Opinion ID: 787518
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether state officers are proper defendants under Title II

Text: 14 Title II provides in relevant part that no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity. 42 U.S.C. § 12132 (2000). The State asserts that the district court erred in denying it Eleventh Amendment immunity from Plaintiffs' cause of action under Title II because a claim cannot be brought under Ex parte Young to enforce that statute. Texas maintains that a state officer is not a proper defendant under Title II; only public entities can be sued under the statute. Thus, since Ex parte Young only allows suits against state officers, Texas reasons that Plaintiffs' Title II claims must be dismissed. In response, Plaintiffs and the government argue that Title II can be enforced through suits for prospective relief against state officers, even though the substantive requirements of the statute apply only to public entities, because a suit against a state officer in her official capacity is really a suit against the state agency itself. 15 Texas's contention presents an issue of first impression in this circuit. The State relies primarily on the Seventh Circuit's opinion in Walker v. Snyder, 213 F.3d 344 (7th Cir.2000). 6 In Walker, the court held that a plaintiff could not bring an Ex parte Young suit to enforce Title II because the only proper defendant is the public body as an entity. Id. at 347. But Walker, decided in 2000, has been undermined by the Supreme Court's subsequent statement in Garrett that Title I of the ADA could be enforced in an Ex parte Young action. Garrett, 531 U.S. at 374 n. 9, 121 S.Ct. 955. Indeed, the Seventh Circuit has disavowed Walker 's holding on this issue, concluding that it did not survive Garrett. Bruggeman v. Blagojevich, 324 F.3d 906, 912-13 (7th Cir.2003). Even though Walker has been abrogated, Texas still contends this court should follow that decision, since the remark from Garrett that the Bruggeman court relied on was dictum. 16 Although the Court's comment in Garrett was not essential to the judgment, the courts of appeals have been unanimous in rejecting arguments that state officers cannot be sued for prospective relief in their official capacities for violations of Title II. 7 In addition to this substantial authority from other circuits, Supreme Court precedent makes clear that a suit against a state official in his or her official capacity is not a suit against the official but rather is a suit against the official's office. Will v. Mich. Dep't of State Police, 491 U.S. 58, 71, 109 S.Ct. 2304, 105 L.Ed.2d 45 (1989); accord Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 165-66, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 87 L.Ed.2d 114 (1985) (Official-capacity suits ... generally represent only another way of pleading an action against an entity of which an officer is an agent. As long as the government entity receives notice and an opportunity to respond, an official-capacity suit is, in all respects other than name, to be treated as a suit against the entity. It is not a suit against the official personally, for the real party in interest is the entity. (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)). Only for the purposes of the Eleventh Amendment are official-capacity actions for prospective relief ... not treated as actions against the State. Graham, 473 U.S. at 167 n. 14, 105 S.Ct. 3099 (citing Ex parte Young ). 17 We thus join the Second, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits in holding that Plaintiffs' Ex parte Young suit to enforce Title II can proceed; Defendants have been sued in their official capacities and are therefore representing their respective state agencies (which are proper Title II defendants) for all purposes except the Eleventh Amendment. 8