Court Opinion

ID: 9429925
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:28:19.559116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:22.210002
License: Public Domain

Justice Brennan,
with whom Justice Marshall joins,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I join the Court’s opinion except for Part V. I dissent from Part V because I adhere to my view that the Eleventh Amendment “bars federal court suits against States only by citizens of other States,” Yeomans v. Kentucky, 423 U. S. 983, 984 (1975) (Brennan, J., dissenting). Thus, I would hold that the State of New York is not entitled to invoke the protections of that Amendment in this federal-court suit by counties of New York. See Employees v. Missouri Dept. of Public Health and Welfare, 411 U. S. 279, 298 (1973) (Brennan, J., dissenting); Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U. S. 651, 687 (1974) (Brennan, J., dissenting). In my view, Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U. S. 1 (1890), erects a limited constitutional barrier prohibiting suits against States by citizens of another State; the decision, however, “accords to non-consenting States only a nonconstitutional immunity from suit by its own citizens.” Employees v. Missouri Dept. of Public Health and Welfare, supra, at 313 (Brennan, J., dissenting) (emphasis added). For scholarly discussion supporting this view, see Shapiro, Wrong Turns: The Eleventh Amendment and the Pennhurst Case, 98 Harv. L. Rev. 61, 68 (1984); Gibbons, The Eleventh Amendment and State Sovereign Immunity: A Reinterpretation, 83 Colum. L. Rev. 1889, 1893-1894 (1983); Field, The Eleventh Amendment and Other Sovereign Immunity Doctrines: Part One, 126 U. Pa. L. Rev. 515, 538-540, and n. 88 (1978).