(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2005 1
Syllabus
NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is
being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
HARTMAN ET AL. v. MOORE
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
No. 04–1495. Argued January 10, 2006—Decided April 26, 2006
Seeking to convince the United States Postal Service to incorporate
multiline optical scanning technology, a company (REI), which manu
factured multiline optical readers, commenced an extensive lobbying
and public-relations campaign. In the end, the Postal Service be
grudgingly embraced the multiline technology, but awarded the lu
crative equipment contract to a competing firm. Subsequently,
Postal Service inspectors investigated REI and its chief executive, re
spondent Moore, for their alleged involvement in a consulting-firm
kickback scandal and for their alleged improper role in the search for
a new Postmaster General. Urged at least in part by the inspectors
to bring criminal charges, a federal prosecutor tried REI and its top
officials. But, finding a complete lack of evidence connecting them to
any wrongdoing, the District Court acquitted the defendants. Moore
then filed an action under Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics
Agents, 403 U. S. 388, against the federal prosecutor and petitioner
postal inspectors, arguing, as relevant here, that they had engineered
the prosecution in retaliation for his lobbying efforts. The claims
against the prosecutor were dismissed in accordance with the abso
lute immunity for prosecutorial judgment. Ultimately, the entire suit
was dismissed, but the Court of Appeals reinstated the retaliatory-
prosecution claim against the inspectors. Back in District Court, the
inspectors moved for summary judgment, claiming that because the
underlying criminal charges were supported by probable cause they
were entitled to qualified immunity. The District Court denied the
motion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
Held: A plaintiff in a retaliatory-prosecution action must plead and
show the absence of probable cause for pressing the underlying
criminal charges. Pp. 5–15.
2 HARTMAN v. MOORE
Syllabus
(a) As a general matter, this Court has held that the First Amend
ment prohibits government officials from subjecting an individual to
retaliatory actions, including criminal prosecutions, for speaking out.
Crawford-El v. Britton, 523 U. S. 574, 592. When nonretaliatory
grounds are insufficient to provoke the adverse consequences, retalia
tion is subject to recovery as the but-for cause of official injurious ac
tion offending the Constitution, see, e.g., id., at 593, and a vengeful
federal officer is subject to damages under Bivens. Pp. 5–6.
(b) Although a Bivens (or 42 U. S. C. §1983) plaintiff must show a
causal connection between a defendant’s retaliatory animus and sub
sequent injury in any retaliation action, the need to demonstrate
causation in the retaliatory-prosecution context presents an addi
tional difficulty which can be overcome by a showing of the absence of
probable cause. In an ordinary retaliation case, the evidence of mo
tive and injury are sufficient for a circumstantial demonstration that
the one caused the other, and the causation is understood to be but-
for causation, without which the adverse action would not have been
taken. When the claimed retaliation is, however, a criminal charge,
the action will differ in two ways. First, evidence showing whether
there was probable cause for the criminal charge will be highly valu
able circumstantial evidence to prove or disprove retaliatory causa
tion. Demonstrating a lack of probable cause will tend to reinforce
the retaliation evidence and show that retaliation was the but-for ba
sis for instigating the prosecution, while establishing the existence of
probable cause will suggest that the prosecution would have occurred
even without a retaliatory motive. Second, since the defendant in a
retaliatory-prosecution case will not be the prosecutor, who has im
munity, but an official who allegedly influenced the prosecutorial de
cision, the causal connection required is not between the retaliatory
animus of one person and that person’s own injurious action, as it is
in the ordinary retaliation case, but between the retaliatory animus
of one person and the adverse action of another. Because evidence of
an inspector’s animus does not necessarily show that the inspector
induced the prosecutor to act when he would not have pressed
charges otherwise and because of the longstanding presumption of
regularity accorded prosecutorial decisionmaking, a showing of the
absence of probable cause is needed to bridge the gap between the
nonprosecuting government agent’s retaliatory motive and the prose
cutor’s injurious action and to rebut the presumption. Pp. 6–13.
(c) The significance of probable cause or the lack of it looms large,
being a potential feature of every case, with obvious evidentiary
value. Though not necessarily dispositive, the absence of probable
cause along with a retaliatory motive on the part of the official urging
prosecution are reasonable grounds to suspend the presumption of
Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 3
Syllabus
regularity behind the charging decision and enough for a prima facie
inference that the unconstitutionally motivated inducement infected
the prosecutor’s decision to go forward. Pp. 13–15.
388 F. 3d 871, reversed and remanded.
SOUTER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which STEVENS,
SCALIA, KENNEDY, and THOMAS, JJ., joined. GINSBURG, J., filed a dis
senting opinion, in which BREYER, J., joined. ROBERTS, C. J., and ALITO,
J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 1
Opinion of the Court
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 04–1495
_________________
MICHAEL HARTMAN, FRANK KORMANN, PIERCE
MCINTOSH, NORMAN ROBBINS, AND ROBERT
EDWARDS, PETITIONERS v. WILLIAM G.
MOORE, JR.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
[April 26, 2006]
JUSTICE SOUTER delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a Bivens action against criminal investigators for
inducing prosecution in retaliation for speech. The ques
tion is whether the complaint states an actionable viola
tion of the First Amendment without alleging an absence
of probable cause to support the underlying criminal
charge. We hold that want of probable cause must be
alleged and proven.
I
In the 1980’s, respondent William G. Moore, Jr., was the
chief executive of Recognition Equipment Inc. (REI), which
manufactured a multiline optical character reader for
interpreting multiple lines of text. Although REI had
received some $50 million from the United States Postal
Service to develop this technology for reading and sorting
mail, the Postmaster General and other top officials of the
Postal Service were urging mailers to use nine-digit zip
codes (Zip + 4), which would provide enough routing in
formation on one line of text to allow single-line scanning
2 HARTMAN v. MOORE
Opinion of the Court
machines to sort mail automatically by reading just that
line.
Besides Moore, who obviously stood to gain financially
from the adoption of multiline technology, some Members
of Congress and Government research officers had reser
vations about the Postal Service’s Zip + 4 policy and its
intended reliance on single-line readers. Critics maligned
single-line scanning technology, objected to the foreign
sources of single-line scanners, decried the burden of
remembering the four extra numbers,1 and echoed the
conclusion reached by the United States Office of Technol
ogy Assessment, that use of the single-line scanners in
preference to multiliners would cost the Postal Service $1
million a day in operational losses.
Moore built on this opposition to Zip + 4, by lobbying
Members of Congress, testifying before congressional
committees, and supporting a “Buy American” rider to the
Postal Service’s 1985 appropriations bill. Notwithstand
ing alleged requests by the Postmaster General to be
quiet, REI followed its agenda by hiring a public-relations
firm, Gnau and Associates, Inc. (GAI), which one of the
Postal Service’s governors, Peter Voss, had recommended.
The campaign succeeded, and in July 1985 the Postal
Service made what it called a “mid-course correction” and
embraced multiline technology. Brief for Respondent 4.
But the change of heart did not extend to Moore and REI,
for the Service’s ensuing order of multiline equipment,
valued somewhere between $250 million and $400 million
went to a competing firm.
Not only did REI lose out on the contract, but Moore and
REI were soon entangled in two investigations by Postal
——————
1 See,
e.g., Seaberry, Durenberger Begins Campaign Against Nine-
Digit Zip Code, Washington Post, Feb. 24, 1981, p. E4 (describing
Senator David Durenberger’s reference to the Zip + 4 campaign as “ ‘a
mnemonic plague of contagious digititous’ ”).
Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 3
Opinion of the Court
Service inspectors. The first looked into the purported
payment of kickbacks by GAI to Governor Voss for Voss’s
recommendations of GAI’s services, as in the case of REI;
the second sought to document REI’s possibly improper
role in the search for a new Postmaster General. Notwith
standing very limited evidence linking Moore and REI to
any wrongdoing, an Assistant United States Attorney
decided to bring criminal charges against them, and in
1988 the grand jury indicted Moore, REI, and REI’s vice
president. At the close of the Government’s case, after six
weeks of trial, however, the District Court concluded that
there was a “complete lack of direct evidence” connecting
the defendants to any of the criminal wrongdoing alleged,
and it granted the REI defendants’ motion for judgment of
acquittal. United States v. Recognition Equip. Inc., 725
F. Supp. 587, 596 (DC 1989).
Moore then brought an action in the Northern District
of Texas for civil liability under Bivens v. Six Unknown
Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S. 388 (1971),2 against the
prosecutor and the five postal inspectors who are petition
ers here (a sixth having died). His complaint raised five
causes of action, only one of which is relevant here, the
claim that the prosecutor and the inspectors had engi
neered his criminal prosecution in retaliation for criticism
of the Postal Service, thus violating the First Amendment.
In the course of these proceedings Moore has argued,
——————
2 “Bivens established that the victims of a constitutional violation by a
federal agent have a right to recover damages against the official in
federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a
right.” Carlson v. Green, 446 U. S. 14, 18 (1980). Though more limited in
some respects not relevant here, a Bivens action is the federal analog to
suits brought against state officials under Rev. Stat. §1979, 42 U. S. C.
§1983. See Wilson v. Layne, 526 U. S. 603, 609 (1999); see also Waxman
& Morrison, What Kind of Immunity? Federal Officers, State Criminal
Law, and the Supremacy Clause, 112 Yale L. J. 2195, 2208 (2003) (“Sec
tion 1983 applies . . . to state and local officers, [and] the Supreme Court
in Bivens . . . inferred a parallel damages action against federal officers”).
4 HARTMAN v. MOORE
Opinion of the Court
among other things, that the postal inspectors launched a
criminal investigation against him well before they had
any inkling of either of the two schemes mentioned above,
that the inspectors targeted him for his lobbying activities,
and that they pressured the United States Attorney’s
Office to have him indicted. Moore also sought recovery
from the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act
(FTCA). The District Court dismissed the claims against
the Assistant United States Attorney in accordance with
the absolute immunity for prosecutorial judgment, and
rejected an abuse-of-process claim against the inspectors.
Moore v. Valder, Civil Action No. 3:91–CV–2491–G (ND
Tex., Sept. 21, 1992).3
The claims remaining were transferred to the District
Court for the District of Columbia, where Moore’s suit was
dismissed in its entirety, Civ. Nos. 92–2288 (NHJ), 93–
0324 (NHJ), 1993 WL 405785 (Sept. 24, 1993), only to
have the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit reinstate the retaliatory-prosecution claim. Moore
v. Valder, 65 F. 3d 189 (1995). The District Court then
permitted limited discovery on that matter so far as the
inspectors were involved, but again dismissed the remain
ing charges against the United States and the prosecutor.
Moore v. Valder, Civil Action No. 92–2288 (NHJ) et al.,
Record, Tab No. 32 (Memorandum Opinion, Feb. 5, 1998).
Although Moore succeeded in having the District of Co
lumbia Circuit reinstate his FTCA claim against the
United States, the dismissal of his claims against the
prosecutor was affirmed. Moore v. United States, 213
F. 3d 705 (2000).
With the remainder of the case back in District Court,
the inspectors moved for summary judgment, urging that
because the underlying criminal charges were supported
——————
3 Moore and his wife had originally filed this complaint jointly. Her
claims were dismissed for lack of standing.
Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 5
Opinion of the Court
by probable cause they were entitled to qualified immu
nity from a retaliatory-prosecution suit. The District
Court denied the motion, and the Court of Appeals af
firmed. 388 F. 3d 871 (2004).
The Courts of Appeals have divided on the issue of
requiring evidence of a lack of probable cause in 42
U. S. C. §1983 and Bivens retaliatory-prosecution suits.
Some Circuits burden plaintiffs with the obligation to
show its absence. See, e.g., Wood v. Kesler, 323 F. 3d 872,
883 (CA11 2003); Keenan v. Tejeda, 290 F. 3d 252, 260
(CA5 2002); Mozzochi v. Borden, 959 F. 2d 1174, 1179–
1180 (CA2 1992). Others, including the District of Colum
bia Circuit, impose no such requirement. See, e.g., Poole v.
County of Otero, 271 F. 3d 955, 961 (CA10 2001);
Haynesworth v. Miller, 820 F. 2d 1245, 1256–1257 (CADC
1987). We granted certiorari, 545 U. S. ___ (2005), to
resolve the Circuit split and now reverse.
II
Official reprisal for protected speech “offends the Consti
tution [because] it threatens to inhibit exercise of the
protected right,” Crawford-El v. Britton, 523 U. S. 574,
588, n. 10 (1998), and the law is settled that as a general
matter the First Amendment prohibits government offi
cials from subjecting an individual to retaliatory actions,
including criminal prosecutions, for speaking out, id., at
592; see also Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U. S. 593, 597
(1972) (noting that the government may not punish a
person or deprive him of a benefit on the basis of his “con
stitutionally protected speech”). Some official actions
adverse to such a speaker might well be unexceptionable if
taken on other grounds, but when nonretaliatory grounds
are in fact insufficient to provoke the adverse conse
quences, we have held that retaliation is subject to recov
ery as the but-for cause of official action offending the
Constitution. See Crawford-El, supra, at 593; Mt. Healthy
6 HARTMAN v. MOORE
Opinion of the Court
City Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle, 429 U. S. 274, 283–284 (1977)
(adverse action against government employee cannot be
taken if it is in response to the employee’s “exercise of
constitutionally protected First Amendment freedoms”).
When the vengeful officer is federal, he is subject to an
action for damages on the authority of Bivens. See 403
U. S., at 397.
III
Despite a procedural history portending another
Jarndyce v. Jarndyce,4 the issue before us is straightfor
ward: whether a plaintiff in a retaliatory-prosecution
action must plead and show the absence of probable cause
for pressing the underlying criminal charges.5
A
The inspectors argue on two fronts that absence of
——————
4 See
2 C. Dickens, Bleak House 85 (1853).
5 Moorecontends that we (like the Court of Appeals before us) exceed
our appellate jurisdiction when we address the issue of probable cause,
see Brief for Respondent 37–39, but his argument is mistaken. It is
true that the disagreement over a no-probable-cause requirement arose
on the inspectors’ motion for summary judgment on their qualified-
immunity defense; Moore stresses that an interlocutory appeal can be
taken from the rejection of qualified immunity at the summary-
judgment stage only on questions turning on the definition of the
violation, not on the sufficiency of the evidence to show that a defen
dant is in fact entitled to the immunity claimed. See Mitchell v. For
syth, 472 U. S. 511, 528 (1985). Moore says that the issue of probable
cause or its absence is simply an evidentiary matter going to entitle
ment in fact. But the inspectors are making more than a claim about
the evidence in this case: they are arguing that we should hold that a
showing of no probable cause is an element of the kind of claim Moore
is making against them. In agreeing with the inspectors, we are
addressing a requirement of causation, which Moore must plead and
prove in order to win, and our holding does not go beyond a definition of
an element of the tort, directly implicated by the defense of qualified
immunity and properly before us on interlocutory appeal. See ibid.; see
also Crawford-El v. Britton, 523 U. S. 574, 588, 592–593 (1998); Mt.
Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle, 429 U. S. 274, 285–286 (1977).
Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 7
Opinion of the Court
probable cause should be an essential element. Without
such a requirement, they first say, the Bivens claim is too
readily available. A plaintiff can afflict a public officer
with disruption and expense by alleging nothing more, in
practical terms, than action with a retaliatory animus, a
subjective condition too easy to claim and too hard to
defend against. Brief for Petitioners 21–23; see also Na
tional Archives and Records Admin. v. Favish, 541 U. S.
157, 175 (2004) (allegations of government misconduct are
“‘easy to allege and hard to disprove’ ”). In the inspectors’
view, some “objective” burden must be imposed on these
plaintiffs, simply to filter out the frivolous. The second
argument complements the first, for the inspectors believe
that the traditional tort of malicious prosecution tells us
what the objective requirement should be. Brief for Peti
tioners 24–29. In an action for malicious prosecution after
an acquittal, a plaintiff must show that the criminal action
was begun without probable cause for charging the crime
in the first place; the inspectors see retaliatory prosecution
under Bivens as a close cousin of malicious prosecution
under common law, making the latter’s no-probable-cause
requirement a natural feature of the constitutional tort.
See Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U. S. 477, 483–485, and 484,
n. 4 (1994).
B
In fact, we think there is a fair argument for what the
inspectors call an “objective” fact requirement in this type
of case, but the nub of that argument differs from the two
they set out, which we will deal with only briefly. As for
the invitation to rely on common-law parallels, we cer
tainly are ready to look at the elements of common-law
torts when we think about elements of actions for consti
tutional violations, see Carey v. Piphus, 435 U. S. 247, 258
(1978), but the common law is best understood here more
as a source of inspired examples than of prefabricated
8 HARTMAN v. MOORE
Opinion of the Court
components of Bivens torts. See, e.g., Albright v. Oliver,
510 U. S. 266, 277, n. 1 (1994) (GINSBURG, J., concurring);
Bivens, supra, at 394; cf. Baker v. McCollan, 443 U. S. 137,
146 (1979). And in this instance we could debate whether
the closer common-law analog to retaliatory prosecution is
malicious prosecution (with its no-probable-cause element)
or abuse of process (without it). Compare Heck, 512 U. S.,
at 483–485, and 484, n. 4 with id., at 493–496 (SOUTER, J.,
concurring in judgment).
Nor is there much leverage in the fear that without a
filter to screen out claims federal prosecutors and federal
courts will be unduly put upon by the volume of litigation.
The basic concern is fair enough, but the slate is not
blank. Over the past 25 years fewer than two dozen dam
ages actions for retaliatory prosecution under Bivens or
§1983 have come squarely before the Federal Courts of
Appeals, and there is no disproportion of those cases in
Circuits that do not require showing an absence of prob
able cause.6
C
It is, instead, the need to prove a chain of causation
from animus to injury, with details specific to retaliatory-
prosecution cases, that provides the strongest justification
for the no-probable-cause requirement espoused by the
inspectors. Although a Bivens (or §1983) plaintiff must
show a causal connection between a defendant’s retalia
tory animus and subsequent injury in any sort of retalia
tion action, see Crawford-El, 523 U. S., at 593; Mt.
——————
6 In
fact, many of the appellate challenges have been brought in the
Second, Fifth, and Eleventh Circuits, all of which require plaintiffs to
show an absence of probable cause. See, e.g., Izen v. Catalina, 398
F. 3d 363 (CA5 2005) (per curiam); Wood v. Kesler, 323 F. 3d 872 (CA11
2003); Keenan v. Tejeda, 290 F. 3d 252 (CA5 2002); Singer v. Fulton
County Sheriff, 63 F. 3d 110 (CA2 1995); Post v. Fort Lauderdale, 7
F. 3d 1552 (CA11 1993); Mozzochi v. Borden, 959 F. 2d 1174 (CA2
1992); Magnotti v. Kuntz, 918 F. 2d 364 (CA2 1990).
Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 9
Opinion of the Court
Healthy, 429 U. S., at 285–287, the need to demonstrate
causation in the retaliatory-prosecution context presents
an additional difficulty that can be understood by compar
ing the requisite causation in ordinary retaliation claims,
where the government agent allegedly harboring the
animus is also the individual allegedly taking the adverse
action, with causation in a case like this one.
Take the example of a public employee’s claim that he
was fired for speech criticizing the government. See, e.g.,
Pickering v. Board of Ed. of Township High School Dist.
205, Will Cty., 391 U. S. 563, 566–567 (1968) (allegation
that a school board dismissed a teacher for writing a
public letter critical of the board’s financial administra
tion). While the employee plaintiff obviously must plead
and prove adverse official action in retaliation for making
the statements, our discussions of the elements of the
constitutional tort do not specify any necessary details
about proof of a connection between the retaliatory animus
and the discharge, which will depend on the circum
stances. Cf. Crawford-El, supra, at 593 (“[A]t least with
certain types of claims, proof of an improper motive is not
sufficient to establish a constitutional violation—there
must also be evidence of causation”). The cases have
simply taken the evidence of the motive and the discharge
as sufficient for a circumstantial demonstration that the
one caused the other. See, e.g., Mt. Healthy, supra, at 287;
see also Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Devel
opment Corp., 429 U. S. 252, 270, n. 21 (1977). It is clear,
moreover, that the causation is understood to be but-for
causation, without which the adverse action would not
have been taken; we say that upon a prima facie showing
of retaliatory harm, the burden shifts to the defendant
official to demonstrate that even without the impetus to
retaliate he would have taken the action complained of
(such as firing the employee). See Mt. Healthy, 429 U. S.,
at 287. If there is a finding that retaliation was not the
10 HARTMAN v. MOORE
Opinion of the Court
but-for cause of the discharge, the claim fails for lack of
causal connection between unconstitutional motive and
resulting harm, despite proof of some retaliatory animus
in the official’s mind. See ibid. It may be dishonorable to
act with an unconstitutional motive and perhaps in some
instances be unlawful, but action colored by some degree
of bad motive does not amount to a constitutional tort if
that action would have been taken anyway. See Craw
ford-El, supra, at 593; Mt. Healthy, supra, at 285–286.
When the claimed retaliation for protected conduct is a
criminal charge, however, a constitutional tort action will
differ from this standard case in two ways. Like any other
plaintiff charging official retaliatory action, the plaintiff in
a retaliatory-prosecution claim must prove the elements of
retaliatory animus as the cause of injury, and the defen
dant will have the same opportunity to respond to a prima
facie case by showing that the action would have been
taken anyway, independently of any retaliatory animus.
What is different about a prosecution case, however, is
that there will always be a distinct body of highly valuable
circumstantial evidence available and apt to prove or
disprove retaliatory causation, namely evidence showing
whether there was or was not probable cause to bring the
criminal charge. Demonstrating that there was no prob
able cause for the underlying criminal charge will tend to
reinforce the retaliation evidence and show that retalia
tion was the but-for basis for instigating the prosecution,
while establishing the existence of probable cause will
suggest that prosecution would have occurred even with
out a retaliatory motive. This alone does not mean, of
course, that a Bivens or §1983 plaintiff should be required
to plead and prove no probable cause, but it does mean
that litigating probable cause will be highly likely in any
retaliatory-prosecution case, owing to its powerful eviden
Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 11
Opinion of the Court
tiary significance.7
The second respect in which a retaliatory-prosecution
case is different also goes to the causation that a Bivens
plaintiff must prove; the difference is that the requisite
causation between the defendant’s retaliatory animus and
the plaintiff’s injury is usually more complex than it is in
other retaliation cases, and the need to show this more
complex connection supports a requirement that no prob
able cause be alleged and proven. A Bivens (or §1983)
action for retaliatory prosecution will not be brought
against the prosecutor, who is absolutely immune from
liability for the decision to prosecute, Imbler v. Pachtman,
424 U. S. 409, 431 (1976).8 Instead, the defendant will be a
non-prosecutor, an official, like an inspector here, who
may have influenced the prosecutorial decision but did not
himself make it, and the cause of action will not be strictly
for retaliatory prosecution, but for successful retaliatory
——————
7 Indeed, even though the Court of Appeals in this case held that
plaintiffs do not have to show an absence of probable cause in order to
make retaliatory-prosecution claims, it nevertheless acknowledged
probable cause’s significance in such suits. See 388 F. 3d 871, 881
(CADC 2004) (“Given that probable cause ordinarily suffices to initiate
a prosecution, that showing will be enough in most cases to establish
that prosecution would have occurred absent bad intent. A Bivens
recovery remains possible, however, in those rare cases where strong
motive evidence combines with weak probable cause to support a
finding that the prosecution would not have occurred but for the offi
cials’ retaliatory animus”).
8 An action could still be brought against a prosecutor for conduct
taken in an investigatory capacity, to which absolute immunity does
not extend. See Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 509 U. S. 259, 274–276 (1993)
(no absolute immunity when prosecutor acts in administrative capacity);
Burns v. Reed, 500 U. S. 478, 492–495 (1991) (absolute immunity does not
attach when a prosecutor offers legal advice to the police regarding
interrogation practices). In fact, Moore’s complaint charged the prosecu
tor with acting in an investigative as well as in a prosecutorial capacity,
see App. 45, but dismissal of the complaint as against the prosecutor was
affirmed in 213 F. 3d 705, 710 (CADC 2000), and no claim against him is
before us now.
12 HARTMAN v. MOORE
Opinion of the Court
inducement to prosecute.9 The consequence is that a
plaintiff like Moore must show that the nonprosecuting
official acted in retaliation, and must also show that he
induced the prosecutor to bring charges that would not
have been initiated without his urging.
Thus, the causal connection required here is not merely
between the retaliatory animus of one person and that
person’s own injurious action, but between the retaliatory
animus of one person and the action of another. See 213
F. 3d, at 710 (“In order to find that a defendant procured a
prosecution, the plaintiff must establish ‘a chain of causa
tion’ linking the defendant’s actions with the initiation of
criminal proceedings”); see also Barts v. Joyner, 865 F. 2d
1187, 1195 (CA11 1989) (plaintiff seeking damages inci
dent to her criminal prosecution would have to show that
the police, who allegedly acted in violation of law in secur
ing her arrest, unduly pressured or deceived prosecutors);
Dellums v. Powell, 566 F. 2d 167, 192–193 (CADC 1977)
(where allegation of misconduct is directed at police, a
malicious-prosecution claim cannot stand if the decision
made by the prosecutor to bring criminal charges was
independent of any pressure exerted by police); cf. Smiddy
v. Varney, 665 F. 2d 261, 267 (CA9 1981) (“[W]here police
officers do not act maliciously or with reckless disregard
for the rights of an arrested person, they are not liable for
damages suffered by the arrested person after a district
attorney files charges unless the presumption of inde
pendent judgment by the district attorney is rebutted”).
Herein lies the distinct problem of causation in cases
like this one. Evidence of an inspector’s animus does not
——————
9 No one here claims that simply conducting a retaliatory investiga
tion with a view to promote a prosecution is a constitutional tort. That
is not part of Moore’s complaint. See App. 33–34, 38–45. Whether the
expense or other adverse consequences of a retaliatory investigation
would ever justify recognizing such an investigation as a distinct
constitutional violation is not before us.
Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 13
Opinion of the Court
necessarily show that the inspector induced the action of a
prosecutor who would not have pressed charges otherwise.
Moreover, to the factual difficulty of divining the influence
of an investigator or other law enforcement officer upon
the prosecutor’s mind, there is an added legal obstacle in
the longstanding presumption of regularity accorded to
prosecutorial decisionmaking. See Reno v. American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Comm., 525 U. S. 471, 489–490 (1999);
United States v. Armstrong, 517 U. S. 456, 464–466 (1996).
And this presumption that a prosecutor has legitimate
grounds for the action he takes is one we do not lightly
discard, given our position that judicial intrusion into execu
tive discretion of such high order should be minimal, see
Wayte v. United States, 470 U. S. 598, 607–608 (1985).
Some sort of allegation, then, is needed both to bridge
the gap between the nonprosecuting government agent’s
motive and the prosecutor’s action, and to address the
presumption of prosecutorial regularity. And at the trial
stage, some evidence must link the allegedly retaliatory
official to a prosecutor whose action has injured the plain
tiff. The connection, to be alleged and shown, is the ab
sence of probable cause.
It would be open to us, of course, to give no special
prominence to an absence of probable cause in bridging
the causal gap, and to address this distinct causation
concern at a merely general level, leaving it to such plead
ing and proof as the circumstances allow. A prosecutor’s
disclosure of retaliatory thinking on his part, for example,
would be of great significance in addressing the presump
tion and closing the gap. So would evidence that a prose
cutor was nothing but a rubber stamp for his investigative
staff or the police. Cf. Mt. Healthy, 429 U. S., at 281–283.
(evidence that the board of education, which formally
decided not to rehire a teacher, was only nominally dis
tinct from the school superintendent, who allegedly bore
the retaliatory animus). In fact, though, these examples
14 HARTMAN v. MOORE
Opinion of the Court
are likely to be rare and consequently poor guides in struc
turing a cause of action. In most cases, for instance, it
would be unrealistic to expect a prosecutor to reveal his
mind even to the degree that this record discloses, with its
reported statement by the prosecutor that he was not
galvanized by the merits of the case, but sought the in
dictment against Moore because he wanted to attract the
interest of a law firm looking for a tough trial lawyer.10
Accordingly, the significance of probable cause or the
lack of it looms large, being a potential feature of every
case, with obvious evidentiary value. True, it is not neces
sarily dispositive: showing an absence of probable cause
may not be conclusive that the inducement succeeded, and
showing its presence does not guarantee that inducement
was not the but-for fact in a prosecutor’s decision. But a
retaliatory motive on the part of an official urging prose
cution combined with an absence of probable cause sup
porting the prosecutor’s decision to go forward are reason
able grounds to suspend the presumption of regularity
behind the charging decision, see Bordenkircher v. Hayes,
434 U. S. 357, 364 (1978) (emphasizing that “so long as the
prosecutor has probable cause,” the charging decision is
——————
10 Some may suggest that we should structure a cause of action in the
alternative, dispensing with a requirement to show no probable cause
when a plaintiff has evidence of a direct admission by a prosecutor that,
irrespective of probable cause, the prosecutor’s sole purpose in initiat
ing a criminal prosecution was to acquiesce to the inducements of other
government agents, who themselves harbored retaliatory animus. Cf.
United States v. Armstrong, 517 U. S. 456, 469, n. 3 (1996) (leaving
open the question “whether a [criminal] defendant must satisfy the
similarly situated requirement in a case ‘involving direct admissions by
[prosecutors] of discriminatory purpose’ ” (brackets in original)). But
this would seem a little like proposing that retirement plans include
the possibility of winning the lottery. Unambiguous admissions of
successful inducement are likely to be rare, and hassles over the
adequacy of admissions will be the predictable result, if any exemption
to a no-probable-cause requirement is allowed.
Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 15
Opinion of the Court
generally discretionary), and enough for a prima facie
inference that the unconstitutionally motivated induce
ment infected the prosecutor’s decision to bring the
charge.
Our sense is that the very significance of probable cause
means that a requirement to plead and prove its absence
will usually be cost free by any incremental reckoning.
The issue is so likely to be raised by some party at some
point that treating it as important enough to be an ele
ment will be a way to address the issue of causation with
out adding to time or expense. See n. 7, supra. In this
case, for example, Moore cannot succeed in the retaliation
claim without showing that the Assistant United States
Attorney was worse than just an unabashed careerist, and
if he can show that the prosecutor had no probable cause,
the claim of retaliation will have some vitality.
In sum, the complexity of causation in a claim that
prosecution was induced by an official bent on retaliation
should be addressed specifically in defining the elements
of the tort. Probable cause or its absence will be at least
an evidentiary issue in practically all such cases. Because
showing an absence of probable cause will have high
probative force, and can be made mandatory with little or
no added cost, it makes sense to require such a showing as
an element of a plaintiff’s case, and we hold that it must
be pleaded and proven.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and
the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent
with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
THE CHIEF JUSTICE and JUSTICE ALITO took no part in
the consideration or decision of this case.
Cite as: 547 U. S. ____ (2006) 1
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 04–1495
_________________
MICHAEL HARTMAN, FRANK KORMANN, PIERCE
MCINTOSH, NORMAN ROBBINS, AND ROBERT
EDWARDS, PETITIONERS v. WILLIAM G.
MOORE, JR.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
[April 26, 2006]
JUSTICE GINSBURG, with whom JUSTICE BREYER joins,
dissenting.
The Court of Appeals, reviewing the record so far made,
determined that “[t]he evidence of retaliatory motive
[came] close to the proverbial smoking gun.” 388 F. 3d
871, 884 (CADC 2004). The record also indicated that the
postal inspectors engaged in “unusual prodding,” strenu
ously urging a reluctant U. S. Attorney’s Office to press
charges against Moore. Ibid. Following Circuit precedent,
the Court of Appeals held that “once a plaintiff shows
[conduct sheltered by the First Amendment] to have been
a motivating factor in the decision to press charges,” the
burden shifts to the defending officials to show that the
case would have been pursued anyway. Id., at 878.
Recognizing that this case is now directed against the
instigating postal inspectors alone, not the prosecutor, I
would not assign to the plaintiff the burden of pleading
and proving the absence of probable cause for the prosecu
tion. Instead, in agreement with the Court of Appeals, I
would assign to the postal inspectors who urged the prose
cution the burden of showing that, had there been no
retaliatory motive and importuning, the U. S. Attorney’s
Office nonetheless would have pursued the case.
2 HARTMAN v. MOORE
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
Under the Court’s proof burden allocation, which sad
dles plaintiff–the alleged victim–with the burden to
plead and prove lack of probable cause, only entirely “base
less prosecutions” would be checked. Id., at 879. So long
as the retaliators present evidence barely sufficient to
establish probable cause and persuade a prosecutor to act
on their thin information, they could accomplish their
mission cost free. Their victim, on the other hand, would
incur not only the costs entailed in mounting a defense, he
likely would sustain a reputational loss as well, and nei
ther loss would be compensable under federal law. Under
the D. C. Circuit’s more speech-protective formulation, “[a]
Bivens [v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S.
388 (1971),] recovery remains possible . . . in those rare
cases where strong motive evidence combines with weak
probable cause to support a finding that the [investigation
and ensuing] prosecution would not have occurred but for
the [defending] officials’ retaliatory animus.” Id., at 881.
That such situations “are likely to be rare,” it seems to me,
does not warrant “structuring a cause of action,” ante, at
14, that precludes relief when they do arise.
For reasons fully developed in the D. C. Circuit’s opin
ion, I conclude that, in full accord with this Court’s deci
sion in Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle, 429 U. S. 274,
287 (1977), the Court of Appeals’ decision strikes the
proper balance. I would, therefore, affirm the Circuit’s
judgment.