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1. Maine v. Thiboutot, 448 U.S. 1, 100 S.Ct. 2502, 65 L.Ed.2d 555 (1980)

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Maine v. Thiboutot, 448 U.S. 1, 100 S.Ct. 2502, 65 L.Ed.2d 555 (1980)

448 U.S. 1

100 S.Ct. 2502

65 L.Ed.2d 555

State of MAINE et al., Petitioners,

v.

Joline THIBOUTOT, et vir., etc.

No. 79-838.

Argued April 22, 1980.

Decided June 25, 1980.

Syllabus

Held:

1. Title 42 U.S.C. § 1983—which provides that anyone who, under color of state statute, regulation, or custom deprives another of any rights, privileges, or immunities "secured by the Constitution and laws" shall be liable to the injured party encompasses claims based on purely statutory violations of federal law, such as respondents' state-court claim that petitioners had deprived them of welfare benefits to which they were entitled under the federal Social Security Act. Given that Congress attached no modifiers to the phrase "and laws," the plain language of the statute embraces respondents' claim, and even were the language ambiguous this Court's earlier decisions, including cases involving Social Security Act claims, explicitly or implicitly suggest that the § 1983 remedy broadly encompasses violations of federal statutory as well as constitutional law. Cf., e. g., Rosado v. Wyman, 397 U.S. 397, 90 S.Ct. 1207, 25 L.Ed.2d 442;Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662;Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611. Pp. 4-8.

2. In view of its plain language and legislative history, the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. § 1988 which provides that attorney's fees may be awarded to the prevailing party (other than the United States) in "any action . . . to enforce" a provision of § 1983, inter alia, and which makes no exception for statutory § 1983 actions—authorizes the award of attorney's fees in such actions.

Page 2

Moreover, it follows from the legislative history and from the Supremacy Clause that the fee provision is part of the § 1983 remedy whether the action is brought in a federal court or, as was the instant action, in a state court. Pp. 8-11.

405 A.2d 230, affirmed.

James Eastman Smith, Augusta, Me., for petitioners.

Robert Edmond Mittle, Portland, Me., for respondents.

Mr. Justice BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.

The case presents two related questions arising under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988. Respondents brought this suit in the Maine Superior Court alleging that petitioners, the State of Maine and its Commissioner of Human Services, violated § 1983 by depriving respondents of welfare benefits-

Page 3

to which they were entitled under the federal Social Security Act, specifically 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(7). The petitioners present two issues: (1) whether § 1983 encompasses claims based on purely statutory violations of federal law, and (2) if so, whether attorney's fees under § 1988 may be awarded to the prevailing party in such an action.1

I

Respondents, Lionel and Joline Thiboutot, are married and have eight children, three of whom are Lionel's by a previous marriage. The Maine Department of Human Services notified Lionel that, in computing the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits to which he was entitled for the three children exclusively his, it would no longer make allowance for the money spent to support the other five children, even though Lionel is legally obligated to support them. Respondents, challenging the State's interpretation of 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(7), exhausted their state administrative remedies and then sought judicial review of the administrative action in the State Superior Court. By amended complaint, respondents also claimed relief under § 1983 for themselves and others similarly situated. The Superior Court's judgment enjoined petitioners from enforcing the challenged rule and ordered them to adopt new regulations, to notify class members of the new regulations, and to pay the correct amounts retroactively to respondents and prospectively to eligible class members.2 The court, however, denied respondents' motion for attorney's fees. The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 405 A.2d 230 (1979), concluded that re-

Page 4

spondents had no entitlement to attorney's fees under state law, but were eligible for attorney's fees pursuant to the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976, 90 Stat. 2641, 42 U.S.C. § 1988.3 We granted certiorari. 444 U.S. 1042, 100 S.Ct. 727, 62 L.Ed.2d 728 (1980). We affirm.

II

Section 1983 provides:

"Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress." (Emphasis added.)

The question before us is whether the phrase "and laws," as used in § 1983, means what it says, or whether it should be limited to some subset of laws. Given that Congress attached no modifiers to the phrase, the plain language of the statute undoubtedly embraces respondents' claim that petitioners violated the Social Security Act.

Even were the language ambiguous, however, any doubt as to its meaning has been resolved by our several cases suggesting, explicitly or implicitly, that the § 1983 remedy broadly encompasses violations of federal statutory as well as constitutional law.Rosado v. Wyman, 397 U.S. 397, 90 S.Ct. 1207, 25 L.Ed.2d 442 (1970), for example, "held that suits in federal court under § 1983 are proper to secure compliance with the provisions of the Social Security Act on the part of participating States."Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 675, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 1362, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974). Monell v. New York

Page 5

City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 700-701, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2040-2041, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), as support for its conclusion that municipalities are "persons" under § 1983, reasoned that "there can be no doubt that § 1 of the Civil Rights Act [of 1871] was intended to provide a remedy, to be broadly construed, against all forms of official violation of federally protected rights." Similarly,Owen v. City of Independence, 445 U.S. 622, 649, 100 S.Ct. 1398, 1415, 63 L.Ed.2d 273 (1980), in holding that the common-law immunity for discretionary functions provided no basis for according municipalities a good-faith immunity under § 1983, noted that a court "looks only to whether the municipality has conformed to the requirements of the Federal Constitution and statutes."Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U.S. 225, 240, n. 30, 92 S.Ct. 2151, 2161, 32 L.Ed.2d 705 (1972), andLynch v. Household Finance Corp., 405 U.S. 538, 543, n. 7, 92 S.Ct. 1113, 1117, 31 L.Ed.2d 424 (1972), noted that § 1983's predecessor "was enlarged to provide protection for rights, privileges, or immunities secured by federal law."Greenwood v. Peacock, 384 U.S. 808, 829-830, 86 S.Ct. 1800, 1813, 16 L.Ed.2d 944 (1966), observed that under § 1983 state "officers may be made to respond in damages not only for violations of rights conferred by federal equal civil rights laws, but for violations of other federal constitutional and statutory rights as well." The availability of this alternative sanction helped support the holding that 28 U.S.C. § 1443(1) did not permit removal to federal court of a state prosecution in which the defense was that the state law conflicted with the defendants' federal rights. As a final example, Mr. Justice Stone, writing Hague v. CIO, 307 U.S. 496, 525-526, 59 S.Ct. 954, 969, 83 L.Ed. 1423 (1939), expressed the opinion that § 1983 was the product of an "exten[sion] to include rights, privileges and immunities secured by the laws of the United States as well as by the Constitution."

While some might dismiss as dictum the foregoing statements, numerous and specific as they are, our analysis in several § 1983 cases involving Social Security Act (SSA) claims has relied on the availability of a § 1983 cause of action for statutory claims. Constitutional claims were also raised

Page 6

in these cases, providing a jurisdictional base, but the statutory claims were allowed to go forward, and were decided on the merits, under the court's pendent jurisdiction. In each of the following cases § 1983 was necessarily the exclusive statutory cause of action because, as the Court held in Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S, at 673-674, 94 S.Ct., at 1360-1361; id., at 690, 94 S.Ct., at 1369 (Marshall, J., dissenting), the SSA affords no private right of action against a State.Miller v. Youakim, 440 U.S. 125, 132, and n. 13, 99 S.Ct. 957, 963, 59 L.Ed.2d 194 (1979) (state foster care program inconsistent with SSA);Quern v. Mandley, 436 U.S. 725, 729, and n. 3, 98 S.Ct. 2068, 2072, 56 L.Ed.2d 658 (1978) (state emergency assistance program consistent with SSA);Van Lare v. Hurley, 421 U.S. 338, 95 S.Ct. 1741, 44 L.Ed.2d 208 (1975) (state shelter allowance provisions inconsistent with SSA);Townsend v. Swank, 404 U.S. 282, 92 S.Ct. 502, 30 L.Ed.2d 448 (1971) (state prohibition against AFDC aid for college students inconsistent with SSA);King v. Smith, 392 U.S. 309, 311, 88 S.Ct. 2128, 2130, 20 L.Ed.2d 1118 (1968) (state cohabitation prohibition inconsistent with SSA). Hagans v. Lavine, 415 U.S. 528, 532-533, 543, 94 S.Ct. 1372, 1376-1377, 1382, 39 L.Ed.2d 577 (1974) (District Court had jurisdiction to decide whether state recoupment provisions consistent with SSA);Carter v. Stanton, 405 U.S. 669, 670, 92 S.Ct. 1232, 1233, 31 L.Ed.2d 569 (1972) (District Court had jurisdiction to decide whether state absent-spouse rule consistent with SSA).

In the face of the plain language of § 1983 and our consistent treatment of that provision, petitioners nevertheless persist in suggesting that the phrase "and laws" should be read as limited to civil rights or equal protection laws.4 Petitioners suggest that when § 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 17 Stat. 13, which accorded jurisdiction and a remedy for deprivations of rights secured by "the Constitution of the United States," was divided by the 1874 statutory revision into a remedial section, Rev.Stat. § 1979, and jurisdictional

Page 7

sections, Rev.Stat. §§ 563(12) and 629(16), Congress intended that the same change made in § 629(16) be made as to each of the new sections as well. Section 629(16), the jurisdictional provision for the circuit courts and the model for the current jurisdictional provision, 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3), applied to deprivations of rights secured by "the Constitution of the United States or of any right secured by any law providing for equal rights." On the other hand, the remedial provision, the predecessor of § 1983, was expanded to apply to deprivations of rights secured by "the Constitution and laws," and § 563(12), the provision granting jurisdiction to the district courts, to deprivations of rights secured by "the Constitution of the United States, or of any right secured by any law of the United States."

We need not repeat at length the detailed debate over the meaning of the scanty legislative history concerning the addition of the phrase "and laws." Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Organization, 441 U.S. 600, 99 S.Ct. 1905, 60 L.Ed.2d 508 (1979); id., at 623, 99 S.Ct., at 1919. (POWELL, J., concurring); id., at 646, 99 S.Ct., at 1930. (WHITE, J., concurring in judgment); id., at 672, 99 S.Ct., at 1944. (STEWART, J., dissenting). One conclusion which emerges clearly is that the legislative history does not permit a definitive answer. Id., at 610-611, 99 S.Ct., at 1912-1913; id., at 674, 99 S.Ct., at 1945 (STEWART, J., dissenting). There is no express explanation offered for the insertion of the phrase "and laws." On the one hand, a principal purpose of the added language was to "ensure that federal legislation providing specifically for equality of rights would be brought within the ambit of the civil action authorized by that statute." Id., at 637, 99 S.Ct., at 1926 (POWELL, J., concurring). On the other hand, there are no indications that that was the only purpose, and Congress' attention was specifically directed to this new language. Representative Lawrence, in a speech to the House of Representatives that began by observing that the revisers had very often changed the meaning of existing statutes, 2 Cong.Rec. 825 (1874), referred to the civil rights statutes as "possibly [showing] ver-

Page 8

bal modifications bordering on legislation," id., at 827. He went on to read to Congress the original and revised versions. In short, Congress was aware of what it was doing, and the legislative history does not demonstrate that the plain language was not intended.5 Petitioners' arguments amount to the claim that had Congress been more careful, and had it fully thought out the relationship among the various sections,6 it might have acted differently. That argument, however, can best be addressed to Congress, which, it is important to note, has remained quiet in the face of our many pronouncements on the scope of § 1983. TVA v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153, 98 S.Ct. 2279, 57 L.Ed.2d 117 (1978).

III

Petitioners next argue that, even if this claim is within § 1983, Congress did not intend statutory claims to be covered by the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976,

Page 9

which added the following sentence to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 (emphasis added):

"In any action or proceeding to enforce a provision of sections 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1986 of this title, title IX of Public Law 92-318 [20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.], or in any civil action or proceeding, by or on behalf of the United States of America, to enforce, or charging a violation of, a provision of the United States Internal Revenue Code, or title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 [42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.], the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs."

Once again, given our holding in Part II, supra, the plain language provides an answer. The statute states that fees are available in any § 1983 action. Since we hold that this statutory action is properly brought under § 1983, and since § 1988 makes no exception for statutory § 1983 actions, § 1988 plainly applies to this suit.7

The legislative history is entirely consistent with the plain language. As was true with § 1983, a major purpose of the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act was to benefit those claiming deprivations of constitutional and civil rights. Principal sponsors of the measure in both the House and the Senate, however, explicitly stated during the floor debates that the statute would make fees available more broadly. Represent-

Page 10

ative Drinan explained that the Act would apply to § 1983 and that § 1983 "authorizes suits against State and local officials based upon Federal statutory as well as constitutional rights. For example Blue against Craig, 505 F.2d 830 (4th Cir. 1974)." 122 Cong.Rec. 35122 (1976).8 Senator Kennedy also included an SSA case as an example of the cases "enforc[ing] the rights promised by Congress or the Constitution" which the Act would embrace.9Id., at 33314.10 In short, there can be no question that Congress passed the Fees Act anticipating that it would apply to statutory § 1983 claims.

Several States, participating as amici curiae, argue that even if § 1988 applies to § 1983 claims alleging deprivations of statutory rights, it does not apply in state courts. There is no merit to this argument.11 As we have said above, Mar-

Page 11

tinez v. California, 444 U.S. 277, 100 S.Ct. 553, 62 L.Ed.2d 481 (1980), held that § 1983 actions may be brought in state courts. Representative Drinan described the purpose of the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act as "authoriz[ing] the award of a reasonable attorney's fee in actions brought in State or Federal courts." 122 Cong.Rec. 35122 (1976). And Congress viewed the fees authorized by § 1988 as "an integral part of the remedies necessary to obtain" compliance with § 1983. S.Rep.No.94-1011, p. 5 (1976), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1976 at 5913. It follows from this history and from the Supremacy Clause that the fee provision is part of the § 1983 remedy whether the action is brought in federal or state court.12

Affirmed.

Mr. Justice POWELL, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE and Mr. Justice REHNQUIST join, dissenting.

The Court holds today, almost casually, that 42 U.S.C. § 1983 creates a cause of action for deprivations under color of state law of any federal statutory right. Having transformed purely statutory claims into "civil rights" actions under § 1983, the Court concludes that 42 U.S.C. § 1988 per-

Page 12

mits the "prevailing party" to recover his attorney's fees. These two holdings dramatically expand the liability of state and local officials and may virtually eliminate the "American Rule" in suits against those officials.

The Court's opinion reflects little consideration of the consequences of its judgment. It relies upon the "plain" meaning of the phrase "and laws" in § 1983 and upon this Court's assertedly "consistent treatment" of that statute. Ante, at 4, 6. But the reading adopted today is anything but "plain" when the statutory language is placed in historical context. Moreover, until today this Court never had held that § 1983 encompasses all purely statutory claims. Past treatment of the subject has been incidental and far from consistent. The only firm basis for decision is the historical evidence, which convincingly shows that the phrase the Court now finds so clear was—and remains—nothing more than a shorthand reference to equal rights legislation enacted by Congress. To read "and laws" more broadly is to ignore the lessons of history, logic, and policy.

Part I of this opinion examines the Court's claim that it only construes the "plain meaning" of § 1983, while Part II reviews the historical evidence on the enactment. Part III considers the practical consequences of today's decision. The final substantive section demonstrates that this Court's precedents do not support the Court's ruling today.

I

Section 1983 provides in relevant part that "[e]very person who, under color of [state law,] subjects . . . any . . . person . . . to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured . . . ." The Court asserts that "the phrase 'and laws' . . . means what it says," because "Congress attached no modifiers to the phrase . . . ." Ante, at 4. Finding no "definitive" contrary indications in the legislative history of § 1983, the Court concludes that that statute provides a

Page 13

remedy for violations of the Social Security Act. The Court suggests that those who would read the phrase "and laws" more narrowly should address their arguments to Congress. Ante, at 8.

If we were forbidden to look behind the language in legislative enactments, there might be some force to the suggestion that "and laws" must be read to include all federal statutes. Ante, at 4.1 But the "plain meaning" rule is not as inflexible as the Court imagines. Although plain meaning is always the starting point,Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U.S. 723, 756, 95 S.Ct. 1917, 1935, 44 L.Ed.2d 539 (1975) (POWELL, J., concurring), this Court rarely ignores available aids to statutory construction. See, e. g., Cass v. United States, 417 U.S. 72, 77-79, 94 S.Ct. 2167, 2170-2171, 40 L.Ed.2d 668 (1974);Harrison v. Northern Trust Co., 317 U.S. 476, 479, 63 S.Ct. 361, 362, 87 L.Ed. 407 (1943), quoting United States v. American Trucking Ass'ns, Inc., 310 U.S. 534, 543-544, 60 S.Ct. 1059, 1063-1064, 84 L.Ed. 1345 (1940). We have recognized consistently that statutes are to be interpreted " 'not only by a considera-

Page 14

tion of the words themselves, but by considering, as well, the context, the purposes of the law, and the circumstances under which the words were employed.' "District of Columbia v. Carter, 409 U.S. 418, 420, 93 S.Ct. 602, 604, 34 L.Ed.2d 613 (1973), quotingPuerto Rico v. Shell Co., 302 U.S. 253, 258, 58 S.Ct. 167, 169, 82 L.Ed. 235 (1937); TVA v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153, 204-205, and n. 14, 98 S.Ct. 2279, 2306-2307, and n. 14, 57 L.Ed.2d 117 (1978) (POWELL J., dissenting).