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UNITED STATES v. GEORGIA Stevens, J., concurring







The judgment of the Eleventh Circuit is reversed, and the suit is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Justice Stevens, with whom Justice Ginsburg joins, concurring. The Court holds that Title II of the Americans with Disa­ bilities Act of 1990 validly abrogates state sovereign immu­ nity at least insofar as it creates a private cause of action for damages against States for conduct that violates the Consti­ tution. Ante, at 159. And the state defendants have cor­ rectly chosen not to challenge the Eleventh Circuit’s holding that Title II is constitutional insofar as it authorizes pro­ spective injunctive relief against the State. See Brief for Respondents 6; see also Miller v. King, 384 F. 3d 1248, 1264 (CA11 2004). Rather than attempting to deﬁne the outer limits of Title II’s valid abrogation of state sovereign immu­ nity on the basis of the present record, the Court’s opinion wisely permits the parties, guided by Tennessee v. Lane, 541 U. S. 509 (2004), to create a factual record that will inform that decision.* I therefore join the opinion. It is important to emphasize that although petitioner Goodman’s Eighth Amendment claims provide a sufﬁcient basis for reversal, our opinion does not suggest that this is broader swath of conduct’ ” than the Constitution itself forbids. Lane, 541 U. S., at 533, n. 24 (quoting Kimel v. Florida Bd. of Regents, 528 U. S. 62, 81 (2000)). While a factual record may not be absolutely necessary to our resolution of the question, it will surely aid our understanding of issues such as how, in practice, Title II’s “reasonableness” requirement applies in the prison context, cf. Lane, 541 U. S., at 531–532 (explaining that Title II requires only “ ‘reasonable modiﬁcations’ ”), and therefore whether certain of Goodman’s claims are even covered by Title II, cf. App. 83, ¶ 14 (com­ plaining of lack of access to, among other things, “television, phone calls, [and] entertainment”).
 * Such deﬁnition is necessary because Title II prohibits “ ‘a somewhat