserve an independent judiciary. ”

“ This view conceives the mind to be directed toward individual things, rather than toward general ideas, toward distinct situations of fact rather than toward some significance in human affairs that these situations may share. ”

“ Brandhove, 341 U.S. 367, 71 S.Ct. 783, 95 L.Ed. 1019, that state legislators are immune from suit as long as the deprivation of civil rights which they caused a person occurred while the legislators 'were acting in a field where legislators traditionally have power to act.' Id., at 379, 71 S.Ct. ”

“ Since the King could do no wrong, the judges, his delegates for dispensing justice, 'ought not to be drawn into question for any supposed corruption (for this tends) to the slander of the justice of the King.' Floyd & Barker, 12 Co.Rep. 23, 25, 77 Eng.Rep. 1305, 1307 (Star Chamber 1607) . Because the judges were the personal delegates of the King they should be answerable to him alone. Randall v. Brigham, 7 Wall. 523, 539, 19 L.Ed. 285.↑ A judge is liable for injury caused by a ministerial act; to have immunity the judge must be performing a judicial function. ”