Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349 (1978

WE ASK THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES TO OVERTURN

STUMP V. SPARKMAN

A judge will not be immune from suit when the judge failed to observe "elementary principles of due process," which led to the sexual exploitation of a child.

A judge is not free to inflict indiscriminate damage whenever he announces that he is acting in his judicial capacity.

Concluding, Justice Stewart argued that the majority misapplied the law of the Pierson case:

Not one of the considerations...summarized in the Pierson opinion was present here. There was no "case," controversial or otherwise. There were no litigants. There was and could be no appeal. And there was not even the pretext of principled decision making. The total absence of any of these normal attributes of a judicial proceeding convinces me that the conduct complained of in this case was not a judicial act.[16]