Cite as: 514 U. S. 35 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
The county commission invokes our decision in Monell, which held that municipalities are liable under § 1983 only for violations of federal law that occur pursuant to official governmental policy or custom. Monell, the commission contends, should be read to accord local governments a qualified right to be free from the burdens of trial. Accordingly, the commission maintains, the commission should be able to appeal immediately the District Court's denial of its summary judgment motion. This argument undervalues a core point we reiterated last Term: "§ 1291 requires courts of appeals to view claims of a 'right not to be tried' with skepticism, if not a jaundiced eye," Digital Equipment, 511 U. S., at 873, for "virtually every right that could be enforced appropriately by pretrial dismissal might loosely be described as conferring a 'right not to stand trial,' " ibid.; cf. United States v. MacDonald, 435 U. S. 850, 858-859 (1978) (denial of pretrial motion to dismiss an indictment on speedy trial grounds held not appealable under collateral order doctrine).
The commission's assertion that Sheriff Morgan is not its policymaker does not rank, under our decisions, as an immunity from suit. Instead, the plea ranks as a "mere defense to liability." Mitchell, 472 U. S., at 526. An erroneous ruling on liability may be reviewed effectively on appeal from final judgment. Therefore, the order denying the county commission's summary judgment motion was not an appealable collateral order.
III
Although the Court of Appeals recognized that the District Court's order denying the county commission's summary judgment motion was not appealable as a collateral order, the Circuit Court reviewed that ruling by assuming jurisdiction pendent to its undisputed jurisdiction to review the denial of the individual defendants' summary judgment motions. Describing this "pendent appellate jurisdiction" as discretionary, the Eleventh Circuit concluded that judicial
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