Quern v. Jordan
United States Supreme Court
440 U.S. 332 (1979)
- Written by Noah Lewis, JD
Facts
John Jordan (plaintiff) was a recipient of a federally linked welfare benefits program that was improperly administered by Illinois, resulting in a wrongful denial of benefits. Jordan was part of a class action that resulted in a district court ordering retroactive payment of the wrongfully denied benefits. But in Edelman v. Jordan, the United States Supreme Court reversed that order on the basis that the Eleventh Amendment prohibits a federal court from ordering a state to pay retroactive benefits that have been wrongfully withheld because a state cannot be sued in federal court for damages to be paid from the state treasury unless the state has expressly waived sovereign immunity. In response, the same district court then ordered Arthur Quern, director of the Department of Public Aid of Illinois, (defendant) to send a mere explanatory notice to members of the plaintiff class advising them that they might be eligible to recover benefits via a state administrative procedure to determine their eligibility for past benefits. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit approved a version of the notice to class members. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Rehnquist, J.)
Concurrence (Brennan, J.)
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