Opinion
Case No. 97-4243-SAC.
March 2, 2001.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
This case comes before the court on its own motion. On September 19, 2000, this court stayed this case because the Supreme Court had accepted certiorari on a jurisdictional issue which could prove to be dispositive of the sole issues remaining in this case. (Dk. 43). On February 21, 2001, the Supreme Court resolved a split among the Courts of Appeals on the question whether an individual may sue a State for money damages in federal court under the ADA. Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama, et al., v. Garrett, 2001 WL 173556 (Feb. 21, 2001). The court answered that question in the negative, tacitly overruling the contrary holding of the Tenth Circuit in Martin v. Kansas, 190 F.3d 1120, 1125-28 (10th Cir. 1999).
Plaintiff's sole claim remaining in this case is brought pursuant to the ADA against the State of Kansas and FHSU. Plaintiff seeks monetary damages against these defendants. (Complaint, Dk. 1, p. 3, 4). Based upon the clear holding of the Supreme Court in Garrett, these defendants are entitled to sovereign immunity from plaintiff's claims for monetary damages under the ADA.
The court previously dismissed plaintiff's ADA claims, if any, against the individual defendants. Dk. 25 p. 21-27).
FHSU is entitled to sovereign immunity as an arm or alter ego of the state of Kansas. See Brennan v. University of Kansas, et al., 451 F.2d 1287, 1290 (10th Cir. 1971).
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED THAT the stay is lifted and that plaintiff's case is hereby dismissed with prejudice, the court's previous orders being incorporated herein.