Court Opinion

ID: 9843148
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:28:33.456245+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:38.004031
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.
One of the arguments in the petition for rehearing leads us to elaborate on our initial *505opinion. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), applies to plaintiffs’ claim for damages only if the state forum could have entertained a request for damages. We wrote that, in Iliinois, “[i]f a single wrong leads to both equitable relief and damages, judges of the circuit courts are empowered to provide both remedies. The judge not only could have ordered the restoration of passes but also could have made a monetary award for the period between their revocation on May 30, 1990, and the date of their restoration.” 44 F.3d 497, 503. Plaintiffs insist that this is incorrect — that only the state’s Court of Claims may award damages. If that is so, then Deakins v. Monahan, 484 U.S. 193, 108 S.Ct. 523, 98 L.Ed.2d 529 (1988), entitles plaintiffs to pursue damages in federal court free from any inhibition of the Younger doctrine.
The petition for rehearing asserts that “damage claims against the State of Illinois and its employees can only be maintained in the Illinois Court of Claims.” The assertion is wrong. That court possesses exclusive jurisdiction of all claims against the state itself, 705 ILCS 505/8, but not of claims against state employees. Illinois deems some suits against employees to be suits against the state, and therefore to come within the Court of Claims’ exclusive jurisdiction, but the Supreme Court of Illinois makes the same distinction as the Supreme Court of the United States did in Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908), and Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 169-70, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 3107-08, 87 L.Ed.2d 114 (1985): suits against a public employee in his official capacity are suits against the state; suits against the employee in his personal capacity are not suits against the state; and a suit seeking damages for misconduct (in particular, for a violation of the Constitution) usually is a personal-capacity suit. The circuit courts, rather than the Court of Claims, possess jurisdiction “when it is alleged that the State’s agent acted in violation of statutory or constitutional law, or in excess of his authority”. Healy v. Vaupel, 133 Ill.2d 295, 308, 140 Ill.Dec. 368, 375, 549 N.E.2d 1240, 1247 (1990). See also, e.g., Senn Park Nursing Center v. Miller, 104 Ill.2d 169, 188, 83 Ill.Dec. 609, 620-21, 470 N.E.2d 1029, 1038-39 (1984). Plaintiffs allege that their jailers acted in violation of the Constitution of the United States and the laws of Illinois. The circuit court therefore could have awarded damages, if plaintiffs were entitled to that relief on the merits. But plaintiffs never presented their arguments to the state tribunals, and as our original opinion explains they may not disdain opportunities in ongoing state litigation and later seek relief in federal court.
The petition for rehearing is denied. No judge in active service has called for a vote on the suggestion of rehearing en banc, which is rejected.