Will v. Michigan Department of State Police
Will v. Michigan Dept. of State Police | |
---|---|
Holding | |
Neither States nor state officials acting in their official capacities are "persons" within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 when being sued for monetary damages. | |
Court membership | |
| |
Case opinions | |
Majority | White, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy |
Dissent | Brennan, joined by Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens |
Dissent | Stevens |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. XI, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 |
Will v. Michigan Dept. of State Police, 491 U.S. 58 (1989), was a case decided by the
Background information
Ray Will sued the
Section 1983 provides:
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.
On appeal, the Michigan Court of Appeals vacated the judgment against the Department of State Police, holding that a State is not a person under § 1983, but remanded the case for determination of the possible immunity of the Director of State Police from liability for damages. The Michigan Supreme Court granted discretionary review and affirmed the Court of Appeals in part and reversed in part. The Michigan Supreme Court agreed that the State itself is not a person under § 1983, but also held that a state official acting in an official capacity was not such a person.[2] The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to hear the case.[3]
Opinion of the Court
In a 5–4 decision delivered by Justice White, the Court held that neither States nor state officials acting in their official capacities are "persons" within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 when being sued for monetary damages. The Court found that § 1983 would not provide a federal forum for litigants who were seeking a remedy against a State for alleged deprivations of civil liberties because the Eleventh Amendment barred such suits unless the State has waived its sovereign immunity or unless Congress has exercised its power under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to override that immunity.[4] The majority found that even though state officials literally are persons, suits brought against them in their official capacity were not really suits against the officials, but were rather suits against the officials' offices, no different from a suit against the State itself.[5] This ruling came despite the fact that the Court had previously ruled that a state official acting in an official capacity, when sued for injunctive relief, would be a person under §1983 because "official-capacity actions for prospective relief are not treated as actions against the State."[6]
Justice Brennan's dissent
Justice Stevens' dissent
In a separate dissent,
the Court's construction draws an illogical distinction between wrongs committed by county or municipal officials on the one hand, and those committed by state officials, on the other. Finally, there is no necessity to import into this question of statutory construction doctrine created to protect the fiction that one sovereign cannot be sued in the courts of another sovereign. Aside from all of these reasons, the Court's holding that a State is not a person under § 1983 departs from a long line of judicial authority based on exactly that premise.[10]
See also
- Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167 (1961)
- Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651 (1974)
- (1978)
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 491
- List of United States Supreme Court cases
- Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume
- List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court
References
- ^ Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58 (1989).
- ^ 491 U.S. 58, 60–61.
- ^ 491 U.S. 58, 61.
- ^ 491 U.S. at 66.
- ^ 491 U.S. at 71.
- ^ 491 U.S. at 71, n. 10 citing Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. at 473 U.S. 167, n. 14; Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123, 209 U.S. 159–160 (1908).
- ^ 491 U.S. at 77–78, citing Act of Feb. 25, 1871, § 2, 16 Stat. 431.
- ^ 491 U.S. at 78, quoting 436 U.S. at 689–90, n. 53.
- ^ 491 U.S. at 93.
- ^ 491 U.S. at 93–94.