Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 509 U.S. 259, 9 (1993)

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Cite as: 509 U. S. 259 (1993)

Opinion of the Court

trial preparation. 952 F. 2d, at 967. The difference, according to the court, is that "[a]n arrest causes injury whether or not a prosecution ensues," whereas the only constitutional injury caused by the press conference depends on judicial action. Ibid.

Judge Fairchild again dissented. He adhered to his earlier conclusion that Fitzsimmons was entitled to only qualified immunity for the press conference, but he was also persuaded that Burns had drawn a line between " 'conduct closely related to the judicial process' " and conduct in the role of " 'administrator or investigative officer.' " He agreed that trial preparation falls on the absolute immunity side of that line, but felt otherwise about the search for favorable evidence that might link the bootprint to petitioner during "a year long pre-arrest and pre-indictment investigation" aggressively supervised by Fitzsimmons. 952 F. 2d, at 969 (opinion dissenting in part).

We granted certiorari for a second time, limited to issues relating to prosecutorial immunity. 506 U. S. 814 (1992).3 We now reverse.

III

The principles applied to determine the scope of immunity for state officials sued under Rev. Stat. § 1979, as amended,

3 Although petitioner also alleged that respondents violated his constitutional rights in presenting the fabricated evidence to the grand jury and his trial jury, see App. 10-11, 14-15, we are not presented with any question regarding those claims. The Court of Appeals agreed with the District Court, see id., at 45-47, and held that those actions were protected by absolute immunity. Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 919 F. 2d 1230, 1243 (CA7 1990) ("The selection of evidence to present to the grand jurors, and the manner of questioning witnesses, can no more be the basis of liability than may the equivalent activities before the petit jury"). That decision was made according to traditional principles of absolute immunity under § 1983, however, and did not depend on the original, injury-focused theory of absolute prosecutorial immunity with which we are concerned here; nor was it included within the questions presented in petitioner's petition for certiorari.

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