Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, Inc. v. Hess

BARRY, Circuit Judge.

The central question we must answer, a question heretofore answered by only one other court of appeals, is whether the Eleventh Amendment bars suit in federal court against a state official where what is at issue is that official’s purported failure to implement, administer, enforce, and maintain a federally approved state coal mining program. We find that it does and, thus, will affirm in part and reverse in part the orders of the District Court.

I

INTRODUCTION

The two appeals now before us stem from a complaint filed under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of…