Opinion ID: 3012896
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the jurisdictional nature of the eleventh

Text: AMENDMENT The district court permitted the third-party complaint to go forward notwithstanding its holdings that two of the third-party defendants, Memphis and UMass, were arms of their respective states and thus could invoke the Eleventh Amendment. It reached this result because it held that they waived immunity under the Rehabilitation Act by their acceptance of federal funds and because Congress had 10. We realize that under our opinion even if Temple does not file the notice of dismissal Memphis could move to dismiss the third-party complaint against it. Inasmuch as we are taxing costs in favor of UMass and Delaware State against Temple the district court might think it appropriate to follow the same course with respect to Memphis. 20 abrogated their immunity by enacting Title II of the ADA. These holdings permitted the district court to exercise jurisdiction notwithstanding the Eleventh Amendment which recites that “[t]he judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.” Moreover, as we have indicated, the district court held that there is a right of contribution under the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA. If the court had reached a contrary result either in its abrogation and waiver of immunity holdings or its contribution holding it would have dismissed UMass from this case, and if it reached a contrary result on the contribution issue it would have dismissed Delaware State from the case.11 Accordingly, there are two independent bases on which it is possible that Temple’s contribution claims must fail as a matter of law against the remaining third-party defendants, UMass and Delaware State, either that the Eleventh Amendment precludes the claims against UMass or that neither the Rehabilitation Act nor the ADA permits claims for contribution.12 It might be thought that we should consider the statutory construction argument first for in Hindes v. FDIC, 137 F.3d 11. The court did not reach a definitive conclusion of the question of whether the Eleventh Amendment was applicable to Delaware State as it reserved judgment on that question with respect to the claim for contribution against it on the NJLAD count. Yet, it did deny Delaware State’s Eleventh Amendment motion to dismiss on sovereign immunity grounds Temple’s claim for contribution on the Title II and section 504 claims as Delaware State did not establish that the amendment was applicable to it. While a contrary result on the immunity question with respect to Delaware State on the Title II and section 504 claims (including the court’s abrogation and waiver holdings) also would have led to its dismissal from the case, it does not challenge those determinations on this appeal. 12. There is a third basis on which the contribution claims could fail, i.e., that the third-party complaint did not state a claim on which relief could be granted as a matter of law even if claims for contribution were permissible under the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA. See n.16 infra. But neither UMass nor Delaware State advances this theory on this appeal. 21 148, 166 (3d Cir. 1998), we observed that Eleventh Amendment immunity questions are “constitutional in scope” and that “[c]ourts, of course, will avoid such questions where possible.” On the other hand, questions as to the scope of the Rehabilitation Act and ADA with respect to the availability of contribution are not constitutional in scope. In Hindes, applying the approach of avoiding constitutional questions, we declined to determine whether suit was proper under the Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441 (1908), exception to Eleventh Amendment immunity inasmuch as the anti-injunction provision of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (“FIRREA”) barred the suit. We explained our ruling in Hindes by stating: “[W]e need not decide difficult jurisdictional issues where we can decide the case on another dispositive issue in favor of the party who would benefit by a ruling that we do not have jurisdiction.” Id. (citing Georgine v. Amchem Prods., Inc., 83 F.3d 610, 623 (3d Cir. 1996)). Yet, within one month after we decided Hindes, the Supreme Court decided Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 523 U.S. 83, 118 S.Ct. 1003 (1998). In Steel Co. the Court rejected the notion of “hypothetical jurisdiction” adopted by some courts of appeals, whereby a court would “assume” jurisdiction for purposes of deciding the merits of a case, at least where the court could resolve the merits question more easily and the prevailing party on the merits would be the same as the prevailing party if jurisdiction were denied. Id. at 93-94, 118 S.Ct. at 1012. Inasmuch as in entertaining Hindes we exercised hypothetical jurisdiction it would be plausible for us now to hold that notwithstanding Hindes, in the light of Steel Co., we initially must address the Eleventh Amendment issues raised on this appeal. Yet, Steel Co. may be somewhat limited as it specifically indicated that “Article III jurisdiction is always an antecedent question.” Id. at 101, 118 S.Ct. at 1016 (emphasis added). In fact, the Court recognized that in its prior cases it had decided, for example, whether a statutory cause of action existed before determining statutory standing questions such as whether the plaintiff comes 22 within the zone of interests protected by the statute. Id. at 96-97, 118 S.Ct. at 1013 (citing Nat’l RR Passenger Corp. v. Nat’l Ass’n of RR Passengers, 414 U.S. 453, 365 n.13, 94 S.Ct. 690, 696 n.13 (1974)). Steel Co., therefore, should not be understood as requiring courts to answer all questions of “jurisdiction,” broadly understood,13 before addressing the existence of the cause of action sued upon. Instead, that case requires courts to answer questions concerning Article III jurisdiction before reaching other questions.14 We, therefore, must consider whether the Eleventh Amendment immunity issues presented by this case are questions of Article III jurisdiction or are at least sufficiently similar to such questions to require application of Steel Co. As the Steel Co. Court stated, the “triad of injury in fact, causation, and redressability constitutes the core of Article III’s case-or-controversy requirement.” Id. at 103-04, 118 S.Ct. at 1017 (footnote omitted). The Eleventh Amendment has little bearing on these Article III concerns. See Calderon v. Ashmus, 523 U.S. 740, 745 n.2, 118 S.Ct. 1694, 1697 n.2 (1998) (“While the Eleventh Amendment is jurisdictional in the sense that it is a limitation on the federal court’s judicial power, and, therefore, can be raised at any stage of 13. “ ‘Jurisdiction,’ it has been observed, ‘is a word of many, too many, meanings.’ ” Steel Co., 523 U.S. at 90, 118 S.Ct. at 1010 (quoting United States v. Vanness, 85 F.3d 661, 663 n.2 (D.C. Cir. 1996)). 14. In fact, even this rule is not hard and fast after Steel Co. Three justices in that case would have decided the easier statutory question without reaching the jurisdictional question. Id. at 112, 131-34, 118 S.Ct. at 1030-32, (Stevens, J., concurring, joined by Souter, J., and Ginsburg, J.). Three more justices agreed with the majority that the jurisdictional question properly was addressed first in that case, but left open the possibility that in other cases, courts may reserve difficult questions of jurisdiction when the case alternatively could be resolved on the merits in favor of the party who would have prevailed in the absence of jurisdiction. Id. at 110-11, 118 S.Ct. at 1020 (O’Connor, J., concurring, joined by Kennedy, J.); id. at 111-12, 118 S.Ct. at 1020-21 (Breyer, J., concurring). Thus, six justices maintained the position that in some circumstances a court may reserve certain questions of jurisdiction, even if those questions involve Article III jurisdiction, in favor of deciding the case on statutory grounds. We, however, need not go that far, inasmuch as we are asked to resolve a question not of Article III jurisdiction but of Eleventh Amendment immunity. 23 the proceedings, we have recognized that it is not coextensive with the limitations on judicial power in Article III.”); but see Wisconsin Dep’t of Corrs. v. Schacht, 524 U.S. 381, 389, 391, 118 S.Ct. 2047, 2052, 2054 (1998) (noting that the “Eleventh Amendment . . . does not automatically destroy original jurisdiction” and that the Court never has resolved whether, or to what extent, “Eleventh Amendment immunity is a matter of subject matter jurisdiction.”). It cannot, in any event, seriously be disputed that this case meets the minimum requirements for Article III jurisdiction. While we have not had occasion to consider whether Steel Co. requires the resolution of Eleventh Amendment issues before a court reaches different issues, other courts of appeals have done so. As it happens, they have split fairly evenly on this issue, with three courts reading Steel Co. broadly and holding that courts must address the Eleventh Amendment issue first as it raises an Article III type restriction, Martin v. Kansas, 190 F.3d 1120, 1126 (10th Cir. 1999); United States v. Texas Tech Univ., 171 F.3d 279, 287 (5th Cir. 1999); Seaborn v. Florida Dep’t of Corrs., 143 F.3d 1405, 1407 (11th Cir. 1998), while at least three courts have held to the contrary, United States ex rel. Long v. SCS Bus. & Tech. Inst., Inc., 173 F.3d 890, 892 (D.C. Cir. 1999); Parella v. Ret. Bd. of the R.I. Employees’ Ret. Sys., 173 F.3d 46 (1st Cir. 1999); Kennedy v. Nat’l Juvenile Det. Ass’n, 187 F.3d 690, 696 (7th Cir. 1999) (not citing Steel Co.); see also Kovacevich v. Kent State Univ., 224 F.3d 806, 816 (6th Cir. 2000) (finding that “the Eleventh Amendment is not jurisdictional in nature,” but addressing that issue first where a state defendant had raised it). The Supreme Court has not resolved this dispute. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit well articulated the view that a court must address Eleventh Amendment issues first. Recognizing that courts often interpret statutes so as to avoid constitutional problems, the court distinguished cases relying on that practice by finding that “[t]he Eleventh Amendment’s admonition is jurisdictional in nature.” Texas Tech, 171 F.3d at 285. The court explained: “While often noted for preserving state sovereignty, the Amendment only accomplishes this end through jurisdictional limitation. . . . Its negative instruction on how 24 to construe federal judicial power operates as an additional boundary on that power, supplementing the restraints on judicial power already implicitly provided in Article III of the Constitution.” Id. The court recognized the Supreme Court’s recent statement that the Eleventh Amendment “is not coextensive with the limitations on judicial power in Article III,” Calderon, 523 U.S. at 745 n.2, 118 S.Ct. at 1697 n.2, but opined that the Eleventh Amendment nonetheless is “certainly intertwined with Article III jurisprudence,” Texas Tech, 171 F.3d at 285 n.9. Notwithstanding the views of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit we are convinced that this “intertwining” does not require that we apply the rule of Steel Co. in this case. Rather, we are convinced that the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit expressed a better view in Parella. In that case, the court recognized the intertwined nature of the two constitutional provisions, both of which place limits on judicial power. Parella, 173 F.3d at 54. The court further noted other characteristics of the Eleventh Amendment that support such a view of the Eleventh Amendment, namely, that the Eleventh Amendment can be raised for the first time on appeal and that a court sua sponte may raise Eleventh Amendment issues. Id. Nonetheless, the court observed, “the nature of the Eleventh Amendment is more complex than these decisions acknowledge.” Id. at 54-55. For example, a state may waive Eleventh Amendment immunity, and, although courts may raise Eleventh Amendment issues sua sponte, they are not required to do so. Id. (citing Schacht, 524 U.S. at 389, 118 S.Ct. at 2052). The characteristics of Eleventh Amendment immunity the court identified in Parella comport with Justice Kennedy’s understanding that the Supreme Court’s “precedents have treated the Eleventh Amendment as ‘enact[ing] a sovereign immunity from suit, rather than as a nonwaivable limit on the federal judiciary’s subject-matter jurisdiction.’ ” Schacht, 524 U.S. at 394, 118 S.Ct. at 2055 (Kennedy, J., concurring) (quoting Idaho v. Coeur d’Alene Tribe, 521 U.S. 261, 267, 117 S.Ct. 2028, 2033 (1997)). Furthermore, as the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit noted in Parella, in Calderon the Supreme Court stated that the Eleventh Amendment is not co-extensive with Article III’s limitations 25 and that it should consider the question whether an inmate’s declaratory judgment action presented an Article III case or controversy before it could consider the parties’ Eleventh Amendment and First Amendment contentions. Parella, 173 F.3d at 55. If the Supreme Court considered Eleventh Amendment immunity to be an Article III concern, it would be expected that the Court at least would have made reference to it when deciding the Article III question rather than putting the immunity issue aside for consideration after its resolution of the case or controversy issue. Finally, the main object underlying Steel Co. is that courts not declare the law where they do not have Article III jurisdiction because any opinion in such a situation would be advisory, thus raising separation of powers problems. Steel Co., 523 U.S. at 101, 118 S.Ct. at 1016. Eleventh Amendment immunity, on the other hand, does not affect a court’s underlying power to hear a given case or controversy. If it did, courts would be obligated to raise Eleventh Amendment issues sua sponte, but the Supreme Court has held that they have no such obligation. See Parella, 173 F.3d at 55-56 (citing Schacht, 524 U.S. at 38791, 118 S.Ct. at 2052-53). Furthermore, if the presence of Eleventh Amendment immunity implicated case or controversy concerns, states would not be able to waive that immunity by their conduct in a given case. The Eleventh Amendment’s limitations on judicial power are, therefore, in the nature of a constitutional recognition of the states’ sovereign immunity, not a statement of a nonwaivable absence of subject-matter jurisdiction. Accordingly, Eleventh Amendment cases do not raise the same separation of powers concerns with respect to hypothetical jurisdiction as do Article III standing cases. We, therefore, hold that, notwithstanding Steel Co., a court may reserve judgment on Eleventh Amendment issues even when advanced by a state where it can resolve the case on other grounds and the prevailing party on the merits would be the same as the prevailing party if immunity were recognized.15 15. Inasmuch as UMass does not urge that we resolve the Eleventh Amendment questions before we decide the statutory contribution 26 We follow that course here. Even though, as will be seen, our nonconstitutional disposition of this case will not be easy, still it is better to decide the case on that basis than to address the constitutional jurisdictional issues under the Eleventh Amendment. Thus, we pass the Eleventh Amendment issues with respect to UMass and in view of our conclusions on the contribution issue dismiss its appeal at No. 02-1789 as moot.