Lynne Kalina v. Rodney Fletcher
Decided December 10, 1997. John Paul Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court.
Docket 96-792 · 522 U.S. 118 (1997) · Cited 1,173 times
Holding
Section 1983 may create a damages remedy against a prosecutor for making false statements of fact in an affidavit supporting an application for an arrest warrant, since such conduct is not protected by the doctrine of absolute prosecutorial immunity.
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.
Majority · 7
- John Paul Stevens · delivered the opinion of the Court
- Anthony McLeod Kennedy
- David Hackett Souter
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Sandra Day O'Connor
- Stephen Gerald Breyer
- William Hubbs Rehnquist
Concurring · 2
- Antonin Scalia · filed a concurring opinion
- Clarence Thomas
“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)
- Buckley v. Fitzsimmons · 509 U.S. 259 (1993)
- Burns v. Reed · 500 U.S. 478 (1991)
- Briscoe v. LaHue · 460 U.S. 325 (1983)
- Bradley v. Fisher · 80 U.S. 335 (1872)
- Coolidge v. New Hampshire · 403 U.S. 443 (1971)
- Mitchell v. Forsyth · 472 U.S. 511 (1985)
- Gerstein v. Pugh · 420 U.S. 103 (1975)
- Forrester v. White · 484 U.S. 219 (1988)
- Tenney v. Brandhove · 341 U.S. 367 (1951)
- Ex Parte Virginia · 100 U.S. 339 (1880)
Cited by
Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.
- Rehberg v. Paulk · 566 U.S. 356 (2012)
- Van de Kamp v. Goldstein · 555 U.S. 335 (2009)
- Ziglar v. Abbasi · 582 U.S. 120 (2017)
- Nieves v. Bartlett · 587 U.S. 391 (2019)
- Kaley v. United States · 571 U.S. 320 (2014)
- City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd. · 526 U.S. 687 (1999)
- Gonzalez v. Trevino · 602 U.S. 653 (2024)
Official text
Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)
Explore from here
John Paul Stevens’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court
Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1997). 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).