Case Citator › Scheuer v. Rhodes

Scheuer v. Rhodes

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Abrogated
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
416 U.S. 232
Decided
Confirmed treatments
2
Flagged citations read
1,598 of 1,598
Citing cases (total)
13,387
Treatment dates
1975–1982
Abrogated
A reviewed court treats this case as abrogated by later authority. Scheuer v. Rhodes has been abrogated in part and limited: all 1,598 flagged citations have been read, with the 2 confirmed treatments listed below. Harlow v. Fitzgerald replaced the subjective component of Scheuer's qualified-immunity standard with an objective clearly-established-law test, while preserving qualified immunity as the norm for executive officials.
More on how this was screened

Shipp v. Waller confined Scheuer's effect on official privilege to constitutional and civil-rights claims. The other reviewed opinions applied Scheuer, reported Harlow's historical treatment, described Scheuer's own effect on earlier authority, or used nearby adverse language for unrelated rulings.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

13,387 later cases cite Scheuer v. Rhodes; 1,598 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Scheuer v. Rhodes?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Limited

  • The court limited Scheuer's modification of official privilege to claims alleging deprivation of basic constitutional or civil rights, not defamation actions.

    Shipp v. Waller · D.D.C. · filed

    The case, then, modifies the doctrine of official privilege only insofar as the doctrine may apply to alleged deprivation of basic constitutional or civil rights and not as it may apply to situations such as in the case at bar.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Abrogated

  • The Supreme Court abrogated the subjective good-faith component of Scheuer's qualified-immunity standard and replaced it with an objective clearly-established-law test.

    Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    In identifying qualified immunity as the best attainable accommodation of competing values, in Butz, supra, at 507-508, as in Scheuer, 416 U. S., at 245-248, we relied on the assumption that this standard would permit “[ijnsubstan-tial lawsuits [to] be quickly terminated.” ... Yet petitioners advance persuasive arguments that ... requires an adjustment of the “good faith” standard established by our decisions. ... 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.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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