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Silent Type

(10,611 posts)
3. Supreme Court has upheld/allowed Bivens claims only 3 times, even when the Court was somewhat liberal, unlike today.
Mon Jun 30, 2025, 01:53 PM
Jun 30
The Supreme Court has upheld Bivens claims only three times: in Bivens (1971), Davis v. Passman (1979), and Carlson v. Green (1980). Under Ziglar v. Abbasi (2017) and Egbert v. Boule (2022), any claim that is not highly similar to the facts in Bivens (excessive force during arrest), Davis (sex discrimination in federal employment), or Carlson (inadequate care in prison) is a "new context" to which Bivens will not be extended if "there is any reason to think that Congress might be better equipped to create a damages remedy." -- Wikipedia.

"The judicially created Bivens cause of action functions as the counterpart to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, allowing suits for damages against federal officers for past constitutional violations. The Supreme Court has allowed three Bivens claims to proceed — a Fourth Amendment claim against law enforcement, a Fifth Amendment due-process employment-discrimination claim, and an Eighth Amendment claim involving medical care in prison. But the court has described Bivens actions as “disfavored judicial activity,” rejecting recent claims in Ziglar v. Abbasi against high-level executive officials enacting post-9/11 national-security policy and in Hernandez v. Mesa against a Border Patrol agent over a cross-border shooting of a Mexican national.

"Recent cases establish a two-step inquiry. First, the court asks whether the case involves an “extension” of Bivens into a “new context” that is “different in a meaningful way from previous Bivens cases decided by this Court,” even if that extension is modest. If the case extends Bivens into a new context, the court considers “special factors that counsel hesitation about granting the extension.” Central to this analysis is the presumption that Congress, not the courts, should decide whether a cause of action should be available against federal officers or on a set of facts."

https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/03/border-agents-the-first-amendment-and-the-continued-vitality-of-bivens/#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20has%20allowed%20three%20Bivens,Amendment%20claim%20involving%20medical%20care%20in%20prison.

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