286
Souter, J., concurring in judgment
neither need nor legitimacy to invoke § 1983 in this case. See 975 F. 2d 343, 347 (CA7 1992) (case below).
III
That said, if a State did not provide a tort remedy for malicious prosecution, there would be force to the argument that the malicious initiation of a baseless criminal prosecution infringes an interest protected by the Due Process Clause and enforceable under § 1983. Compare Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U. S., at 676, id., at 701-702 (Stevens, J., dissenting), and Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U. S. 564, 573 (1972), with Paul v. Davis, supra, at 711-712; see PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U. S. 74, 93-94 (1980) (Marshall, J., concurring); Martinez v. California, 444 U. S. 277, 281-282 (1980); Munn v. Illinois, 94 U. S. 113, 134 (1877). But given the state tort remedy, we need not conduct that inquiry in this case.
* * *
For these reasons, I concur in the judgment of the Court holding that the dismissal of petitioner Albright's complaint was proper.
Justice Souter, concurring in the judgment.
While I agree with the Court's judgment that petitioner has not justified recognition of a substantive due process violation in his prosecution without probable cause, I reach that result by a route different from that of the plurality. The Court has previously rejected the proposition that the Constitution's application to a general subject (like prosecution) is necessarily exhausted by protection under particular textual guarantees addressing specific events within that subject (like search and seizure), on a theory that one specific constitutional provision can pre-empt a broad field as against another more general one. See United States v. James Daniel Good Real Property, ante, at 49 ("We have rejected the
Page: Index Previous 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007