Cite as: 520 U. S. 43 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
District Court's February 1990 declaratory judgment ran, see supra, at 55, the Ninth Circuit held the State answerable for the nominal damages Yniguez requested on appeal. See 69 F. 3d, at 948-949 (declaring Yniguez "entitled to nominal damages for prevailing in an action under 42 U. S. C. § 1983" and noting that "[t]he State of Arizona expressly waived its right to assert the Eleventh Amendment as a defense to the award of nominal damages"). We have held, however, that § 1983 actions do not lie against a State. Will v. Michigan Dept. of State Police, 491 U. S. 58, 71 (1989). Thus, the claim for relief the Ninth Circuit found sufficient to overcome mootness was nonexistent. The barrier was not, as the Ninth Circuit supposed, Eleventh Amendment immunity, which the State could waive. The stopper was that § 1983 creates no remedy against a State.24
Furthermore, under the Ninth Circuit's ruling on intervention, the State of Arizona was permitted to participate in the appeal, but not as a party. 939 F. 3d, at 738-740. The Court of Appeals never revised that ruling. To recapitulate,
24 State officers in their official capacities, like States themselves, are not amenable to suit for damages under § 1983. See Will v. Michigan Dept. of State Police, 491 U. S., at 71, and n. 10. State officers are subject to § 1983 liability for damages in their personal capacities, however, even when the conduct in question relates to their official duties. Hafer v. Melo, 502 U. S. 21, 25-31 (1991). At no point after the nominal damages solution to mootness surfaced in this case did the Ninth Circuit identify Governor Mofford as a party whose conduct could be the predicate for retrospective relief. That is hardly surprising, for Mofford never participated in any effort to enforce Article XXVIII against Yniguez. Moreover, she opposed the ballot initiative that became Article XXVIII, see supra, at 49, n. 1, associated herself with the Attorney General's restrained interpretation of the provision, see supra, at 52-53, and was unwilling to appeal from the District Court's judgment declaring the Article unconstitutional, see supra, at 56. In this Court, Yniguez raised the possibility of Governor Mofford's individual liability under the doctrine of Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123 (1908). See Brief for Respondent Yniguez 21-22. That doctrine, however, permits only prospective relief, not retrospective monetary awards. See Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U. S. 651, 664 (1974).
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