The Eleventh Amendment
Lawsuits against states
Limits when a person can sue a state in federal court, and was passed to undo a Supreme Court decision.
Ratified 1795 · 3 minute read
Published by Quasi-Legal Institute · Report an error
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
In plain language
Lawsuits against a state
Federal courts cannot hear a lawsuit in which a state is the defendant, whether the claim is for money damages (“law”) or for a court order (“equity”). This idea is called state sovereign immunity.
Why it was passed
In Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), the Supreme Court allowed a South Carolina citizen to sue the state of Georgia in federal court to collect a debt. States feared a flood of lawsuits over Revolutionary War debts. Congress proposed the Eleventh Amendment in 1794 and it was ratified in 1795, which reversed the result in Chisholm.
How the Court reads it today
The Court treats the amendment as one piece of a broader principle that a state cannot be sued without its consent. In Alden v. Maine (1999), it held that this immunity also protects a state from being sued in its own courts under federal law.
There are important ways around it. Under Ex parte Young (1908), a person can sue a state official in federal court to stop an ongoing violation of federal law, which is how many civil rights cases against state policies are brought. Congress can also remove a state’s immunity when it acts under the Fourteenth Amendment. It cannot do so under its commerce power, as the Court held in Seminole Tribe v. Florida (1996).
School boards and state universities
The amendment protects the state itself and its “arms,” not every local government. In Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle (1977), the Court held that a local school board was not an arm of the state and could not claim this immunity.
Public colleges and universities are often treated differently. Courts frequently treat a state university as part of the state, which can limit when a student or employee can sue it in federal court. The answer depends on the state and how the school is organized.