584
Opinion of the Court
also the social costs associated with discovery had against a government official." Id., at 840. With reference to the case at hand, he expressed the view that if petitioner could not show that discovery might reveal more than already appeared in the record, summary judgment would be appropriate without any discovery. Id., at 841-844.
Judge Henderson "fully" endorsed the plurality's new clear and convincing evidence standard, but thought that it was a mistake for her colleagues to hear this case en banc because the record already made it abundantly clear that petitioner's claim had no merit. Id., at 844-845.
Chief Judge Edwards, joined by four other judges, criticized the majority for " 'crossing the line between adjudication and legislation.' " Id., at 847 (quoting Frankfurter, Some Reflections on the Reading of Statutes, 47 Colum. L. Rev. 527, 535 (1947)). He expressed the view that the new evidentiary standards were unauthorized by statute or precedent and "would make it all but certain that an entire category of constitutional tort claims against government officials—whether or not meritorious—would never be able to survive a defendant's assertion of qualified immunity." 93 F. 3d, at 847.
The different views expressed in those five opinions attest to the importance of both the underlying issue and a correct understanding of the relationship between our holding in Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U. S. 800 (1982), and the plaintiff's burden when his or her entitlement to relief depends on proof of an improper motive. Despite the relative unimportance of the facts of this particular case, we therefore decided to grant certiorari. 520 U. S. 1273 (1997).
II
The Court of Appeals' requirement of clear and convincing evidence of improper motive is that court's latest effort to address a potentially serious problem: Because an official's
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