Hess v. Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation, 513 U.S. 30, 19 (1994)

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48

HESS v. PORT AUTHORITY TRANS-HUDSON CORPORATION

Opinion of the Court

entity" as a criterion neither "[i]ntelligible" nor "judicially manageable").

Moreover, rendering control dispositive does not home in on the impetus for the Eleventh Amendment: the prevention of federal-court judgments that must be paid out of a State's treasury. See Fletcher, A Historical Interpretation of the Eleventh Amendment, 35 Stan. L. Rev. 1033, 1129 (1983) (identifying "the award of money judgments against the states" as "the traditional core of eleventh amendment protection").19 Accordingly, Courts of Appeals have recognized the vulnerability of the State's purse as the most salient factor in Eleventh Amendment determinations. See, e. g., Baxter v. Vigo Cty. School Corp., 26 F. 3d 728, 732-733 (CA7 1994) (most significant factor is whether entity has power to raise its own funds); Hutsell v. Sayre, 5 F. 3d 996, 999 (CA6 1993) ("The most important factor . . . is whether any monetary judgment would be paid out of the state treasury."), cert. denied, 510 U. S. 1119 (1994); Metcalf & Eddy, Inc. v. Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, 991 F. 2d 935, 942-943 (CA1 1993) ("First, and most fundamentally, [the entity's] inability to tap the Commonwealth treasury or pledge the Commonwealth's credit leaves it unable to exercise the power of the purse. On this basis, [the entity] is ill-deserving of Eleventh Amendment protection."); Bolden v. Southeastern Pa. Transp. Authority, 953 F. 2d 807, 818 (CA3 1991) (in banc) ("[T]he 'most important' factor is 'whether any judgment would be paid from the state treasury.' ") (quoting Fitchik v. New Jersey Transit Rail Operations, Inc., 873 F. 2d 655, 659 (CA3) (in banc), cert. denied, 493 U. S. 850 (1989)), cert. denied, 504 U. S. 943 (1992); Bar-19 The dissent questions whether the driving concern of the Eleventh Amendment is the protection of state treasuries, emphasizing that the Amendment covers "any suit in law or equity." Post, at 60. The suggestion that suits in equity do not drain money as frightfully as actions at law, however, is belied by the paradigm case. See Jarndyce and Jarndyce (Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853)).

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