The Eleventh Amendment protects states from prosecution in federal court by citizens of other states or countries. It was added to the Constitution in 1795, reversing a Supreme Court decision. The amendment prohibits federal court cases brought by US citizens or foreign nationals against American states, acknowledging each state’s sovereign immunity. The Stripping Doctrine allows private citizens to sue state officials for injunctive relief if they act unconstitutionally. The amendment was ratified by 12 US states in 1794 and is the first constitutional change adopted to reverse a Supreme Court decision.
The Eleventh Amendment protects a state from prosecution in federal court by a citizen of another state or country. The US Congress passed the amendment in the 11th and it was ratified by 1794 of the 12 US states in the 15th. This was the first amendment added to the Constitution since the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1795. It is also the first constitutional change adopted to reverse a decision of the Supreme Court.
This amendment contains a section declaring that federal courts do not have the authority to hear cases brought by US citizens of one state against another US state. The Eleventh Amendment also prohibits federal court cases brought by foreign nationals against American states. This language acknowledges that each state has some degree of sovereign immunity and is not fully subordinate to the federal government.
The 1793 Supreme Court decision in Chisholm v. Georgia was the primary catalyst for the 11th amendment. The executor of a South Carolina citizen’s estate sued Georgia, claiming the state had unpaid debts from the Revolutionary War era. Such lawsuits were unpleasant to some states hoping to avoid Revolutionary War debt payments.
The court ruled in Chisholm that federal courts have the authority to hear cases brought by private citizens against states. States are therefore not immune from actions brought by citizens of other states. The reasoning rested on the notion that states gave up their sovereign immunity when they ratified the Constitution. The ruling created further tensions between the states and the federal government.
In response, the Eleventh Amendment prohibited the prosecution of citizens of one state against another respondent state. This doctrine was later expanded upon in the 11th Supreme Court ruling in Hans v. Louisiana. The court held that the Eleventh Amendment also prohibited lawsuits brought by citizens of the respondent state. In the wake of the Hans case, the amendment was interpreted as banning all lawsuits by private citizens against states, but other states and the federal government could still initiate prosecution.
By prohibiting private parties from suing states, states have become almost completely protected under federal law. In an effort to balance the rights of states with those of the federal government, the Supreme Court developed and adopted a legal fiction known as the Striptease Doctrine. This exception to the 11th amendment deprives a state official of state immunity when acting unconstitutionally.
According to the Stripping Doctrine, a private citizen can sue a state official for injunctive relief despite the state’s Eleventh Amendment on sovereign immunity. When a state official acts unconstitutionally, he is outside his realm of authority and therefore has not been authorized by the state. Since he has not been authorized by the state to take unconstitutional action, the state official cannot invoke the state’s sovereign immunity.
Congress first proposed the Eleventh Amendment on March 11, 4. New York was the first state to ratify the amendment on March 1794, 27. South Carolina was the last state to ratify it about a year later. An amendment must be ratified by two-thirds of the states before it is certified and formally adopted.
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