314
Breyer, J., dissenting
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Stevens joins, dissenting.
I do not agree with the Court's holding that those asserting a defense of qualified immunity are entitled, as a matter of course, to more than one interlocutory appeal. Rather, in my view, the law normally permits a single interlocutory appeal, and not more than one such appeal, from denials of a defendant's pretrial motions to dismiss a case on grounds of qualified immunity. The "collateral order" doctrine's basic rationale, this Court's precedents, and several practical considerations lead to this conclusion.
I
This Court's basic rationale for permitting an interlocutory appeal of a "collateral order" recognizes that interlocutory appeals are the exception, not the rule. Congress, with statutory exceptions not directly relevant here, has authorized appeals from "final" orders. 28 U. S. C. § 1291. In that way,
"Congress . . . , by forbidding piecemeal disposition on appeal of what for practical purposes is a single controversy, set itself against enfeebling judicial administration [and] . . . the obstruction to just claims that would come from permitting the harassment and cost of a succession of separate appeals from the various rulings to which a litigation may give rise, from its initiation to entry of judgment." Cobbledick v. United States, 309 U. S. 323, 325 (1940).
Judges have nonetheless created what is, in effect, a non-statutory exception, authorizing a special set of interlocutory
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