Cathy Burns v. Rick Reed

Decided May 30, 1991. Byron Raymond White delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 89-1715 · 500 U.S. 478 (1991) · Cited 1,988 times

Holding

A state prosecuting attorney is absolutely immune from liability for damages under 1983 for participating in a probable cause hearing, but not for giving legal advice to the police.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Imbler v. Pachtman · 424 U.S. 409 (1976)
• Malley v. Briggs · 475 U.S. 335 (1986)
• Harlow v. Fitzgerald · 457 U.S. 800 (1982)
• Mitchell v. Forsyth · 472 U.S. 511 (1985)
• Forrester v. White · 484 U.S. 219 (1988)
• Briscoe v. LaHue · 460 U.S. 325 (1983)
• Anderson v. Creighton · 483 U.S. 635 (1987)
• Butz v. Economou · 438 U.S. 478 (1978)
• Tower v. Glover · 467 U.S. 914 (1984)
• Pierson v. Ray · 386 U.S. 547 (1967)
• Pulliam v. Allen · 466 U.S. 522 (1984)
• Tenney v. Brandhove · 341 U.S. 367 (1951)
• Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · 403 U.S. 388 (1971)
• Scheuer v. Rhodes · 416 U.S. 232 (1974)
• Stump v. Sparkman · 435 U.S. 349 (1978)
• Ex Parte Virginia · 100 U.S. 339 (1880)
• Westfall v. Erwin · 484 U.S. 292 (1988)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Buckley v. Fitzsimmons · 509 U.S. 259 (1993)
• Ziglar v. Abbasi · 582 U.S. 120 (2017)
• Kalina v. Fletcher · 522 U.S. 118 (1997)
• Rehberg v. Paulk · 566 U.S. 356 (2012)
• Antoine v. Byers & Anderson, Inc. · 508 U.S. 429 (1993)
• Van de Kamp v. Goldstein · 555 U.S. 335 (2009)
• Richardson v. McKnight · 521 U.S. 399 (1997)
• Albright v. Oliver · 510 U.S. 266 (1994)
• Mireles v. Waco · 502 U.S. 9 (1991)
• Hafer v. Melo · 502 U.S. 21 (1991)
• Crawford-El v. Britton · 523 U.S. 574 (1998)
• Hartman v. Moore · 547 U.S. 250 (2006)
• Wyatt v. Cole · 504 U.S. 158 (1992)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

Byron Raymond White’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1991). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).