Carten v. Kent State University

• Decision Date: 25 February 2002
• Docket Number: No. 98-3150.,98-3150.
• Parties: Trevor CARTEN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 391

282 F.3d 391

Trevor CARTEN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 98-3150.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Submitted: December 7, 2001.

Decided and Filed: February 25, 2002.

Robert Troll Lynch (briefed), Cleveland Heights, OH, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Stephen J. Pruneski (briefed), Robert F. Linton (briefed), Steven L. Paulson (briefed), Roderick, Myers & Linton, Akron, OH, for Defendants-Appellants.

Before SILER and BATCHELDER, Circuit Judges; HOOD, District Judge.^*

OPINION

HOOD, District Judge.

Defendants-Appellants Kent State University ("KSU") and doctors Gary Neiman, Rosemary Dumont, William Canyon, and Danny Wallace appeal the district court's partial denial of their motion to dismiss. Defendants argue that the district court erred by holding that the Eleventh Amendment did not bar the claims of Plaintiff-Appellee Trevor Carten ("Carten") under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131-65, and § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ("Rehabilitation Act"). Based on new law from the Supreme Court and this circuit, we REVERSE the district court as to Plaintiff's ADA Title II claims for money damages against KSU and the individual defendants, as well as his ADA Title II claim for equitable relief against KSU. We AFFIRM the district court in all other respects.

FACTS

KSU accepted Carten as a graduate student in its School of Library and Information Services on July 12, 1994. On August 23, 1995, KSU dismissed Carten for poor academic performance. KSU affirmed Carten's dismissal in a September 15, 1995 hearing. On October 29, 1997, Carten filed suit in district court against the university and doctors Neiman, Dumont, Canyon and Wallace ("the Doctors"), alleging violations of ADA Title II, § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Chapter 41 of the Ohio Revised Code. Specifically, Carten alleged that Defendants refused to accommodate his learning disability and dismissed him based on that disability. Carten sought relief in the form of $1,000,000 in compensatory damages, $1,000,000 in punitive damages, costs and attorney's fees, and reinstatement.

Defendants then moved to dismiss all claims against them. Defendants argued, inter alia, that Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity barred Carten's ADA and Rehabilitation Act claims against KSU and the Doctors in their official capacities, and that Carten's ADA claims against the Doctors in their personal capacities merited dismissal because there is no individual liability under Title II of that Act. The district court dismissed Carten's claims against the Doctors in their personal capacities, but held that the Eleventh Amendment did not shield KSU or the Doctors in their official capacities from liability under the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act.¹ Defendants then appealed to this Court.

This Court ordered appellate proceedings held in abeyance pending its resolution of Nihiser v. Ohio EPA, 269 F.3d 626 (6th Cir.2001), which put squarely before the Court the issue of whether the Eleventh Amendment bars Rehabilitation Act claims against the states. This Court ultimately held that Ohio has waived Eleventh Amendment immunity against Rehabilitation Act claims. While Nihiser was pending, the Supreme Court decided Bd. of Trs. v. Garrett, 531 U.S. 356, 121 S.Ct. 955, 148 L.Ed.2d 866 (2001), which held that the Eleventh Amendment barred money claims against the states under ADA Title I. The Court specifically declined to address whether the Eleventh Amendment barred suits against the states under ADA Title II. Five months before Garrett, a three-judge panel of this Court concluded in Popovich v. Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, based on reasoning similar to Garrett's, that the Eleventh Amendment bars suits against the states under ADA Title II. See 227 F.3d 627 (6th Cir.2000)("Popovich I"), reh'g en banc granted, opinion vacated (6th Cir.2000). Subsequently, an en banc panel of this court vacated Popovich I, and issued a new decision in the case on January 10, 2002. Popovich v. Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, 276 F.3d 808 (6th Cir.2002) ("Popovich II").

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The applicability of the Eleventh Amendment to claims against states and state officials under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act is a question of law which this Court reviews de novo. See Timmer v. Mich. Dep't. of Commerce, 104 F.3d 833, 836 (6th Cir.1997).

DISCUSSION

ADA Title II claims for money damages against KSU and the Doctors in their official capacities

The parties do not dispute that Carten's claims under Title II of the ADA for money damages against KSU and the Doctors act as claims against the State itself. The Eleventh Amendment provides that:

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.

U.S. Const. amend. XI. "Although by its terms the Amendment applies only to suits against a State by citizens of another State, [the Supreme Court's] cases have extended the Amendment's applicability to suits by citizens against their own States." Bd. of Trs. v. Garrett, 531 U.S. 356, 363, 121 S.Ct. 955, 148 L.Ed.2d 866 (2001) (citations omitted). However, "Congress may abrogate the States' Eleventh Amendment immunity when it both unequivocally intends to do so and `act[s] pursuant to a valid grant of constitutional authority.'" Id. (citations omitted).

As the Supreme Court observed in Garrett, Congress clearly intended to abrogate states' Eleventh Amendment immunity from the ADA. Id. (citing 42 U.S.C. § 12202 ("A State shall not be immune under the eleventh amendment to the Constitution of the United States from an action in [a] Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction for a violation of this chapter.")). The Court then went on to consider whether Congress acted within its Constitutional authority, determining that Congress may only subject non-consenting states to liability under the ADA if it does so pursuant to a valid exercise of its power under clause five of the Fourteenth Amendment. Id. at 364, 121 S.Ct. 955. Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides in relevant part:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that "[t]he Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article." U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 5. The focus of the inquiry is whether the legislation propounded by Congress to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment is "appropriate."

In Garrett, the Supreme Court determined that Congress did not validly abrogate states' Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit for money damages under Title I of the ADA. Title I generally prohibits employers, including States, from discriminating in employment practices against qualified individuals with disabilities. 42 U.S.C. §§ 12111-17. The Supreme Court initially determined that Title I of the ADA is a statute enforcing the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Garrett, 531 U.S. at 363, 121 S.Ct. 955. The Court concluded that inasmuch as there is not a pattern of discrimination by the states which violates the Fourteenth Amendment, and because the remedy imposed under Title I of the ADA is not congruent or proportional to the targeted violation, Congress did not have the authority under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to abrogate states' Eleventh Amendment immunity from suits for money damages under Title I of the ADA. However, the Court specifically declined to address whether Congress validly abrogated states' Eleventh Amendment immunity from suits for money damages under Title II of the ADA. 531 U.S. 356, 360 n. 1, 121 S.Ct. 955, 148 L.Ed.2d 866.

An en banc panel of this Court recently addressed the issue of Eleventh Amendment immunity under Title II of the ADA in Popovich II, 276 F.3d 808. Title II of the ADA provides that "no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity." 42 U.S.C. § 12132. In Popovich II, the en banc panel determined that Title II of the ADA encompasses equal protection claims, as well as due process claims, and held that "the plaintiff's action is barred by the Eleventh Amendment in so far as the action relies on congressional enforcement of the Equal Protection Clause, but it is not barred in so far as it relies on congressional enforcement of the Due Process Clause." Id. at 811. The en banc panel relied on the Supreme Court's reasoning in Garrett, as well as the reasoning of Popovich I, in determining that Title II claims sounding in equal protection are an impermissible basis for Congress to abrogate Eleventh Amendment immunity. Id.

Here, Carten makes no allegations that sound in due process. Carten complains that he was denied access to public education, not an opportunity to participate meaningfully in judicial proceedings. Nor does he claim that the defendants denied him adequate process in dismissing him. Although he contends that the defendants improperly based their decision to dismiss him on his disability, he acknowledges that he was afforded a hearing on the dismissal on September 15, 1995, and makes no claim that he was entitled to additional procedure beyond that hearing. Accordingly, this Court is left with the en banc panel's conclusion, based on Garrett, that the Eleventh Amendment bars equal protection ...