Opinion ID: 437193
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Eleventh Amendment Question

Text: 21 The state defendants argue that the preliminary injunction is barred by the Eleventh Amendment. The state defendants rely on Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 900, 911, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984) (Pennhurst II ), a recent Supreme Court decision holding that the Eleventh Amendment bars injunctions ordering state officials to conform their conduct to state law. In Pennhurst II, the Supreme Court said, 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. Id. 22 Pennhurst II, however, is inapplicable here. The district court did not order the state defendants to conform their conduct to state law, but to abide by federal statutes, 1 which incorporate certain aspects of state law. 23 The Supreme Court's actual disposition of the Pennhurst II case proves its inapplicability to the instant case. The Court reversed the Third Circuit's decision only inasmuch as it upheld the injunction on the basis of state law. The Court remanded the case to the Third Circuit for a determination whether the injunction could be sustained under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments as well as under one of the federal statutes at issue in this case, Sec. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The framing of the remand indicates that the Supreme Court believed the Eleventh Amendment was a bar only to an injunction based on state law. Here we must determine whether the preliminary injunction can be sustained not on the basis of state law, but under Sec. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act or under the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act (EAHCA). Under both federal statutes, California waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity by participating in federally funded and regulated programs. 24 This court has previously decided that a state waives its Eleventh Amendment immunity under EAHCA by participating in a federally funded and regulated program to provide special educational programs for handicapped children. Dept. of Education, State of Hawaii v. Katherine D., 727 F.2d 809, 818-19 (9th Cir.1983). 2 In Katherine D., we noted that the Supreme Court has said that it 25 will find waiver only where stated by the most express language or by such overwhelming implications from the text as [will] leave no room for any other reasonable construction. 26 Katherine D., 727 F.2d at 819 (quoting Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 673, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 1360, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974)). We then indicated that Eleventh Amendment immunity will be waived in connection with particular legislation when (1) Congress has authorized suit against a class of defendants that include states, and (2) the state enters into an activity regulated by federal statute. Katherine D., 727 F.2d at 819 (quoting Mills Music, Inc. v. Arizona, 591 F.2d 1278, 1283 (9th Cir.1979)). Applying the Mills Music test, we found first that in enacting EAHCA, Congress authorized suits against a class of defendants that include states--private actions under EAHCA are inevitably against state agencies. We also held that the second prong of the test was satisfied; by receiving funds under EAHCA, a state voluntarily enters into an activity regulated by federal law. 27 This court also recently held that states' Eleventh Amendment immunity is waived under Sec. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Scanlon v. Atascadero State Hospital, 735 F.2d 359 (1984). Section 504 provides that no otherwise qualified handicapped individual shall be subject to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 794 (1982). In Scanlon, we held that Sec. 504 is an enactment pursuant to section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment which  'by its terms authorized suit by designated plaintiffs against a general class of defendants which literally included States or state instrumentalities,' and the 'State by its participation in the program authorized by Congress had in effect consented to the abrogation of that immunity.'  Scanlon, at 361. 28 Applying the Mills Music two-pronged test to evaluate Sec. 504, once again we see that (1) Congress has authorized private suits against a class of defendants that inevitably includes states, and (2) by accepting federal funds, the states have entered into activities regulated by federal law. Thus, the Eleventh Amendment is not a barrier to suits against states under either Sec. 504 or EAHCA. 29