- A. Eleventh Amendment Immunity
The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:
The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
U.S. Const. amend. XI. This immunity extends to suits brought by citizens against their own states. See, e.g., Ladd v. Marchbanks, 971 F.3d 574, 578 (6th Cir. 2020) (citing Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 18-19 (1890)). It also extends to suits against state agencies or departments, Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 100 (1984) (citations omitted), and “suit[s] against state officials when ‘the state is the real, substantial party in interest[,]’” id. at 101 (quoting Ford Motor Co. v. Dep’t of Treasury, 323 U.S. 459, 464 (1945)).
A suit against a State, a state agency or its department, or a state official is in fact a suit against the State and is barred “regardless of the nature of the relief sought.” Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp., 465 U.S. at 100-02 (citations omitted). “‘The general rule is that a suit is against the sovereign if the judgment sought would expend itself on the public treasury or domain, or interfere with the public administration, or if the effect of the judgment would be to restrain the Government from acting, or to compel it to act.’” Id. at 101 n.11 (quoting Dugan v. Rank, 372 U.S. 609, 620 (1963)) (internal quotation marks omitted).
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