Court Opinion

ID: 9470710
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:14:03.819809+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:04.244682
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge, with whom CUMMINGS, Chief Judge,
joins, concurring.
I agree that Ranyard’s contractual claims are without merit. I write separately because I am not persuaded that we should, or can, conclude that the eleventh amendment bars actions in federal court for damages against the Board of Regents.
Other courts that have considered the eleventh amendment immunity of state colleges and universities have stressed the need for careful appraisal of the relationship between the state and the institution being sued.1 In the instant case, the eleventh amendment issue was neither ruled upon by the district court nor briefed by either party on appeal, and as a result I do not believe we have before us all that we should have to decide the issue.2 Thus, I would affirm the judgment based on the magistrate’s summary judgment on, the merits and leave it to future litigants to establish the Board’s immunity, or lack thereof.

. E.g., Soni v. Board of Trustees of the University of Tennessee, 513 F.2d 347, 352 (6th Cir. 1975) (cases holding other state colleges and universities to be state instrumentalities for eleventh amendment purposes “of course, [do] not control the present case. Each state university exists in a unique governmental context, and each must be considered on the basis of its own peculiar circumstances.”), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 919, 96 S.Ct. 2623, 49 L.Ed.2d 372 (1976); Vaughn v. Regents of the University of California, 504 F.Supp. 1349, 1353 (E.D. Cal. 1981) (same); Jacobs v. College of William and Mary, 495 F.Supp. 183, 189 (E.D.Va.1980) (same), aff’d, 661 F.2d 922 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1033, 102 S.Ct. 572, 70 L.Ed.2d 477 (1981).

. Compare Vaughn, 504 F.Supp. at 1353-54; Gordenstein v. University of Delaware, 381 F.Supp. 718, 721-23 (D.Del.1974).