588
Opinion of the Court
fied immunity. Speaking for the Court, Justice Powell announced a single objective standard:
"Consistently with the balance at which we aimed in Butz, we conclude today that bare allegations of malice should not suffice to subject government officials either to the costs of trial or to the burdens of broad-reaching discovery. We therefore hold that government officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." 457 U. S., at 817-818.
Under that standard, a defense of qualified immunity may not be rebutted by evidence that the defendant's conduct was malicious or otherwise improperly motivated. Evidence concerning the defendant's subjective intent is simply irrelevant to that defense.
Our holding that "bare allegations of malice" cannot overcome the qualified immunity defense did not implicate the elements of the plaintiff's initial burden of proving a constitutional violation. It is obvious, of course, that bare allegations of malice would not suffice to establish a constitutional claim. It is equally clear that an essential element of some constitutional claims is a charge that the defendant's conduct was improperly motivated. For example, A. Ernest Fitzgerald's constitutional claims against President Nixon and his aides were based on the theory that they had retaliated against him for speaking out on a matter of public concern.10
Our consideration of the immunity issues in both the Nixon
10 The reason why such retaliation offends the Constitution is that it threatens to inhibit exercise of the protected right. Pickering, 391 U. S., at 574. Retaliation is thus akin to an "unconstitutional condition" demanded for the receipt of a government-provided benefit. See Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U. S. 593, 597 (1972).
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