Judicial Immunity Vs . Due Process : When Should a Judge Be Subject to Suit ?

In the American judicial system, few more serious threats to individual liberty can be imagined than a corrupt judge. Clothed with the power of the state and authorized to pass judgment on the most basic aspects of everyday life, a judge can deprive citizens of liberty and property in complete disregard of the Constitution. The injuries inflicted may be severe and enduring. Yet the recent expansion of a judge-made exception to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1871, chief vehicle for redress ofcivil rights violations, has rendered state judges immune from suit even for the most bizarre, corrupt, or abusive of judicial acts.’ In the last decade this “doctrine ofjudicial immunity” has led to adisturbing series of legal precedents that effectively deny citizens any redress for injuries, embarrassment, and unjust imprisonment caused by errantjudges. Consider the following examples. • In 1978, the Supreme Court in Stump v. Sparkman2 held that the doctrine forbade a suit against an Indiana judge who had authorized the sterilization of a slightly retarded 15-year-old girl under the guise of an appendectomy. The judge had approved the operation without a hearing when the mother alleged that the girl was promiscuous. After her marriage two years later, the girl discovered she was sterile.