Cite as: 523 U. S. 574 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
641 (1980), we held that qualified immunity is an affirmative defense and that "the burden of pleading it rests with the defendant." Second, in Butz v. Economou, 438 U. S., at 503- 504, we determined that the scope of that defense was the same in actions against state officials under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 and in actions against federal officials under the Federal Constitution, and that in both types of actions the courts are "competent to determine the appropriate level of immunity." Third, in Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U. S. 232 (1974), we presumed that the defense protects all officers in the executive branch of government performing discretionary functions, id., at 245-248, but held that the presumption was rebuttable, id., at 249-250.
The actual scope of the defense had been the subject of debate within the Court in Wood v. Strickland, 420 U. S. 308 (1975), a case involving a constitutional claim against the members of a school board. A bare majority in that case concluded that the plaintiff could overcome the defense of qualified immunity in two different ways, either if (1) the defendant "knew or reasonably should have known that the action he took within his sphere of official responsibility would violate the constitutional rights of the student affected," or (2) "he took the action with the malicious intention to cause a deprivation of constitutional rights or other injury to the student." Id., at 322. In dissent, Justice Powell argued that the majority's standard was too demanding of public officials, but his proposed standard, like the majority's, included both an objective and a subjective component. In his view, our opinion in Scheuer had established this standard: "whether in light of the discretion and responsibilities of his office, and under all of the circumstances as they appeared at the time, the officer acted reasonably and in good faith." 420 U. S., at 330 (emphasis added).
In Harlow, the Court reached a consensus on the proper formulation of the standard for judging the defense of quali-
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