Amendment, Eleventh

Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1795, limiting the jurisdiction of the US Supreme Court in lawsuits against states. It declares that residents of one state cannot sue another state in federal court.

The Eleventh Amendment was a direct outcome of the 1793 US Supreme Court case Chisholm v. Georgia. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that an individual from South Carolina could lawfully sue the state of Georgia. As a number of similar cases developed across the country, state governments began to worry about the economic threat of mounting lawsuits. The Eleventh Amendment offered constitutional protection to the states by reversing the Chisholm decision.