NORTH CAROLINA
v.
TEMPLE

U.S. | 1890-03-03
No. 392
134 U.S. 22 Supreme Court of the United States (1890) Positive Treatment
Also reported at: 33 L. Ed. 849 · 10 S. Ct. 509 · SCDB 1889-146 · 1890 U.S. LEXIS 1944
Cited by 102 cases
Opinion of the Court
Me. Justige Beadley,

Me. Justige Beadley,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

We think it perfectly clear that the suit against the auditor in this case was virtually a suit against the State of North Carolina. In this regard it comes within the principle of the cases of Louisiana v. Jumel, 107 U. S. 711; Cunningham v. Macon & Brunswick Railroad Co., 109 U. S. 446; Hagood v. Southern, 117 U. S. 52; and In re Ayers, 123 U. S. 443. We do not think it necessary to consider that question anew.

The other point, the suability of the State, is settled by the decision just rendered in Hans v. The State of Louisiana, ante, 1.

To the question on which the judges of the Circuit Court were opposed in opinion, our answer is in the negative, namely, that the suit could not be maintained' in the Circuit Court against the State of North Carolina by the plaintiff, a citizen thereof.

The decree of the Circuit Court is

Reversed and the cause rema/nded with instructions to dis- " miss 'the Mil of corrvplaAnt.

Dissent
Me. Justice HaelaN

Mr. Justice HaelaN dissenting:

' I dissent from so much of the judgment in this case as holds that this suit cannot be maintained against the. auditor of the State-of 'North Carolina.- The legislation Of which complaint-is here made impaired the obligation of the .State’s contract, and was therefore unconstitutional and void. It did not, in law,- affect the existence or operation of the previous statutes out of which the contract in' question arose. So that the court was at liberty to compel the officer of the State to perform the duties which the statutes, constituting the' contract, imposed upon him. A suit against him for such a purpose is not, in my judgment, one against the State. It is' a suit to compel the performance, of ministerial duties, from the performance of which the state’s officer was not, and could not be, relieved by unconstitutional and void legislative enactments.

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus

Citator

Cited By (33 total)

  • Larson v. Dom. & Foreign Commerce Corp., 337 U.S. 682 (U.S. 1949)
    …relevance to the circumstances of a particular case. Specifically, there are instances where the unconstitutionality of a statute was conceded and yet the language of sovereign immunity was invoked to bar suit. See, e. g., North Carolina v. Temple, 134 U. S. 22; Christian v. Atlantic & N. C. R. Co., 133 U. S. 233; New York Guaranty & Indemnity Co. v. Steele, 134 U. S. 230. These , cases do not qualify the principle of the cases in category two. Regard for the facts of these cases brings them within the fir…
    1 / 5
  • Atascadero State Hosp. v. Scanlon, 473 U.S. 234 (U.S. 1985)
    …U. S. 1 (1890), that “the fundamental principle of sovereign immunity limits the grant of judicial authority in Art. Ill,” Pennhurst II, 465 U. S., at 98, has been affirmed time and time again, up to the present day. E. g., North Carolina v. Temple, 134 U. S. 22, 30 (1890); Fitts v. McGhee, 172 U. S. 516, 524 (1899); Bell v. Mississippi, 177 U. S. 693 (1900); Smith v. Reeves, 178 [*244] U. S. 436, 446 (1900); Palmer v. Ohio, 248 U. S. 32, 34 (1918); Duhne v. New Jersey, 251 U. S. 311, 313 (1920); Ex parte N…
  • Emps. of the Dep't of Pub. Health & Welf. of Mo. v. Dep't of Pub. Health & Welf. of Mo., 411 U.S. 279 (U.S. 1973)
    …was indignantly repelled?” Id., at 15. The Court rejected such a suggestion in Hans, and it has continued to do so ever since. See Duhne v. New Jersey, 251 U. S. 311 (1920); Fitts v. McGhee, 172 U. S. 516, 524-525 (1899); North Carolina v. Temple, 134 U. S. 22 (1890). The root of the constitutional impediment to the exercise of the federal judicial power in a case such as this is not the Eleventh Amendment but Art. Ill of our Constitution. Following the decision in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. 419 (1793)…

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