1. Nixon v. Fitzgerald, (1982)
2. Facts: Fitzgerald lost his management position with the Department of the Air Force after “blowing the whistle” on significant budgetary overruns on the building of a military transport plane.
3. Procedural Posture: Fitzgerald sued the President and several of his officials for damages, alleging violation of his First Amendment and other statutory rights due to his firing.
4. Issue: Whether the President is entitled to absolute immunity from damages liability predicated on his official acts.
5. Holding: Yes.
6. Majority Reasoning: [Powell] The absolute [rather than qualified] immunity is required due to the unique position of the Presidency. The President must not be diverted from a proper exercise of discretion for fear of being subject to a lawsuit for private damages. The President is required to make decisions every day that would “arouse the most intense feelings,” and so must enjoy absolute immunity for his official acts. There may be cases where the Congress could take some affirmative action to subject the President to personal jurisdiction, but the court would have to weigh the constitutional weight of the interests to be served with the danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch. There are other ways to keep the President from abusing power, namely the press, impeachment, re-election, and personal reputation.
7. Dissent Reasoning: [White] Attaching absolute immunity to the office of the President, rather than to particular activities that the President might perform places the President above the law. The scope of immunity should be determined by the function, not the office, and the dismissal of employees does not fall under a constitutionally assigned executive function which would be substantially impaired by the possibility of a private action for damages.
8. Notes: In Harlow v. Fitzgerald, the court refused to extend blanket immunity to the top Nixon aids involved in the same conspiracy as charged in the above case. Qualified immunity was the proper standard, unless perhaps the aid was entrusted with “discretionary authority in such sensitive areas as national security or foriegn policy.” However, the court refused to give the Attorney General absolute immunity even while engaged in actions related to national security in Mitchell v. Forsyth.
