Opinion ID: 480752
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jurisdiction to enter the june 5, 1985 order

Text: 6 The district court asserted that its Order of June 5 is based on the inherent power possessed by federal courts to enforce agreements entered into in settlement of litigation. The district court summarized its view of its jurisdiction and authority to furlough specific numbers of mentally retarded patients as follows: 7 In sum, the Resolution and Settlement guarantees that class members will receive habilitation in the setting least restrictive of their liberty.... The defendants are not now meeting their obligations under the Resolution and Settlement.... The court has both the right and the duty to enforce the provisions of the Resolution and Settlement, as a matter of law and directly through the provisions of the Resolution and Settlement itself. Record at 1085-86 (Vol. IV). 8 There is a certain inconsistency in this language, which simultaneously suggests either that the R & S compels specific community placements, or that defendants' violation of the R & S enables the court to decree specific placements as a remedy. Appellees contend that the June 5 Order furthers the goals of the R & S by requiring defendants to make a genuine effort to provide such [least restrictive alternative] services. The June 5 Order, in appellees' view, is a remedy to enforce the R & S, which, since it is not in conflict with constitutional law, federal statutes, or rights secured by state law, must be upheld. 9 We summarize our conclusions as follows. Whether the district court's Order of June 5 springs from legitimate enforcement of the R & S or as a court-created remedy for its violation is ultimately of no moment if the relief ordered, in effect, requires state officials to comply with state law. The Supreme Court's decision in Pennhurst II unequivocally held that, without a state's consent, the Eleventh Amendment denies jurisdiction over such an action to the federal courts, and the Court added that neither pendent jurisdiction nor any other basis of jurisdiction may override the Eleventh Amendment. Id. at 121, 104 S.Ct. at 919 (emphasis added). 10 The consent decree in this case was entered prior to, but in the shadow of, the grant of certioriari in Pennhurst II by the Supreme Court. The district court's Order of July 21, 1983, approving the decree painstakingly elicits the constitutional or statutory basis for relief afforded in every significant paragraph of the R & S. That order readily demonstrates that any rights the class members may have with regard to community placement were understood by the district court to originate in, and do in fact exist, in state law. Moreover, considerable case law authority rejects a federal constitutional right to treatment in a least restrictive alternative setting. 5 Because the State has not waived its Eleventh Amendment defense, and because only state law undergirds the Order of June 5, 1985, Pennhurst II precludes its enforcement to the extent of requiring the State to create community facilities for 279 class members. Finally, the fact that this order derives from a consent decree rather than from an order entered at the conclusion of litigation does not change our view of the case. 11