Cite as: 523 U. S. 574 (1998)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
In Harlow, respondent A. Ernest Fitzgerald brought a suit claiming that White House aides Bryce Harlow and Alexander Butterfield, acting in concert with President Richard Nixon and others, had conspired to deprive him of his job, deny him reemployment, and besmirch his reputation. Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U. S. 731, 738-739, n. 18 (1982). Harlow and Butterfield claimed that they were immune from this suit, and we granted certiorari to determine "the immunity available to the senior aides and advisers of the President." Harlow, 457 U. S., at 806. We first concluded that unlike the President, senior White House aides were not necessarily entitled to absolute immunity. We next concluded, however, that petitioners were entitled to "application of the qualified immunity standard that would permit the defeat of insubstantial claims without resort to trial." Id., at 813.
In applying that standard in Harlow we did not write on a blank slate. The notion that government officials are sometimes immune from suit has been present in our jurisprudence since at least Osborn v. Bank of United States, 9 Wheat. 738, 865-866 (1824). By the time we took up the question in Harlow, we had come to understand qualified immunity as an affirmative defense that had both an "objective" and a "subjective" aspect. See, e. g., Wood v. Strickland, 420 U. S. 308, 322 (1975).
In Harlow, however, we noted that application of the subjective element of the test had often produced results at odds with the doctrine's purpose. First, some courts had considered an official's subjective good faith to be a question of fact "inherently requiring resolution by a jury," making it impossible to accomplish the goal that "insubstantial claims" not proceed to trial. 457 U. S., at 816. Second, we noted that there were "special costs" to inquiries into a government official's subjective good faith. Such inquiries were "broad-ranging," intrusive, and personal, and were thought to be "peculiarly disruptive of effective government." Id., at 817.
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