What is Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution?
{{US Constitution article series}} The '''Eleventh Amendment''' ('''Amendment XI''') to the [[United States Constitution]] was passed by [[United States Congress|Congress]] on March 4, 1794 and [[Ratification|ratified]] by the [[U.S. state|states]] on February 7, 1795. It deals with each state's [[Sovereign immunity#State sovereign immunity|sovereign immunity]] and was adopted to overrule the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court's]] decision in ''[[Chisholm v. Georgia]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment11/annotation01.html#1|title=Annotation 1 - Eleventh Amendment - State Immunity|publisher=[[FindLaw]]|access-date=May 4, 2013}}</ref> ==Text== {{quote|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xi |title=The Eleventh Amendment |publisher=National Constitution Center |access-date=2 March 2016 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304022722/http://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xi |url-status=dead }}</ref>}} == Lawsuits against states == The idea of sovereign immunity originated in [[Common law|English common law]].<ref name=HertFound>{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.org/constitution#!/amendments/11/essays/164/suits-against-a-state |title=Suits Against a State |publisher=The Heritage Foundation |access-date=2 March 2016}}</ref> It was also proposed by [[political theorist]]s like [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[Jean Bodin]].<ref name=HertFound/> The [[Founding Fathers of the United States|founding fathers]] of the Constitution were aware of the traditional [[doctrine]] that states were immune from private lawsuits.<ref name=HertFound/> Several [[Anti-Federalists]] were afraid that [[Article Three of the United Sta