Action against the state

What does Action against the state mean in American Law?

The definition of Action against the state in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

Determining whether a legal proceeding is “against the state” is important in several legal contexts. For example, a “state,” in both the international-law sense of “sovereign state” or “nation,” and in the domestic sense of constituent state of the United States, cannot ordinarily be sued without its permission. See sovereign immunity. Moreover, a U.S. state is protected by the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution from being sued in Federal Court by a citizen of another state. Hence, determining whether a suit is “against the state” will sometimes determine whether an alleged wrong can be legally righted at all.

But even in the event that a state has chosen to allow itself to be sued, one must still determine if the action is “against the state,” for it is almost universally the case that special rules and procedures are required for such suits, e.g., special courts (e.g., the U.S. Court of Claims), special (usually shorter) statutes of limitation, special pre-suit notification provisions. As one might guess, a large body of technical law has therefore grown up around whether or not an action is “against the state,” e.g., under what circumstances a suit against a named state officeholder is “really” one “against the state.” This law is uniform neither from state to state nor from context to context, e.g., the against-the-state lore under the Eleventh Amendment is not necessarily applicable to a question of when special presuit notification provisions will apply to the action.