State sovereign immunity bars damages for violation of Title VII
duty of religious accommodation. Endres v. Indiana State Police, 2003 WL
21480361 (7th Cir. June 27) (Easterbrook, J., joined by Posner & Bauer,
JJ.). The Court distinguishes Hibbs on the grounds that there's no evidence
that the religious accommodation provision was an attempt to enforce the
constitutional mandate of nondiscrimination.
Here's a question that might reveal my lack of knowledge about state
sovereign immunity: The U.S. intervened as plaintiff; why wouldn't this
eliminate the sovereign immunity problem, given that the U.S. is now a
party? The opinion seems to have no discussion of the matter.
(Note: I'm posting this to CONLAWPROF rather than RELIGIONLAW
because it seems to be more closely tied to state sovereign immunity, which
has often been discussed on this list, rather than to substantive Free
Exercise / Establishment Clause / Title VII religious accommodation law. I
therefore thought that CONLAWPROF subscribers would be more interested in it
than RELIGIONLAW subscribers.)
Eugene
