Frederick a. Siegert v. H. Melvin Gilley

Decided May 23, 1991. William Hubbs Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 90-96 · 500 U.S. 226 (1991) · Cited 2,725 times

Holding

The Court of Appeals properly concluded that the District Court should have dismissed Siegert's suit because he had not overcome Gilley's qualified immunity defense.

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 6–3.

“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.

• Paul v. Davis · 424 U.S. 693 (1976)
• Harlow v. Fitzgerald · 457 U.S. 800 (1982)
• Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · 403 U.S. 388 (1971)
• Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · 408 U.S. 564 (1972)
• Anderson v. Creighton · 483 U.S. 635 (1987)
• Mitchell v. Forsyth · 472 U.S. 511 (1985)
• United States v. S.A. Empresa De Viacao Aerea Rio Grandense · 467 U.S. 797 (1984)
• Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath · 341 U.S. 123 (1951)
• Illinois v. Gates · 462 U.S. 213 (1983)
• Berkemer v. McCarty · 468 U.S. 420 (1984)
• Meyer v. Nebraska · 262 U.S. 390 (1923)
• Holland v. United States · 348 U.S. 121 (1954)
• Gomez v. Toledo · 446 U.S. 635 (1980)
• Davis v. Scherer · 468 U.S. 183 (1984)
• Cafeteria & Restaurant Workers Union, Local 473 v. McElroy · 367 U.S. 886 (1961)
• Wisconsin v. Constantineau · 400 U.S. 433 (1971)
• United States v. Lovett · 328 U.S. 303 (1946)

Cited by

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

• County of Sacramento v. Lewis · 523 U.S. 833 (1998)
• Crawford-El v. Britton · 523 U.S. 574 (1998)
• Ashcroft v. Iqbal · 556 U.S. 662 (2009)
• Morse v. Frederick · 551 U.S. 393 (2007)
• Wilson v. Layne · 526 U.S. 603 (1999)
• Brosseau v. Haugen · 543 U.S. 194 (2004)
• Wyatt v. Cole · 504 U.S. 158 (1992)
• City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd. · 526 U.S. 687 (1999)
• Conn v. Gabbert · 526 U.S. 286 (1999)
• Tanzin v. Tanvir · 592 U.S. 43 (2020)

Official text

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

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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).