<P> Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett, 531 U.S. 356 (2001), was a United States Supreme Court case about Congress's enforcement powers under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution . It decided that Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act was unconstitutional insofar as it allowed states to be sued by private citizens for money damages . </P> <P> The plaintiffs were Milton Ash and Patricia Garrett, employees of the University of Alabama school system . Both were disabled under the definition of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Ash was a security guard who had a lifelong history of severe asthma, and Garrett was a nurse who had been diagnosed with breast cancer requiring time - consuming radiation and chemotherapy treatments . Both alleged that they had been discriminated against at their jobs; the University had refused to assign Ash to duties that would alleviate his asthma, and insisted on transferring Garrett due to her absences . Ash and Garrett filed a suit in federal court against the University of Alabama for damages, arguing that the University had violated Title I of the ADA, the part of the ADA prohibiting discrimination in employment on the basis of disability . </P> <P> The University of Alabama responded with a motion to dismiss on the grounds that the Eleventh Amendment prohibited the suit . The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama dismissed both cases on this ground, but the Eleventh Circuit reversed, holding that Congress had expressly abrogated the sovereign immunity of the states . </P> <P> The issue was whether Congress could abrogate the immunity of the states under its Fourteenth Amendment power to enforce the Equal Protection Clause . </P>

Board of trustees university of alabama v. garrett case brief