author:
Justice Marshall Justice White,
      Justice Powell,

text:
    INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE, AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, et al. v. BROCK, SECRETARY OF LABOR
    No. 84-1777.
    Argued March 25, 1986
    Decided June 25, 1986

      MARSHALL, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BRENNAN, Blackmun, Stevens, and O’ConnoR, JJ., joined. White, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BURGER, C. J., and Rehnquist, J., joined, post, p. 293. Powell, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 296.

      Marsha S. Berzon argued the cause for petitioners. With her on the briefs were Jordan Rossen, Leonard Page, and Stephen P. Berzon.

      Deputy Solicitor General Kuhl argued the cause for respondent. With her on the brief were Solicitor General Fried, Assistant Attorney General Willard, Mark I. Levy, Leonard Schaitman, and William G. Cole.

        Benjamin W. Heineman, Jr., and Carter G. Phillips filed a brief for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States et al. as amici curiae urging reversal.

   Justice Marshall

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This suit was brought by the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), and several of its members challenging the Secretary of Labor’s interpretation of the eligibility provisions of the Trade Act of 1974, 88 Stat. 1978, 19 U. S. C. § 2101, which provides benefits to workers laid off because of competition from imports. The issues presented here are whether the Union has standing to sue in federal court on behalf of its affected members and whether such a suit can be maintained without the joinder as defendants of the state agencies that administer the benefit program in question.

I — I

To aid workers who have lost their jobs because of import competition, the Trade Act of 1974 established a program of trade readjustment allowance (TRA) benefits as a supplement to state unemployment insurance benefits. 19 U. S. C. §2291. Under the Act’s scheme, a group of workers, their union, or some other authorized representative may petition the Secretary of Labor to certify that their firm has been adversely affected by imports. §§2271-2273. If the Secretary issues a certificate of eligibility for such a group, workers within that group who meet certain standards of individual eligibility may then apply for and receive TRA benefits. These benefits are funded entirely by the Federal Government, as is the cost of administering the program.

While the Secretary of Labor cannot delegate his certification duties, the Act does permit him to contract out the job of making individual eligibility determinations to the state agencies that administer state unemployment insurance programs. The Secretary has in fact entered into such agreements with unemployment insurance agencies in each State and in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Pursuant to the agreements, each of these “cooperating Stat[e] agencies,” § 2311(a), becomes an “agent of the United States,” § 2313(a), charged with processing applications and using federal funds to pay TRA benefits to individuals eligible under the Act. Review of eligibility decisions by these agencies is to be “in the same manner and to the same extent as determinations under the applicable State law and only in that manner and to that extent.” § 2311(d). In making these eligibility determinations, however, state authorities are bound to apply the relevant regulations promulgated by the Secretary of Labor and the substantive provisions of the Act. 29 CFR § 91.51(c) (1985).

To qualify for TRA benefits under the Act, a worker must have “had, in the 52 weeks immediately preceding . . . separation, at least 26 weeks of employment at wages of $30 or more a week in adversely affected employment with a single firm or subdivision of a firm.” 19 U. S. C. §2291(2) (1976 ed.). In a 1975 policy handbook, the Secretary advised the state agencies that they should not count toward these 26 weeks

“[p]eriods in which service is not being performed, such as leave of absence, sick or annual leave or vacation leave, and periods in which service is being performed for other than the adversely affected employer, such as military service, temporary loan or detail to another employer, or work for another employer while attached to the adversely affected employer . . . .” App. 85.

These guidelines were superseded in August 1981 by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 (OBRA), Pub. L. 97-35, 95 Stat. 357, which amended the Trade Act to provide that “leave for purposes of vacation, sickness, injury, maternity, or inactive duty or active duty military service for training” is to be included in determining an individual’s period of employment with an adversely affected firm. 19 U. S. C. § 2291(a)(2)(A). The effect of this amendment, however, was limited to TRA benefits “payable for weeks of unemployment which begin after September 30, 1981.” OBRA, § 2514(a)(2)(B), 95 Stat. 889, note following 19 U. S. C. §2291.

Shortly after the passage of the OBRA, petitioners, the UAW and 11 of its members — some of whom had been denied benefits for weeks of employment before October 1, 1981, because of the interpretation of § 2291 in the 1975 handbook and some of whom were defending the award of benefits against appeals by their respective state agencies — filed this suit in District Court against the Secretary of Labor. Claiming that the Secretary’s interpretation had been incorrect and, to the extent that it related to military leave, in violation of the Veterans’ Employment and Readjustment Act of 1972, 38 U. S. C. §2013, and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, 38 U. S. C. §§2014, 2024, petitioners sought a declaration that the interpretation was improper and an injunction requiring the Secretary both to notify all cooperating state agencies of the invalidity of the handbook and to direct those agencies to review and reprocess all cases in which TRA benefits had been denied.

On cross-motions for summary judgment, the District Court first rejected the Secretary’s argument that § 2311(d), which makes entitlement determinations reviewable only “in the same manner and to the same extent as determinations under the applicable State law,” precluded federal jurisdiction over the action. International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America v. Donovan, 568 F. Supp. 1047, 1050-1052 (DC 1983). It noted:

“In the typical case the Act envisions that a disappointed applicant for TRA benefits appeals to the state court the administering agency’s application of the pertinent guidelines or regulations to the facts of his case. The instant case, however, is atypical. Here, plaintiffs allege that the guidelines themselves are invalid; they do not contest the particulars of the application of the guidelines to the facts of individual cases.” Id., at 1050.

On the merits of the complaint, the court held that the 1975 guidelines were indeed inconsistent with the Trade Act and the Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1972. It therefore ordered the Secretary to notify all cooperating state agencies of the Act’s proper construction and to direct those agencies to process anew, applying the proper eligibility standards, any TRA claims wrongfully denied as a result of the 1975 guidelines.

Without reaching the merits, a divided panel of the Court of Appeals reversed. 241 U. S. App. D. C. 106, 746 F. 2d 839 (1984). The court first noted that the UAW “is not an appropriate representative of those TRA claimants who were not its members,” id., at 109, 746 F. 2d, at 842, and that, at this stage of the proceedings, it would be “impermissible” to treat the suit as a class action on behalf of all disappointed claimants, id., at 108, 746 F. 2d, at 841. The court then held that the UAW could not even represent the interests of those claimants who were union members. It reasoned:

“In this case . . . , the Union has alleged no injury to itself; nor are the members’ associational rights affected. ... It seeks standing solely because some of the claimants, but far from all, were members of the Automobile Workers Union. Many of the members of the Union, however, have not had their employment terminated because of increasing imports. They have no interest in this case and no standing to seek any judicial relief. Those members of the Union who were disappointed claimants of the benefits have been injured, or denied advantages, in various amounts. The controversy could draw to a conclusion in these proceedings only if each individual claimant was a party plaintiff.” Id., at 109, 746 F. 2d, at 842.

Turning to the six named plaintiffs who claimed to have been denied administrative awards of benefits because of an improper construction of § 2291, the court held that, even assuming that § 2311(d) did not preclude federal jurisdiction, “no relief could properly be awarded in this action” because plaintiffs had failed to join as party-defendants the cooperating state agencies that had denied their claims. Id., at 111, 746 F. 2d, at 844. Relying on the requirement of § 2311(d) “that review of determinations with respect to TRA benefits must be ‘in the same manner’ as a determination under the state’s unemployment insurance law,” the court concluded:

“Judicial review of a state agency’s determination of benefits under its own unemployment insurance law may not be had without the presence of the state agency, [and] since the state agencies are outside the district court’s jurisdiction, it may not be had here.” Id., at 110, 746 F. 2d, at 843.

We granted certiorari to consider the procedural issues raised by the Court of Appeals’ decision, 474 U. S. 900 (1985). We now reverse.

II

The first question raised by the Court of Appeals’ decision is a simple one: Does the UAW have standing to challenge the 1975 policy directive that allegedly resulted in the denial of TRA benefits to thousands of the Union’s members? See Complaint ¶69. As the Court of Appeals properly noted, “the Union has alleged no injury to itself; nor are the members’ associational rights affected,” 241 U. S. App. D. C., at 109, 746 F. 2d, at 842. The inquiry here is thus whether the UAW may proceed solely as a representative of those of its members injured by the Secretary’s policy.

It has long been settled that “[e]ven in the absence of injury to itself, an association may have standing solely as the representative of its members. E. g., National Motor Freight Assn. v. United States, 372 U. S. 246 (1963).” Warth v. Seldin, 422 U. S. 490, 511 (1975). While the “possibility of such representational standing . . . does not eliminate or attenuate the constitutional requirement of a case or controversy,” ibid.; see Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U. S. 727 (1972), we have found that, under certain circumstances, injury to an organization’s members will satisfy Article III and allow that organization to litigate in federal court on their behalf. See Simon v. Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Organization, 426 U. S. 26, 40 (1976). In Warth, supra, we set out the nature of these circumstances:

“The association must allege that its members, or anyone of them, are suffering immediate or threatened injury as a result of the challenged action of the sort that would make out a justiciable case had the members themselves brought suit. ... So long as this can be established, and so long as the nature of the claim and of the relief sought does not make the individual participation of each injured party indispensable to proper resolution of the cause, the association may be an appropriate representative of its members, entitled to invoke the court’s jurisdiction.” Id., at 511.

Subsequently, this doctrine was stated as a three-part test:

“[A]n association has standing to bring suit on behalf of its members when: (a) its members would otherwise have standing to sue in their own right; (b) the interests it seeks to protect are germane to the organization’s purpose; and (c) neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires the participation of individual members in the lawsuit.” Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm’n, 432 U. S. 333, 343 (1977).

The Court of Appeals here held that the UAW could not litigate its challenge to the Secretary’s policy directive on behalf of its members because it found that the third of these conditions was not present in this case. Defending the court’s decision, however, the Secretary argues that none of the three has been satisfied. We will consider each in turn.

A

Addressing the first part of the analysis in Hunt, the Secretary does not dispute petitioners’ claim that a large number of UAW members were denied TRA benefits by their respective state agencies as a result of his Department’s interpretation of § 2291(2) between 1975 and 1981. His argument is not that all members whom the UAW purports to represent have suffered no injury. Rather, he relies on 19 U. S. C. § 2311(d), which makes TRA entitlement determinations by state agencies “subject to review in the same manner and to the same extent as determinations under the applicable State law and only in that manner and to that extent,” and maintains that not a single member of the UAW — or any other aggrieved TRA claimant — can challenge the 1975 policy directive without running afoul of settled principles of administrative finality and judicial comity, as well as statutory intent.

The reasons the Secretary gives for the preclusion of various UAW members differ, but the end result is the same. TRA claimants who were awarded benefits and whose cases were finally resolved in their favor on judicial review cannot challenge the Secretary’s interpretation of the Trade Act because they were not injured by it. At the same time, claimants denied benefits in final state judicial decisions are barred by res judicata from raising any eligibility claim in federal court. As for workers, who, at the time the suit was brought, had claims pending in state court after either favorable or unfavorable administrative determinations, the Secretary argues that it would “be contrary to Congress’s incorporation of the state system into the administration of the Trade Act, and an affront to the integrity and authority of the state courts, to allow claimants whose cases were under state judicial review to pretermit that process by proceeding in federal court.” Brief for Respondent 16. Workers with claims still pending in state administrative proceedings cannot complain, according to the Secretary, because they have yet to suffer any cognizable injury and may not circumvent state processes. And workers who failed to seek judicial review of adverse administrative determinations should also be barred from coming to federal court because their inaction has allowed those determinations to become final.

The Secretary’s arguments simply miss the point of petitioners’ claims. The statutory challenges raised here will no doubt affect the outcome of individual entitlement determinations if petitioners are successful on the merits of their suit. However, this action does not directly seek TRA benefits. In accordance with § 2231(d), decisions as to the eligibility of individual claimants for benefits wall remain the province of state authorities. The question is thus not whether there are any individual members of the UAW who might have circumvented state administrative and judicial processes in order to bring the claims that the UAW now seeks to litigate. Rather, it is whether there are members of the UAW who have yet to receive either the TRA benefits they believe they are due or a final state judgment that would preclude further consideration of their eligibility claims. Such individuals would have the live interest in challenging the Labor Department guidelines that would support standing in this case. And there is no question here that among the UAW’s members are many such individuals.

At bottom, the Secretary’s invocation of administrative exhaustion principles is merely a variant of his argument that § 2311(d) irrevocably commits to state processes all claims relating to TRA entitlements. Citing this Court’s recent decision in Green v. Mansour, 474 U. S. 64 (1985), he argues that “this suit, like Green, is an impermissible attempt to gain a federal judicial ruling to serve as the predicate for a state claim that could not be brought directly in federal court.” Brief for Respondent 21. In Green, this Court held that when the Eleventh Amendment bars a federal court from directly ordering a State to pay damages for a past constitutional violation, the court cannot enter a declaratory judgment that plaintiffs might use as res judicata in state-court damages actions. The Eleventh Amendment bar that precluded equitable relief in Green, however, has little in common with 19 U. S. C. § 2311(d). The Trade Act provision does not foreclose review in federal court of every claim relating to the Act’s application by federal and state officials. While the Act vested state courts with exclusive jurisdiction over claims challenging a state agency’s application of federal guidelines to the benefit claims of individual employees, there is no indication that Congress intended § 2311(d) to deprive federal district courts of subject-matter jurisdiction under 28 U. S. C. § 1331(a) (1976 ed.) to hear statutory or constitutional challenges to the federal guidelines themselves. Indeed, we have frequently upheld a contrary principle: that although review of individual eligibility determinations in certain benefit programs may be confined by state and federal law to state administrative and judicial processes, claims that a program is being operated in contravention of a federal statute or the Constitution can nonetheless be brought in federal court. See Ohio Bureau of Employment Services v. Hodory, 431 U. S. 471 (1977); Fusari v. Steinberg, 419 U. S. 379 (1975); Christian v. New York State Dept. of Labor, 414 U. S. 614 (1974); California Dept. of Human Resources Development v. Java, 402 U. S. 121 (1971); cf. Bowen v. Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, 476 U. S. 667, 678 (1986) (judicial review available for challenge to Secretary’s regulations even where statute bars review of determinations of specific benefit amounts). In Christian, supra, for example, former employees denied unemployment compensation benefits in state proceedings brought an action in District Court alleging that the Secretary of Labor and the state agency acting as his agent had not adhered to the procedural guarantees of the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees Program. Even though the provision governing review of benefit determinations in that program, 5 U. S. C. § 8502(d), is nearly identical to 19 U. S. C. § 2311(d), we noted that the court had jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ claims against both state and federal defendants. 414 U. S., at 617, n. 3.

As we find § 2311(d) to pose no bar to petitioners’ claims, we see no jurisdictional impediment to this suit in federal court challenging a federal official’s interpretation of a federal statute. In view of the extent to which state agencies are bound to adhere to the Secretary’s directives with respect to the administration and interpretation of the Trade Act, see infra, at 292, such a direct challenge is not only proper, but appropriate.

B

Having found that at least some members of the UAW would have had standing to bring this suit in their own right, we need pause only briefly to consider whether the second of Hunt’s preconditions for associational standing has been satisfied here. For there is little question that the interests that the UAW seeks to protect in this suit are “germane to the organization’s purpose,” Hunt, 432 U. S., at 343. The UAW’s Constitution announces that one of the Union’s goals is “to work for legislation on a national scale, having as its object the establishment of real social and unemployment insurance, the expense of which is to be borne by the employer and the Government.” Constitution of the International Union, UAW, Art. 2, §4 (quoted in Brief for Petitioners 14-15). In pursuit of that goal, the leadership of the UAW, along with other representatives of organized labor, lobbied hard for the establishment of the TRA benefit program. See, e. g., Trade Reform Act of 1973: Hearings on H. R. 6767 before the House Committee on Ways and Means, 93d Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 3, pp. 849-914 (1973) (testimony of Leonard Woodcock, President of the UAW).

Recognizing the interest of organized labor in obtaining benefits for its workers, Congress gave unions a role in the administration of the TRA program, allowing them to petition the Secretary to certify that particular firms have been adversely affected by imports. 19 U. S. C. §§2271-2273. Once the issuance of such a certification permits individual union members to file for TRA benefits, a union like the UAW — whose members, we are told, have constituted over 40% of the workers certified as eligible to apply for TRA benefits between April 1975 and January 1984, Brief for Petitioners 15 — surely maintains an interest in ensuring that its members receive all the benefits available under the Act.

C

Relying on our decision in Warth v. Seldin, 422 U. S. 490 (1975), the Court of Appeals concluded that the UAW had failed to satisfy the last of the preconditions for associational standing set out in Hunt. In Warth, we noted that even where the members of an association have suffered the sort of injury that might otherwise support a suit by the association, “whether an association has standing to invoke the court’s remedial powers on behalf of its members depends in substantial measure on the nature of the relief sought.” 422 U. S., at 515. An organization of construction firms, we held, could not seek damages for the profits and business lost by its members because “whatever injury might have been suffered is peculiar to the individual member concerned, and both the fact and extent of injury would require individualized proof.” Id., at 515-516. Each member therefore had to be a party to the suit, and the association lacked standing to proceed on his behalf. Likening the instant case to Warth, the Court of Appeals noted that because those UAW members “who had suffered an alleged injury had done so in varying amounts requiring individualized proof,” the relief sought here could not be obtained unless “each individual claimant was a party plaintiff.” 241 U. S. App. D. C., at 109, 746 F. 2d, at 842.

Like the Secretary in his arguments before this Court, the Court of Appeals misconstrued the nature of petitioners’ claims. Neither these claims nor the relief sought required the District Court to consider the individual circumstances of any aggrieved UAW member. The suit raises a pure question of law: whether the Secretary properly interpreted the Trade Act’s TRA eligibility provisions. Cf. Schweiker v. Gray Panthers, 453 U. S. 34, 40, n. 8 (1981). And the relief requested, and granted by the District Court, leaves any questions regarding the eligibility of individual TRA claimants to the state authorities given jurisdiction over such questions by 19 U. S. C. § 2311(d). See Bowen v. City of New York, 476 U. S. 467, 485 (1986) (“[B]y ordering simply that the claims be reopened at the administrative level, the District Court showed proper respect for the administrative process”). Thus, though the unique facts of each UAW member’s claim will have to be considered by the proper state authorities before any member will be able to receive the benefits allegedly due him, the UAW can litigate this case without the participation of those individual claimants and still ensure that “the remedy, if granted, will inure to the benefit of those members of the association actually injured,” Warth, supra, at 515.

Ill

As an alternative basis for affirming the Court of Appeals, the Secretary asks that we reconsider and reject the principles of associational standing set out in Hunt. He suggests that “at least absent a showing of particularized need,” members of an association who wish to litigate common questions of law or fact against the same defendant be permitted to proceed only pursuant to the class-action provisions of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. Brief for Respondent 34.

Both associational standing and Rule 23 are “designed to serve precisely the same purpose,” according to the Secretary: “to facilitate, in a fair and efficient manner, the collective adjudication of the common rights of an association’s members.” Id., at 37. Rule 23, however, contains special safeguards to ensure that the diverse interests of class members are properly represented by the named plaintiff seeking to bring a case on their behalf. No such adequacy of representation, the Secretary argues, is guaranteed by the approach this Court has taken to associational standing in Warth, Hunt, and other cases. Yet an association might prove an inadequate representative of its members’ legal interests for a number of reasons. It might lack resources or experience or might bring lawsuits without authorization from its membership. In addition, the litigation strategy selected by the association might reflect the views of only a bare majority — or even an influential minority — of the full membership.

The Secretary’s presentation, however, fails to recognize the special features, advantageous both to the individuals represented and to the judicial system as a whole, that distinguish suits by associations on behalf of their members from class actions. While a class action creates an ad hoc union of injured plaintiffs who may be linked only by their common claims, an association suing to vindicate the interests of its members can draw upon a pre-existing reservoir of expertise and capital. “Besides financial resources, organizations often have specialized expertise and research resources relating to the subject matter of the lawsuit that individual plaintiffs lack.” Note, From Net to Sword: Organizational Representatives Litigating Their Members’ Claims, 1974 U. Ill. L. Forum 663, 669. These resources can assist both courts and plaintiffs. As one court observed of an association’s role in pending litigation: “[T]he interest and expertise of this plaintiff, when exerted on behalf of its directly affected members, assure ‘that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the court so largely depends for illumination of difficult . . . questions.’” Harlem Valley Transportation Assn. v. Stafford, 360 F. Supp. 1057, 1065 (SDNY 1973), quoting Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186, 204 (1962).

In addition, the doctrine of associational standing recognizes that the primary reason people join an organization is often to create an effective vehicle for vindicating interests that they share with others. “The only practical judicial policy when people pool their capital, their interests, or their activities under a name and form that will identify collective interests, often is to permit the association or corporation in a single case to vindicate the interests of all.” Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath, 341 U. S. 123, 187 (1951) (Jackson, J., concurring); see NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U. S. 449, 459 (1958) (association “is but the medium through which its individual members seek to make more effective the expression of their views”). The very forces that cause individuals to band together in an association will thus provide some guarantee that the association will work to promote their interests.

We are not prepared to dismiss out of hand the Secretary’s concern that associations allowed to proceed under Hunt will not always be able to represent adequately the interests of all their injured members. Should an association be deficient in this regard, a judgment won against it might not preclude subsequent claims by the association’s members without offending due process principles. And were we presented with evidence that such a problem existed either here or in cases of this type, we would have to consider how it might be alleviated. However, the Secretary has given us absolutely no reason to doubt the ability of the UAW to proceed here on behalf of its aggrieved members, and his presentation has fallen far short of meeting the heavy burden of persuading us to abandon settled principles of associational standing. See Vasquez v. Hillery, 474 U. S. 254, 265-266 (1986). We therefore reaffirm the principles we set out in Hunt, and hold that the UAW has standing to litigate this action.

IV

Our conclusion that the UAW has standing would be of little consequence if we agreed with the Court of Appeals that “the complaint should be dismissed because it was filed without the joinder of necessary parties,” namely, the cooperating state agencies whose adverse benefit determinations gave rise to the injuries complained of here. 241 U. S. App. D. C., at 110, 746 F. 2d, at 843. Because petitioners appear to have conceded that the state agencies are outside the jurisdiction of the District Court, Brief for Petitioners 44, n. 44, a demand that all the agencies involved be named as defendants would bar the UAW from proceeding any further with this action. However, we believe that the Court of Appeals’ resolution of the joinder issue was erroneous.

In part, the Court of Appeals’ decision was based upon its reading 19 U. S. C. § 2311(d) to require that the state procedural rules applicable to the review of individual entitlement determinations be applied in this case. Since, under state law, review of an individual TRA claimant’s eligibility determination cannot be had without the joinder of the state agency that made that determination, the Court of Appeals reasoned that a plaintiff could not pursue the claims raised here unless he joined as defendant the state agency whose re-banee on the 1975 handbook had allegedly denied him TRA benefits. As should be clear from the foregoing discussion of the standing issue, however, the court’s application of § 2311(d) was founded on a mischaracterization of this lawsuit. This action is not an appeal from an adverse benefit determination, removed to federal court. It is a challenge to the federal guidelines that required those determinations. And just as § 2311(d) cannot be read to bar federal jurisdiction over a challenge to the Secretary’s statutory interpretation, so § 2311(d) does not demand that the state rules governing review of agency entitlement decisions bind the federal court entertaining that challenge.

The second basis of the Court of Appeals’ decision was its concern that without the joinder of every state agency whose cooperation was needed to effect the relief granted by the District Court against the Secretary, such relief might “be a futile thing except to the extent that voluntary compliance [by those agencies] with the request of the Secretary may be expected.” 241 U. S. App. D. C., at 111, 746 F. 2d, at 844. We do not share this fear. If upon reaching the merits of this case, the Court of Appeals upholds the relief ordered by the District Court, we have little doubt that the state agencies, which have agreed to administer TRA benefits as “agent[s] of the United States,” 19 U. S. C. §§ 2311(a), 2313(a), would obey the Secretary’s directive to process anew any TRA claims wrongfully denied as a result of the 1975 handbook’s interpretation of the Trade Act.

Regulations promulgated by the Secretary provide that “[i]n making determinations, redeterminations, and in connection with proceedings for review thereof,” a cooperating state agency “shall be an agent of the United States and shall carry out fully the purpose stated in §91.2.” 29 CFR § 91.51(d) (1985). Among the goals set out in § 91.2 of those regulations is “to implement the provisions of the Act uniformly and effectively throughout the United States.” State agencies that have entered into agreements with the Secretary would thus be bound to comply with the relief ordered here. Were a state agency to balk at engaging in the reprocessing the Secretary would order pursuant to the court’s injunction, it could be found in breach of its agreement. 29 CFR § 91.63(e) (1985). Such a finding would cause employers in that agency’s State to lose certain tax credits against their liability for the Federal Unemployment Tax. 26 U. S. C. § 3302(c)(3). In any event, since state agencies are fully reimbursed by the Federal Government for the TRA benefits they pay and for the administrative costs of processing those payments, it seems unlikely that a directive from the Secretary would meet any resistance from his agents.

Under these circumstances, we do not believe that the state agencies should be considered “indispensable parties” within the meaning of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19(b), whose absence from this action rendered the District Court unable to grant in full the relief sought by petitioners. Furthermore, given that the only prejudice to absent third parties suggested here is administrative work for which the agencies will be fully reimbursed, it would be indeed odd were we to prevent this suit from going forward simply because there is a slight chance that petitioners will not be able to obtain the full extent of the relief they seek.

V

We hold that the UAW has standing to proceed in this case, and that petitioners’ failure to join the various cooperating state agencies poses no obstacle to the suit. It remains for the Court of Appeals to consider the merits of the District Court’s decision and any procedural issues properly preserved and raised.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded to that court for proceedings consistent ■with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Justice White,

with whom The Chief Justice and Justice Rehnquist join, dissenting.

I disagree with the Court’s conclusion that the District Court properly exercised jurisdiction over this case.

Section 239(d) of the Trade Act of 1974, 19 U. S. C. § 2311(d), provides that “[a] determination by a cooperating State agency with respect to entitlement to program benefits ... is subject to review in the same manner and to the same extent as determinations under the applicable State law [regarding unemployment compensation benefits] and only in that manner and to that extent.” The legislative history explains that “[t]he bill would have the effect of channeling all questions arising from determinations by State agencies through the normal State review procedure.” S. Rep. No. 93-1298, p. 139 (1974). Congress thus expressed the intent that once a claim for trade readjustment allowance (TRA) benefits is submitted to a cooperating state agency, the agency and state courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine all questions, legal as well as factual, regarding the claim.

The Court treats § 239(d) as inapplicable to the present case on the ground that petitioners have not requested federal-court review of any particular benefit determination under the relevant federal guideline, but instead challenge the guideline itself. Ante, at 285. The distinction between a challenge to the guideline and a challenge to benefit determinations might be meaningful if petitioners had only challenged the application of the guideline to as-yet-unsubmitted claims, but that is not this case. At the time the District Court entered its judgment, the guideline at issue had been superseded for nearly 22 months, and the only live controversy related to the cooperating state agencies’ applications of the guideline to already-submitted claims. Thus, this suit is precluded by Congress’ clearly expressed intent to commit to the state review process the adjudication .of all questions regarding TRA benefit claims under submission to a state agency.

In explaining its holding that § 239(d) does not apply to this case, the Court states that “although review of individual eligibility determinations in certain benefit programs may be confined by state and federal law to state administrative and judicial processes, claims that a program is being operated in contravention of a federal statute or the Constitution can nonetheless be brought in federal court.” Ibid. If the Court means that this case could have been brought even if the underlying benefit claims were state unemployment compensation claims, I disagree. In such a case, petitioners’ suit, which seeks declaratory and injunctive relief for the sole purpose of providing a predicate for the recovery of already-accrued benefit claims in state court, would have been barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Green v. Mansour, 474 U. S. 64 (1985). Of course, the Eleventh Amendment does not directly apply in the present case, since TRA benefits are paid entirely from federal funds, but what § 239(d) commands a federal court to do is treat questions arising from TRA benefit determinations as if they were questions arising from benefit determinations under state unemployment compensation law. Under that standard, this is not a case that should be adjudicated by the federal courts. Accordingly, I dissent from the Court’s decision to address petitioners’ claims on the merits.

Justice Powell,

dissenting.

The Court today holds that petitioner UAW has standing to proceed in a suit challenging the Secretary of Labor’s interpretation of the eligibility provisions of the Trade Act, codified at 19 U. S. C. §2291, because those members of the UAW who have claims pending before a state administrative agency would have standing to bring a similar suit. The record, however, provides no information as to how many members of the UAW fall within this potential class. There is the danger that ultimately the number of members that the UAW can represent will be quite small. The Union may therefore lack the incentive to provide the adequate representation needed by the courts.

It is well settled that an association can represent its members’ interest in a third-party action when an association has alleged a related injury. E. g., Warth v. Seldin, 422 U. S. 490 (1975). Moreover, in appropriate circumstances this Court has conferred standing upon an association whose members have suffered an alleged injury, even though the organization itself has not suffered an injury. In Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm’n, 432 U. S. 333 (1977), the Court stated:

“[W]e have recognized that an association has standing to bring suit on behalf of its members when: (a) its members would otherwise have standing to sue in their own right; (b) the interests it seeks to protect are germane to the organization’s purpose; and (c) neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires the participation of individual members in the lawsuit.” Id., at 343.

It is undisputed that achieving unemployment benefits under the program of trade readjustment allowance is “germane” to the UAW’s purpose in the sense that one of its goals is to secure such benefits for its workers. I do not believe, however, that a determination of “germane” in this formalistic sense should be sufficient to confer standing upon the UAW here.

A consistent concern of our standing cases has been the adequacy of representation of the organization purportedly acting on behalf of the injured parties, especially when the organization itself has not suffered injury. This Court has repeatedly expressed its reluctance to confer standing on third parties for fear of inadequate representation. “The courts depend on effective advocacy, and therefore should prefer to construe legal rights only when the most effective advocates of those rights are before them.” Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U. S. 106, 114 (1976) (opinion of Blackmun, J.). See, e. g., Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186, 204 (1962) (standing requirement aimed at “assuring] that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the court so largely depends”); Holden v. Hardy, 169 U. S. 366, 397 (1898) (assertion of third parties’ rights would come with “greater cogency” from the third parties themselves).

Since the concept of organizational representation is based on a theoretical identity between the organization and its members, the organization’s interest in the outcome is based on the members’ stake in the outcome. The number of members in the organization with a concrete stake in the outcome, however, may be so small that this theoretical identity disappears. It may develop in this case, in fact, that the great majority of members in the Union have little or no interest in the litigation. Moreover, a union may have reasons for instituting a suit — such as the publicity that attends a major case — other than to assert rights of its members. In such a case, the “concrete adverseness” required throughout a litigation by our cases may be absent.

In the light of these dangers of inadequate representation, I would not find — on the basis of the record before us — that the UAW had standing based on an amorphous and unenu-merated group of injured parties. Accordingly, I dissent.

      Even while contending that UAW members should have brought their claims in the form of a class action, the Secretary argues that, at this stage of the litigation, certification of the members as a class would be inappropriate. Because we find that the UAW has standing to maintain this action on behalf of its affected members, we need not consider whether it would have been proper to treat this suit as a class action once the District Court had entered judgment.

      The claims in this case related to weeks of unemployment beginning prior to October 1, 1981. Brief for Petitioners 4, n. 4. When the District Court entered its judgment on July 28,1983, the relief granted related only to already-accrued claims for periods 22 months past or older. The record does not indicate that any unadjudicated claims for the period preceding October 1, 1981, remained outstanding at the time the District Court’s opinion issued.

       The cases cited by the Court that involve claims for state unemployment compensation benefits — Ohio Bureau of Employment Services v. Hodory, 431 U. S. 471 (1977), Fusari v. Steinberg, 419 U. S. 379 (1975), and California Dept. of Human Resources Development v. Java, 402 U. S. 121 (1971)—are not to the contrary. These cases concern requests for declarations or injunctions that pertain at least in part to future claims for benefits, see, e. g., Hodory, supra, at 475, which is not true of petitioners’ suit as of the time the District Court issued its judgment, see n. 1, supra. Also, whether or not the Eleventh Amendment might have been a bar to any aspect of the relief sought in Hodory, Fusari, or Java, the defendant state agency failed to raise the issue.

        Christian v. New York Dept. of Labor, 414 U. S. 614 (1974), is not sound support for the Court’s conclusion that the present case is properly in federal court. In Christian, the Court never directly considered the jurisdictional implications of 5 U. S. C. § 8502, the analogue of § 239(d) in this case. The only jurisdictional question the Court squarely addressed was whether mandamus jurisdiction lay against the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary in fact conceded that such jurisdiction was proper. Id., at 617, n. 3. Arguably, any bar to federal-court adjudication presented by the jurisdictional statute in Christian is, like an Eleventh Amendment bar, waivable by the defendant. In any event, the Court’s failure to squarely consider the jurisdictional question in Christian makes it inappropriate to rely on that case for guidance in determining the jurisdictional question here.

      It is, of course, true that many organizations have financial resources, expertise, and research ability that individual plaintiffs or ad hoc groups lack. But absent the requisite interest of the organization itself, the presence of these resources does not ensure adequacy of representation. It also may be noted that organizational standing differs in controlling respects from the typical class action. In the latter, there must be an identity of interests among all plaintiffs before the court — an identity that can be counted upon to assure adequate representation.


source: Caselaw Access Project

author: Justice Powell Justice Marshall,

license: Public Domain

text:
    MEMPHIS COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT et al. v. STACHURA
    No. 85-410.
    Argued April 2, 1986
    Decided June 25, 1986

      Powell, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BurgeR, C. J., and Brennan, White, Rehnquist, Stevens, and O’Connor, JJ., joined. Brennan and Stevens, JJ., filed a separate statement, post, p. 313. Marshall, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which Brennan, Blackmun, and Stevens, JJ., joined, post, p. 313.

      Patrick J. Berardo argued the cause and filed briefs for petitioners.

      Jeffrey A. Heldt argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Erwin B. Ellmann.

        Solicitor General Fried, Assistant Attorney General Willard, Deputy Solicitor General Getter, Bruce N. Kuhlik, and Barbard L. Herwig filed a brief for the United States as amicus curiae urging reversal.

        Charles S. Sims and Stuart H. Singer filed a brief for the American Civil Liberties Union as amicus curiae urging affirmance.

        Gwendolyn H. Gregory, August W. Steinhilber, and Thomas A. Shannon filed a brief for the National School Boards Association as amicus curiae.

   Justice Powell

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case requires us to decide whether 42 U. S. C. § 1983 authorizes an award of compensatory damages based on the factfinder’s assessment of the value or importance of a substantive constitutional right.

M

Respondent Edward Stachura is a tenured teacher in the Memphis, Michigan, public schools. When the events that led to this case occurred, respondent taught seventh-grade life science, using a textbook that had been approved by the School Board. The textbook included a chapter on human reproduction. During the 1978-1979 school year, respondent spent six weeks on this chapter. As part of their instruction, students were shown pictures of respondent’s wife during her pregnancy. Respondent also showed the students two films concerning human growth and sexuality. These films were provided by the County Health Department, and the Principal of respondent’s school had approved their use. Both films had been shown in past school years without incident.

After the showing of the pictures and the films, a number of parents complained to school officials about respondent’s teaching methods. These complaints, which appear to have been based largely on inaccurate rumors about the allegedly sexually explicit nature of the pictures and films, were discussed at an open School Board meeting held on April 23, 1979. Following the advice of the School Superintendent, respondent did not attend the meeting, during which a number of parents expressed the view that respondent should not be allowed to teach in the Memphis school system. The day after the meeting, respondent was suspended with pay. The School Board later confirmed the suspension, and notified respondent that an “administration evaluation” of his teaching methods was underway. No such evaluation was ever made. Respondent was reinstated the next fall, after filing this lawsuit.

Respondent sued the School District, the Board of Education, various Board members and school administrators, and two parents who had participated in the April 23 School Board meeting. The complaint alleged that respondent’s suspension deprived him of both liberty and property without due process of law and violated his First Amendment right to academic freedom. Respondent sought compensatory and punitive damages under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 for these constitutional violations.

At the close of trial on these claims, the District Court instructed the jury as to the law governing the asserted bases for liability. Turning to damages, the court instructed the jury that on finding liability it should award a sufficient amount to compensate respondent for the injury caused by petitioners’ unlawful actions:

“You should consider in this regard any lost earnings; loss of earning capacity; out-of-pocket expenses; and any mental anguish or emotional distress that you find the Plaintiff to have suffered as a result of conduct by the Defendants depriving him of his civil rights.” App. 94.

In addition to this instruction on the standard elements of compensatory damages, the court explained that punitive damages could be awarded, and described the standards governing punitive awards. Finally, at respondent’s request and over petitioners’ objection, the court charged that damages also could be awarded based on the value or importance of the constitutional rights that were violated:

“If you find that the Plaintiff has been deprived of a Constitutional right, you may award damages to compensate him for the deprivation. Damages for this type of injury are more difficult to measure than damages for a physical injury or injury to one’s property. There are no medical bills or other expenses by which you can judge how much compensation is appropriate. In one sense, no monetary value we place upon Constitutional rights can measure their importance in our society or compensate a citizen adequately for their deprivation. However, just because these rights are not capable of precise evaluation does not mean that an appropriate monetary amount should not be awarded.
“The precise value you place upon any Constitutional right which you find was denied to Plaintiff is within your discretion. You may wish to consider the importance of the right in our system of government, the role which this right has played in the history of our republic, [and] the significance of the right in the context of the activities which the Plaintiff was engaged in at the time of the violation of the right.” Id., at 96.

The jury found petitioners liable, and awarded a total of $275,000 in compensatory damages and $46,000 in punitive damages. The District Court entered judgment notwithstanding the verdict as to one of the defendants, reducing the total award to $266,750 in compensatory damages and $36,000 in punitive damages.

In an opinion devoted primarily to liability issues, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed, holding that respondent’s suspension had violated both procedural due process and the First Amendment. Stachura v. Truszkowski, 763 F. 2d 211 (1985). Responding to petitioners’ contention that the District Court improperly authorized damages based solely on the value of constitutional rights, the court noted only that “there was ample proof of actual injury to plaintiff Stachura both in his effective discharge . . . and by the damage to his reputation and to his professional career as a teacher. Contrary to the situation in Carey v. Piphus, 435 U. S. 247 (1978) . . . , there was proof from which the jury could have found, as it did, actual and important damages.” Id., at 214.

We granted certiorari limited to the question whether the Court of Appeals erred in affirming the damages award in the light of the District Court’s instructions that authorized not only compensatory and punitive damages, but also damages for the deprivation of “any constitutional right.” 474 U. S. 918 (1985). We reverse, and remand for a new trial limited to the issue of compensatory damages.

l — H

Petitioners challenge the jury instructions authorizing damages for violation of constitutional rights on the ground that those instructions permitted the jury to award damages based on its own unguided estimation of the value of such rights. Respondent disagrees with this characterization of the jury instructions, contending that the compensatory damages instructions taken as a whole focused solely on respondent’s injury and not on the abstract value of the rights he asserted.

We believe petitioners more accurately characterize the instructions. The damages instructions were divided into three distinct segments: (i) compensatory damages for harm to respondent, (ii) punitive damages, and (iii) additional “compensat[ory]” damages for violations of constitutional rights. No sensible juror could read the third of these segments to modify the first. On the contrary, the damages instructions plainly authorized — in addition to punitive damages — two distinct types of “compensatory” damages: one based on respondent’s actual injury according to ordinary tort law standards, and another based on the “value” of certain rights. We therefore consider whether the latter category of damages was properly before the jury.

HH I — I h-H

A

We have repeatedly noted that 42 U. S. C. § 1983 creates “‘a species of tort liability’ in favor of persons who are deprived of ‘rights, privileges, or immunities secured’ to them by the Constitution.” Carey v. Piphus, 435 U. S. 247, 253 (1978), quoting Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U. S. 409, 417 (1976). See also Smith v. Wade, 461 U. S. 30, 34 (1983); Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc., 453 U. S. 247, 258-259 (1981). Accordingly, when § 1983 plaintiffs seek damages for violations of constitutional rights, the level of damages is ordinarily determined according to principles derived from the common law of torts. See Smith v. Wade, supra, at 34; Carey v. Piphus, supra, at 257-258; cf. Monroe v. Pape, 365 U. S. 167, 196, and n. 5 (1961) (Harlan, J., concurring).

Punitive damages aside, damages in tort cases are designed to provide “compensation for the injury caused to plaintiff by defendant’s breach of duty.” 2 F. Harper, F. James, & O. Gray, Law of Torts §25.1, p. 490 (2d ed. 1986) (emphasis in original), quoted in Carey v. Piphus, supra, at 255. See also Bivens v. Six Unknown Federal Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S. 388, 395, 397 (1971); id., at 408-409 (Harlan, J., concurring in judgment). To that end, compensatory-damages may include not only out-of-pocket loss and other monetary harms, but also such injuries as “impairment of reputation . . . , personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering.” Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U. S. 323, 350 (1974). See also Carey v. Piphus, supra, at 264 (mental and emotional distress constitute compensable injury in § 1983 cases). Deterrence is also an important purpose of this system, but it operates through the mechanisrn of damages that are compensatory — damages grounded in determinations of plaintiffs’ actual losses. E. g., 4 Harper, James, & Gray, supra, § 25.3 (discussing need for certainty in damages determinations); D. Dobbs, Law of Remedies § 3.1, pp. 135-136 (1973). Congress adopted this common-law system of recovery when it established liability for “constitutional torts.” Consequently, “the basic purpose” of § 1983 damages is “to compensate persons for injuries that are caused by the deprivation of constitutional rights.” Carey v. Piphus, 435 U. S., at 254 (emphasis added). See also id., at 257 (“damages awards under § 1983 should be governed by the principle of compensation”).

Carey v. Piphus represents a straightforward application of these principles. Carey involved a suit by a high school student suspended for smoking marijuana; the student claimed that he was denied procedural due process because he was suspended without an opportunity to respond to the charges against him. The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that even if the suspension was justified, the student could recover substantial compensatory damages simply because of the insufficient procedures used to suspend him from school. We reversed, and held that the student could recover compensatory damages only if he proved actual injury caused by the denial of his constitutional rights. Id., at 264. We noted: “Rights, constitutional and otherwise, do not exist in a vacuum. Their purpose is to protect persons from injuries to particular interests . . . Id., at 254. Where no injury was present, no “compensatory” damages could be awarded.

The instructions at issue here cannot be squared with Carey, or with the principles of tort damages on which Carey and § 1983 are grounded. The jurors in this case were told that, in determining how much was necessary to “compensate [respondent] for the deprivation” of his constitutional rights, they should place a money value on the “rights” themselves by considering such factors as the particular right’s “importance ... in our system of government,” its role in American history, and its “significance ... in the context of the activities” in which respondent was engaged. App. 96. These factors focus, not on compensation for provable injury, but on the jury’s subjective perception of the importance of constitutional rights as an abstract matter. Carey establishes that such an approach is impermissible. The constitutional right transgressed in Carey — the right to due process of law — is central to our system of ordered liberty. See In re Gault, 387 U. S. 1, 20-21 (1967). We nevertheless held that no compensatory damages could be awarded for violation of that right absent proof of actual injury. Carey, 435 U. S., at 264. Carey thus makes clear that the abstract value of a constitutional right may not form the basis for § 1983 damages.

Respondent nevertheless argues that Carey does not control here, because in this case a substantive constitutional right — respondent’s First Amendment right to academic freedom — was infringed. The argument misperceives our analysis in Carey. That case does not establish a two-tiered system of constitutional rights, with substantive rights afforded greater protection than “mere” procedural safeguards. We did acknowledge in Carey that “the elements and prerequisites for recovery of damages” might vary depending on the interests protected by the constitutional right at issue. Id., at 264-265. But we emphasized that, whatever the constitutional basis for § 1983 liability, such damages must always be designed “to compensate injuries caused by the [constitutional] deprivation.” Id., at 265 (emphasis added). See also Hobson v. Wilson, 237 U. S. App. D. C. 219, 277-279, 737 F. 2d 1, 59-61 (1984), cert. denied, 470 U. S. 1084 (1985); cf. Smith v. Wade, 461 U. S. 30 (1983). That conclusion simply leaves no room for noncompensatory damages measured by the jury’s perception of the abstract “importance” of a constitutional right.

Nor do we find such damages necessary to vindicate the constitutional rights that § 1983 protects. See n. 11, supra. Section 1983 presupposes that damages that compensate for actual harm ordinarily suffice to deter constitutional violations. Carey, supra, at 256-257 (“To the extent that Congress intended that awards under §1983 should deter the deprivation of constitutional rights, there is no evidence that it meant to establish a deterrent more formidable than that inherent in the award of compensatory damages”). Moreover, damages based on the “value” of constitutional rights are an unwieldy tool for ensuring compliance with the Constitution. History and tradition do not afford any sound guidance concerning the precise value that juries should place on constitutional protections. Accordingly, were such damages available, juries would be free to award arbitrary amounts without any evidentiary basis, or to use their unbounded discretion to punish unpopular defendants. Cf. Gertz, 418 U. S., at 350. Such damages would be too uncertain to be of any great value to plaintiffs, and would inject caprice into determinations of damages in §1983 cases. We therefore hold that damages based on the abstract “value” or “importance” of constitutional rights are not a permissible element of compensatory damages in such cases.

B

Respondent further argues that the challenged instructions authorized a form of “presumed” damages — a remedy that is both compensatory in nature and traditionally part of the range of tort law remedies. Alternatively, respondent argues that the erroneous instructions were at worst harmless error.

Neither argument has merit. Presumed damages are a substitute for ordinary compensatory damages, not a supplement for an award that fully compensates the alleged injury. When a plaintiff seeks compensation for an injury that is likely to have occurred but difficult to establish, some form of presumed damages may possibly be appropriate. See Carey, 435 U. S., at 262; cf. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, 472 U. S. 749, 760-761 (1985) (opinion of Powell, J.); Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., supra, at 349. In those circumstances, presumed damages may roughly approximate the harm that the plaintiff suffered and thereby compensate for harms that may be impossible to measure. As we earlier explained, the instructions at issue in this case did not serve this purpose, but instead called on the jury to measure damages based on a subjective evaluation of the importance of particular constitutional values. Since such damages are wholly divorced from any compensatory purpose, they cannot be justified as presumed damages. Moreover, no rough substitute for compensatory damages was required in this case, since the jury was fully authorized to compensate respondent for both monetary and nonmone-tary harms caused by petitioners’ conduct.

Nor can we find that the erroneous instructions were harmless. See 28 U. S. C. § 2111; McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U. S. 548 (1984). When damages instructions are faulty and the verdict does not reveal the means by which the jury calculated damages, “[the] error in the charge is difficult, if not impossible, to correct without retrial, in light of the jury’s general verdict.” Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc., 453 U. S., at 256, n. 12. The jury was authorized to award three categories of damages: (i) compensatory damages for injury to respondent, (ii) punitive damages, and (iii) damages based on the jury’s perception of the “importance” of two provisions of the Constitution. The submission of the third of these categories was error. Although the verdict specified an amount for punitive damages, it did not specify how much of the remaining damages was designed to compensate respondent for his injury and how much reflected the jury’s estimation of the value of the constitutional rights that were infringed. The effect of the erroneous instruction is therefore unknowable, although probably significant: the jury awarded respondent a very substantial amount of damages, none of which could have derived from any monetary loss. It is likely, although not certain, that a major part of these damages was intended to “compensate” respondent for the abstract “value” of his due process and First Amendment rights. For these reasons, the case must be remanded for a new trial on compensatory damages.

> hH

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Justice Brennan and Justice Stevens join the opinion of the Court and also join Justice Marshall’s opinion concurring in the judgment.

Justice Marshall,

with whom Justice Brennan, Justice Blackmun, and Justice Stevens join, concurring in the judgment.

I agree with the Court that this case must be remanded for a new trial on damages. Certain portions of the Court’s opinion, however, can be read to suggest that damages in § 1983 cases are necessarily limited to “out-of-pocket loss,” “other monetary harms,” and “such injuries as ‘impairment of reputation . . . , personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering.’” See ante, at 307. I do not understand the Court so to hold, and I write separately to emphasize that the violation of a constitutional right, in proper cases, may itself constitute a compensable injury.

The appropriate starting point of any analysis in this area is this Court’s opinion in Carey v. Piphus, 435 U. S. 247 (1978). In Carey, we recognized that “the basic purpose of a § 1983 damages award should be to compensate persons for injuries caused by the deprivation of constitutional rights.” Id., at 254; see ante, at 306-307. We explained, however, that application of that principle to concrete cases was not a simple matter. 435 U. S., at 257. “It is not clear,” we stated, “that common-law tort rules of damages will provide a complete solution to the damages issue in every § 1983 case.” Id., at 258. Rather, “the rules governing compensation for injuries caused by the deprivation of constitutional rights should be tailored to the interests protected by the particular right in question — just as the common-law rules of damages themselves were defined by the interests protected in various branches of tort law.” Id., at 259.

Applying those principles, we held in Carey that substantial damages should not be awarded where a plaintiff has been denied procedural due process but has made no further showing of compensable damage. We repeated, however, that “the elements and prerequisites for recovery of damages appropriate to compensate injuries caused by the deprivation of one constitutional right are not necessarily appropriate to compensate injuries caused by the deprivation of another.” Id., at 264-265. We referred to cases that support the award of substantial damages simply upon a showing that a plaintiff was wrongfully deprived of the right to vote, without requiring any further demonstration of damages. Id., at 264-265, n. 22.

Following Carey, the Courts of Appeals have recognized that invasions of constitutional rights sometimes cause injuries that cannot be redressed by a wooden application of common-law damages rules. In Hobson v. Wilson, 237 U. S. App. D. C. 219, 275-281, 737 F. 2d 1, 57-63 (1984), cert. denied, 470 U. S. 1084 (1985), which the Court cites, ante, at 309, and n. 13, plaintiffs claimed that defendant Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had invaded their First Amendment rights to assemble for peaceable political protest, to associate with others to engage in political expression, and to speak on public issues free of unreasonable government interference. The District Court found that the defendants had succeeded in diverting plaintiffs from, and impeding them in, their protest activities. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that that injury to a First Amendment-protected interest could itself constitute compensable injury wholly apart from any “emotional distress, humiliation and personal indignity, emotional pain, embarassment, fear, anxiety and anguish” suffered by plaintiffs. 237 U. S. App. D. C., at 280, 737 F. 2d, at 62 (footnotes omitted). The court warned, however, that that injury could be compensated with substantial damages only to the extent that it was “reasonably quantifiable”; damages should not be based on “the so-called inherent value of the rights violated.” Ibid.

I believe that the Hobson court correctly stated the law. When a plaintiff is deprived, for example, of the opportunity to engage in a demonstration to express his political views, “[i]t is facile to suggest that no damage is done.” Dellums v. Powell, 184 U. S. App. D. C. 275, 303, 566 F. 2d 167, 195 (1977). Loss of such an opportunity constitutes loss of First Amendment rights “ fin their most pristine and classic form.’ ” Ibid., quoting Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U. S. 229, 235 (1963). There is no reason why such an injury should not be compensable in damages. At the same time, however, the award must be proportional to the actual loss sustained.

The instructions given the jury in this case were improper because they did not require the jury to focus on the loss actually sustained by respondent. Rather, they invited the jury to base its award on speculation about “the importance of the right in our system of government” and “the role which this right has played in the history of our republic,” guided only by the admonition that “[i]n one sense, no monetary value we place on Constitutional rights can measure their importance in our society or compensate a citizen adequately for their deprivation.” App. 96. These instructions invited the jury to speculate on matters wholly detached from the real injury occasioned respondent by the deprivation of the right. Further, the instructions might have led the jury to grant respondent damages based on the “abstract value” of the right to procedural due process — a course directly barred by our decision in Carey.

The Court therefore properly remands for a new trial on damages. I do not understand the Court, however, to hold that deprivations of constitutional rights can never themselves constitute compensable injuries. Such a rule would be inconsistent with the logic of Carey, and would defeat the purpose of § 1983 by denying compensation for genuine injuries caused by the deprivation of constitutional rights.

       One member of the School Board described the meeting as follows:
      “At this time, the public was in a total uproar and completely out of control. . . . People were hollering and shouting and the statement was made from the public that if Mr. Stachura was allowed to return in the morning, they would be there to picket the school.
      “At this point of total panic, [the School Superintendent] stated in order to maintain peace in our school district, we would suspend Mr. Stachura with full pay and get this mess straightened out.” Tr. 583-584, quoted in Stachura v. Truszkowski, 763 F. 2d 211, 214 (CA6 1985).

       Petitioners do not challenge the award of punitive damages in this Court.

       The jury found petitioners liable based both on the alleged deprivation of procedural due process and on the alleged violation of respondent’s First Amendment rights.

       The bulk of the award was against the School Board, which was assessed $233,750 in compensatory damages. Three of the individual defendants were each assessed $8,250, while six others were each charged $2,750. Nine individual defendants were assessed punitive damages, ranging from $1,000 to $15,000.

       Since our decision in Carey v. Piphus, 435 U. S. 247 (1978), several of the Courts of Appeals have concluded that damages awards based on the abstract value of constitutional rights are proper, at least as long as the right in question is substantive. E. g., Bell v. Little Axe Independent School Dist. No. 70, 766 F. 2d 1391 (CA10 1985); Herrera v. Valentine, 653 F. 2d 1220, 1227-1229 (CA8 1981); Konczak v. Tyrrell, 603 F. 2d 13, 17 (CA7 1979) (dicta), cert. denied, 444 U. S. 1016 (1980). See also Love, Damages: A Remedy for the Violation of Constitutional Rights, 67 Calif. L. Rev. 1242 (1979). Other courts have determined that our reasoning in Carey forecloses such awards. E. g., Hobson v. Wilson, 237 U. S. App. D. C. 219, 278-279, 737 F. 2d 1, 60-61 (1984), cert. denied, 470 U. S. 1084 (1985); Familias Unidas v. Briscoe, 619 F. 2d 391, 402 (CA5 1980); Davis v. Village Park II Realty Co., 578 F. 2d 461, 463 (CA2 1978). Cf. Freeman v. Franzen, 695 F. 2d 485, 492-494 (CA7 1982), cert. denied, 463 U. S. 1214 (1983).

       Respondent argues that petitioners did not preserve their challenge to the jury instructions below. Petitioners’ counsel expressly objected to the authorization of damages based on the value of constitutional rights, on the ground that such damages were impermissible under Carey v. Piphus, supra, and on the ground that they required the jury to “speculate as to what the value of the Constitutional right is.” App. 97-98. The District Court responded by stating that it relied on Herrera v. Valentine, supra, at 1227, and on Corriz v. Naranjo, 667 F. 2d 892 (CA10), cert. dism’d, 458 U. S. 1123 (1982). App. 98. Both of those cases held that jury instructions similar to those used here were permissible under Carey. This exchange satisfies us that counsel for petitioners “stat[ed] distinctly the matter to which he objeet[ed] and the grounds of his objection,” Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 51, and that the District Court understood the objection.

       The jurors were given written copies of the instructions for use in their deliberations. App. 96.

       Section 1983 reads:
      “Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, 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.”

       The purpose of punitive damages is to punish the defendant for his willful or malicious conduct and to deter others from similar behavior. E. g., Restatement (Second) of Torts § 908(1) (1979); W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton, & D. Owen, Prosser and Keeton on Law of Torts 9 (5th ed. 1984); C. McCormick, Law of Damages 275 (1935). See also Electrical Workers v. Foust, 442 U. S. 42, 48 (1979); Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U. S. 323, 350 (1974). In Smith v. Wade, 461 U. S. 30 (1983), the Court held that punitive damages may be available in a proper § 1983 case. As the punitive damages instructions used in this case explained, however, such damages are available only on a showing of the requisite intent. App. 94-95 (authorizing punitive damages for acts “maliciously, or wantonly, or oppressively done”); Smith v. Wade, supra, at 51.
      Respondent does not, and could not reasonably, contend that the separate instructions authorizing damages for violation of constitutional rights were equivalent to punitive damages instructions. In these separate instructions, the jury was authorized to find damages for constitutional violations without any finding of malice or ill will. Moreover, the jury instructions separately authorized punitive damages, and the District Court expressly labeled the “constitutional rights” damages compensatory. The instructions concerning damages for constitutional violations are thus impermissible unless they reasonably could be read as authorizing compensatory damages.

       See generally Whitman, Constitutional Torts, 79 Mich. L. Rev. 5 (1980).

       We did approve an award of nominal damages for the deprivation of due process in Carey. 435 U. S., at 266. Our discussion of that issue makes clear that nominal damages, and not damages based on some undefinable “value” of infringed rights, are the appropriate means of “vindicating” rights whose deprivation has not caused actual, provable injury:
      “Common-law courts traditionally have vindicated deprivations of certain ‘absolute’ rights that are not shown to have caused actual injury through the award of a nominal sum of money. By making the deprivation of such rights actionable for nominal damages without proof of actual injury, the law recognizes the importance to organized society that those rights be scrupulously observed; but at the same time, it remains true to the principle that substantial damages should be awarded only to eompen-sate actual injury or, in the case of exemplary or punitive damages, to deter or punish malicious deprivations of rights.” Ibid, (footnote omitted).

       Our grant of certiorari in this case does not encompass the question whether respondent stated or proved a claim under either the Due Process Clause or the First Amendment. We therefore treat the Court of Appeals’ decision on all liability issues as final for purposes of our decision.

        Carey recognized that “the task ... of adapting common-law rules of damages to provide fair compensation for injuries caused by the deprivation of a constitutional right” is one “of some delicacy.” Id., at 258. We also noted that “the elements and prerequisites for recovery of damages appropriate to compensate injuries caused by the deprivation of one constitutional right are not necessarily appropriate to compensate injuries caused by the deprivation of another.” Id., at 264-265. See also Hobson v. Wilson, 237 U. S. App. D. C., at 279-281, 737 F. 2d, at 61-63. This “delicate” task need not be undertaken here. None of the parties challenges the portion of the jury instructions that permitted recovery for actual harm to respondent, and the instructions that are challenged simply do not authorize compensation for injury. We therefore hold only that damages based on the “value” or “importance” of constitutional rights are not authorized by § 1983, because they are not truly compensatory.

       For the same reason, Nixon v. Herndon, 273 U. S. 536 (1927), and similar cases do not support the challenged instructions. In Nixon, the Court held that a plaintiff who was illegally prevented from voting in a state primary election suffered compensable injury. Accord, Lane v. Wilson, 307 U. S. 268 (1939). This holding did not rest on the “value” of the right to vote as an abstract matter; rather, the Court recognized that the plaintiff had suffered a particular injury — his inability to vote in a particular election — that might be compensated through substantial money damages. See 273 U. S., at 540 (“the petition . . . seeks to recover for private damage”).

        Nixon followed a long line of cases, going back to Lord Holt’s decision in Ashby v. White, 2 Ld. Raym. 938, 92 Eng. Rep. 126 (1703), authorizing substantial money damages as compensation for persons deprived of their right to vote in particular elections. E. g., Wiley v. Sinkler, 179 U. S. 58, 65 (1900); Wayne v. Venable, 260 F. 64, 66 (CA8 1919). Although these decisions sometimes speak of damages for the value of the right to vote, their analysis shows that they involve nothing more than an award of presumed damages for a nonmonetary harm that cannot easily be quantified:
      “In the eyes of the law th[e] right [to vote] is so valuable that damages are presumed from the wrongful deprivation of it without evidence of actual loss of money, property, or any other valuable thing, and the amount of the damages is a question peculiarly appropriate for the determination of the jury, because each member of the jury has personal knowledge of the value of the right.” Ibid.

      See also Ashby v. White, supra, at 955, 92 Eng. Rep., at 137 (Holt, C. J.) (“As in an action for slanderous words, though a man does not lose a penny by reason of the speaking [of] them, yet he shall have an action”). The “value of the right” in the context of these decisions is the money value of the particular loss that the plaintiff suffered — a loss of which “each member of the jury has personal knowledge.” It is not the value of the right to vote as a general, abstract matter, based on its role in our history or system of government. Thus, whatever the wisdom of these decisions in the context of the changing scope of compensatory damages over the course of this century, they do not support awards of noncompensatory damages such as those authorized in this case.

       Throughout his suspension, respondent continued to receive his teacher’s salary.

      See, e.g., Bell v. Little Axe Independent School District No. 70 of Cleveland Cty., 766 F. 2d 1391, 1408-1413 (CA10 1985); Hobson v. Wilson, 237 U. S. App. D. C. 219, 275-281, 737 F. 2d 1, 57-63 (1984), cert. denied, 470 U. S. 1084 (1985); Kincaid v. Rusk, 670 F. 2d 737, 745-746 (CA7 1982); Mickens v. Winston, 462 F. Supp. 910, 913 (ED Va. 1978), summarily aff’d, 609 F. 2d 508 (CA4 1979).