Cite as: 504 U. S. 158 (1992)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
immunity claims. Harlow, supra, at 818. Thus, private defendants who have invoked a state attachment law are put in the same position whether we recognize that they are entitled to qualified immunity or if we instead recognize a good-faith defense. Perhaps the Court believes that the "defense" will be less amenable to summary disposition than will the "immunity"; perhaps it believes the defense will be an issue that must be submitted to the jury, see ante, at 168 (referring to cases such as this "proceed[ing] to trial"). While I can see no reason why this would be so (given that probable cause is a legal question), if it is true, today's decision will only manage to increase litigation costs needlessly for hapless defendants.
This, in turn, leads to the second basis on which we have previously recognized a qualified immunity—reasons of public policy. Assuming that some practical difference will result from recognizing a defense but not an immunity, I think such a step is neither dictated by our prior decisions nor desirable. It is true, as the Court points out, that in abandoning a strictly historical approach to § 1983 immunities we have often explained our decision to recognize an immunity in terms of the special needs of public officials. But those cases simply do not answer—because the question was not at issue—whether similar (or even completely unrelated) reasons of public policy would warrant immunity for private parties as well.
I believe there are such reasons. The normal presumption that attaches to any law is that society will be benefited if private parties rely on that law to provide them a remedy, rather than turning to some form of private, and perhaps lawless, relief. In denying immunity to those who reasonably rely on presumptively valid state law, and thereby discouraging such reliance, the Court expresses confidence that today's decision will not "unduly impai[r]," ibid., the public interest. I do not share that confidence. I would have thought it beyond peradventure that there is strong public
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