Schweiker v. Chilicky

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In Schweiker v. Chilicky, 487 U.S. 412 (1988), the U.S. Supreme Court declined to infer a damages action against individual government employees alleged to have violated due process in their handling of Social Security applications.

The 6-3 Court, in an opinion written by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, observed that our "decisions have responded cautiously to suggestions that Bivens remedies be extended into new contexts." 487 U.S. at 421. The Court held that "the absence of statutory relief for a constitutional violation ... does not by any means necessarily imply that courts should award money damages against the officers responsible for the violation." Id. at 421-422.

The Court thereby rejected the claim that a Bivens remedy should be implied simply for want of any other means for challenging a constitutional deprivation in federal court. It did not matter that "the creation of a Bivens remedy would obviously offer the prospect of relief for injuries that must now go unredressed." 487 U.S. at 425. So long as the plaintiff had an avenue for some redress, the Court adhered to bedrock principles of separation of powers to preclude judicial imposition of a new substantive liability. Chilicky, 487 U.S. at 425-427.