In the amendments of the constitution....what does the 11th amendment mean? what is it talking about?

Question

HELP?
PLEASE?

Answer 1

The Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution of the United States grants sovereign immunity to the individual states, which means that the states cannot be sued in federal court by a citizen of another state, without the state's consent.

Answer 2

hope this helps a little - basically the 11th amendent tries to limit the power of the federal judiciary regarding lawsuits involving States:

The Eleventh Amendment was a response to the Supreme Court's unpopular decision in Chisholm v Georgia, in which the Court ordered Georgia to pay two South Carolina residents a debt the Court found was owed them. Georgia legislators were so outraged by the decision that the passed a law declaring that anyone who attempted to carrry out the Court's mandate would be hanged with benefit of clergy!

Read literally, the Eleventh Amendment places no limitations on the power of the judiciary to entertain suits brought by against a state by residents of that same state. Nonetheless, the Court in a controversial 1890 decision, Hans v Louisiana, concluded that the Eleventh Amendment was in fact a bar to to federal suits against a state by that state's own citizens. The Court reasoned that at the time of the amendment's ratification in 1798 that such a limitation was taken for granted.

The Court limited the effect of Hans somewhat in the 1908 case of Ex Parte Young. The Court allowed a suit for injunctive relief against a state official reasoning that if a state official violated the Constitution he can't be acting on behalf of a state, which can only act constitutionally. Thus, state officials--but not states--might be sued when the violate the Constitution, even when they do so in the name of the state. Ex Parte Young was in turn limited by the Court in Edelman v Jordan (1974), holding that the Eleventh Amendment also bars suits against state officials for restitution or damages that will in fact be paid out of the state treasury.

In Seminole Tribe of Florida v Florida (1996), the Court indicated for the first time that Congress is without power under the Commerce Clause (or Indian Commerce Clause) to abrogate a state's sovereign immunity. In so doing, the Court overruled an earlier (Pennsylvania v Union Gas, 1989) decision that found such authority to exist. According to the Court, only under the Fourteenth Amendment does the Congress have the power to abrogate state sovereign immunity. In dissent, Justice Stevens warned of the far-reaching consequences of the Court's decision, which he called "a shocking affront to a co-equal branch of government."

In Alden v Maine (1999), the Court, by the same 5-4 margin seen in Seminole and Printz, extended constitutional protection to states sued in their own STATE courts for federal law violations. Clearly, as the Court recognized, this result is not dictated (or even supported) by the language of the Eleventh Amendment. Instead, the Court concluded that the English common-law notion of sovereign immunity--reaching even suits against sovereigns in their own courts--was implicitly adopted by the framers and ratifiers of the Constitution.

The 5-4 majority extended the constitutionalized sovereign immunity doctrine yet again in 2002, in the case of Federal Maritime Commission v South Carolina State Ports Authority. Writing for the Court, Justice Thomas concluded that the Constitution shielded states from having to answer private complaints before federal agencies. The case represented the first time that the sovereign immunity doctrine had been extended beyond the courtroom to executive branch agencies. In dissent, Justice Breyer said that the majority opinion had no support "in any text, in any tradition, or in any relevant purpose."

Answer 3

The Eleventh Amendment to the US constitution is quoted below:
'The Judicial powers 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.'
For more information, please go to www.en.wikipedia.org.

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment11/