430
Breyer, J., dissenting
unsuspected (by me, at least) until today. Despite arguments that Monell's policy requirement was an erroneous reading of § 1983, see Oklahoma City v. Tuttle, 471 U. S., at 834 (Stevens, J., dissenting), I had not previously thought that there was sufficient reason to unsettle the precedent of Monell. Now it turns out, however, that Monell is hardly settled. That being so, Justice Breyer's powerful call to reexamine § 1983 municipal liability afresh finds support in the Court's own readiness to rethink the matter.
I respectfully dissent.
Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Stevens and Justice Ginsburg join, dissenting.
In Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs., 436 U. S. 658 (1978), this Court said that municipalities cannot be held liable for constitutional torts under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 "on a respondeat superior theory," but they can be held liable "when execution of" a municipality's "policy or custom . . . inflicts the injury." 436 U. S., at 691, 694. That statement has produced a highly complex body of interpretive law. Today's decision exemplifies the law's complexity, for it distinguishes among a municipal action that "itself violates federal law," ante, at 404, an action that "intentionally deprive[s] a plaintiff of a federally protected right," ante, at 405, and one that "has caused an employee to do so," ibid. It then elaborates this Court's requirement that a consequence be "so likely" to occur that a policymaker could "reasonably be said to have been deliberately indifferent" with respect to it, Canton v. Harris, 489 U. S. 378, 390 (1989) (emphasis added), with an admonition that the unconstitutional consequence must be "plainly obvious," ante, at 411. The majority fears that a contrary view of prior precedent would undermine Monell's basic distinction. That concern, however, rather than leading us to spin ever finer distinctions as we try to apply Monell's basic distinction between liability that rests upon policy and liability that is vicarious, suggests
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