Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/171

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 9 (1991)

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Stevens, J., dissenting

means that a judge “will not be deprived of immunity because the action he took was in error. . . or was in excess of his authority.” Id., at 356. See also Forrester v. White, 484 U. S., at 227 (a judicial act “does not become less judicial by virtue of an allegation of malice or corruption of motive”). Accordingly, as the language in Stump indicates, the relevant inquiry is the “nature” and “function” of the act, not the “act itself.” 435 U. S., at 362. In other words, we look to the particular act’s relation to a general function normally performed by a judge, in this case the function of directing police officers to bring counsel in a pending case before the court. Nor does the fact that Judge Mireles’ order was carried out by police officers somehow transform his action from “judicial” to “executive” in character. As Forrester instructs, it is “the nature of the function performed, not the identity of the actor who performed it, that inform[s] our immunity analysis.” 484 U. S., at 229. A judge’s direction to an executive officer to bring counsel before the court is no more executive in character than a judge’s issuance of a warrant for an executive officer to search a home. See Burns v. Reed, 500 U. S. 478, 492 (1991) (“[T]he issuance of a search warrant is unquestionably a judicial act”). Because the Court of Appeals concluded that Judge Mireles did not act in his judicial capacity, the court did not reach the second part of the immunity inquiry: whether Judge Mireles’ actions were taken in the complete absence of all jurisdiction. We have little trouble concluding that they were not. If Judge Mireles authorized and ratified the police officers’ use of excessive force, he acted in excess of his authority. But such an action—taken in the very aid of the judge’s jurisdiction over a matter before him—cannot be said to have been taken in the absence of jurisdiction. The petition for certiorari is granted, and the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed. It is so ordered.