786
Opinion of the Court
sents the State or the county when he acts in a law enforcement capacity.
Second, our inquiry is dependent on an analysis of state law. Cf. Jett, supra, at 737 (" '[W]hether a particular official has "final policymaking authority" is a question of state law'" (quoting, with original emphasis, Praprotnik, supra, at 123 (plurality opinion))); Pembaur v. Cincinnati, 475 U. S. 469, 483 (1986) (plurality opinion) (same). This is not to say that state law can answer the question for us by, for example, simply labeling as a state official an official who clearly makes county policy. But our understanding of the actual function of a governmental official, in a particular area, will necessarily be dependent on the definition of the official's functions under relevant state law. Cf. Regents of Univ. of Cal. v. Doe, 519 U. S. 425, 429, n. 5 (1997) ("[The] federal question can be answered only after considering the provisions of state law that define the agency's character").
B
The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit determined that under Alabama law, a sheriff acting in his law enforcement capacity is not a policymaker for the county. Since the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals includes Alabama, we defer considerably to that court's expertise in interpreting Alabama law.3 See Jett, supra, at 738 ("We think the Court of Appeals [for the Fifth Circuit], whose expertise in interpreting Texas law is greater than our own, is in a better position to determine whether [the school district superintendent] possessed final policymaking authority in the area of employee transfers"); Pembaur, supra, at 484, n. 13 ("We
3 We note that two of the three judges on the Eleventh Circuit's panel are based in Alabama. In addition, this is the second Eleventh Circuit panel to have reached this conclusion. See Swint v. Wadley, 5 F. 3d 1435, 1450-1451 (1993), vacated for lack of appellate jurisdiction, 514 U. S. 35 (1995).
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