Tenney v. Brandhove — Black, J., Concurring

Summary

Justice Black concurred in the Court's conclusion that legislators were not personally liable under the Civil Rights statutes for damages arising from intra-legislative conduct, while emphasizing that legislative immunity does not establish that the challenged conduct was lawful. He stressed that the committee's authority and actions could still be challenged as unconstitutional in other proceedings and warned against legislative investigations that suppress speech or the press. Justice Douglas, dissenting, would have allowed liability when a legislative committee departed from its legislative domain and deprived a person of constitutional rights.