Teva Pharmaceuticals v. Weiser, et al.
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed
The Tenth Circuit held that Teva Pharmaceuticals’ suit seeking prospective injunctive relief against Colorado officials under the Ex parte Young doctrine may proceed, affirming the district court’s denial of Eleventh-Amendment immunity. The panel ruled that Ex parte Young’s “straightforward inquiry” does not require courts to consider the adequacy of state-law compensation remedies when a plaintiff alleges an ongoing Fifth-Amendment taking.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether a court evaluating the Ex parte Young exception to Eleventh-Amendment immunity must consider the availability of an adequate remedy at law (compensation) when a plaintiff seeks prospective injunctive relief for an alleged taking.
Circuit Positions
Ex parte Young inquiry is limited to whether the complaint alleges an ongoing violation of federal law and seeks prospective relief; adequacy of monetary remedies is not part of that threshold analysis.
Adequacy of an available compensation remedy is considered within the Ex parte Young analysis and can bar prospective injunctive relief.
Conflict Summary
The Eighth Circuit folds the adequacy-of-legal-remedy inquiry into its threshold Ex parte Young analysis, concluding that injunctive relief is unavailable if compensation is adequate, while the Tenth (and, as interpreted by the Tenth, the Sixth) Circuit adhere to the Supreme Court’s directive that Ex parte Young requires only a ‘straightforward inquiry’ into the presence of an ongoing federal-law violation and a request for prospective relief, leaving adequacy of remedies to a separate merits stage.