Cite as: 520 U. S. 43 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
Court deems just and proper under the circumstances." App. 60.
All defendants named in Yniguez's complaint moved to dismiss all claims asserted against them.4 The State of Arizona asserted immunity from suit under the Eleventh Amendment. The individual defendants asserted the absence of a case or controversy because "none of [them] ha[d] threatened [Yniguez] concerning her use of Spanish in the performance of her job duties [or had] ever told her not to use Spanish [at work]." Record, Doc. No. 30, p. 1. The defendants further urged that novel state-law questions concerning the meaning and application of Article XXVIII should be tendered first to the state courts. See id., at 2.5
Trial on the merits of Yniguez's complaint, the parties agreed, would be combined with the hearing on her motion for a preliminary injunction.6 Before the trial occurred, the State Attorney General, on January 24, 1989, released an opinion, No. I89-009, construing Article XXVIII and explaining why he found the measure constitutional. App. 61-76.
4 Under Arizona law, the State Attorney General represents the State in federal court. See Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 41-193(A)(3) (1992). Throughout these proceedings, the State and all state officials have been represented by the State Attorney General, or law department members under his supervision. See § 41-192(A).
5 Arizona law permits the State's highest court to "answer questions of law certified to it by the supreme court of the United States, a court of appeals of the United States, a United States district court or a tribal court . . . if there are involved in any proceedings before the certifying court questions of [Arizona law] which may be determinative of the cause then pending in the certifying court and as to which it appears to the certifying court there is no controlling precedent in the decisions of the supreme court and the intermediate appellate courts of this state." Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 12-1861 (1994).
6 The District Court, on December 8, 1988, had denied Yniguez's application for a temporary restraining order, finding no "imminent danger of the imposition of sanctions" against her. Record, Doc. No. 23, p. 1.
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