Butz v. Economou - Agency Officials Held Absolutely Immune

Finally, the Court ruled that federal hearing examiners, administrative law judges, and other agency officials charged with initiating or sustaining proceedings such as the one brought against Economou were to be afforded absolute immunity from lawsuits. It based this holding on the importance of keeping these officials free from outside influences:

The discretion which executive officials exercise with respect to the initiation of administrative proceedings might be distorted if their immunity from damages arising from that decision was less than complete . . . We believe that agency officials must make the decision to move forward with an administrative proceeding free from intimidation or harassment. Because the legal remedies already available to the defendant in such a proceeding provide sufficient checks on agency zeal, we hold that those officials who are responsible for the decision to initiate or continue a proceeding subject to agency adjudication are entitled to absolute immunity from damages liability for their parts in that decision.