But This Constitution Goes Up to 11! Quiz

Answer: Citizens of another state and citizens or subjects of a foreign nation

Enacted as a reaction to the Supreme Court's enforcement of debt actions against states following the revolutionary war, the Eleventh Amendment appears to create a narrow class of "disfavored plaintiffs"; non-state residents may not sue the state.

Answer: The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over all cases in which a state is a party

Article III, Section 2, clause 2 gives the Supreme Court original jurisdiction over any case in which a state is a party. "Original jurisdiction" means that, unlike the majority of cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court (when the court hears appeals), cases in which a state is named as a party do not need to be heard first in a lower federal or state court.

Answer: Federal courts only

The Amendment purports to restrict, "The Judicial power of the United States" which means just the federal courts. The Amendment therefore appears to leave open the option of a suit filed in the state's own courts.

Answer: Any private citizen; the Amendment was adopted to protect state sovereignty

Although all of the rationales are true, the Court now construes the Eleventh Amendment as primarily an expression of state sovereignty. Therefore, although it can be subject to suit by individuals only by its consent or through specific abrogation by later Constitutional Amendments, it must remain open to suits by the United States, a superior sovereign, and other states.

Answer: The Fourteenth Amendment, Section 5

Because the Fourteenth Amendment, which allows Congress to pass laws necessary to enforce its provisions, was passed after the Eleventh Amendment, courts reason that it authorizes Congress to make states civilly liable under 14th Amendment statutes, regardless of the Eleventh Amendment's grant of state immunity.

Article III, section 3, clause 3 lists the qualifications necessary to become a Senator. The Second Amendment deals with the right to bear arms (and it has no section 8). The Nineteenth Amendment guarantees the right of women to vote (and it has no section 2).

Answer: False

Actually, if a state wants to subject itself to lawsuits in federal court, the Constitution does not prevent them from doing so. A typical example of this kind of waiver would be a state legislature passing a statute allowing you to sue the state if a state officer acted illegally under the authority of her position. If the law passed explicitly allowed for such suits, a court should hold that the state has chosen to waive its immunity.

Answer: The City of Los Angeles

Political subdivisions, including cities and towns, are not protected by state sovereign immunity. However, suits for money damages against state officers acting in their official capacities, such as the Attorney General or the Lieutenant Governor, are barred by the Eleventh Amendment.

The Department of Transportation is a non-political subdivision of the state, and would most likely be viewed as an arm of the state itself; it therefore would also be able to assert immunity.

Answer: They only ask for injunctive relief

The so-called "stripping fiction" allows suits to proceed against state officials in their official capacity, which is generally prohibited by the Eleventh Amendment. However, the fiction reasons that when a state officer acts unconstitutionally, she is no longer authorized by the state (the state can't legally authorize an officer to violate the Constitution because the Constitution always supercedes any state law), so she is not acting as an officer of the state.

However, the fiction only extends to suits for injunctive relief - that is, suits asking the officer to do or stop doing something based on the Constitution or federal law.

Answer: Yes

Yes it can! For as broadly as the Eleventh Amendment has been construed, it is important to remember what it does not do. For example, it does not prohibit a state from being a plaintiff in a federal suit (that is, it does not prevent a state from suing someone in federal court); it does not prevent the United States from suing a state in federal court; and it does not prevent a state from being sued by another state in federal court (in fact, such a suit by one state against another state MUST be brought in the United States Supreme Court!).

Answer: 1795

Given the fear aroused by the Supreme Court's decision to accept jurisdiction in Chisolm v. Georgia (1793), the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the amendment in 1794. New York was the first to ratify, and North Carolina gave it the force of law when it became the 12th state to ratify the following year.