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Claiming Eleventh Amendment immunity

Claiming Eleventh Amendment immunity
Burrus v State Lottery Commission of Indiana, USCA 7th Circuit, Docket #08-1142

In Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, the United State Supreme Court held that an unconsenting State, together with state agencies, as arms of the state, are immune from lawsuits brought in federal courts by her own citizens as well as by citizens of another State. To determine if a particular entity is an arm of the state, courts look primarily at two factors: (1) the extent of the entity?s financial autonomy from the state; and (2) the ?general legal status? of the entity.

In Burrus, the U.S. Court of Appeal, Seventh Circuit, affirmed a federal district court?s ruling that the Indiana State Lottery Commission was not a ?state agency? and thus it was not entitled to 11th Amendment sovereign immunity with respect to unlawful discrimination claims filed by former employees pursuant to 42 USC 1981 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Freddie Burrus and a number of other former lottery employees sued the Indiana State Lottery Commission alleging that had been terminated from their former positions because of their race. The Lottery claimed it enjoyed sovereign immunity and asked the federal district court to dismiss Burrus? petition. Rejecting the Lottery?s claim that it was a state agency, the court dismissed the Lottery?s motion and it appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Circuit Court of Appeals said that the Indiana General Assembly created the Lottery in 1989 to operate lottery games ?as a separate body politic and corporate from state government? and intended the Lottery to function ?as much as possible as an entrepreneurial business enterprise.?

In contrast, Section 1603 of the New York State Tax Law created the New York State Lottery as ?a separate and independent division? within the State Department of Taxation and Finance. The Attorney General views the State Lottery as a State Department or Agency as evidenced by his issuing a formal opinion [2001 F-2] when asked to do so.

Presumably this would be sufficient for the New York State Lottery to be deemed a state department or agency for the purposes of Eleventh Amendment immunity by the federal courts.

The full text of the decision is posted on the Internet at:

http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/tmp/HX0TLUKW.pdf

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).