Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents the question whether a federal court may award injunctive relief against state officials on the basis of state law.
This litigation, here for the second time, concerns the conditions of care at petitioner Pennhurst State School and Hospital, a Pennsylvania institution for the care of the mentally retarded. See Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman,
This suit originally was brought in 1974 by respondent Terri Lee Halderman, a resident of Pennhurst, in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Ultimately, plaintiffs included a class consisting of all persons who were or might become residents of Pennhurst; the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens (PARC); and the United States. Defendants were Pennhurst and various Pennhurst officials; the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and several of its officials; and various county commissioners, county mental retardation administrators, and other officials of five Pennsylvania counties surrounding Penn-hurst. Respondents’ amended complaint charged that conditions at Pennhurst violated the class members’ rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments; §504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 87 Stat. 394, 29 U. S. C. § 794; the Developmental^ Disabled Assistance and Bill of Rights Act, 89 Stat. 496, 42 U. S. C. §6001 et seqand the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act of 1966 (MH/MR Act), Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 50, §§4101-4704 (Purdon 1969 and Supp. 1983-1984). Both damages and injunctive relief were sought.
In 1977, following a lengthy trial, the District Court rendered its decision. Halderman v. Pennhurst State School and Hospital,
The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed most of the District Court’s judgment. Halderman v. Pennhurst State School and Hospital,
On the question of remedy, the Court of Appeals affirmed except as to the District Court’s order that Pennhurst be closed. The court observed that some patients would be unable to adjust to life outside an institution, and it determined that none of the legal provisions relied on by respondents precluded institutionalization. Id., at 114-115. It therefore remanded for “individual determinations by the [District Court], or by the Special Master, as to the appropriateness of an improved Pennhurst for each such patient,” guided by “a presumption in favor of placing individuals in [community living arrangements].” Ibid.
On remand the District Court established detailed procedures for determining the proper residential placement for each patient. A team consisting of the patient, his parents or guardian, and his case manager must establish an individual habilitation plan providing for habilitation of the patient in a designated community living arrangement. The plan is subject to review by the Special Master. A second master, called the Hearing Master, is available to conduct hearings, upon request by the resident, his parents, or his advocate, on the question whether the services of Pennhurst would be more beneficial to the resident than the community living arrangement provided in the resident’s plan. The Hearing Master then determines where the patient should reside,
This Court reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeals, finding that 42 U. S. C. § 6010 did not create any substantive rights. Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman,
On remand the Court of Appeals affirmed its prior judgment in its entirety.
We granted certiorari,
II
Petitioners raise three challenges to the judgment of the Court of Appeals: (i) the Eleventh Amendment prohibited the District Court from ordering state officials to conform their conduct to state law; (ii) the doctrine of comity prohibited the District Court from issuing its injunctive relief; and (iii) the District Court abused its discretion in appointing two Masters to supervise the decisions of state officials in implementing state law. We need not reach the latter two issues, for we find the Eleventh Amendment challenge dispositive.
A
Article III, § 2, of the Constitution provides that the federal judicial power extends, inter alia, to controversies “between a State and Citizens of another State.” Relying on this language, this Court in 1793 assumed original jurisdiction over a suit brought by a citizen of South Carolina against the State of Georgia. Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. 419 (1793). The decision “created such a shock of surprise that the Eleventh Amendment was at once proposed and adopted.” Monaco v. Mississippi,
“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.”
“That a State may not be sued without its consent is a fundamental rule of jurisprudence having so important a bearing upon the construction of the Constitution of the United States that it has become established by repeated decisions of this court that the entire judicial power granted by the Constitution does not embrace authority to entertain a suit brought by private parties against a State without consent given: not one brought by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of a foreign State, because of the Eleventh Amendment; and not even one brought by its own citizens, because of the fundamental rule of which the Amendment is but*99 an exemplification.” Ex parte State of New York,256 U. S. 490 , 497 (1921) (emphasis added).8
A sovereign’s immunity may be waived, and the Court consistently has held that a State may consent to suit against it in federal court. See, e. g., Clark v. Barnard,
B
This Court’s decisions thus establish that “an unconsenting State is immune from suits brought in federal courts by her own citizens as well as by citizens of another state.” Employees, supra, at 280. There may be a question, however, whether a particular suit in fact is a suit against a State. It is clear, of course, that in the absence of consent a suit in which the State or one of its agencies or departments is named as the defendant is proscribed by the Eleventh Amendment. See, e. g., Florida Dept. of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Florida Nursing Home Assn.,
When the suit is brought only against state officials, a question arises as to whether that suit is a suit against the State itself. Although prior decisions of this Court have not been entirely consistent on this issue, certain principles are well established. The Eleventh Amendment bars a suit against state officials when “the state is the real, substantial party in interest.” Ford Motor Co. v. Department of Treasury of Indiana,
The Court has recognized an important exception to this general rule: a suit challenging the constitutionality of a state official’s action is not one against the State. This was the holding in Ex parte Young,
While the rule permitting suits alleging conduct contrary to “the supreme authority of the United States” has survived, the theory of Young has not been provided an expansive interpretation. Thus, in Edelman v. Jordan,
HH HH I — I
With these principles in mind, we now turn to the question whether the claim that petitioners violated state law in carrying out their official duties at Pennhurst is one against the State and therefore barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Respondents advance two principal arguments in support of the judgment below.
A
We first address the contention that respondents’ state-law claim is not barred by the Eleventh Amendment because it seeks only prospective relief as defined in Edelman v. Jordan, supra. The Court of Appeals held that if the judgment below rested on federal law, it could be entered against petitioner state officials under the doctrine established in Edel-man and Young even though the prospective financial burden was substantial and ongoing.
As discussed above, the injunction in Young was justified, notwithstanding the obvious impact on the State itself, on the view that sovereign immunity does not apply because an official who acts unconstitutionally is “stripped of his official or representative character,” Young,
The Court also has recognized, however, that the need to promote the supremacy of federal law must be accommodated to the constitutional immunity of the States. This is the significance of Edelman v. Jordan, supra. We recognized that the prospective relief authorized by Young “has permitted the Civil War Amendments to the Constitution to serve as a sword, rather than merely a shield, for those whom they were designed to protect.”
This need to reconcile competing interests is wholly absent, however, when a plaintiff alleges that a state official has violated state law. In such a case the entire basis for the doctrine of Young and Edelman disappears. A federal court’s grant of relief against state officials on the basis of state law, whether prospective or retroactive, does not vindicate the supreme authority of federal law. On the contrary, it is difficult to think of a greater intrusion on state sovereignty than when a federal court instructs state officials on how to conform their conduct to state law. Such a result conflicts directly with the principles of federalism that underlie the Eleventh Amendment. We conclude that Young and Edelman are inapplicable in a suit against state officials on the basis of state law.
B
The contrary view of Justice Stevens’ dissent rests on fiction, is wrong on the law, and, most important, would emasculate the Eleventh Amendment.
The theory is out of touch with reality. The dissent does not dispute that the general criterion for determining when a suit is in fact against the sovereign is the effect of the relief sought. See supra, at 101; post, at 146, n. 29. According to the dissent, the relief sought and ordered here — which in effect was that a major state institution be closed and smaller state institutions be created and expansively funded — did not operate against the State. This view would make the law a pretense. No other court or judge in the 10-year history of this litigation has advanced this theory. And the dissent’s underlying view that the named defendants here were acting beyond and contrary to their authority cannot be reconciled with reality — or with the record. The District Court in this case held that the individual defendants “acted in the utmost good faith . . . within the sphere of their official responsibilities,” and therefore were entitled to immunity from damages.
The dissent bases its view on numerous cases from the turn of the century and earlier. These cases do not provide the support the dissent claims to find. Many are simply miscited. For example, with perhaps one exception,
Thus, while there is language in the early cases that advances the authority-stripping theory advocated by the dissent, this theory had never been pressed as far as Justice Stevens would do in this case. And when the expansive ap
The dissent in Larson made many of the arguments advanced by Justice Stevens’ dissent today, and asserted that many of the same cases were being overruled or ignored.
The reason is obvious. Under the dissent’s view of the ultra vires doctrine, the Eleventh Amendment would have force only in the rare case in which a plaintiff foolishly attempts to sue the State in its own name, or where he cannot produce some state statute that has been violated to his asserted injury. Thus, the ultra vires doctrine, a narrow and questionable exception, would swallow the general rule that a suit is against the State if the relief will run against it. That result gives the dissent no pause presumably because of its view that the Eleventh Amendment and sovereign immunity “ ‘undoubtedly ru[n] counter to modern democratic notions of the moral responsibility of the State.’” Post, at 164, n. 48 (quoting Great Northern Life Insurance Co. v. Read,
C
The reasoning of our recent decisions on sovereign immunity thus leads to the conclusion that a federal suit against state officials on the basis of state law contravenes the Eleventh Amendment when — as here — the relief sought and ordered has an impact directly on the State itself. In reaching a contrary conclusion, the Court of Appeals relied principally on a separate line of cases dealing with pendent jurisdiction. The crucial point for the Court of Appeals was that this Court has granted relief against state officials on the basis of a pendent state-law claim. See
This Court long has held generally that when a federal court obtains jurisdiction over a federal claim, it may adjudicate other related claims over which the court otherwise would not have jurisdiction. See, e. g., Mine Workers v. Gibbs,
As the Court of Appeals noted, in Siler and subsequent cases concerning pendent jurisdiction, relief was granted against state officials on the basis of state-law claims that were pendent to federal constitutional claims. In none of these cases, however, did the Court so much as mention the Eleventh Amendment in connection with the state-law claim. Rather, the Court appears to have assumed that once jurisdiction was established over the federal-law claim, the doctrine of pendent jurisdiction would establish power to hear the state-law claims as well. The Court has not addressed whether that doctrine has a different scope when applied to suits against the State. This is illustrated by Greene v. Louisville & Interurban R. Co.,
As noted, the implicit view of these cases seems to have been that once jurisdiction is established on the basis of a federal question, no further Eleventh Amendment inquiry is necessary with respect to other claims raised in the case. This is an erroneous view and contrary to the principles established in our Eleventh Amendment decisions. “The Eleventh Amendment is an explicit limitation of the judicial power of the United States.” Missouri v. Fiske,
This constitutional bar applies to pendent claims as well. As noted above, pendent jurisdiction is a judge-made doctrine of expediency and efficiency derived from the general Art. Ill language conferring power to hear all “cases” arising under federal law or between diverse parties. See Mine Workers v. Gibbs,
In sum, contrary to the view implicit in decisions such as Greene v. Louisville & Interurban R. Co.,
D
Respondents urge that application of the Eleventh Amendment to pendent state-law claims will have a disruptive effect on litigation against state officials. They argue that the “considerations of judicial economy, convenience, and fairness to litigants” that underlie pendent jurisdiction, see Gibbs, supra, at 726, counsel against a result that may cause litigants to split causes of action between state and federal courts. They also contend that the policy of avoiding unnecessary constitutional decisions will be contravened if plaintiffs choose to forgo their state-law claims and sue only in federal court or, alternatively, that the policy of Ex parte Young
It may be that applying the Eleventh Amendment to pendent claims results in federal claims being brought in state court, or in bifurcation of claims. That is not uncommon in this area. Under Edelman v. Jordan, supra, a suit against state officials for retroactive monetary relief, whether based on federal or state law, must be brought in state court. Challenges to the validity of state tax systems under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 also must be brought in state court. Fair Assessment in Real Estate Assn., Inc. v. McNary,
IV
Respondents contend that, regardless of the applicability of the Eleventh Amendment to their state claims against petitioner state officials, the judgment may still be upheld against petitioner county officials. We are not persuaded. Even assuming that these officials are not immune from suit challenging their actions under the MH/MR Act,
V
The Court of Appeals upheld the judgment of the District Court solely on the basis of Pennsylvania’s MH/MR Act. We hold that these federal courts lacked jurisdiction to enjoin petitioner state institutions and state officials on the basis of
It is so ordered.
Notes
The District Court determined that the individual defendants had acted in good faith and therefore were immune from the damages claims.
In a companion case, the Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s denial of the Pennhurst Parents-Staff Association’s motion to intervene for purposes of appeal, finding the denial harmless error. See Halderman v. Pennhurst State School and Hospital,
On July 1, 1981, Pennsylvania enacted an appropriations bill providing that only $35,000 would be paid for the Masters’ expenses for the fiscal year July 1981 to June 1982. The District Court held the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and its Secretary in contempt, and imposed a fine of $10,000 per day. Pennsylvania paid the fines, and the contempt was purged on January 8, 1982. On appeal the Court of Appeals affirmed the contempt order. Halderman v. Pennhurst State School and Hospital,
Three Justices dissented from the Court’s construction of the Act, but concluded that the District Court should not have adopted the “far-reaching remedy” of appointing “a Special Master to decide which of the Pennhurst inmates should remain and which should be moved to community-based facilities. . . . [T]he court should not have assumed the task of managing Pennhurst . . . .”
The Court of Appeals also noted that “the United States is an intervening plaintiff . . . against which even the state itself cannot successfully plead the Eleventh Amendment as a bar to jurisdiction,” and that “the counties, even as juridical entities, do not fall within the coverage of the Eleventh Amendment. Against those defendants even money damages may be awarded.”
As Justice Brennan notes in his dissent, post, at 126, Judge Gibbons has expanded on his views of the Eleventh Amendment in a recent law review article. Gibbons, The Eleventh Amendment and State Sovereign Immunity: A Reinterpretation, 83 Colum. L. Rev. 1889 (1983). Judge Gibbons was the author of both the first and second opinions by the Court of Appeals in this case.
The Office of the Special Master was abolished in December 1982. See App. 220a (Order of Aug. 12, 1982). The Hearing Master remains in operation.
See Employees v. Missouri Dept. of Public Health and Welfare,
The limitation deprives federal courts of any jurisdiction to entertain such claims, and thus may be raised at any point in a proceeding. “The Eleventh Amendment declares a policy and sets forth an explicit limitation on federal judicial power of such compelling force that this Court will consider the issue arising under this Amendment. . . even though urged for the first time in this Court.” Ford Motor Co. v. Department of Treasury of Indiana,
For this reason, the Court consistently has held that a State’s waiver of sovereign immunity in its own courts is not a waiver of the Eleventh Amendment immunity in the federal courts. See, e. g., Florida Dept. of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Florida Nursing Home Assn.,
See Nevada v. Hall,
“The general rule is that a suit is against the sovereign if ‘the judgment sought would expend itself on the public treasury or domain, or interfere with the public administration,’ or if the effect of the judgment would be ‘to restrain the Government from acting, or to compel it to act.’ ” Dugan v. Rank,
Respondents do not dispute that the relief sought and awarded below operated against the State in each of the foregoing respects. They suggest, however, that the suit here should not be considered to be against the State for the purposes of the Eleventh Amendment because, they say, petitioners were acting ultra vires their authority. Respondents rely largely on Florida Dept. of State v. Treasure Salvors, Inc.,
In his dissent, Justice Stevens advances a far broader — and unprecedented — version of the ultra vires doctrine, which we discuss infra, at 106-117.
We reject respondents’ additional contention that Pennsylvania has waived its immunity from suit in federal court. At the time the suit was filed, suits against Pennsylvania were permitted only where expressly authorized by the legislature, see, e. g., Freach v. Commonwealth,
We also do not agree with respondents that the presence of the United States as a plaintiff in this case removes the Eleventh Amendment from consideration. Although the Eleventh Amendment does not bar the United States from suing a State in federal court, see, e. g., Monaco v. Mississippi,
We do not decide whether the District Court would have jurisdiction under this reasoning to grant prospective relief on the basis of federal law, but we note that the scope of any such relief would be constrained by principles of comity and federalism. “Where, as here, the exercise of authority by state officials is attacked, federal courts must be constantly mindful of the ‘special delicacy of the adjustment to be preserved between federal equitable power and State administration of its own law.’” Rizzo v. Goode,
We are prompted to respond at some length to Justice Stevens’ 41-page dissent in part by his broad charge that “the Court repudiates at least 28 cases,” post, at 127. The decisions the dissent relies upon simply do not support this sweeping characterization. See nn. 19, 20, and 21, infra.
In this case, for example, the court below rested its finding that state law required habilitation in the least restrictive environment on dicta in In re Schmidt,
This part of the court’s findings and judgment was not appealed. See Halderman v. Pennhurst State School and Hospital,
The parties defendant in this suit were not all individuals. They included as well the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, a major department of the State itself; and the Pennhurst State School and Hospital, a state institution. The dissent apparently is arguing that the defendants as a group — including both the state institutions, and state and county officials — were acting ultra vires. Since the institutions were only said to have violated the law through the individual defendants, the District Court’s findings, never since questioned by any court, plainly exonerate all the defendants from the dissent’s claim that they acted beyond the scope of their authority.
A truth of which the dissent’s theoretical argument seems unaware is the plight of many if not most of the mental institutions in our country. As the District Court in this case found: “History is replete with misunderstanding and mistreatment of the retarded.” Id., at 1299. Accord, Message from President Kennedy Relative to Mental Illness and Mental Retardation, H. R. Doc. No. 58, 88th Cong., 1st Sess., 13 (1963) (“We as a Nation have long neglected the mentally ill and the mentally retarded”). It is common knowledge that “insane asylums,” as they were known until the middle of this century, usually were underfunded and understaffed. It is not easy to persuade competent people to work in these institutions, particularly well-trained professionals. Physical facilities, due to consistent underfunding by state legislatures, have been grossly inadequate — especially in light of advanced knowledge and techniques for the treatment of the mentally ill. See generally id., at 2, 4; The President’s Committee on Mental Retardation, MR 68: The Edge of Change 11-13 (1968); President’s Committee on Mental Retardation, Changing Patterns in Residential Services for the Mentally Retarded 1-57 (R. Kugel & W. Wolfensberger eds. 1969); R. Scheerenberger, A History of Mental Retardation 240-243 (1983). Only recently have States commenced to move to correct widespread deplorable conditions. The responsibility, as the District Court recognized after a protracted trial, has rested on the State itself.
The dissent appears to be confused about our argument here. See post, at 138-139. It is of course true, as the dissent says, that the finding below that petitioners acted in good faith and therefore were immune from damages does not affect whether an injunction might be issued against them by a court possessed of jurisdiction. The point is that the courts below did not have jurisdiction because the relief ordered so plainly ran against the State. No one questions that the petitioners in operating Pennhurst were acting in their official capacity. Nor can it be questioned that the judgments under review commanded action that could be taken by petitioners only in their official capacity — and, of course, only if the State provided the necessary funding. It is evident that the dissent would vest in federal courts authority, acting solely under state law, to ignore the sovereignty of the States that the Eleventh Amendment was adopted to protect. Article III confers no jurisdiction on this Court to strip an explicit Amendment of the Constitution of its substantive meaning.
Contrary to the dissent’s view, see post, at 150, an injunction based on federal law stands on very different footing, particularly in light of the Civil War Amendments. As we have explained, in such cases this Court is vested with the constitutional duty to vindicate “the supreme authority of the United States,” Ex parte Young,
See Rolston v. Missouri Fund Commissioners,
The cases are collected in n. 50 of the dissent, post, at 165-166. Several of the cases do not rest on an Eleventh Amendment holding at all. For example, federal jurisdiction in fact was held to be lacking in Martin v. Lankford,
Tindal v. Wesley,
See, e. g., Philadelphia Co. v. Stimson,
In any event, as with the Eleventh Amendment cases, see n. 19, supra, the dissent also is wrong to say that the federal sovereign immunity cases it cites post, at 166, n. 50, are today overruled. Many of them were actions for damages in tort against the individual officer. Little v. Barreme,
There is language in other cases that suggests they were actions alleging torts, not statutory violations. See Philadelphia Co. v. Stimson, supra, at 623; Sloan Shipyards Corp. v. United States Shipping Bd. Emergency Fleet Corp.,
In fact, as the dissent itself states, the argument in Larson that an allegation of tortious activity overrides sovereign immunity is essentially the same as the dissent’s argument that an allegation of conduct contrary to statute overrides sovereign immunity. See post, at 158. The result in each case — as the Court in Larson recognized — turns on whether the defendant state official was empowered to do what he did, i. e., whether, even if he acted erroneously, it was action within the scope of his authority. See Larson,
“It has been said, in a very special sense, that, as a matter of agency law, a principal may never lawfully authorize the commission of a tort by his agent. But that statement, in its usual context, is only a way of saying that an agent’s liability for torts committed by him cannot be avoided by pleading the direction or authorization of his principal. The agent is himself liable whether or not he has been authorized or even directed to commit the tort. This, of course, does not mean that the principal is not liable nor that the tortious action may not be regarded as the action of the principal.”
The Larson Court noted that a similar argument “was at one time advanced in connection with corporate agents, in an effort to avoid corporate liability for torts, but was decisively rejected.” Ibid. See 10 W. Fletcher, Cyclopedia of the Law of Private Corporations § 4877, p. 350 (rev. ed. 1978) (a corporation is liable for torts committed by its agent within the scope of his authority even though the “act was contrary to or in violation of the instructions or orders given by it to the offending agent”); id., §4959 (same as to crimes).
The dissent’s strained interpretation of Larson, post, at 153-155, simply ignores the language that the dissent itself quotes: “It is important to note that in [ultra vires] cases the relief can be granted, without impleading the sovereign, only because of the officer’s lack of delegated power. A claim of error in the exercise of that power is therefore not sufficient.”
As we have discussed supra, at 102-103, Edelman v. Jordan,
We have noted that the authority-stripping theory of Young is a fiction that has been narrowly construed. In this light, it may well be wondered what principled basis there is to the ultra vires doctrine as it was set forth in Larson and Florida Dept. of State v. Treasure Salvors, Inc.,
The dissent appears to believe that Larson is consistent with all prior law. See post, at 153. This view ignores the fact that the Larson Court itself understood that it was required to “resolve [a] conflict in doctrine.”
“The Court’s 1949 Larson decision makes it unnecessary, however, to undertake that task here. For in Larson the Court, aware that it was called upon to ‘resolve the conflict in doctrine’ . . . , thoroughly reviewed the many prior decisions, and made an informed and carefully considered choice between the seemingly conflicting precedents.” Ibid.
The Court included many of the cases upon which the dissent relies in its list of cases that were rejected by Larson. See
E. g., Rolston v. Missouri Fund Commissioners,
As noted, n. 26, supra, some of these cases were also cited — and rejected — in Malone v. Bowdoin, supra, at 646, n. 6.
The ease was argued in the same way. The Eleventh Amendment argument in the briefs is confined to the federal constitutional claims. See, e. g., Brief for Louisville & Nashville R. Co., O. T. 1916, Nos. 778, 779, pp. 15-38 (jurisdiction over federal claims); id., at 38-39 (pendent juris
Nor do any of the other pendent-jurisdiction cases cited in Justice Stevens’ dissent, post, at 166, n. 52, discuss the Eleventh Amendment in connection with the state-law claims. Moreover, since Larson was decided in 1949, making clear that mere violations of state law would not override the Eleventh Amendment, these cases have been cited only for the proposition that, as a general matter, a federal court should decide a case on state-law grounds where possible to avoid a federal constitutional question. Nothing in our decision is meant to cast doubt on the desirability of applying the Siler principle in cases where the federal court has jurisdiction to decide the state-law issues.
See Edelman v. Jordan,
See, e. g., Monaco v. Mississippi,
See Missouri v. Fiske, supra, at 27 (“This is not less a suit against the State because the bill is ancillary and supplemental”).
Moreover, allowing claims against state officials based on state law to be brought in the federal courts does not necessarily foster the policies of “judicial economy, convenience and fairness to litigants,” Mine Workers v. Gibbs,
Waste and delay may also result from abstention, which often is called for when state law is unclear, see Baggett v. Bullitt,
Cf. Aldinger v. Howard,
We have held that the Eleventh Amendment does not apply to “counties and similar municipal corporations.” Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle,
On the Fourteenth Amendment issue, the court should consider Youngberg v. Romeo,
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
I fully agree with Justice Stevens’ dissent. Nevertheless, I write separately to explain that in view of my continued belief that the Eleventh Amendment “bars federal court suits against States only by citizens of other States,” Yeomans v. Kentucky,
Dissenting Opinion
with whom Justice Brennan, Justice Marshall, and Justice Blackmun join, dissenting.
This case has illuminated the character of an institution. The record demonstrates that the Pennhurst State School and Hospital has been operated in violation of state law. In 1977, after three years of litigation, the District Court entered detailed findings of fact that abundantly support that conclusion. In 1981, after four more years of litigation, this Court ordered the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to decide whether the law of Pennsylvania provides an independent and adequate ground which can support the District Court’s remedial order. The Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, unanimously concluded that it did. This Court does not disagree with that conclusion. Rather, it reverses the Court of Appeals because it did precisely what this Court ordered it to do; the only error committed by the Court of Appeals was its faithful obedience to this Court’s command.
This remarkable result is the product of an equally remarkable misapplication of the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity. In a completely unprecedented holding, today the Court concludes that Pennsylvania’s sovereign immunity prevents a federal court from enjoining the conduct that Pennsylvania itself has prohibited. No rational view of the sovereign immunity of the States supports this result. To the
I
The conduct of petitioners that the Court attributes to the State of Pennsylvania in order to find it protected by the Eleventh Amendment is described in detail in the District Court’s findings. As noted in our prior opinion, Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman,
The District Court held that these conditions violated each resident’s rights under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 87 Stat. 394, 29 U. S. C. § 794, and the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act of 1966, Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 50, §§4101-4704 (Purdon 1969 and Supp. 1983-1984) (MH/MR Act). The en banc Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed most of the District Court’s judgment, but it grounded its decision solely on the “bill of rights” provision in the Developmentally Disabled Assistance and Bill of Rights Act, 42 U. S. C. § 6010. The court did not consider the constitutional issues or § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. While it affirmed the District Court’s holding that the MH/MR Act provides a right to adequate habilitation, the court did not decide whether that state right justified all of the relief granted by the District Court.
Petitioners sought review by this Court, asserting that the Court of Appeals had erred in its construction of both federal and state statutes. This Court granted certiorari and re
On remand,
Petitioners’ position is utterly without support. The Eleventh Amendment and the doctrine of sovereign immunity it embodies have never been interpreted to deprive a court of jurisdiction to grant relief against government officials who are engaged in conduct that is forbidden by their sovereign. On the contrary, this Court has repeatedly and consistently exercised the power to enjoin state officials from violating state law.
II
The majority proceeds as if this Court has not had previous occasion to consider the Eleventh Amendment argument made by petitioners, and contends that Ex parte Young,
By 1908, it was firmly established that conduct of state officials under color of office that is tortious as a matter of state law is not protected by the Eleventh Amendment. See Reagan v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co.,
“[I]mmunity from suit is a high attribute of sovereignty — a prerogative of the State itself — which cannot be availed of by public agents when sued for their own torts. The Eleventh Amendment was not intended to afford them freedom from liability in any case where, under color of their office, they have injured one of the State’s citizens. To grant them such immunity would be to create a privileged class free from liability for wrongs inflicted or injuries threatened. . . .
“... Besides, neither a State nor an individual can confer upon an agent authority to commit a tort so as to excuse the perpetrator. In such cases the law of agency has no application — the wrongdoer is treated as a principal and individually liable for the damages inflicted and subject to injunction against the commission of acts causing irreparable injury.” Id., at 642-643.9
“To answer it otherwise would be to assert, we think, that whatever an officer does, even in contravention of the laws of the State, is state action, identifies him with it and makes the redress sought against him a claim against the State and therefore prohibited by the Eleventh Amendment. Surely an officer of a State may be delinquent without involving the State in delinquency, indeed, may injure the State by delinquency as well as some resident of the State, and be amenable to both.” Id., at 545.
Similarly, in Rolston v. Missouri Fund Commissioners,
Finally, in Greene v. Louisville & Interurban R. Co.,
None of these cases contain only “implicit” or sub silentio holdings; all of them explicitly consider and reject the claim that the Eleventh Amendment prohibits federal courts from issuing injunctive relief based on state law. There is therefore no basis for the majority’s assertion that the issue presented by this case is an open one, ante, at 119.
The Court also relies heavily on the fact that the District Court found petitioners immune from damages liability because they “ ‘acted in the utmost good faith . . . within the sphere of their official responsibilities,”’ ante, at 107 (emphasis in original) (quoting
On its face, the Eleventh Amendment applies only to suits against a State brought by citizens of other States and foreign nations.
The Court has subsequently adheréd to this interpretation of the Eleventh Amendment. For example, in Quern v. Jordan,
The doctrine of sovereign immunity developed in England, where it was thought that the King could not be sued. However, common-law courts, in applying the doctrine, traditionally distinguished between the King and his agents, on the theory that the King would never authorize unlawful conduct, and that therefore the unlawful acts of the King’s officers ought not to be treated as acts of the sovereign. See 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *244. As early as the 15th century, Holdsworth writes, servants of the King were held liable for their unlawful acts. See 3 W. Holdsworth, A History of English Law 388 (1903). During the 17th century, this rule of law was used extensively to curb the King’s authority. The King’s officers
“could do wrong, and if they committed wrongs, whether in the course of their employment or not, they could be made legally liable. The command or instruction of the king could not protect them. If the king really had given such commands or instructions, he must have been deceived.” 6 id., at 101 (footnote omitted).
In one famous case, it was held that although process would not issue against the sovereign himself, it could issue against his officers. “[F]or the warrant of no man, not even of the King himself, can excuse the doing of an illegal act.” Sands v. Child, 3 Lev. 351, 352, 83 Eng. Rep. 725, 726 (K. B. 1693).
It was only natural, then, that this Court, in applying the principles of sovereign immunity, recognized the distinction between a suit against a State and one against its officer.
“The Act to be enforced is alleged to be unconstitutional, and if it be so, the use of the name of the State to enforce an unconstitutional act to the injury of complainants is a proceeding without the authority of and one which does not affect the State in its sovereign or governmental capacity. It is simply an illegal act upon the part of a state official in attempting by the use of the name of the State to enforce a legislative enactment which is void because unconstitutional. If the act which the state Attorney General seeks to enforce be a violation of the Federal Constitution, the officer in proceeding under such enactment comes into conflict with the superior authority of that Constitution, and he is in that case stripped of his official or representative character and is subjected in his person to the consequences of his individual conduct.” Id., at 159-160.26
The Young Court distinguished between the State and its Attorney General because the latter, in violating the Constitution, had engaged in conduct the sovereign could not authorize. The pivotal consideration was not that the conduct violated federal law, since nothing in the jurisprudence of the Eleventh Amendment permits a suit against a sovereign merely because federal law is at issue.
The pivotal consideration in Young was that it was not conduct of the sovereign that was at issue.
This rule plainly applies to conduct of state officers in violation of state law. Young states that the significance of the charge of unconstitutional conduct is that it renders the state official’s conduct “simply an illegal act,” and hence the officer is not entitled to the sovereign’s immunity. Since a state officer’s conduct in violation of state law is certainly no less illegal than his violation of federal law, in either case the official, by committing an illegal act, is “stripped of his official or representative character. ” For example, one oí Young’s predecessors held that a suit challenging an unconstitutional attempt by the Virginia Legislature to disavow a state contract was not barred by the Eleventh Amendment, reasoning that
“inasmuch as, by the Constitution of the United States, which is also the supreme law of Virginia, that contract, when made, became thereby unchangeable, irrepealable by the State, the subsequent act of January 26,1882, and all other like acts, which deny the obligation of that contract and forbid its performance, are not the acts of the State of Virginia. The true and real Commonwealth which contracted the obligation is incapable in law of doing anything in derogation of it. Whatever having that effect, if operative, has been attempted or done, is the work of its government acting without authority, in violation of its fundamental law, and must be looked upon, in all courts of justice, as if it were not and never had been. . . . The State of Virginia has done none of*148 these things with which this defence charges her. The defendant in error is not her officer, her agent, or her representative, in the matter complained of, for he has acted not only without her authority, but contrary to her express commands.” Poindexter v. Greenhow,114 U. S., at 292-293 (emphasis supplied).31
It is clear that the Court in Poindexter attached no significance to the fact that Virginia had been accused of violating federal and not its own law.
“If a suit against officers of a State to enjoin them from enforcing an unconstitutional statute ... be not one against the State, it is impossible to see how a suit against the individuals to recover the possession of property belonging to the plaintiff and illegally withheld by the defendants can be deemed a suit against the State.” Id., at 222.33
These cases are based on the simple idea that an illegal act strips the official of his state-law shield, thereby depriving the official of the sovereign’s immunity. The majority criticizes this approach as being “out of touch with reality” because it ignores the practical impact of an injunction on the
It follows that the basis for the Young rule is present when the officer sued has violated the law of the sovereign; in all such cases the conduct is of a type that would not be permitted by the sovereign and hence is not attributable to the sovereign under traditional sovereign immunity principles. In such a case, the sovereign’s interest lies with those who seek to enforce its laws, rather than those who have violated them.
“[PJublic officials may become tort-feasors by exceeding the limits of their authority. And where, they unlawfully seize or hold a citizen’s realty or chattels, recoverable by appropriate action at law or in equity . . . [t]he dominant interest of the sovereign is then on the side of the victim who may bring his possessory action to reclaim that which is wrongfully withheld.” Land v. Dollar,380 U. S. 731 , 738 (1947).34
The majority’s position that the Eleventh Amendment does not permit federal courts to enjoin conduct that the sovereign State itself seeks to prohibit thus is inconsistent with both
Moreover, the majority’s rule has nothing to do with the basic reason the Eleventh Amendment was added to the Constitution. There is general agreement that the Amendment was passed because the States were fearful that federal courts would force them to pay their Revolutionary War debts, leading to their financial ruin.
In light of the preceding, it should come as no surprise that there is absolutely no authority for the majority’s position that the rule of Young is inapplicable to violations of state law. The only cases the majority cites, ante, at 105-106, for the proposition that Young is limited to the vindication of federal law do not consider the question whether Young permits injunctive relief on the basis of state law — in each of the cases the question was neither presented, briefed, argued, nor decided.
“There may be, of course, suits for specific relief against officers of the sovereign which are not suits against the sovereign. If the officer purports to act as an individual and not as an official, a suit directed against that action is not a suit against the sovereign. If the War Assets Administrator had completed a sale of his personal home, he presumably could be enjoined from later conveying it to a third person. On a similar theory, where the officer’s powers are limited by statute, his actions beyond those limitations are considered individual and not sovereign actions. The officer is not doing*154 the business which the sovereign has empowered him to do or he is doing it in a way which the sovereign has forbidden. His actions are ultra vires his authority and therefore may be made the object of specific relief. It is important to note that in such cases the relief can be granted, without impleading the sovereign, only because of the officer’s lack of delegated power. A claim of error in the exercise of that power is therefore not sufficient. And, since the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case may depend, as we have recently recognized, upon the decision which it ultimately reaches on the merits, it is necessary that the plaintiff set out in his complaint the statutory limitation on which he relies.” Id., at 689-690 (emphasis supplied).
Larson thus clearly indicates that the immunity determination depends upon the merits of the plaintiff’s claim. The same approach is employed by Young — the plaintiff can overcome the state official’s immunity only by succeeding on the merits of its claim of unconstitutional conduct.
Following the two-track analysis of Larson, the cases considering the question whether the state official is entitled to the sovereign’s immunity can be grouped into two categories. In cases like Larson, Malone v. Bowdoin,
Larson confirms that the Court’s disposition of this case in 1981 — ordering the Court of Appeals to consider respondents’ state-law claims — was fully harmonious with established sovereign immunity principles. The jurisdiction of the federal court was established by a federal claim;
In sum, a century and a half of this Court’s Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence has established the following. A suit alleging that the official had acted within his authority but in a manner contrary to state statutes was not barred because the Eleventh Amendment prohibits suits against States; it does not bar suits against state officials for actions not permitted by the State under its own law. The sovereign could not and would not authorize its officers to violate its own law; hence an action against a state officer seeking redress for conduct not permitted by state law is a suit against the officer, not the sovereign. Ex parte Young concluded in as explicit a fashion as possible that unconstitutional action by state officials is not action by the State even if it purports to be authorized by state law, because the Federal Constitution strikes down the state-law shield. In the tort cases, if the plaintiff proves his case, there is by definition no state-law defense to shield the defendant. Similarly, when the state officer violates a state statute, the sovereign has by definition erected no shield against liability. These precedents make clear that there is no foundation for the contention that the majority embraces — that Ex parte Young authorizes injunctive relief against state officials only on the basis of federal law. To the contrary, Young is as clear as a
IV
The majority’s decision in this case is especially unwise in that it overrules a long line of cases in order to reach a result that is at odds with the usual practices of this Court. In one of the most respected opinions ever written by a Member of this Court, Justice Brandéis wrote:
“The Court [has] developed, for its own governance in the cases confessedly within its jurisdiction, a series of rules under which it has avoided passing upon a large part of all the constitutional questions pressed upon it for decision. They are:
“. . . The Court will not pass upon a constitutional question although properly presented by the record, if there is also present some other ground upon which the case may be disposed of. This rule has found most varied application. Thus, if a case can be decided on either of two grounds, one involving a constitutional question, the other a question of statutory construction or general law, the Court will decide only the latter. Siler v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co.,213 U. S. 175 , 191.” Ashwander v. TV A,297 U. S. 288 , 346-347 (1936) (concurring opinion).
The Siler case, cited with approval by Justice Brandéis in Ashwander, employed a remarkably similar approach to that used by the Court of Appeals in this case. A privately owned railroad corporation brought suit against the members of the railroad commission of Kentucky to enjoin the enforcement of a rate schedule promulgated by the commission. The Federal Circuit Court found that the schedule violated the plaintiff’s federal constitutional rights and granted re
“Where a case in this court can be decided without reference to questions arising under the Federal Constitution, that course is usually pursued and is not departed from without important reasons. In this case we think it much better to decide it with regard to the question of a local nature, involving the construction of the state statute and the authority therein given to the commission to make the order in question, rather than to unnecessarily decide the various constitutional questions appearing in the record.” Siler v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co.,213 U. S. 175 , 193 (1909).43
The Siler principle has been applied on numerous occasions; when a suit against state officials has presented both federal constitutional questions and issues of state law, the Court has upheld injunctive relief on state-law grounds. See, e. g., Lee v. Bickell,
“Numerous decisions of this Court have stated the general proposition endorsed in Siler — that a federal court properly vested with jurisdiction may pass on the state or local law question without deciding the federal constitutional issues — and have then proceeded to dis*162 pose of the case solely on the nonfederal ground. See, e. g., Hillsborough v. Cromwell,326 U. S. 620 , 629-630 (1946); Waggoner Estate v. Wichita County,273 U. S. 113 , 116-119 (1927); Chicago G. W. R. Co. v. Kendall,266 U. S. 94 (1924); United Gas Co. v. Railroad Comm’n,278 U. S. 300 , 308 (1929); Risty v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co.,270 U. S. 378 , 387 (1926). These and other cases illustrate in practice the wisdom of the federal policy of avoiding constitutional adjudication where not absolutely essential to disposition of a case.” Id., at 547, n. 12.
In fact, in this very case we applied the Siler rule by remanding the case to the Court of Appeals with explicit instructions to consider whether respondents were entitled to relief under state law.
Not only does the Siler rule have an impressive historical pedigree, but it is also strongly supported by the interest in avoiding duplicative litigation and the unnecessary decision of federal constitutional questions.
“The policy’s ultimate foundations ... lie in all that goes to make up the unique place and character, in our scheme, of judicial review of governmental action for constitutionality. They are found in the delicacy of that function, particularly in view of possible consequences for others stemming also from constitutional roots; the comparative finality of those consequences; the consideration due to the judgment of other repositories of constitutional power concerning the scope of their authority; the necessity, if government is to function constitutionally, for each to keep within its power, including the courts; the inherent limitations of the judicial process, arising especially from its largely negative character and limited resources of enforcement; withal in the paramount importance of constitutional adjudication in our*163 system.” Rescue Army v. Municipal Court,331 U. S. 549 , 571 (1947).45
In addition, application of the Siler rule enhances the deci-sionmaking autonomy of the States. Siler directs the federal court to turn first to state law, which the State is free to modify or repeal.
In contrast, the rule the majority creates today serves none of the interests of the State. The majority prevents federal courts from implementing state policies through equitable enforcement of state law. Instead, federal courts are required to resolve cases on federal grounds that no state authority can undo. Leaving violations of state law unre-dressed and ensuring that the decisions of federal courts may never be reexamined by the States hardly comports with the respect for States as sovereign entities commanded by the Eleventh Amendment.
Y
One basic fact underlies this case: far from immunizing petitioners’ conduct, the State of Pennsylvania prohibited it. Respondents do not complain about the conduct of the State of Pennsylvania — it is Pennsylvania’s commands which they seek to enforce. Respondents seek only to have Pennhurst
Throughout its history this Court has derived strength from institutional self-discipline. Adherence to settled doctrine is presumptively the correct course.
I respectfully dissent.
Infectious diseases were common and minimally adequate health care was unavailable. Residents of Pennhurst were inadequately supervised, and as a consequence were often injured by other residents or as a result of self-abuse. Assaults on residents by staff members, including sexual assaults, were frequent. Physical restraints were employed in lieu of adequate staffing, often causing injury to residents, and on one occasion leading to a death. Dangerous psychotropic drugs were indiscriminately used for purposes of behavior control and staff convenience. Staff supervision
In the questions raised in their petition for certiorari, petitioners do not ask this Court to reexamine the Court of Appeals’ conclusion that respondents are clearly entitled to relief under state law. Nor would it be appropriate for this Court to reexamine the unanimous conclusion of the en banc Court of Appeals on a question of state law. See, e. g., Bishop v. Wood,
The court therefore found it unnecessary to decide if respondents were also entitled to relief under the federal statutory and constitutional provisions which had been raised in the District Court.
Although the Court struggles mightily to distinguish some of the cases that foreclose its holding today, see ante, at 106-116, this vain effort merely brings into stark relief the total absence of any affirmative support for its holding.
“Larson [v. Domestic & Foreign Commerce Corp.,
“Neither did Edelman [v. Jordan,
See also Worcester County Trust Co. v. Riley,
The Court explained that the state officer sued in tort “is not sued as, or because he is, the officer of the government, but as an individual, and the court is not ousted of jurisdiction because he asserts authority as such officer. To make out his defence he must show that his authority was sufficient in law to protect him.” Cunningham,
See also Butz v. Economou,
The Court also stated:
“Corporate agents or individual officers of the State stand in no better position than officers of the General Government, and as to them it has often been held that: ‘The exemption of the United States from judicial process does not protect their officers and agents, civil or military, in time of peace, from being personally liable to an action of tort by a private person, whose rights of property they have wrongfully invaded or injured, even by authority of the United States.’ Belknap v. Schild,161 U. S. 10 , 18.”221 U. S., at 645 (emphasis supplied).
The language I have quoted in the text makes it clear that the Court is incorrect to suggest ante, at 109-110, n. 19, that Clemson dealt only with unconstitutional conduct and not with conduct in violation of state tort law. See also Old Colony Trust Co. v. Seattle,
In Reagan v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co.,
Cases construing the sovereign immunity of the Federal Government also hold that conduct by federal officers forbidden by statute is not shielded by sovereign immunity even though the officer is not acting completely beyond his authority. See Land v. Dollar,
The Court cited Siler v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co.,
The unanimous rejection of the argument that the Eleventh Amendment bars claims based on state officers’ violations of federal statutes in Ray v. Atlantic Richfield Co.,
The majority incredibly claims that Greene contains only an implicit holding on the Eleventh Amendment question the Court decides today. Ante, at 117-119. In plain words, the Greene Court held that the Eleventh Amendment did not bar consideration of the pendent state-law claims advanced in that case. The Court then considered and sustained those claims on their merits.
Contrary to the Court’s treatment of them, the cases discussed above rely on the doctrine embraced in the quotation from Clemson I have set out — officials have no discretion to violate the law. The same is true of the federal sovereign immunity cases. See, e. g., Land v. Dollar,
In a rather desperate attempt to explain these cases, amici suggest that the Court simply did not realize that it was deciding questions of state law, since in the era before Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins,
“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.”
“Manifestly, we cannot rest with a mere literal application of the words of § 2 or Article III, or assume that the letter of the Eleventh Amendment exhausts the restrictions upon suits against non-consenting states. Behind the words of the constitutional provisions are postulates which limit and control. There is the essential postulate that the controversies, as contemplated, shall be found to be of a justiciable character. There is also the postulate that States of the Union, still possessing attributes of sovereignty, shall be immune from suits, without their consent, save where there has been ‘a surrender of this immunity in the plan of the convention.’ ”
Petitioners themselves treat the Eleventh Amendment as equivalent to the doctrine of sovereign immunity. See Brief for Petitioners 12, n. 10. The Court appears to agree. Ante, at 98.
Of course, if the Court were to apply the text of the Amendment, it would not bar an action against Pennsylvania by one of its own citizens. See n. 17, swpra.
The rationale for this principle was compelling. Courts did not wish to confront the King’s immunity from suit directly; nevertheless they found the threat to liberty posed by permitting the sovereign’s abuses to go un-remedied to be intolerable. Since in reality the King could act only through his officers, the rule which permitted suits against those officers formally preserved the sovereign’s immunity while operating as one of the means by which courts curbed the abuses of the monarch. See 10 Holdsworth, at 262-268.
Commentators have noted the influence of these English doctrines on the American conception of sovereign immunity. See Jaffe, Suits Against Governments and Officers: Sovereign Immunity, 77 Harv. L. Rev. 1,19-29 (1963); Note, Express Waiver of Eleventh Amendment Immunity, 17 Ga. L. Rev. 513, 517-518 (1983); Note, Developments in the Law — Remedies Against the United States and its Officials, 70 Harv. L. Rev. 827, 831-833 (1957). In fact, in Belknap v. Schild,
Chief Justice Marshall, writing for the Court, recognized this distinction in the very first case to reach the Court concerning the application of the Eleventh Amendment to the conduct of a state official, Osborn v. Bank of United States,
See also McNeill v. Southern R. Co.,
“That, it is true, is a legislative act of the government of Virginia, but it is not a law of the State of Virginia. The State has passed no such law, for it cannot; and what it cannot do, it certainly, in contemplation of law, has not done. The Constitution of the United States, and its own contract, both irrepealable by any act on its part, are the law of Virginia; and that law made it the duty of the defendant to receive the coupons tendered in payment of taxes, and declared every step to enforce the tax, thereafter taken, to be without warrant of law, and therefore a wrong. He stands, then, stripped of his official character; and, confessing a personal violation of the plaintiff’s rights for which he must personally answer, he is without defence.” Poindexter v. Greenhow,
See generally Orth, The Interpretation of the Eleventh Amendment, 1798-1908: A Case Study of Judicial Power, 1983 U. Ill. L. Rev. 423. The
As the Solicitor General correctly notes in his brief, “this Court has no power to create any exception to a constitutional bar to federal court jurisdiction. Ex parte Young rests instead on recognition that the Eleventh Amendment simply does not apply to suits seeking to restrain illegal acts by state officials — whether those acts are illegal because they violate the Constitution, as in Young, or federal or state law.” Brief for United States 23 (citations omitted).
See Quern v. Jordan,
The distinction between the sovereign and its agents not only explains why the rationale of Ex parte Young and its predecessors is consistent with established sovereign immunity doctrine, but it also explains the critical difference between actions for injunctive relief and actions for damages recognized in Edelman v. Jordan,
“While in England personification of sovereignty in the person of the King may have been possible, attempts to adopt this reasoning in the United States resulted in the postulation of the abstract State as sovereign. Since the ideal State could only act by law, whatever the State did must be lawful. On this ground a distinction was drawn between the State
See also Barney v. City of New York,
This approach began long before Poindexter. The earliest cases in which this Court rejected sovereign immunity defenses raised by officers of the sovereign accused of unlawful conduct did not involve charges of unconstitutional conduct, but rather simple trespass actions. In rejecting the defense, the Court simply noted that although the officers were acting pursuant to their duties, they were engaged in unlawful conduct which therefore could not be the conduct of the sovereign. See Bates v. Clark,
To the same effect as Tindal is South Carolina v. Wesley,
While Land v. Dollar is a case dealing with the sovereign immunity of the Federal Government, it is pertinent to the Eleventh Amendment, which after all for present purposes is no more than an embodiment of sovereign immunity principles.
For example, in eases barring suits against individual officers as suits against the State, the Court has also acknowledged the importance of state-law authority for the challenged conduct of the officer. In such cases the Court has frequently noted that the relief sought would be unauthorized by state law and would therefore adversely affect the State itself. See, e. g., Hagood v. Southern,
See, e. g., Petty v. Tennessee-Missouri Bridge Comm’n,
The majority cites Quern v. Jordan,
In addition to overruling the cases discussed in Part II, supra, the majority’s view that Young exists simply to ensure the supremacy of federal law indicates that a number of our prior cases, which held that the Eleventh Amendment may bar an action for injunctive relief even where the State has violated the Federal Constitution, see, e. g., Alabama v. Pugh,
There can be no doubt that respondents’ federal claims were sufficiently substantial to justify federal jurisdiction in this case. In another case brought by a resident of Pennhurst, we held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires, at a minimum, that petitioners provide the residents with reasonable care and safety. See Youngberg v. Romeo,
In Larson, the Administrator of the War Assets Administration was in possession of coal that the plaintiff claimed the Administrator was contractually obligated to deliver to it. Instead of seeking damages for breach of contract in the Court of Claims, the plaintiff sought an injunction in the District Court. The Court held that the Administrator had acted properly in refusing to deliver the coal and instead insisting that the plaintiff seek its remedy in the Court of Claims.
“There was, it is true, an allegation that the Administrator was acting ‘illegally,’ and that the refusal to deliver was ‘unauthorized.’ But these allegations were not based and did not purport to be based upon any lack of delegated power. Nor could they be, since the Administrator was empowered by the sovereign to administer a general sales program encompassing the negotiation of contracts, the shipment of goods and the receipt of payment. A normal concomitant of such powers, as a matter of general agency law, is the power to refuse delivery when, in the agent’s view, delivery is not called for under a contract and the power to sell goods which the agent believes are still his principal’s to sell.”387 U. S., at 691-692 (footnotes omitted).
Thus, the Administrator had acted properly. He was doing what any agent would do — holding on to property he believed was his principal’s and insisting that the claimant sue the principal if it wanted the property. He was merely exercising the “normal” duties of a sales agent. Congress envisioned that he do exactly that; the remedy it had provided required the claimant to sue for damages in the Court of Claims rather than obtaining the property directly from the Administrator, and no one had questioned the constitutional sufficiency of that alternative remedy. See McCord, Fault Without Liability: Immunity of Federal Employees, 1966 U. Ill. Law Forum 849, 862-867. “Since the plaintiff had not made an affirmative allegation of any relevant statutory limitation upon the Administrator’s powers, and had made no claim that the Administrator’s action amounted to an unconstitutional taking, the Court ruled that the suit must fail as an effort to enjoin the United States.” Malone v. Bowdoin,
The majority also repudiates Justice White’s recent statement in Treasure Salvors: “where the officer’s actions are limited by statute, actions beyond those limitations are to be considered individual and not sovereign actions.”
Indeed, the majority senses as much, by admitting that it cannot reconcile the ultra vires doctrine endorsed by Larson with its approach. See ante, at 114, n. 25. The maj ority is also incorrect in suggesting that Larson overruled most if not all of the cases contrary to its position. In fact, Larson cited most of those cases with approval, including Hopkins v. Clemson Agricultural College,
In Siler the Court decided the case on state-law grounds, even though it acknowledged that “[i]n this ease we are without the benefit of a construction of the statute by the highest state court of Kentucky, and we must proceed in the absence of state adjudication upon the subject.”
Justice Peckham’s opinion in Siler rested on a long line of cases, dating back to Chief Justice Marshall’s decision in Osborn v. Bank of United States,
Cf. H. L. v. Matheson,
In some of the cases following Siler, this Court has required that the decree include a provision expressly authorizing its reopening in the event that a state court later decided the question of state law differently. See Lee v. Bickell,
“I agree with what the Court stated only days ago, that ‘the doctrine of stare decisis, while perhaps never entirely persuasive on a constitutional question, is a doctrine that demands respect in a society governed by the rule of law.’ Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, Inc.,
This statement was joined by four Members of today’s majority. The fifth was the author of the opinion of the Court in City of Akron.
This is an especially odd context in which to repudiate settled law because changes in our social fabric favor limitation rather than expansion of sovereign immunity. The concept that the sovereign can do no wrong and that citizens should be remediless in the face of its abuses is more a relic of medieval thought than anything else.
“Whether this immunity is an absolute survival of the monarchial privilege, or is a manifestation merely of power, or rests on abstract logical grounds, it undoubtedly runs counter to modern democratic notions of the moral responsibility of the State. Accordingly, courts reflect a strong legislative momentum in their tendency to extend the legal responsibility of Government and to confirm Maitland’s belief, expressed nearly fifty years ago that, ‘it is a wholesome sight to see “the Crown” sued and answering for its torts.’” Great Northern Life Ins. Co. v. Read,322 U. S. 47 , 59 (1944) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) (citation omitted).
In the even older decision of Poindexter v. Greenhow,
*165 “This distinction is essential to the idea of constitutional government. To deny it or blot it out obliterates the line of demarcation that separates constitutional government from absolutism, free self-government based on the sovereignty of the people from that despotism, whether of the one or the many, which enables the agent of the State to declare and decree that he is the State; to say ‘L’Etat c’est moi.’ Of what avail are written constitutions whose bills of right for the security of individual liberty have been written, too often, with the blood of martyrs shed upon the battlefield and the scaffold, if their limitations and restraints upon power may be overpassed with impunity by the very agencies created and appointed to guard, defend, and enforce them; and that, too, with the sacred authority of law, not only compelling obedience, but entitled to respect? And how else can these principles of individual liberty and right be maintained, if, when violated, the judicial, tribunals are forbidden to visit penalties upon individual offenders, who are the instruments of wrong, whenever they interpose the shield of the State? The doctrine is not to be tolerated. The whole frame and scheme of the political institutions of this country, State and Federal, protest against it. Their continued existence is not compatible with it. It is the doctrine of absolutism, pure, simple, and naked....” Id., at 291.
See also Gibbons, The Eleventh Amendment and State Sovereign Immunity: A Reinterpretation, 83 Colum. L. Rev. 1889 (1983).
The heart of today’s holding is that this Court had no power to act as it did in 1981 when it ordered the Court of Appeals to consider and decide the state-law issues in this very case.
In the following cases the Court held injunctive relief may issue against state officers on the basis of state law after explicitly rejecting their Eleventh Amendment defense: Rolston v. Missouri Fund Commissioners,
Since petitioners’ position applies also to federal sovereign immunity (indeed the principal case on which they rely, Larson, is a federal sovereign immunity case), the following additional cases which refused to apply sovereign immunity to suits against federal officers acting within the scope of their authority because the plaintiff had alleged that the officers had engaged in unlawful conduct are rejected: Little v. Barreme,
From the 15th-century English common law to Larson and beyond, courts have never held that prohibited conduct can be shielded by sovereign immunity. That rule makes good sense — since a principal cannot authorize unlawful conduct, such conduct is of necessity ultra vires. There is no reason to abandon such a well-settled and sensible rule.
The majority also overrules Siler v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co.,