Howlett v. Rose

496 U.S. 356 (1990)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P, a former high school student, filed a complaint in the Circuit Court for Pinellas County, naming the School Board and three school officials as defendants. He alleged that an assistant principal made an illegal search of his car while it was parked on school premises and that he was wrongfully suspended from regular classes for five days. P contends that the search and suspension violated his rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Federal Constitution and under similar provisions of the State Constitution. Ds filed a motion to dismiss on failure to exhaust state administrative remedies. Ds contend that the court was without jurisdiction to hear the federal claims -- but not the state claims -- because the Florida waiver of sovereign immunity statute did not extend to claims based on § 1983. The Court dismissed the complaint and the District Court of Appeal affirmed. It held that the availability of sovereign immunity in a §1983 action brought in state court is a matter of state law and that Florida's statutory waiver of sovereign immunity did not apply to §1983 cases. It wrote: 'When a section 1983 action is brought in state court, the sole question to be decided on the basis of state law is whether the state has waived its common law sovereign immunity to the extent necessary to allow a section 1983 action in state court.” The Supreme Court eventually granted certiorari.