Public Administrators' Official Immunity and the Supreme Court

T he decade of the 1970s witnessed many changes in public administration in the United States. At the forefront of these have been the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the emergence of Proposition 13 style taxpayer protests in the wake of public sector labor strife and depleted governmental resources, the rise of affirmative action, and the decline of the citizen participation movement. Consistent with the past, the core values of representatives, executive leadership, and neutral competence' continued to play a major role in American public administration. Toward the end of the decade, the latter two values and their accompanying concerns with accountability, responsibility, efficiency, and economy were particularly central to public administrative debate.2 Although less well-known, the 1970s also witnessed a number of Supreme Court decisions of fundamental importance to public administration in the United States. Some of these, including decisions dealing with the rights of public employees and federalism, have been analyzed elsewhere,3 but others of equal or even greater potential importance, such as those involving the immunity of administrative officials have been largely ignored. Broadly stated, the doctrine of official immunity renders government officials . . immune from liability for their actions ... even though their conduct, if performed in other ... contexts, would in itself be unconstitutional or otherwise contrary to criminal or civil statute.4 This article will analyze the content of Supreme Court decisions affecting public administrators' immunity and explain their importance for the contemporary administrative state

First amendment · Political science · Qualified immunity · Supreme court · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Law, Rights, and Freedoms · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Public Administration

• Conceptualizing and Measuring the Rule of Law in Public Administration—Regulations, Organization, and Decision-Making

  Open Access•Tianhao Chen, Weirui Wei et al.•The American Review of Public…•2026

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• Open and Closed Systems of Decision Making

  Robert M O’brien, Michael Clarke et al.•Public Administration Review•1984

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• The Judicial Response to the Presidential Polarization of the Administrative State

  Open Access•Robert Roberts•The American Review of Public…•2018

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• The Supreme Court on Governmental Liability

  Open Access•Peter Jonathan Cooper, Phillip J Cooper•Administration & Society•1984

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• Leadership Failures, the Distrusting Public, and Prospects of the Administrative State

  Terence R Mitchell, William G Scott•Public Administration Review•1987

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• The Judicial Theory of a Reasonable Public Servant

  Open Access•Yong S Lee•Public Administration Review•2004

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• Suits against Federal Employees for Constitutional Violations

  Charles R Wise•Public Administration Review•1985

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• The Dilemma of Accountability

  Open Access•Sanford Kravitz•Journal of Voluntary Action…•1973

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• The Ruling Servants

  H R G Greaves, Hilary Greaves et al.•Economica•1961

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• Civil Service Reform

  Alan K Campbell•Public Administration Review•1978

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• Public Personnel Administration and the Constitution

  David H Rosenbloom•Public Administration Review•1975

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• Emerging Conflicts in the Doctrines of Public Administration

  Open Access•Herbert Kaufman•American Political Science Review•1956

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