John J. McCarthy v. Larry Madigan, et al.

Decided March 4, 1992. Harry Andrew Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 90-6861 · 503 U.S. 140 (1992) · Cited 1,480 times

Holding

Exhaustion of the Bureau of Prisons’ administrative procedure is not required before a federal prisoner can initiate a Bivens action solely for money damages.

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.

• Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · 403 U.S. 388 (1971)
• Patsy v. Board of Regents of Fla. · 457 U.S. 496 (1982)
• Gibson v. Berryhill · 411 U.S. 564 (1973)
• McKart v. United States · 395 U.S. 185 (1969)
• Bowen v. City of New York · 476 U.S. 467 (1986)
• Carlson v. Green · 446 U.S. 14 (1980)
• Schweiker v. Chilicky · 487 U.S. 412 (1988)
• Coit Independence Joint Venture v. Federal Savings & Loan Insurance · 489 U.S. 561 (1989)
• Moore v. City of East Cleveland · 431 U.S. 494 (1977)
• Bush v. Lucas · 462 U.S. 367 (1983)
• McNeese v. Board of Education for Community Unit School District 187 Cahokia · 373 U.S. 668 (1963)
• Smith v. Illinois Bell Telephone Co. · 270 U.S. 587 (1926)
• Walker v. Southern Railway Co. · 385 U.S. 196 (1966)
• Montana National Bank v. Yellowstone County of Montana · 276 U.S. 499 (1928)
• Mathews v. Eldridge · 424 U.S. 319 (1976)
• Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States · 424 U.S. 800 (1976)
• Turner v. Safley · 482 U.S. 78 (1987)
• Yick Wo v. Hopkins · 118 U.S. 356 (1886)
• Weinberger v. Salfi · 422 U.S. 749 (1975)
• Cohens v. Virginia · 19 U.S. 264 (1821)
• Yakus v. United States · 321 U.S. 414 (1944)
• Mathews v. Diaz · 426 U.S. 67 (1976)
• Barry v. Barchi · 443 U.S. 55 (1979)
• Aircraft & Diesel Equipment Corp. v. Hirsch · 331 U.S. 752 (1947)
• Township of Hillsborough v. Cromwell · 326 U.S. 620 (1946)
• McGee v. United States · 402 U.S. 479 (1971)
• Parisi v. Davidson · 405 U.S. 34 (1972)
• Houghton v. Shafer · 392 U.S. 639 (1968)
• Union Pacific Railroad v. Board of County Commissioners · 247 U.S. 282 (1918)

Cited by

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

• Booth v. Churner · 532 U.S. 731 (2001)
• Woodford v. Ngo · 548 U.S. 81 (2006)
• Knick v. Township of Scott · 588 U.S. 180 (2019)
• Air Line Pilots Ass'n v. Miller · 523 U.S. 866 (1998)
• Porter v. Nussle · 534 U.S. 516 (2002)
• Darby v. Cisneros · 509 U.S. 137 (1993)
• Carr v. Saul · 593 U.S. 83 (2021)
• Sims v. Apfel · 530 U.S. 103 (2000)
• Correctional Services Corp. v. Malesko · 534 U.S. 61 (2001)
• Shalala v. Illinois Council on Long Term Care, Inc. · 529 U.S. 1 (2000)
• Lonchar v. Thomas · 517 U.S. 314 (1996)
• Santos-Zacaria v. Garland · 598 U.S. 411 (2023)
• United States v. Williams · 514 U.S. 527 (1995)
• Williams v. Reed · 604 U.S. 168 (2025)

Official text

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

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1992). 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).