In this case, respondent Howard Waco, a Los Angeles County public defender, filed suit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California under Rev.Stat. § 1979,
42 U.S.C. § 1983, against petitioner, Raymond Mireles, a judge of the California Superior Court, and two police officers, for damages arising from an incident in November 1989 at the Superior Court building in Van Nuys, Cal. Waco alleged that after he failed to appear for the initial call of Judge Mireles' morning calendar, the judge, “angered by the absence of attorneys from his courtroom,” ordered the police officer defendants “to forcibly and with excessive force seize and bring plaintiff into his courtroom.” App. to Pet. for Cert. B–3, ¶ 7(a). The officers allegedly “by means of unreasonable force and violence seize[d] plaintiff and remove[d] him backwards” from another courtroom where he was waiting to appear, cursed him, and called him “vulgar and offensive names,” then “without necessity slammed” him through the doors and swinging gates into Judge Mireles' courtroom.
Id., at B–4, ¶ 7(c). Judge Mireles, it was alleged, “knowingly and deliberately approved and ratified each of the aforedescribed acts” of the police officers.
Ibid. Waco demanded general and punitive damages.
Id., at B–5 and B–6.