Dorothy A. Fleming v. Evelyn McEnany

(dissenting in part) :

The majority opinion neatly avoids examination of the constitutionality of Vermont’s body attachment statute, repealed on March 29, 1972, by finding that, under Vermont law, all of the appellees were accorded a qualified privilege of good faith conduct in defense to a suit for false imprisonment. Although I appreciate the doctrine of judicial restraint which counsels against needless resolution of constitutional questions, I cannot subscribe to the alternative course chosen by the majority—an expansion of the applicability of the qualified privilege wholly without…