Hui v. CastanedaHui v. Castaneda
Justice Sotomayor delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents the question whether
I
Francisco Castaneda was detained by U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the San Diego Correctional Facility (SDCF) beginning in March 2006. According to the complaint later filed in the District Court, when Castaneda arrived at SDCF he had on his penis an irregular, raised lesion that measured roughly two centimeters square.1 Castaneda promptly brought his condition to the attention of medical personnel working for the Division of Immigration Health Services, reporting that the lesion was growing in size and becoming more painful and that it frequently bled and emitted a discharge. Petitioner Dr. Esther Hui, a civilian PHS employee, was the physician responsible for Castaneda‘s medical care during his detention at SDCF. Petitioner Commander Stephen Gonsalves, a commissioned PHS officer, was a health services administrator at SDCF during the relevant period.
Between March 2006 and January 2007, Castaneda persistently sought treatment for his condition. As his disease progressed, the lesion became increasingly painful and interfered with his urination, defecation, and sleep. In December 2006, Castaneda additionally reported a lump in his groin. A PHS physician‘s assistant and three outside spe
After a fourth specialist recommended a biopsy in January 2007, the procedure was finally authorized. Instead of providing treatment, however, ICE released Castaneda from custody on February 5. A week later, biopsy results confirmed that Castaneda was suffering from penile cancer. The next day, Castaneda had his penis amputated, and he began chemotherapy after tests confirmed that the cancer had metastasized to his groin. The treatment was unsuccessful, and Castaneda died in February 2008.
Three months before his death, Castaneda filed suit against petitioners in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. As relevant, Castaneda raised medical negligence claims against the United States under the FTCA and Bivens claims against petitioners for deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs in violation of his Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.2 After Castaneda‘s death, respondents—Castaneda‘s sister, Yanira Castaneda, and his daughter, Vanessa Castaneda (by and through her mother, Lucia Pelayo)—amended the complaint to substitute themselves as plaintiffs. Yanira and Vanessa Castaneda are respectively the representative of and heir to Castaneda‘s estate.
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court‘s judgment that § 233(a) does not preclude respondents’ Bivens claims. Castaneda v. United States, 546 F. 3d 682 (2008).4 The court cited Carlson v. Green, 446 U. S. 14 (1980), for the proposition that a Bivens remedy is unavailable only when an alternative remedy is both expressly declared to be a substitute and can be viewed as equally effective, or when special factors militate against direct recovery. Looking to the statute‘s text and history, the court noted that § 233(a) does not mention the Constitution or recovery thereunder and found it significant that § 233 was enacted prior to this Court‘s decision in Bivens. Drawing further support for its view from the statute‘s legislative history and from subsequent congressional enactments, the Court of Appeals concluded that § 233(a) does not expressly make the remedy under the FTCA a substitute for relief under Bivens.
As the Ninth Circuit recognized, its holding conflicts with the Second Circuit‘s decision in Cuoco v. Moritsugu, 222 F. 3d 99 (2000), which construed § 233(a) to foreclose Bivens actions against PHS personnel. We granted certiorari to resolve this conflict. 557 U. S. 966 (2009).
II
A
Our inquiry in this case begins and ends with the text of § 233(a). See Harris Trust and Sav. Bank v. Salomon Smith Barney Inc., 530 U. S. 238, 254 (2000). The statute provides in pertinent part that
“[t]he remedy against the United States provided by sections 1346(b) and 2672 of title 28 . . . for damage for personal injury, including death, resulting from the performance of medical, surgical, dental, or related functions, including the conduct of clinical studies or investigation, by any commissioned officer or employee of the Public Health Service while acting within the scope of his office or employment, shall be exclusive of any other civil action or proceeding by reason of the same subject-matter against the officer or employee (or his estate) whose act or omission gave rise to the claim.”
§ 233(a) (emphasis added).
Our reading of § 233(a)‘s text is not undermined by the fact that the provision preceded our decision in Bivens. Contrary to the view of the Court of Appeals, that a Bivens remedy had not yet been recognized when § 233(a) was enacted does not support the conclusion that Congress, in making the remedy provided by the FTCA “exclusive of any other civil action,” did not mean what it said. Language that broad easily accommodates both known and unknown causes of action.
The later enacted Federal Employees Liability Reform and Tort Compensation Act of 1988 (Westfall Act), 102 Stat. 4563, further supports this understanding of § 233(a). The Westfall Act amended the FTCA to make its remedy against the United States the exclusive remedy for most claims against Government employees arising out of their official conduct.5 In providing this official immunity, Congress used
B
In advocating a contrary reading of § 233(a), respondents rely heavily on our opinion in Carlson, as did the Court of Appeals. Carlson, however, is inapposite to the issue in this case. There are two separate inquiries involved in determining whether a Bivens action may proceed against a federal agent: whether the agent is amenable to suit, and whether a damages remedy is available for a particular constitutional violation absent authorization by Congress. See United States v. Stanley, 483 U. S. 669, 684 (1987) (“[T]he availability of a damages action under the Constitution for particular injuries . . . is a question logically distinct from immunity to such an action on the part of particular defendants“). Even in circumstances in which a Bivens remedy is generally available, an action under Bivens will be defeated if the defendant is immune from suit. See, e. g., 403 U. S., at 397–398 (remanding for determination of respondents’ immunity after implying a cause of action under the Fourth Amendment).
This case presents the separate question whether petitioners are immune from suit for the alleged violations. To determine a defendant‘s amenability to suit, we consider whether he or she may claim the benefits of official immunity for the alleged misconduct. Because petitioners invoke only the immunity provided by § 233(a), the question in this case is answered solely by reference to whether that provision gives petitioners the immunity they claim.6
As noted, the text of § 233(a) plainly indicates that it precludes a Bivens action against petitioners for the harm alleged in this case. Respondents offer three arguments in support of their claim that it does not. None persuades us that § 233(a) means something other than what it says.
Respondents first contend that § 233(a) incorporates the entirety of the FTCA, as amended by the Westfall Act, through its reference to § 1346(b).7 Section 1346(b) in turn
refers to “the provisions of chapter 171,” which constitute the FTCA, including the Westfall Act‘s exception for claims “brought for a violation of the Constitution of the United States,”
Section 233(a) is not susceptible of this reading. As petitioners observe, that provision refers only to “[t]he remedy against the United States provided by sections 1346(b) and 2672.”
Respondents next argue that the Westfall Act‘s Bivens exception, § 2679(b)(2)(A), directly preserves a Bivens action against PHS officers and employees. That § 2679(b)(2)(A) by its terms applies only to the specific immunity set forth in “[p]aragraph (1)” belies respondents’ claim. Moreover, if § 233(a) forecloses a Bivens action against PHS personnel, respondents’ reading of § 2679(b)(2)(A) would effect an implied repeal of that more specific provision. Although we
Finally, respondents contend that other features of § 233 show that subsection (a) does not make the remedy under the FTCA exclusive of all other actions against PHS personnel. Respondents first note § 233‘s lack of a procedure for “scope certification” in federal-court actions. Under the FTCA, “certification by the Attorney General that the defendant employee was acting within the scope of his office or employment at the time of the incident out of which the claim arose” transforms an action against an individual federal employee into one against the United States.
We agree with petitioners that there is no reason to think that scope certification by the Attorney General is a prerequisite to immunity under § 233(a). To be sure, that immunity is contingent upon the alleged misconduct having occurred in the course of the PHS defendant‘s duties, but a defendant may make that proof pursuant to the ordinary rules of evidence and procedure. As petitioners observe, proof of scope is in most § 233(a) cases established by a declaration affirming that the defendant was a PHS official during the relevant time period. See Reply Brief for Petitioner Hui 6–7, and n. 1. Thus, while scope certification may provide a convenient mechanism for establishing that the alleged misconduct occurred within the scope of the employee‘s duties, the procedure authorized by § 2679(d) is not necessary to effect substitution of the United States. Finally, that the FTCA‘s scope certification procedure was enacted almost two decades after § 233(a) confirms that Congress did not intend to make that procedure the exclusive means for PHS personnel to invoke the official immunity provided by § 233(a).
Respondents’ argument based on § 233(f) is similarly unavailing. That subsection authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to “hold harmless or provide liability insurance” for a PHS officer or employee for personal injuries caused by conduct occurring “within the scope of his office or employment . . . if such employee is assigned to a foreign country . . . and if the circumstances are such as are likely to preclude the remedies of third persons against the United States described in section 2679(b).” Noting that the FTCA precludes recovery against the United States for “[a]ny claim arising in a foreign country,”
For the foregoing reasons, respondents’ arguments do not undermine our conclusion that the immunity provided by § 233(a) precludes Bivens actions against individual PHS officers or employees for harms arising out of conduct described in that section.
* * *
In construing § 233(a) in petitioners’ favor, we are mindful of the confines of our judicial role. Respondents’ amici caution that providing special immunity for PHS personnel is contrary to the public interest.11 Respondents likewise contend that allowing Bivens claims against PHS personnel is necessary to ensure an adequate standard of care in federal detention facilities, and they further urge that permitting such actions would not endanger PHS’ institutional interests as it would simply place PHS personnel in the same position as other federal employees who perform similar functions. See Brief for Respondents 52–55, 60–61. We are required, however, to read the statute according to its text. Because
It is so ordered.