Cite as: 534 U. S. 61 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
officers, and that "the Fourth Amendment does not in so many words provide for its enforcement by award of money damages for the consequences of its violation." 403 U. S., at 396. Nonetheless, relying largely on earlier decisions implying private damages actions into federal statutes, see id., at 397 (citing J. I. Case Co. v. Borak, 377 U. S. 426, 433 (1964)); 403 U. S., at 402-403, n. 4 (Harlan, J., concurring in judgment) ("The Borak case is an especially clear example of the exercise of federal judicial power to accord damages as an appropriate remedy in the absence of any express statutory authorization of a federal cause of action"), and finding "no special factors counseling hesitation in the absence of affirmative action by Congress," id., at 395-396, we found an implied damages remedy available under the Fourth Amendment.3
In the decade following Bivens, we recognized an implied damages remedy under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, Davis v. Passman, 442 U. S. 228 (1979), and the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth Amendment, Carlson v. Green, 446 U. S. 14 (1980). In both Davis and Carlson, we applied the core holding of Bivens, recognizing in limited circumstances a claim for money damages against federal officers who abuse their constitutional authority. In Davis, we inferred a new right of action chiefly because the plaintiff lacked any other remedy for the alleged constitutional deprivation. 442 U. S., at 245 ("For Davis, as for Bivens, it is damages or nothing"). In Carlson, we in-3 Since our decision in Borak, we have retreated from our previous willingness to imply a cause of action where Congress has not provided one. See, e. g., Central Bank of Denver, N. A. v. First Interstate Bank of Denver, N. A., 511 U. S. 164, 188 (1994); Transamerica Mortgage Advisors, Inc. v. Lewis, 444 U. S. 11, 15-16 (1979); Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U. S. 677, 688 (1979); id., at 717-718 (Rehnquist, J., concurring). Just last Term it was noted that we "abandoned" the view of Borak decades ago, and have repeatedly declined to "revert" to "the understanding of private causes of action that held sway 40 years ago." Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U. S. 275, 287 (2001).
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