11. Amendment to the United States Constitution
The 11th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America , the Eleventh Amendment , was enacted by the United States Congress on March 4, 1794 and was ratified on February 7, 1795 .
text
"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."
“The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed as extending to any action, under the law or in equity, brought against any state of the United States by citizens of another state or by citizens or subjects of a foreign state . "
history
This constitutional amendment was adopted after the Supreme Court in its decision v Chisholm. Georgia had ruled in 1793 that federal courts had jurisdiction in lawsuits against either state and that states had no immunity from lawsuits by a citizen of any other state.
The amendment deprives the federal courts of jurisdiction to deal with a person's claims against the government of a state. However, federal courts can be used if the defendant state allows such action. The Supreme Court also ruled in the Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 US 445 in 1976 unanimously agreed that Congress can waive a state's immunity if it does so within the limits of its constitutional rights. See e.g. B. the case of Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida, 517 US 44 (1996). The Supreme Court has interpreted the 14th Amendment to the Constitution as a source of law granting such a right.
Although the amendment literally does not include cases of a citizen suing his own state, the Supreme Court ruled in the Hans v. Louisiana 134 US 1 (1890) that a broader principle of federal immunity exists, of which the Eleventh Amendment is just one example. Such immunity is commonly referred to as "Eleventh Amendment immunity", although even the Supreme Court did so in the Alden vs. Maine, 527 US 706 , (1999), recognized as a misnomer (“something of a misnomer”).
There has been a steadfast stance in opposition from judges of the Supreme Court that by ratifying the constitution, states would have ceded their sovereignty. The eleventh amendment to the constitution must therefore be interpreted narrowly so that it can only be applied to lawsuits that are dealt with by federal courts against states in the context of diversity jurisdiction (the parties to the dispute come from different states).
