Eleventh Amendment. (1798). The judi cial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States, by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any for eign state.
This amendment was a result of the deci sion in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. (U. S.) 419, 1 L. Ed. 440. It has been the subject of much judicial construction and the cases upon the point as to what is a suit against a state are very numerous, the question be ing usually raised as to whether a suit against a state officer respecting property or official action is in fact a suit against a state.
Many suits against state officers have been held to be in effect against the state, but it is established, as a settled principle, that an attempt of a state officer to enforce an unconstitutional statute is a proceeding with out authority of, and does not affect, the state in its sovereign capacity and is an il legal act, and the officer is stripped of his official character and is subjected as an in dividual for the consequences of it. The state has no power to impart to its officer immunity from responsibility to the supreme authority of the U. S.; Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123, 28 Sup. Ct. 441, 52 L. Ed. 714, 13 L. R. A. (N. S.) 932, 14 Ann. Cas. 764.
As to what has been held to be a suit against a state within this amendment, see STATE; and also an interesting discussion of the history and scope of this amendment by W. L. Guthrie in 8 Colum. L. Rev. 183. In the South Carolina Distillery Cases, Mur ray v. Distilling Co., 213 U. S. 151, 29 Sup. Ct. 458, 53 L. Ed. 742, and Murray v. South Carolina, 213 U. S. 174, 29 Sup. Ct. 465, 53 L. Ed. 752, the first being a certiorari to the circuit of appeals, and the second be ing a writ of error to the supreme court of the state, the former was reversed and the latter affirmed. It was held that a bill in equity to compel specific performance of a contract between an individual and the state cannot, against the objection of the state, be maintained in the federal courts ; and that the consent of a state to be sued in its own courts by a creditor does not give that creditor a right to sue in a federal court.
It was also held that although by engaging in business, a state may not avoid a pre existing right of the federal government to tax that business, it does not thereby lose the exemption from suit under this amend ment, which was also held to prevent a suit in the federal courts against state officers by vendors of supplies for business carried on by the courts.
Twelfth Amendment (1804). The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for president. and vice-presi dent, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with them selves ; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in dis tinct ballots the person voted for as vice president, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as president, and of all persons voted for as vice-president, and of the number of votes for each, list they shall sign and certify, and trans mit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the president of the senate ; the president of the senate shall, in the presence of the senate and house of representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; the per son having the greatest number of votes for president, shall be the president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as president, the house of representatives shall choose im mediately, by ballot, the president. But in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote ; a quorum for this pur pose shall consist of a member or members from two-thiids of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the house of representatives shall not choose a president whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then' the vice-president shall as president, as in the case of death or other constitutional disability of the president.