Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
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Amendment XI (the Eleventh Amendment) of the United States Constitution was passed by the US Congress on March 4, 1794 and was ratified on February 7, 1795.
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commeded or persecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
The Amendment was passed after the Supreme Court's 1792 ruling in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. 419 (1793), that Federal courts had the authority to hear suitcases in law and equity against states, and that states did not enjoy sovereign immunity from suits made by citizens of other states.
The Amendment limits the jurisdiction of the Federal judicial system to exclude any suit initiated by a person against a state government. However, this does not limit the use of the Federal courts when a state consents to be sued. Furthermore, in Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 U.S. 445 (1976), the Supreme Court unanimously held that Congress may abrogate state immunity from suit, if this is done pursuant to a valid exercise of its constitutional powers. See, e.g. Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44 (1996). The Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment as granting Congress such power. See Congressional power of enforcement.
Although the amendment's text does not by its own terms include suits brought by a citizen against his own state, the Supreme Court held in Hans v. Louisiana 134 U.S. 1 (1890) that there is a broader principle of state sovereign immunity, of which the Eleventh Amendment is but one example. Such immunity is commonly referred to as "Eleventh Amendment immunity", though the court itself has referred to this designation as "something of a misnomer" Alden vs. Maine, 527 U.S. 706 (1999). There has, however been a consistent expression in dissenting opinions by Supreme Court justices that the states surrendered their sovereign immunity when they ratified the Constitution, and that the Eleventh Amendment should therefore be read narrowly as only applying to suits brought against states under the diversity jurisdiction of the federal courts.
See also
External links
- National Archives: 11th Amendment (http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html#11)