Cite as: 520 U. S. 781 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
"identify those officials or governmental bodies who speak with final policymaking authority for the local governmental actor concerning the action alleged to have caused the particular constitutional or statutory violation at issue." Jett v. Dallas Independent School Dist., 491 U. S. 701, 737 (1989). Here, the parties agree that Sheriff Tate has "final policy-making authority" in the area of law enforcement. They sharply disagree, however, about whether Alabama sheriffs are policymakers for the State or for the county when they act in a law enforcement capacity.2
In deciding this dispute, our inquiry is guided by two principles. First, the question is not whether Sheriff Tate acts for Alabama or Monroe County in some categorical, "all or nothing" manner. Our cases on the liability of local governments under § 1983 instruct us to ask whether governmental officials are final policymakers for the local government in a particular area, or on a particular issue. See ibid. (court must identify "those officials who have the power to make official policy on a particular issue" (emphasis added)); id., at 738 (question is whether school district superintendent "possessed final policymaking authority in the area of employee transfers" (emphasis added)); St. Louis v. Praprotnik, 485 U. S. 112, 123 (1988) (plurality opinion) ("[T]he challenged action must have been taken pursuant to a policy adopted by the official or officials responsible under state law for making policy in that area of the city's business"). Thus, we are not seeking to make a characterization of Alabama sheriffs that will hold true for every type of official action they engage in. We simply ask whether Sheriff Tate repre-2 We have explained that a suit against a governmental officer "in his official capacity" is the same as a suit " 'against [the] entity of which [the] officer is an agent,' " Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U. S. 159, 165 (1985) (quoting Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs., 436 U. S. 658, 690, n. 55 (1978)), and that victory in such an "official-capacity" suit "imposes liability on the entity that [the officer] represents," Brandon v. Holt, 469 U. S. 464, 471 (1985).
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