Sovereign Immunity & Qualified Immunity

Question 1

Edelman v. Jordan

Answer 1

The Eleventh Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits federal courts from awarding monetary damages to citizens against a state.

Question 2

Ford

Answer 2

Suit by private parties seeking to impose liability which must be paid from public funds in the state treasury is barred by the 11th Amendment

Question 3

Hans - unconsenting state immune from fed suit by citizen

Answer 3

interpreted the Eleventh Amendment immunity broadly to prohibit suits against a state not only by citizens of another state, but also by a state’s own citizens, and in cases arising under federal law.

Question 4

Ex Parte Young

Answer 4

official

• Even though states may not be sued by their own citizens pursuant to the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, private actions may be brought against individual state officials. The Eleventh Amendment prohibits suits brought against a state by its own citizens or those of another state.
• an action brought against an officer of a state, but that in actuality is against the state itself and seeks remedy against the state, is prohibited under the Eleventh Amendment. If the state officer is following a valid, constitutional statute, the action will be barred. However, if the officer is attempting to enforce a statute that is void as unconstitutional, then the officer may be held liable as an individual acting in his or her official capacity.

Question 5

Options to sue the government

Answer 5

(1) official capacity
(2) personal capacity
(3) consent (why? soverign immunity)

Question 6

Exceptions?

Answer 6

-Irretrievable harm
-turns kinda into judgment
- turns kinda into preliminary injunction p. 383

Question 7

Harlow v. Fitzgerald

Answer 7

Qualified immunity shields government officials performing discretionary functions from civil liability where their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.

(1) objective - presumtive
(2) subjective - official knew or should have known

old test - 2 employers act w/ malice

New - don’t care, was the law clear, did they violate?

Question 8

Qualified good faith immunity (defense) is defeated when?

Answer 8

if an official knew or reasonably should have known that the action he took within his sphere of official responsibility would violate the constitutional rights of the plaintiff, or if he took the action with malicious intent to cause deprevation/injury.

Question 9

absolute immunity

Answer 9

prosecutors, judicial officers, legislatures (working in official capacity) not here,

Question 10

To overcome qualified immunity?

Answer 10

(1) violation of federal right
(2) right clearly established

Question 11

Personal Capacity

Answer 11

Even though states may not be sued by their own citizens pursuant to the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, private actions may be brought against individual state officials. The Eleventh Amendment prohibits suits brought against a state by its own citizens or those of another state.

Question 12

Collateral Order doctrine

Answer 12

Permits immediate appeal of certain pretrial orders that “finally determine claims of right separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review.

Exception to the general rule against interlocutory appeals.

-applies when a district court’s order conclusively determines an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action that would effectively be unreviewable on appeal after entry of a final judgment.

Question 13

Public Duty doctrine

Answer 13

Public duty doctrine is a principle of personal injury law that states that government owes duties to the public at large rather than individuals12. It provides that “absent a special relationship between the governmental entity and the injured individual, the governmental entity will not be liable for injury to an individual… the governmental entity owes a duty to the public in general”2.

Question 14

Timelinefor suing officials in personal capacity

Answer 14

(1) Article 3 Section 2 - citizen of one state may sue another/ Judicial power in s. ct. (2) state can be liable to private individual
(3) text of the 11th (cant happen)
Hans - no contempt/immune EXCEPTION HERE ettlement
(4) 11th Amend. expanded (prospective relief not barred - ex parte young)
Ford -

Question 15

Monell Liability

Answer 15

Plaintiff can get an injunction against a municipality under Section 1983 only if a policy or custom of the municipality violates federal law. p. 395