Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/188

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HAFER v. MELO Opinion of the Court

Most certainly, Will’s holding does not rest directly on the Eleventh Amendment. Whereas the Eleventh Amendment bars suits in federal court “by private parties seeking to impose a liability which must be paid from public funds in the state treasury,” Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U. S. 651, 663 (1974), Will arose from a suit in state court. We considered the Eleventh Amendment in Will only because the fact that Congress did not intend to override state immunity when it enacted § 1983 was relevant to statutory construction: “Given that a principal purpose behind the enactment of § 1983 was to provide a federal forum for civil rights claims,” Congress’ failure to authorize suits against States in federal courts suggested that it also did not intend to authorize such claims in state courts. 491 U. S., at 66. To the extent that Hafer argues from the Eleventh Amendment itself, she makes a claim that failed in Scheuer v. Rhodes, supra. In Scheuer, personal representatives of the estates of three students who died at Kent State University in May 1970 sought damages from the Governor of Ohio and other state officials. The District Court dismissed their complaints on the theory that the suits, although brought against state officials in their personal capacities, were in substance actions against the State of Ohio and therefore barred by the Eleventh Amendment. We rejected this view. “[S]ince Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123 (1908),” we said, “it has been settled that the Eleventh Amendment provides no shield for a state official confronted by a claim that he had deprived another of a federal right under the color of state law.” Scheuer, supra, at 237. While the doctrine of Ex parte Young does not apply where a plaintiff seeks damages from the public treasury, damages awards against individual defendants in federal courts “are a permissible remedy in some circumstances notwithstanding the fact that they hold public office.” 416 U. S., at 238. That is, the Eleventh Amendment does not erect a barrier