Opinion ID: 2976326
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Immunity claims

Text: The Defendants also raise a number of immunity defenses as an alternative ground for rejecting Lambert’s claims. Although Lambert acknowledges that her opponents raised these claims before the district court and on appeal, she declined to address them in either of her briefs or during oral argument. The district court likewise declined to consider any of these arguments, resting its dismissal of Lambert’s claims on the merits. Because we agree with the district court’s disposition of this case on the merits, we similarly see no need to address the Defendants’ immunity arguments. See, e.g., Nair v. Oakland County Cmty. Mental Health Auth., 443 F.3d 469, 477 (6th Cir. 2006) (explaining that where, as here, a defendant declines to raise Eleventh Amendment immunity as a threshold defense, “federal courts have discretion to address the sovereign-immunity defense and the merits in whichever order they prefer”). No. 07-3154 Lambert v. Hartman et al. Page 5