Amendment XI (11)

Amendment XI

Ratified February 7, 1795

     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.

     The 11th amendment says that nobody can sue a state in a federal court without the consent of the state concerned. This amendment also means that people are able to sue states in the state court but not in the federal court. This amendment goes along with Article III in the Preamble. This amendment was passed because of the case of Chisholm v. Georgia in 1793. A man named Alexander Chisholm, who lived in South Carolina, filed a suit against the State of Georgia for violation of contract, seeking payment for good supplied to Georgia during the War of Independence. Georgia refused to pay stating that he couldn't sue a state without its consent because it possessed sovereign immunity from suit. The court ended up favoring Chisholm and ruled that Article III took away the states' sovereign immunity. They can't completely wipe out the states rights.  Sovereignty ended up being destroyed in the state.


     This picture is a good representation of what the eleventh amendment stands for because it shows that Arizona wants their people to stay within the state. This goes along with the idea of states not being able to sue in the federal court without the states consent, but are able to sue in the states court.
 



     This little comic shows the use of someone from New Hampshire trying to sue someone that is from Maine because he thinks that he can go around and sue whoever he wants, but the guy from main shows him that the eleventh amendment says that you cant sue a person from another state.