Harlow et al. v. Fitzgerald

Decided June 24, 1982. Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 80-945 · 457 U.S. 800 (1982) · Cited 22,846 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–1.

“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.

• Butz v. Economou · 438 U.S. 478 (1978)
• Gravel v. United States · 408 U.S. 606 (1972)
• United States v. Nixon · 418 U.S. 683 (1974)
• Pierson v. Ray · 386 U.S. 547 (1967)
• Wood v. Strickland · 420 U.S. 308 (1975)
• Scheuer v. Rhodes · 416 U.S. 232 (1974)
• Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · 403 U.S. 388 (1971)
• Gomez v. Toledo · 446 U.S. 635 (1980)
• Procunier v. Navarette · 434 U.S. 555 (1978)
• Stump v. Sparkman · 435 U.S. 349 (1978)
• Tenney v. Brandhove · 341 U.S. 367 (1951)
• Herbert v. Lando · 441 U.S. 153 (1979)
• Hutchinson v. Proxmire · 443 U.S. 111 (1979)
• Imbler v. Pachtman · 424 U.S. 409 (1976)
• Eastland v. United States Servicemen's Fund · 421 U.S. 491 (1975)
• Doe v. McMillan · 412 U.S. 306 (1973)
• Katz v. United States · 389 U.S. 347 (1967)
• Baker v. McCollan · 443 U.S. 137 (1979)
• Poller v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. · 368 U.S. 464 (1962)
• Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clammers Assn. · 453 U.S. 1 (1981)
• Barr v. Matteo · 360 U.S. 564 (1959)
• Hanrahan v. Hampton · 446 U.S. 754 (1980)
• Supreme Court of Virginia v. Consumers Union of the United States, Inc. · 446 U.S. 719 (1980)
• Lake Country Estates, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency · 440 U.S. 391 (1979)
• Texas Industries, Inc. v. Radcliff Materials, Inc. · 451 U.S. 630 (1981)
• Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Curran · 456 U.S. 353 (1982)
• Spalding v. Vilas · 161 U.S. 483 (1896)

Cited by

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

• Crawford-El v. Britton · 523 U.S. 574 (1998)
• Anderson v. Creighton · 483 U.S. 635 (1987)
• Mitchell v. Forsyth · 472 U.S. 511 (1985)
• Davis v. Scherer · 468 U.S. 183 (1984)
• Wyatt v. Cole · 504 U.S. 158 (1992)
• Ziglar v. Abbasi · 582 U.S. 120 (2017)
• Malley v. Briggs · 475 U.S. 335 (1986)
• Behrens v. Pelletier · 516 U.S. 299 (1996)
• Siegert v. Gilley · 500 U.S. 226 (1991)
• Richardson v. McKnight · 521 U.S. 399 (1997)
• Burns v. Reed · 500 U.S. 478 (1991)
• Messerschmidt v. Millender · 565 U.S. 535 (2012)
• Hope v. Pelzer · 536 U.S. 730 (2002)
• Morse v. Frederick · 551 U.S. 393 (2007)
• Nieves v. Bartlett · 587 U.S. 391 (2019)
• Buckley v. Fitzsimmons · 509 U.S. 259 (1993)
• Atwater v. City of Lago Vista · 532 U.S. 318 (2001)
• Illinois v. Krull · 480 U.S. 340 (1987)
• Johnson v. Fankell · 520 U.S. 911 (1997)
• Reynoldsville Casket Co. v. Hyde · 514 U.S. 749 (1995)
• Ashcroft v. Iqbal · 556 U.S. 662 (2009)
• Mullenix v. Luna · 577 U.S. 7 (2015)
• Wilson v. Layne · 526 U.S. 603 (1999)
• Herring v. United States · 555 U.S. 135 (2009)
• Cleavinger v. Saxner · 474 U.S. 193 (1985)
• City and County of San Francisco v. Sheehan · 575 U.S. 600 (2015)
• Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez · 577 U.S. 153 (2016)
• Elder v. Holloway · 510 U.S. 510 (1994)
• Wilkie v. Robbins · 551 U.S. 537 (2007)
• United States v. Stanley · 483 U.S. 669 (1987)

Official text

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

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). 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).