Opinion ID: 502458
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Claim for Monetary Damages

Text: 38 At this stage of the litigation, the parties appear to agree, as they should, that a suit for damages against a state official in his official capacity is a suit against the state for eleventh amendment purposes. Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265, 106 S.Ct. 2932, 2940, 92 L.Ed.2d 209 (1986); Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 165-66, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 3105-06, 87 L.Ed.2d 114 (1985); Shockley v. Jones, 823 F.2d 1068, 1070 (7th Cir.1987). Consequently, the appellants seek to avoid the jurisdictional bar of the eleventh amendment by suing the appellees for damages in their individual capacities. A suit against state officials in their individual capacities is not a suit against the state and, therefore, is not barred by the eleventh amendment. Papasan, 106 S.Ct. at 2940 n. 11; Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 237-38, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 1686-87, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974). See generally Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908). 39 When an action for damages is brought against a state official in his individual capacity, he may be able to assert an immunity defense. See Graham, 473 U.S. at 166-67, 105 S.Ct. at 3105-06. Here, the defendants assert the defense of qualified immunity. Qualified immunity is designed to strike a balance between the competing concerns of allowing recovery in damages for the vindication of constitutional rights and the danger that fear of being sued will 'dampen the ardor of all but the most resolute, or the most irresponsible [public officials], in the unflinching discharge of their duties.'  Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 814, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2736, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982) (quoting Gregoire v. Biddle, 177 F.2d 579, 581 (2d Cir.1949), cert. denied, 339 U.S. 949, 70 S.Ct. 803, 94 L.Ed.2d 1363 (1950)). When it applies, qualified immunity provides not only a defense from liability, but also an entitlement not to stand trial or face the other burdens of litigation.... Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2816, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). The entitlement is an immunity from suit rather than a mere defense to liability; ... it is effectively lost if a case is erroneously permitted to go to trial. Id. (emphasis in original). 40 In determining whether qualified immunity applies, the standard is an objective one. Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738. The issue is whether the defendant official violated clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. Id.; see also Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1096, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986). In determining whether this standard of objective legal reasonableness, Harlow, 457 U.S. at 819, 102 S.Ct. at 2739, has been reached, the legal rule at stake must be identified at a level of generality that permits meaningful assessment of the reasonableness of the official's conduct. Anderson v. Creighton, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3039, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). The contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right. This is not to say that an official action is protected by qualified immunity unless the very action in question has previously been held unlawful, but it is to say that in light of preexisting law the unlawfulness must be apparent. Id. (citation omitted). 41 We believe that the magistrate correctly concluded that, at the time the defendants allegedly acted, they violated no clearly established constitutional right. The question of whether a student at a state-supported university has a substantive due process right to continued enrollment in the program has been presented to the Supreme Court twice in recent times. Regents of the Univ. of Mich. v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214, 222, 106 S.Ct. 507, 511-12, 88 L.Ed.2d 523 (1985); Board of Curators, Univ. of Mo. v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78, 91, 98 S.Ct. 948, 955, 55 L.Ed.2d 124 (1978). On both occasions, the Court has declined specifically to decide the matter; in both cases, the Court assumed, for the sake of argument, that such a right existed and decided the case on another ground. No case from this court establishes such a right. As the magistrate pointed out, there have been several cases of fairly recent vintage in other lower federal courts that have indicated the existence of such a right. See, e.g., Ewing v. Regents of the Univ. of Mich., 742 F.2d 913, 915 (6th Cir.1984), rev'd and remanded on other grounds, 474 U.S. 214, 106 S.Ct. 507, 88 L.Ed.2d 523 (1985); Stoller v. College of Medicine, 562 F.Supp. 403, 412 (M.D.Pa.1983), aff'd per curiam, 727 F.2d. 1101 (3d Cir.1984). Other cases have, in dictum, suggested, albeit with significant qualifications, the existence of such a right. See, e.g., Hines v. Rinker, 667 F.2d 699, 703 (8th Cir.1981); Stevens v. Hunt, 646 F.2d 1168, 1170 (6th Cir.1981) (and citations therein); Mahavongsanan v. Hall, 529 F.2d 448, 449-50 (5th Cir.1976); Gaspar v. Bruton, 513 F.2d 843, 850 (10th Cir.1975). We believe that a university administrator, surveying these cases at the time the alleged activity described in the complaint took place, would have concluded that a substantive due process-based right to continued enrollment in a state-sponsored academic program was not clearly established. Therefore, the defendants in this case are protected from an action for damages by the doctrine of qualified immunity. 4