The Eleventh Amendment

"The Judicial 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 Foreign State."

The Eleventh Amendment was included in the Constitution after Chisholm v. Georgia, because the ruling on that case said it was ok for a citizen of another State to sue a State. This is the first amendment after the Bill of Rights and it is definitely needed to keep this country together. If you could sue Kansas for not letting you smoke medical marijuana, because you live in California and they do let you smoke, everyone would be suing a State they didn't live in.

This is a cartoon about some of the injustices that might arise from the Eleventh Amendment. This handicapped man cannot sue the State for not putting in a ramp, because even though the Federal Government made a law that public places had to be accessible to the handicapped they did not make any specific rules. Since a handicapped person cannot sue the State for better compliance with the national standards because of the Eleventh Amendment, as long as a the person can get up the stairs in some way, nothing will change.