Pace v. Bogalusa City Sch. Bd., 403 F.3d 272 (5th Cir. 2005)(en banc)

STATE IMMUNITY UNDER THE ELEVENTH AMENDMENT

A. The Text and Function of the Eleventh Amendment

B. Exceptions to Eleventh Amendment Immunity

1. Abrogation under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment

2. Waiver of Immunity by Consent

i. Clear Statement: “Knowing”
ii. Non-Coercive: “Voluntary”

C. Waiver of Eleventh Amendment Immunity Pursuant to Conditional Spending Programs

1. Is the Clear-Statement Rule Satisfied Absent Use of the Words “Waiver” or “Condition”?

2. Does the Presence of Abrogation Language Preclude a Finding of Waiver?

3. Can Congress Condition Waiver of Eleventh Amendment Immunity When It Exercises its Spending
Power?

4. Is Conditioning Acceptance of Federal Funds a Violation of the Unconstitutional-Conditions
Doctrine?

5. Are These Programs Coercive?

D. Abrogation of Immunity

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United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

March 8, 2005

Charles R. Fulbruge III

Clerk

REVISED MARCH 16, 2005

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

For the Fifth Circuit

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No. 01-31026

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TRAVIS PACE,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

VERSUS

THE BOGALUSA CITY SCHOOL BOARD, LOUISIANA STATE BOARD OF

ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, THE LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT

OF EDUCATION, and THE STATE OF LOUISIANA,

Defendants-Appellees.

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Appeal from the United States District Court

For the Eastern District of Louisiana

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Before KING, Chief Judge, JOLLY, HIGGINBOTHAM, DAVIS, JONES, SMITH, WIENER, BARKSDALE,
GARZA, DeMOSS, BENAVIDES, STEWART, DENNIS and PRADO, Circuit Judges. 1

DAVIS and WIENER, Circuit Judges:

Travis Pace (Pace) appeals the district court’s dismissal of his claim under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of
defendants on Pace’s claims under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA or Title II) and
§ 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (§ 504). The panel of this court which considered Pace’s appeal
concluded that the State of Louisiana, the Louisiana Department of Education and the Louisiana
State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (State Defendants) were entitled to sovereign
immunity under the Eleventh Amendment from all of Pace’s claims. The panel then affirmed the
district court’s dismissal of Pace’s claims against the Bogalusa City School Board. We took this case
en banc, first to consider whether the state defendants were entitled to immunity from Pace’s claims
under the Eleventh Amendment and, second, to consider the merits of Pace’s claims under the
IDEA, ADA and § 504. For the reasons discussed below, we now conclude that the State waived its
right to immunity under the Eleventh Amendment and therefore the State defendants are not entitled
to immunity from Pace’s § 504 and IDEA claims. On the merits, we conclude that the district court did
not err in dismissing Pace’s IDEA claims and that the district court correctly concluded that the
dismissal of Pace’s IDEA claims precluded his inaccessibility claims under the ADA and § 504. We
reject Pace’s argument that because different legal standards control his inaccessibility claims under
ADA/504, those claims were not litigated in his IDEA action. A 1997 amendment and implementing
regulations to the IDEA expressly require schools to comply with the identical standards for new
construction that ADA/504 and their regulations require.

I. FACTUAL AND LEGAL BACKGROUND

The factual and procedural background of this case is accurately and succinctly presented in the
panel opinion:

In 1994, at the age of fifteen, Travis Pace (Pace) was enrolled at Bogalusa High School. He is
developmentally delayed, confined to a wheelchair, and suffers from cerebral palsy and bladder
incontinence. In July 1997, Pace’s mother requested a due process hearing under the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. § 1400, et seq., as she believed that Pace was
denied a “free appropriate public education” (FAPE) due to a lack of handicap accessible facilities at
Bogalusa High School and deficiencies in Pace’s “individualized education programs” (IEPs). The
hearing officer found that the Bogalusa City Schools System 2 provided Pace with a FAPE in
compliance with the IDEA, and the State Level Review Panel (SLRP) affirmed the hearing officer’s
decision.

In September 1997, Pace filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of
Education (OCR), alleging violations of § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (§ 504), 29 U.S.C. § 794(a),
and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12132. The OCR and BCSB
resolved allegations that the BCSB operated services, programs, and activities that were physically
inaccessible to or unusable by individuals with disabilities by entering into a voluntary written
agreement under which the BCSB would identify accessibility barriers and the OCR would oversee
the development of a compliance plan.

In March 1999, Pace filed suit in federal district court, seeking damages and injunctive relief against
the BCSB, the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Louisiana
Department of Education, and the State of Louisiana, alleging violations of the IDEA, the ADA, § 504
of the Rehabilitation Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and various state statutes. 3 The district court bifurcated
Pace’s IDEA and non-IDEA claims. In separate orders, it affirmed the SLRP decision by dismissing
Pace’s IDEA claims, then granted the defendants’ motions for summary judgment on Pace’s non-
IDEA claims. Pace appeals both decisions.

II. STATE IMMUNITY UNDER THE ELEVENTH AMENDMENT

We consider first the defendants’ arguments that they are entitled to sovereign immunity from Pace’s
claims under the Eleventh Amendment. At the core of this Eleventh Amendment dispute is the
question whether, when Louisiana accepted particular federal funds, it waived the immunity afforded
it by the Eleventh Amendment to suits under § 504 and the IDEA. 4

A.   The Text and Function of the Eleventh Amendment

We start, as always, with the text. The Eleventh Amendment states:

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity,
commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by
Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. 5

These forty-three words —— adopted in swift response to the Supreme Court’s holding in Chisholm
v. Georgia 6 that Article III permitted a state to be sued in federal court 7 —— protect states from
such litigation. 8 The protection thus afforded, however, has long since been expanded beyond the
plain text of the Amendment. “Though its precise terms bar only federal jurisdiction over suits
brought against one State by citizens of another State or foreign state,” the Supreme Court’s
interpretation of the Amendment has “recognized that the Eleventh Amendment accomplished much
more.” 9 The immunity afforded to states under the Eleventh Amendment “implicates the
fundamental constitutional balance between the Federal Government and the States.” 10 Therefore,
at its core, the Eleventh Amendment serves “as an essential component of our constitutional
structure.” 11

Nevertheless, Eleventh Amendment immunity is not absolute. A number of different circumstances
may lead to a state’s litigating in federal court absent Eleventh Amendment immunity. We begin with
an overview of the Court’s current framework for assessing when a suit against a state may proceed
in federal court.

B.   Exceptions to Eleventh Amendment Immunity

There are two fundamental exceptions to the general rule that bars an action in federal court filed by
an individual against a state. First, a state’s Eleventh Amendment immunity may be abrogated when
Congress acts under § 5, the Enforcement Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 12 Second, a
state may consent to suit in federal court. 13

1.   Abrogation under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment

Congress can single-handedly strip the states of their Eleventh Amendment immunity and thereby
authorize federal court suits by individuals against the states. When Congress does this, it is
exercising its power to abrogate Eleventh Amendment immunity. In Reickenbacker v. Foster , 14 we
examined the Supreme Court’s cases concerning congressional abrogation of Eleventh Amendment
immunity under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment and derived the following test for determining
whether a federal statute is a valid exercise of Congress’s power to enforce the Fourteenth
Amendment and, consequently, whether the statute abrogates Eleventh Amendment immunity: (1)
The statute must contain an unequivocal statement of congressional intent to abrogate; (2)
Congress must have identified a history and pattern of unconstitutional action by the states; and (3)
the rights and remedies created by the statute must be congruent and proportional to the
constitutional violation(s) Congress sought to remedy or prevent. 15 If these three requirements are
satisfied, states are subject to federal jurisdiction in suits under the statute adopted pursuant to § 5,
regardless of any absence of consent.

2.   Waiver of Immunity by Consent

Either in the absence of § 5 abrogation or in addition to it, a state always has the prerogative of
foregoing its protection from federal court jurisdiction under the Eleventh Amendment. 16 A state’s
consent to suit must be both knowing and voluntary . That consent must always be “knowing and
voluntary” follows from College Savings Bank , in which the Supreme Court cited Johnson v. Zerbst ,
to define what constitutes effective waiver. 17 Waiver is effective when it is the “intentional
relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege.” 18 The first part, “intentional
relinquishment,” captures the principle of voluntariness ; and the second part, “known right or
privilege,” captures the element of knowingness .

When Congress conditions the availability of federal funds on a state’s waiver of its Eleventh
Amendment immunity, we employ a five-prong test derived from the Supreme Court’s definitive
spending power case, South Dakota v. Dole , 19 to ascertain the validity of the waiver. In Dole ,
South Dakota challenged a congressional statute that conditions the states’ receipt of federal
highway funds on their adoption of the minimum drinking age of twenty-one. South Dakota argued
that the statute exceeded Congress’s spending power and violated the Twenty-First Amendment. 20
The Court rejected this argument, noting that even though Congress is prohibited by the Twenty-
First Amendment from directly regulating the distribution of alcoholic beverages, the Spending
Clause authorizes it indirectly to entice states to raise their drinking age by dangling the proverbial
carrot of federal dollars. 21

Dole embodies an expansive interpretation of Congress’s spending authority. Indirect persuasion is
constitutional, reasoned the Court, because the spending power “is not limited by the direct grants
of legislative power found in the Constitution.” 22 Congress can, therefore, validly use its spending
power to legislate conditions on the disbursement of federal funds even though those conditions
would be unconstitutional if enacted as direct prohibitions. 23 It goes without saying that, because
states have the independent power to lay and collect taxes, they retain the ability to avoid the
imposition of unwanted federal regulation simply by rejecting federal funds.

Nevertheless, Congress’s power to effect policy through the exercise of its spending power is not
unlimited. Dole announced the restrictions that control such exercise: (1) Federal expenditures must
benefit the general welfare; (2) The conditions imposed on the recipients must be unambiguous; (3)
The conditions must be reasonably related to the purpose of the expenditure; and (4) No condition
may violate any independent constitutional prohibition. 24 In addition, the Dole Court recognized a
fifth requirement that the condition not be coercive: “[I]n some circumstances the financial
inducement offered by Congress might be so coercive as to pass the point at which ‘pressure turns
into compulsion.’” 25

Thus, Dole makes clear that, as long as its framework is employed, congressional spending
programs that are enacted in pursuit of the general welfare and unambiguously condition a state’s
acceptance of federal funds on reasonably related requirements are constitutional unless they are
either (1) independently prohibited or (2) coercive. When the condition requires a state to waive its
Eleventh Amendment immunity, Dole ’s requirement of an unambiguous statement of the condition
and its proscription on coercive inducements serve a dual role because they ensure compliance with
College Savings Bank ’s requirement that waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity must be (a)
knowing and (b) voluntary.

i.   Clear Statement: “Knowing”

In Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman , 26 the Court analyzed Congress’s power to impose
conditions on a state’s receipt of federal funds and pronounced:

There can, of course, be no knowing acceptance if a State is unaware of the conditions or is unable
to ascertain what is expected of it. Accordingly, if Congress intends to impose a condition on the
grant of federal moneys, it must do so unambiguously.... By insisting that Congress speak with a
clear voice, we enable the States to exercise their choice knowingly , cognizant of the consequences
of their participation. 27

Thus, we know that this stringent clear-statement rule ensures that when a state foregoes its
Eleventh Amendment immunity in exchange for federal funds, it does so “knowingly.” 28 In our
reading of Pennhurst , the only “knowledge” that the Court is concerned about is a state’s
knowledge that a Spending Clause condition requires waiver of immunity, not a state’s knowledge
that it has immunity that it could assert. At bottom, we conclude that if Congress satisfies the clear-
statement rule, the knowledge prong of the Spending Clause waiver analysis is fulfilled.

ii.   Non-Coercive: “Voluntary”

If the clear-statement rule is satisfied, a state’s actual acceptance of clearly conditioned funds is
generally voluntary. The only exception to this presumption arises if the spending program itself is
deemed “coercive,” for then a state’s waiver is, by definition, no longer voluntary.

In summary, the Supreme Court has articulated two ways that a state can be subject to an individual’
s suit in federal court, regardless of   the Eleventh Amendment. First, Congress may abrogate state
immunity. Second, the state may waive its Eleventh Amendment immunity by consent. If waiver
results from participation in a Spending Clause program, the program must be a valid exercise of
Congress’s spending power; the waiver condition must satisfy the clear-statement rule (thereby
ensuring that the state’s waiver is “knowing”); and the program must be non-coercive (automatically
establishing that the waiver is “voluntary”).

C.   Waiver of Eleventh Amendment Immunity Pursuant to Conditional Spending Programs

Keeping firmly in mind the Court’s current framework for analyzing when a state may be subject to
suit in federal court, we turn to the particular facts and legal contentions of the instant case. The two
statutory provisions at issue purport to have conditioned Louisiana’s receipt of federal funds on its
waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity to suits under § 504 and the IDEA. Specifically, 42 U.S.C. §
2000d-7 conditions a state’s receipt of federal money on its waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity
to actions under § 504 and other federal anti-discrimination statutes:

A State shall not be immune under the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution of the United States
from suit in Federal court for a violation of section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, title IX of the
Education Amendments of 1972, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, or the provisions of any other Federal statute prohibiting discrimination by recipients of
Federal financial assistance. 29

Similarly, 20 U.S.C. § 1403 30 conditions a state’s receipt of federal IDEA funds on its consent to suit
under that Act. 31 Applying the framework set forth in Dole , we proceed to determine whether
Louisiana validly waived its immunity when it accepted the conditioned federal dollars.

Louisiana does not dispute that the first and third prongs of the Dole analysis, i.e., whether the
Spending Clause statute at issue was enacted in pursuit of the general welfare, and whether the
condition is sufficiently related to the federal interest in the program funded, 32 are satisfied here.
Consequently, we restrict our consideration to the three remaining prongs of the Dole test. Following
prior panels of this court, 33 and every circuit (but one) that has made these inquiries, we conclude
that the statutes at issue validly conditioned Louisiana’s receipt of these federal funds on its waiver
of Eleventh Amendment immunity. 34

First, we determine whether the conditions contained in 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-7 and 20 U.S.C. § 1403
are unambiguous and, consequently, whether Louisiana knowingly waived its immunity to actions
under § 504 and the IDEA by accepting federal funds.

1.   Is the Clear-Statement Rule Satisfied Absent Use of the Words “Waiver” or “Condition”?

In the face of the unequivocal language of § 2000d-7 to the effect that “[a] state shall not be immune
under the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution of the United States from suit in Federal court for
a violation of § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,” 35 Louisiana argues legalistically that,
because Congress did not use the words “waiver” or “condition,” the condition fails the clear-
statement rule. 36 This argument —— that absent talismanic incantations of magic words, there can
be no waiver —— is little more than frivolous. 37 The Supreme Court has already noted, albeit in
dicta, that in § 2000d-7 “Congress sought to provide the sort of unequivocal waiver that our
precedents demand.” 38 More importantly, our decision in Pederson v. Louisiana State University ,
which we remain convinced was correctly decided, forecloses this line of attack. 39

2.   Does the Presence of Abrogation Language Preclude a Finding of Waiver?

Louisiana also argues that because § 2000d-7 and § 1403 fail as § 5 attempts by Congress to
abrogate Eleventh Amendment immunity, the same provisions of those statutes cannot satisfy the
clear-statement rule for Spending Clause purposes. We reject Louisiana’s attempt to pigeonhole this
statutory language in mutually exclusive terms.

We held in Pederson that, in § 2000d-7, Congress “successfully codified a statute which clearly,
unambiguously, and unequivocally conditions receipt of federal funds under Title IX on the State’s
waiver of Eleventh Amendment Immunity.” 40 And in Lesage v. Texas , 41 we ruled that “Congress
unquestionably enacted 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-7 with the ‘intent’ to invoke the Fourteenth Amendment’s
congressional enforcement power. The purpose of the provision, enacted in 1986, was to
legislatively overrule the result in Atascadero .” 42 Thus, in Pederson , we recognized § 2000d-7 as
a clear statement for waiver vis-à-vis the Spending Clause, and in Lesage , we recognized that the
very same provision could satisfy abrogation under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Just because particular language may or may not function with equal efficacy under both exceptions
to Eleventh Amendment immunity, does not mean that it fails the clear-statement rule. As we
concluded in AT&T , the rule requires only that “the state has been put on notice clearly and
unambiguously by the federal statute that the state’s particular conduct or transaction will subject it
to federal court suits brought by individuals.” 43 Congress need not declare in the statute whether it
is proceeding under abrogation or waiver, or both. For the purpose of the clear-statement rule, §
2000d-7 —— janus-faced as it may be —— poses no constitutional impediment to our finding valid
waiver by consent. We conclude that the conditions contained in § 2000d-7 and § 1403 are
unambiguous, as required by Dole .

Undaunted, Louisiana still contends that it did not knowingly waive its Eleventh Amendment
immunity. Louisiana and the dissent rely on Garcia v. S.U.N.Y. Health Sciences Ctr. , 44 which
looked to the Supreme Court’s decision in Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett
45 to justify departing from the heavy weight of authority supporting waiver based on the clarity of
the language in § 2000d-7. Garrett examined whether, in Title I of the ADA, Congress could
constitutionally abrogate the states’ Eleventh Amendment immunity. 46 The Garrett Court concluded
that Title I of the ADA was outside the scope of valid § 5 legislation; therefore, Congress’s attempt at
abrogation failed, and private suits against states in federal court were barred by the Eleventh
Amendment. 47

The lawsuits in Garcia involved disputes that arose between September 1993 and August 1995. 48
During that pre- Garrett period, it was universally accepted that the ADA validly abrogated Eleventh
Amendment immunity. Rather than looking at the clear-statement rule and the state’s acceptance of
funds, Garcia analyzed whether a state would have realized —— “known” —— that it was
abandoning its Eleventh Amendment immunity by accepting federal funds during the period of time
applicable to the lawsuits at issue there (and here). 49 The Garcia court noted that, during the
relevant period, “Title II of the ADA was reasonably understood to abrogate [the state’s] sovereign
immunity under Congress’s Commerce Clause authority.” 50 The court also pointed out that the
requirements of Title II and § 504 are “virtually identical.” 51 Therefore, concluded the court,
because the state defendant thought that it could be sued under Title II, it had nothing to lose by
accepting federal funds and redundantly waiving immunity to § 504 suits in the process. 52

Louisiana and the dissent maintain that we should follow the panel and apply the “logic” of Garcia to
the instant case. First, Louisiana contends that, because it “believed” that the Rehabilitation Act had
already abrogated its Eleventh Amendment immunity, it “did not and could not know that [it] retained
any sovereign immunity to waive by accepting conditioned federal funds.” 53 Likewise, Louisiana
asks us to conclude that § 1403 was an unsuccessful attempt at abrogation; therefore, maintains
Louisiana, it could not have “knowingly” waived its immunity under the IDEA when it accepted federal
IDEA funds.

Even though it found that the statutory provisions at issue are unambiguous, 54 the panel
nevertheless concluded that Louisiana’s purported waivers of Eleventh Amendment immunity are
invalid because they were not knowing. The panel drew support from the holding in Garcia , but its
reasoning differed slightly from the Second Circuit’s. According to the panel opinion, “[b]elieving that
[the Rehabilitation Act and the IDEA] validly abrogated their sovereign immunity, the State
defendants did not and could not know that they retained any sovereign immunity to waive by
accepting conditioned federal funds.” 55

The fatal flaw with that syllogism lies in the fact that neither the mandates of the Rehabilitation Act
nor the requirements of the IDEA apply to a state agency that has not received either some federal
funding (in the case of the Rehabilitation Act) or federal IDEA dollars (in the case of the IDEA). 56
Therefore, it is impossible for Congress to have “abrogated” a state’s immunity to § 504 or IDEA
suits if the relevant state agency did not receive federal funds during the time period in which it was
alleged to have violated an individual’s statutory rights. It follows indisputably that Louisiana’s
Eleventh Amendment immunity to § 504 and IDEA claims was intact before the state accepted
federal funds. Thus, Louisiana did have Eleventh Amendment immunity to waive by accepting the
clearly conditioned federal funds.

The dissent nevertheless insists that, during the time that § 504 and the IDEA were thought to
abrogate Eleventh Amendment immunity, Louisiana could have believed that it lacked immunity to §
504 and IDEA suits even before it received federal funds under those statutes. 57 This ignores the
conditional-spending nature of the Rehabilitation Act and the IDEA. The Acts’ substantive provisions
regulate only state agencies that have accepted the relevant federal funds. Thus, it makes no sense
to say that the State was subject to private actions for damages under § 504 and the IDEA before
the substantive provisions of those statutes applied to it. Contrary to the dissent’s accusation, 58 we
do not confuse the doctrines of abrogation and waiver; rather, we point out that —— even before
Garrett —— Louisiana could have avoided suits under § 504 and the IDEA altogether by declining
federal funding. Louisiana clearly had Eleventh Amendment immunity to waive at the time that it
accepted the federal funds and expressly obligated itself to comply with the dictates of the
Rehabilitation Act and the IDEA.

Further, during the relevant time period, §§ 2000d-7 and 1403 put each state on notice that, by
accepting federal money, it was waiving its Eleventh Amendment immunity. Under Dole , if the clear-
statement requirement is met, the state is conclusively presumed to have “known” that receipt of
clearly conditioned federal funds requires the state to abide by the condition (i.e., waiver of Eleventh
Amendment immunity).

In addition, the Garcia approach is problematic for a number of reasons, the most fundamental of
which is that, by focusing its inquiry on what the state could have believed, the Second Circuit
engrafted a subjective-intent element onto the otherwise objective Spending Clause waiver inquiry.
In other words, Garcia ’s approach employs the wrong jurisprudential test, because it distorts what is
necessary to show knowledge for Spending Clause waivers. Analytically, the “knowledge” question
that we ask when we undertake the Spending Clause waiver inquiry is coextensive with the clear-
statement rule; for, when a state actually accepts funds that are clearly conditioned on a waiver of
Eleventh Amendment immunity, it is held objectively to “know” that it is accepting all clearly stated
conditions. That it might not “know” subjectively whether it had any immunity to waive by agreeing to
those conditions is wholly irrelevant.

The dissent asserts that, by focusing on the clear-statement requirement, we have disregarded
College Savings Bank ’s “clear declaration” requirement. But College Savings Bank was not a
conditional-spending case. There, the Court invalidated “constructive waivers” of Eleventh
Amendment immunity “based upon the State’s mere presence in a field subject to congressional
regulation.” 59 Such a constructive waiver is a far cry from a state’s acceptance of federal funds that
are explicitly conditioned on its waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity. In fact, the College Savings
Bank opinion expressly distinguished conditional-spending waivers of Eleventh Amendment
immunity, which it said were “fundamentally different from” illegitimate constructive waivers. 60
Nothing in College Savings Bank indicates that, when the clear- statement requirement is met, a
state can be said to lack knowledge that by accepting federal funds it waives its Eleventh
Amendment immunity.

In sum, Garcia and the dissent would subjugate the bright-line of objective reasoning to the slippery
slope of assessing a state’s subjective belief. 61 If, like the panel, we were to follow that approach,
we would be getting into the business of looking past the straightforward objective facts, i.e., (1) the
clear statement requiring waiver and (2) the state’s actual, uncoerced acceptance of federal funds,
in an attempt to fathom what was in a state’s “head,” a precarious exercise indeed. The clear-
statement rule guards against post hoc questions about intent.

Accordingly, we hold that Louisiana’s waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity to actions under §
504 and the IDEA was knowing. 62 Still, we must determine whether an independent constitutional
bar prevents Congress from conditioning the receipt of federal funds on a state’s waiver of Eleventh
Amendment immunity.

3.   Can Congress Condition Waiver of Eleventh Amendment Immunity When It Exercises its
Spending Power?

Louisiana challenges Congress’s power under the Spending Clause to condition receipt of federal
education funds on a state’s waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity. This position is frivolous. We
have consistently interpreted Supreme Court guidance as permitting such conditional spending
programs, as has every other circuit that has squarely addressed the issue. 63 We do not change
course today.

4.   Is Conditioning Acceptance of Federal Funds a Violation of the Unconstitutional-Conditions
Doctrine?

Louisiana also attempts to invoke the “unconstitutional- conditions doctrine” to challenge Congress’s
ability to condition the acceptance of federal funds on waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity. In
the most general sense, the unconstitutional- conditions doctrine examines the extent to which
government benefits may be conditioned or distributed in ways that burden constitutional rights or
principles. 64 For at least two reasons, Louisiana’s reliance on the unconstitutional-conditions
doctrine is misplaced.

First, as evidenced by the dearth of cases employing it in this context, 65 the unconstitutional-
conditions doctrine is most meaningful when the government imposes a condition of questionable
constitutional character on an individual right. But here, federal and state sovereigns are on
opposite sides of the controversy, and the constitutional “right” at issue is structural rather than
personal. Consequently, for the reasons announced in the Third Circuit’s analysis in Koslow v.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , the doctrine is inapplicable. The Koslow court considered whether
the Rehabilitation Act, including § 2000d-7, imposed an unconstitutional condition on Pennsylvania’s
receipt of federal funds. In refusing to apply the unconstitutional-conditions doctrine to the
conditioning of federal funds on the waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity, the Third Circuit stated:

[T]he Supreme Court has not yet applied the “unconstitutional conditions” doctrine to cases between
two sovereigns. Unlike private persons, states have the resources to serve their citizens even if the
federal government, through economic incentives, encourages a particular result. A state’s political
powers——not the least of which is the power to levy taxes on its citizens——help ensure the federal
government does not “coerce” the state through economic “encouragement.” An individual citizen, in
contrast, lacks these formidable institutional resources. 66

We embrace that reasoning.

Second, the unconstitutional-conditions doctrine, even when applied piecemeal by the Supreme
Court, is anchored at least in part in a theory of coercion or compulsion. 67 In this context, that
concern is subsumed in the non-coercion prong of the Dole test. 68 In other words, in the Spending
Clause context, any role that the unconstitutional-conditions doctrine might have in cabining
Congress’s authority to give funds in exchange for waiving immunity is already part-and-parcel of the
standard Spending Clause analysis. Thus, no independent constitutional bar invalidates Louisiana’s
waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity.

5.   Are These Programs Coercive?

In light of Dole , we must determine whether the conditional- spending schemes at issue are unduly
coercive. We hold that they are not. A state can prevent suits against a particular agency under §
504 by declining federal funds for that agency. 69 A state can avoid suit under the IDEA merely by
refusing IDEA funds. And, to do so in either case, the state would not have to refuse all federal
assistance. 70 Moreover, no circuit has accepted a coercion challenge to either the Rehabilitation
Act or the IDEA. 71 Therefore, we refuse to invalidate Louisiana’s waiver on coercion grounds.

D.   Abrogation of Immunity

Alternatively, Pace asks this en banc court to rule that Congress —— acting under § 5 of the
Fourteenth Amendment —— in fact abrogated Louisiana’s Eleventh Amendment immunity, leaving
Louisiana subject to suit on Pace’s ADA, Rehabilitation Act, and IDEA claims. As we hold that
Louisiana waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity with respect to the Rehabilitation Act and the
IDEA, it is not necessary for us to address Pace’s contention that Louisiana’s immunity to suit under
those statutes was also abrogated. Neither is it necessary for us to consider whether Title II of the
ADA abrogates Eleventh Amendment immunity in this case. First, the Supreme Court, in Tennessee
v. Lane , 72 held that Title II abrogates sovereign immunity to the extent that it implicates the
accessibility of judicial services, but refused to consider its application to other rights, including
those considered to be fundamental under the Constitution. 73 Because (1) the Supreme Court has
never before recognized access to public education 74 or freedom from disability discrimination in
education 75 to be fundamental rights, and (2) it is unnecessary to address Pace’s Title II claims
given that its rights and remedies are identical to and duplicative of those provided in § 504, we do
not address whether the holding in Lane extends to disability discrimination in access to public
education.

Second, when ADA claims are directed at architectural barriers, as they are here, the rights and
remedies are exactly the same as those provided under the Rehabilitation Act. This circuit, as well
as others, has noted that, because the rights and remedies under both statutes are the same, case
law interpreting one statute can be applied to the other. 76 The implementing regulations for § 504
and Title II are, in all material respects, the same. For example, both statutes’ implementing
regulations prohibit similar types of discrimination. 77 In addition, § 504 and Title II’s regulations
governing new construction and alterations are effectively the same. 78 The two statutes are
interpreted to provide the same exception: No covered entity is obligated to make a “fundamental
alteration” in its programs. 79 Finally, the remedies available under § 504 and Title II are one and
the same. Specifically, § 203 of Title II states that “[t]he remedies, procedures, and rights set forth in
section 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794a) shall be the remedies, procedures,
and rights this title provides to any person alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in
violation of section 202 [of the ADA].” 80 Section 505(a)(2) of the Rehabilitation Act, in turn, states
that the “remedies, procedures, and rights set forth in title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964... shall
be available” for violations of § 504. 81 Thus, in Barnes v. Gorman , 82 the Supreme Court held that
“the remedies for violations of § 202 of the ADA and § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act are coextensive
with the remedies available in a private cause of action brought under Title VI” of the Civil Rights Act.
83 For all intents and purposes, therefore, the remedies available to Pace under § 504 and Title II
are the same. The sole difference between the statutes lies in their causation requirements. 84 This
difference is not implicated, however, where, as here, the challenge is to architectural barriers.

In conclusion, we hold that for all the foregoing reasons, Louisiana is not entitled to assert sovereign
immunity under the Eleventh Amendment in this case. With that issue determined, we proceed to the
question of issue preclusion.

III. MERITS

We turn now to the merits of Pace’s arguments that the district court erred in denying relief to him
under the IDEA, the ADA and § 504.

A. IDEA

We agree with and adopt that portion of the panel opinion affirming the district court’s judgment
which in turn affirmed the administrative determination that Pace was not entitled to relief under the
IDEA.

We pause only to emphasize the somewhat unusual nature of a proceeding under the IDEA. As
required by the statute, 85 Pace first pursued his administrative claim. He was granted a hearing by
a hearing examiner where he had an opportunity to present his evidence demonstrating that the
inaccessibility of various portions of the Bogalusa campus prevented him from receiving a free and
appropriate public education (FAPE). The hearing examiner, after hearing the evidence and making
a personal inspection of the campus, rejected Pace’s inaccessibility claims and concluded that the
defendants had complied with the IDEA and had provided a FAPE to Pace. 86 Pace then challenged
the hearing examiner’s findings and conclusion in his administrative appeal to the State Level
Review Panel (SLRP). The SLRP also rejected Pace’s claims and affirmed the hearing examiner in
all respects. 87 Pace then filed suit in federal district court as authorized by 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(1)
(A). A district court in which such an action is filed must receive the record generated by the
administrative proceeding and also hear additional evidence presented by the parties. 88 The court
must then give “due weight” to the hearing officer’s finding and make a de novo determination based
on a preponderance of the evidence. Teague Independent School District v. Todd L , 999 F.2d 127,
131 (5 th Cir. 1993). The district court considered all of Pace’s claims of inaccessibility that he raised
during the administrative proceedings. 89 The court considered the administrative record along with
the new evidence offered by Pace and gave “due weight” to the findings of the hearing examiner
and SLRP. Ultimately, the district court agreed with the hearing examiner that Bogalusa High School
had provided Pace with a FAPE by complying with the IDEA in all aspects, including that the campus
was accessible to the wheelchair-bound Pace. The district court’s conclusion is fully supported by
the record and we therefore affirm the district court’s rejection of Pace’s claims under the IDEA.

B.   ADA and Section 504

In addition to his IDEA claims, Pace also asserted claims under the ADA and § 504 in his suit. The
district court severed the IDEA claims from these non-IDEA claims. After dismissing Pace’s IDEA
claims, the district court then considered defendants’ motion for summary judgment seeking
exoneration under § 504 and the ADA. The district court granted the defendants’ motion for
summary judgment on grounds that the factual bases for the non-IDEA claims were indistinct from
the resolved IDEA claims. The district court concluded further that principles of issue preclusion
applied to preclude Pace from pursuing his redundant non-IDEA claims. Pace argues that the district
court committed legal error in applying principles of issue preclusion to bar his non-IDEA claims.

Issue preclusion or collateral estoppel is appropriate when:

(1) the identical issue was previously adjudicated; (2) the issue was actually litigated; and (3) the
previous determination was necessary to the decision. See Southmark Corp. v. Coopers & Lybrand (
In re: Southmark Corp. ), 163 F.3d 925, 932 (5 th Cir. 1999). In Southmark we also found that the
“relitigation of an issue is not precluded unless the facts and the legal standard used to assess them
are the same in both proceedings.” Id. (quoting RecoverEdge L.P. v. Pentecost , 44 F.3d 1284,
1281 (5 th Cir. 1995)). Issues of fact are not “identical” or “the same,” and therefore not preclusive,
if the legal standards governing their resolution are “significantly different.” 90 Pace argues that the
accessibility issues the court litigated under the IDEA were for the limited purpose of determining
whether the Bogalusa High School provided Pace with a FAPE under that statute. Thus, Pace
contends, because a “significantly different” legal standard applies to his accessibility issues under
the ADA and § 504, these latter claims were never litigated and issue preclusion should not apply.
We therefore compare the standards of accessibility under the IDEA on the one hand and the ADA
and § 504 on the other to determine whether the legal standards are “significantly different.”

As indicated above, the IDEA requires states and local educational agencies receiving federal IDEA
funds to make a FAPE available to children with certain disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21.
The IDEA imposes extensive requirements on schools to safeguard the disabled child’s right to a
FAPE. 20 U.S.C. §§ 1414, 1415. In determining whether a school has provided a student with a
FAPE, the focus is on the Individualized Education Plan (IEP), a written statement prepared by a
team consisting of a representative of the local school district, the disabled child’s teachers, the child’
s parents and the child. 20 U.S.C. § 1414(d). The IEP includes the child’s educational performance,
his goals, the nature of his disabilities, and a description of the educational and related services that
will be provided for the child to meet the stated objectives. The objective is always to tailor the FAPE
to the particular needs of the child. Cypress Fairbanks ISD v. Michael F. , 118 F.3d 245, 247 (5 th
Cir. 1997).

The goal of the IDEA is to require a FAPE that will permit the child “to benefit” from the educational
experience. It need not be the best possible education nor one that will maximize the child’s
educational potential. Bd. of Education v. Rowley , 458 U.S. 176 (1982).

Admittedly different from those underlying the IDEA, the Congressional objective of both the ADA
and § 504 is the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities. 42 U.S.C. § 12101
(b)(1). Title II of the ADA, which applies to public entities including public schools, provides that “no
qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation
in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs or activities of a public entity or be subjected
to discrimination by any such entity.” 42 U.S.C. § 12132. See also 28 C.F.R. § 35.130(a). Section
504 contains virtually identical language. See 29 U.S.C. § 784(a). Mandating physical accessibility
and the removal and amelioration of architectural barriers is an important purpose of each statute.
91

The primary difference between the ADA and § 504 is that § 504 applies only to recipients of federal
funds. 29 U.S.C. § 794(a). This difference does not concern us in this case because no defendant
argues that it does not receive federal money. Thus, as we stated in section II-D above, for the
purposes of this appeal, the ADA and § 504 and their implementing regulations impose identical
obligations on the defendants and grant identical rights to Pace. 92

In Pace’s brief to us on his non-IDEA claims brought under § 504 and the ADA he complains only
that parts of the Bogalusa High School campus are inaccessible to him. The only § 504 regulations
dealing with accessibility in education are found in subpart C of the § 504 regulations. 34 C.F.R. §§
104.21-104.23. Section 104.23 of § 504's regulations deals with new construction on school
campuses, the basis of Pace’s complaints in this suit. Subpart D of the § 504 regulations deals with
preschool, elementary, and secondary education and those regulations do not purport to cover
accessibility in schools. 93 Rather, 34 C.F.R. § § 104.21-23, the general education regulations on
accessibility found in subpart C of § 504 apply to new construction on high school campuses such
as Bogalusa High. 94 The ADA has no specific section on education, so the general regulations
governing accessibility to public buildings also control accessibility to school buildings.

With this background, we turn to Pace’s specific argument that his accessibility claims under the
ADA/504 are not precluded by the district court’s rejection of his accessibility claims under the IDEA.
He argues that his non-IDEA accessibility claims are not precluded because different legal standards
apply to his ADA and § 504 accessibility claims, and these claims have never been litigated or
decided. When we consider the equivalent standards for accessibility in schools under the IDEA on
the one hand and the ADA/504 on the other, it becomes clear that we should reject this argument.

Congress required in a 1997 amendment to the IDEA that any construction of new facilities must
comply with either (1) The Americans with Disabilities Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and
Facilities (ADAAG); or (2) The Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS). 20 U.S.C. § 1404(b).
95 Thus, with respect to a physically disabled child such as the wheelchair-bound Pace, the school
can comply with the IDEA’s accessibility requirements by satisfying either the ADAAG or UFAS. 96

Pace presents no argument that the accessibility standards for new construction of school buildings
under the ADA or § 504 are more demanding or even different from the standards required under
the 1997 amendment to the IDEA. This is understandable, because the regulations governing
accessibility in schools under the ADA/504 require a school engaged in new construction to conform
to the same standards as the IDEA, either the ADAAG or UFAS.

New construction and alterations of public facilities under Title II of the ADA are governed by the
regulations found in 28 C.F.R. § 35.151. 97 Like the IDEA, the ADA accessibility regulations require
a school conducting new construction to comply with either the ADAAG or UFAS. Section 504's
accessibility regulations are virtually identical to the ADA’s, 98 and also demand that schools
engaging in new construction comply with the same federal guidelines required by the IDEA. Thus,
Pace’s argument that the accessibility standards are different under IDEA and ADA/504 is meritless.

In summary, under the IDEA, when, as here, a child complains that his disability renders a portion of
the campus inaccessible, this triggers the application of the 1997 amendments to the IDEA. In
determining whether the school has met its obligations under the amendment and provided the
disabled student with a FAPE, the hearing examiner, the SLRP, and the district court must determine
whether the area of the school in question complies with either the ADAAG or UFAS. These are the
same federal guidelines the school must comply with to satisfy the accessibility requirements of the
ADA and § 504.

Pace, as he was required to do by the IDEA, presented his accessibility claims in his administrative
claim. In their administrative findings, both the hearing examiner and the SLRP discussed the 1997
amendment to the IDEA. This makes it clear that both were aware that new or existing construction
to Bogalusa High School must meet either the ADAAG or UFAS standards before the school could
fully comply with the IDEA. 99

The only significant summary judgment evidence Pace presented to the district court on his
ADA/504 claims was the report and deposition testimony of Donald MaGinnis, an architectural
expert. The point of his testimony is that structural changes to the Bogalusa campus failed to comply
with the ADAAG. Although this same standard applied to Pace’s claim under the IDEA, he did not
introduce this evidence before the hearing examiner. Further, Pace failed to offer the expert
evidence to the district court to support his appeal of the administrative determination under the
IDEA. Because the accessibility standards under the IDEA and the ADA/504 are identical for new
construction of school buildings, Pace has not demonstrated that the defendants owed him any
greater or even different obligation in this respect under § 504/ADA than he was entitled to under
the IDEA. Thus, the accessibility issue Pace litigated in his IDEA case and lost is the same issue he
sought to litigate in his ADA/504 claim. The district court correctly concluded that Pace was
precluded from relitigating this issue.

The only argument Pace presents to us on the applicability of the 1997 amendment was presented
for the first time in his petition for en banc review. He argued in that petition and argues to the en
banc court that the amendment was not triggered because no evidence was presented that “IDEA
funds” were used to make the improvements to the Bogalusa campus. Pace relies on the following
language in the 1997 amendment to 20 U.S.C. § 1404:

§ 1404. Acquisition of equipment; construction or alteration of facilities

(a) In general

If the Secretary determines that a program authorized under this chapter would be improved by
permitting program funds to be used to acquire appropriate equipment, or to construct new facilities
or alter existing facilities, the Secretary is authorized to allow the use of those funds for those
purposes.

Neither the amendment nor the existing statute purports to require a plaintiff to prove the use of
IDEA funds or any other fact as a predicate to seeking relief under the IDEA against a school for
failing to make its campus accessible in response to a student’s IEP. We have found no cases
interpreting this amendment or its predecessor. Subsection (a) is simply a restyled version of the
existing statute. 100 The change is found in Subsection (b), which incorporates into the IDEA for the
first time the ADAAG and UFAS construction standards. The amended § 1404(a), like the existing
statute, authorizes the Secretary to allow the use of IDEA funds for construction or alterations.

To support Pace’s argument that the amended version of § 1404 does not apply in this case, amicus
seems to argue that structural alterations to meet accessibility demands in a student’s IEP are not
part of the calculus in determining whether a student has received a FAPE.

In Weber’s Special Education Law and Litigation Treatise , he rejects this suggestion in his cogent
discussion of the interplay between the IDEA, § 504 and ADA:

Schools covered by Title II and Section 504 owe obligations not only to students with disabilities but
to all persons with disabilities whom they serve. In this sense, the laws are more inclusive than the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), whose beneficiaries are children with disabilities
who need special education. Nevertheless, by requiring school districts to provide an appropriate
education in the least restrictive environment, IDEA overlaps with Section 504 and Title II in terms of
the children it covers. Thus, IDEA may require a school district to modify programs or facilities to
achieve these ends for an individual student. IDEA funds may be used for removal of architectural
barriers or other improvements to accessibility in order to promote appropriate education for
children with disabilities .(Footnotes omitted) 101   (emphasis added)

Weber further describes a school’s duty under the IDEA to address accessibility concerns in the IEP
as “a component of appropriate special education and related services in the least restrictive
environment.” 102 This discussion makes it clear that when a student’s IEP raises concerns of
accessibility to the school’s campus, the determination of whether these concerns have been met is
a necessary component in resolving whether the student has received a FAPE.

The Hearing Examiner tried this controversy on the premise that the entire IDEA statute, including
the 1997 amendment, applied to Pace’s claims, and no one argued to the contrary. The Hearing
Examiner did not require the parties to file extensive pre-trial papers. However, she did require each
party to list the issues they wanted the hearing examiner to address. Neither Pace nor the school
board asserted that an issue was presented with respect to the expenditure of IDEA funds or any
other issue relating to the applicability of the 1997 amendment to § 1404. Considering the strict duty
that the ADAAG and UFAS construction guidelines impose on the school, it was also reasonable for
the Hearing Examiner to assume that the school board would object if there was some basis for it to
argue that these guidelines did not apply to the architectural improvements ordered by Pace’s IEP. It
is not surprising that Pace did not object to the Hearing Examiner’s application of such rigorous
standards; it was in his interest at the time to require the school to meet the toughest standards
possible in making the architectural improvements.

After three hearings, the Hearing Examiner issued her report finding that Bogalusa High had
provided Pace with a FAPE. The Hearing Examiner explicitly found that the ADAAG guidelines
applied, meaning that she concluded that Pace’s accessibility concerns regarding improvements
made to the campus triggered the application of the 1997 amendment to § 1404 of the IDEA.
Otherwise, the ADAAG guidelines would be irrelevant. In making her findings, the Hearing Examiner
relied on the voluminous administrative record, which shows that Bogalusa received substantial
federal IDEA funds during 1996 and 1997, the relevant time period. 103 IDEA regulations make it
clear that federal IDEA funds cannot be co-mingled with state funds. 104 The Hearing examiner also
had the benefit of Pace’s IEP and the testimony of the School Board’s Maintenance Supervisor that
the construction changes were made in response to Pace’s IEP facilitator’s instructions. Even if a
showing of the use of IDEA funds was required, it was reasonable for the Hearing Examiner to
conclude that IDEA funds were used and that under the amended version of 20 U.S.C. § 1404 the
school provided Pace with a FAPE.

Pace appealed the Hearing Examiner’s order to the State Level Review Panel (SLRP). Again, the
record reflects no argument from any party to that appeal that the entire IDEA statute, including the
1997 amendment to § 1404, did not apply. The SLRP in its opinion explicitly applied the 1997
amendment, discussed Pace’s arguments, and after rejecting them, affirmed the Hearing Examiner.

Pace then filed suit in federal district court seeking relief under the IDEA, §504 and the ADA. He
specifically alleged in his petition that the state received federal IDEA funds. 105 His core claim was
that the school had failed to comply with the ADAAG.

The primary evidence Pace presented to the district court was the deposition testimony and report
of architect Donald MaGinnis, who testified that the structural changes to the campus failed to meet
ADAAG standards. Thus, Pace’s federal claim was predicated on these guidelines, made applicable
to the IDEA by the 1997 amendment to § 1404. Because the Hearing Examiner and the SLRP had
rejected Pace’s accessibility claims based on application of these same standards (the ADAAG and
UFAS), the district court concluded that Pace was precluded from relitigating his accessibility issues.

Suffering summary judgment in the district court on both his IDEA and non-IDEA claims, Pace sought
appellate relief from this court. In his initial brief to the panel, Pace argued that the district court
erred in accepting the Hearing Examiner and SLRP’s findings of accessibility to preclude his non-
IDEA accessibility claims. However, Pace did not base his argument on the inapplicability of the 1997
amendment to § 1404 or that the Hearing Examiner erred in applying the ADAAG guidelines to the
structural changes. The School Board did argue to the panel that the amendment applied and that
the Hearing Examiner and SLRP had used the very same federal guidelines in deciding Pace’s IDEA
claims that Pace sought to litigate in his non-IDEA action. 106

Faced with the appellee’s argument that his non-IDEA claims were precluded due to the previous
application of the 1997 amended version of § 1404, Pace filed a reply brief with the panel. Again, he
made no effort to refute the School Board’s argument that the 1997 amendment to § 1404 applied.

Without any opposition from Pace as to the proper application of § 1404 to the improvements to
Bogalusa High’s campus, the panel accepted the School Board’s unchallenged argument and relied
on the 1997 amendment to affirm the district court’s judgment. 107 The panel specifically cited the
1997 amended version of § 1404 to support its conclusion that issue preclusion was proper because
accessibility to the campus had already been litigated under the same federal standards. 108

In response to the panel’s decision, Pace sought en banc review, where he argued for the first time
that § 1404 did not apply to the improvements he demanded in his IEP, because “[t]here is no proof
that construction in this case would be covered by this provision.” 109

In sum, we do not read the 1997 amendment to require proof that IDEA funds were used for
improvements to trigger the amendment. Even if the statute can be read in this manner, there is
evidence to support an inference that IDEA funds were used to make the structural changes. More
importantly, we cannot permit Pace to change his position at will. He was obviously happy to have
the administrative bodies and the trial court apply the 1997 amendment to § 1404 (and the strict
ADAAG guidelines) when it was helpful to him. He cannot at this late date reverse his position when
he finds that application of those guidelines are not in his best interest.

Pace has one remaining argument in support of his position that issue preclusion should not apply
to his claims under the ADA and § 504. He argues that the IDEA’s “savings clause,” gives him the
right to maintain a cause of action under the ADA and § 504. 110 We agree that Pace is not limited
to a claim under the IDEA and that he can assert claims under the ADA and § 504. But his ability to
assert non-IDEA claims does not mean that general principles of issue preclusion do not apply to
preclude his redundant claims. 111 Because Pace’s claims under the ADA and § 504 are factually
and legally indistinct from his IDEA claims, issue preclusion is proper in this case.

Because Pace is precluded from litigating the question of whether the defendants have any
obligation under the ADA and § 504 to make further architectural or structural changes in the
buildings on the Bogalusa campus, his claim for an injunction ordering such changes must also fail.

In conclusion, we AFFIRM the district court’s dismissal of Pace’s claims under the IDEA and also
AFFIRM the district court’s dismissal of Pace’s claims for damages and injunctive relief under the
ADA and § 504.

EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge, with whom JOLLY, SMITH, BARKSDALE, GARZA AND DeMOSS,
Circuit Judges, join, concurring in part and dissenting in part:

I concur in the court’s discussion of the merits of Pace’s claims, but I respectfully dissent from the
majority’s conclusion that the State of Louisiana, by accepting federal education funds from 1996 to
1998 (the period here at issue), validly waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit for
violations of § 504 and the IDEA statute. Instead, we should hold that under these limited and
unusual circumstances, the State did not knowingly waive its constitutional right to be free from suit
by private citizens. 112

Alexander Hamilton wrote:

It is inherent in the nature of sovereignty not to be amenable to the suit of an individual without its
consent. This is the general sense and the general practice of mankind; and the exemption, as one
of the attributes of sovereignty, is now enjoyed by the government of every state in the Union.

The Federalist No. 81, at 487-88 (Clint Rossiter ed., 1961). The Eleventh Amendment protects
States from suit in federal court precisely out of the recognition of their continued status as co-
sovereigns. Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Auth. v. Metcalf & Eddy, Inc. , 506 U.S. 139, 146, 113 S.
Ct. 684, 689 (1993). For over one hundred years, the Supreme Court has “extended a State’s
[constitutional] protection from suit to suits brought by the State’s own citizens.” Idaho v. Coeur d’
Alene Tribe of Idaho , 521 U.S. 261, 267-68, 117 S. Ct. 2028, 2033 (1997) (referring to Hans v.
Louisiana , 134 U.S. 1, 10 S. Ct. 504 (1890)).

There are two carefully construed exceptions whereby States may become subject to suits by private
citizens. Congress may abrogate state sovereign immunity pursuant to § 5 of the Fourteenth
Amendment, or the State may waive its sovereign immunity and give its consent to suit. See   Coll.
Sav. Bank v. Fla. Prepaid Postsecondary Educ. Expense Bd. , 527 U.S. 666, 670, 119 S. Ct. 2219,
2223 (1999)). However, “[b]ecause abrogation of sovereign immunity upsets the fundamental
constitutional balance between the Federal Government and the States, . . . and because States are
unable directly to remedy a judicial misapprehension of that abrogation, the Court has adopted a
particularly strict standard to evaluate claims that Congress has abrogated the States’ sovereign
immunity.” Port Auth. Trans-Hudson Corp. v. Feeney , 495 U.S. 299, 305, 110 S. Ct. 1868, 1872
(1990) (citations and quotations omitted). “Similar solicitude for States’ sovereign immunity underlies
the standard that this Court employs to determine whether a State has waived that immunity.” Id.

Travis Pace advances both abrogation and waiver theories in support of his claims against
Louisiana. The majority agrees with Pace that Louisiana waived its sovereign immunity as a
condition of accepting federal funds under § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and IDEA. In so doing, the
majority has forsaken the “particularly strict standard” the Eleventh Amendment demands, ignored
the Supreme Court’s settled test for evaluating a waiver of constitutional rights, and inexplicably
discounted the unique factual context from which this case arose.

I. WAIVER

As a fundamental constitutional component, “[s]tate sovereign immunity, no less than the right to trial
by jury in criminal cases, is constitutionally protected.” Coll. Sav. Bank , 527 U.S. at 682, 119 S. Ct.
at 2229. The same test used in evaluating waiver of other fundamental constitutional rights must be
employed in the Eleventh Amendment context as well. As the Court held, there is no justification for
creating a separate and distinct test for Eleventh Amendment waiver purposes. Thus, “[t]he classic
description of an effective waiver of a constitutional right is the intentional relinquishment or
abandonment of a known right or privilege.” Id. (citations and quotations omitted) (emphasis added).
According to the sole applicable test, therefore, “waiver must have been made with a full awareness
of both the nature of the right being abandoned and the consequences of the decision to abandon
it.” Moran v. Burbine , 475 U.S. 412, 421, 106 S. Ct. 1135, 1141 (1986) (emphasis added).
Moreover, “courts indulge every reasonable presumption against waiver of fundamental
constitutional rights and . . . do not presume acquiescence in the loss of fundamental rights.”
Johnson v. Zerbst , 304 U.S. 458, 464, 58 S. Ct. 1019, 1023 (1938). This circuit, at least until today,
adhered to this uniform approach. “ Waivers of constitutional rights not only must be voluntary but
must be knowing, intelligent acts done with sufficient awareness of the relevant circumstances and
likely consequences [.]” United States v. Newell , 315 F.3d 510, 519 (5th Cir. 2002)(quoting Brady v.
United States , 397 U.S. 742, 748, 90 S. Ct. 1463 (1970)) (emphasis added). A valid waiver requires
“actual knowledge of the existence of the right or privilege, full understanding of its meaning, and
clear comprehension of the consequences of the waiver .” Id. (quoting Hatfield v. Scott , 306 F.3d
223, 230 (5th Cir. 2002)) (emphasis in original).

The test for a State’s waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity is no different because Congress
sought to effect waiver under the Spending Clause. The Supreme Court “has repeatedly
characterized . . . Spending Clause legislation as ‘much in the nature of a contract: in return for
federal funds, the [recipients] agree to comply with federally imposed conditions.’” Barnes v. Gorman
, 536 U.S. 181, 186 (2002) (quoting Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman , 451 U.S. 1, 17
(1981)). “Just as a valid contract requires offer and acceptance of its terms, the legitimacy of
Congress’ power to legislate under the spending power . . . rests on whether the [recipient]
voluntarily and knowingly accepts the terms of the contract.” Barnes , 536 U.S. at 186 (citations and
quotations omitted) (emphasis added); see   also   Pennhurst , 465 U.S. at 99, 104 S. Ct. at 907 (the
State’s consent to suit must be “unequivocally expressed”). As a result, the “test for determining
whether a State has waived its immunity from federal-court jurisdiction is a stringent one.”
Atascadero State Hosp. v. Scanlon , 473 U.S. 234, 241, 105 S. Ct. 3142, 3146 (1985).

Despite this clear authority, the majority has crafted a novel waiver test for Spending Clause cases.
Relying on South Dakota v. Dole , 483 U.S. 203, 107 S. Ct. 2793 (1987), the majority draws two
conclusions: (1) a State’s waiver is knowing so long as Congress satisfies the “clear statement rule,”
and (2) the State’s waiver is voluntary so long as it is “non-coercive.” Although I agree with the latter
conclusion, the former is incorrect. 113    College Savings Bank controls the Eleventh Amendment
waiver inquiry and demands more than a congressional “clear statement” — it also requires the
State to make a “clear declaration” of its intent to waive its immunity. In College Savings Bank , the
Supreme Court recognized that for a State “knowingly” to waive its sovereign immunity, not only must
Congress make clear its intention to so condition federal funds, but the State must expressly and
unequivocally waive its immunity. “There is a fundamental difference between a State’s expressing
unequivocally that it waives its immunity and Congress’s expressing unequivocally its intention that if
the State takes certain action it shall be deemed to have that immunity.” Coll. Sav. Bank , 527 U.S. at
680-81, 119 S. Ct. at 2228. “In the latter situation, the most that can be said with certainty is that the
State has been put on notice that Congress intends to subject it to suits brought by individuals.” Id.

Despite the majority’s assertion to the contrary, College Savings Bank confirms that Dole ’s “clear
statement” requirement is only half of the waiver equation. See   Garcia v. S.U.N.Y. Health Sci. Ctr.
of Brooklyn , 280 F.3d 98, 113-14 (2d Cir. 2001) (concluding that “a clear expression of Congress’s
intent . . . alone is not sufficient . . . to find that [the State] actually waived its sovereign immunity by
accepting federal funds”). “The whole point of requiring a ‘clear declaration’ by the State of its waiver
is to be certain that the State in fact consents to suit.” Coll. Sav. Bank , 527 U.S. at 680, 119 S. Ct.
at 2228 (emphasis in original). “Whether Congress clearly required that a State waive its immunity
before accepting federal funds (the first inquiry) is not the same thing, however, as whether the
State clearly declared its knowing waiver (the second inquiry).” Douglas v. Cal. Dep’t of Youth Auth. ,
285 F.3d 1226, 1228 (O’Scannlain, J., dissenting from denial of petition for rehearing en banc)
(emphasis in original). “The mere receipt of federal funds cannot establish that a State has
consented to suit in federal court.” Atascadero , 473 U.S. at 246- 47. 114

For a State to evince its “clear declaration” of intent to waive sovereign immunity, it must possess
“actual knowledge of the existence of the right or privilege, full understanding of its meaning, and
clear comprehension of the consequences of the waiver .” Newell , 315 F.3d at 519 (citations and
quotations omitted) (emphasis in original). In all but the rarest of circumstances, acceptance of
federal funds offered in accordance with the “clear statement rule” will meet this test. This case
represents an exception to the general rule.

The majority ignores the fact that until the mid-1990's, it was assumed that Congress could abrogate
state sovereign immunity in legislation enacted pursuant to its Article I enumerated powers. The
Supreme Court held otherwise in Seminole Tribe v. Florida , 517 U.S. 44, 72-73, 116 S. Ct. 1114
(1996), while reaffirming that abrogation remained permissible through a proper exercise of power
under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Id. at 59, 116 S. Ct. 1114. In the statutes here at issue —
ADA, § 504 and IDEA — abrogation was enacted under the Commerce Clause. Since, however, all
three statutes enhance the rights of the disabled, and all three express a clear congressional intent
to abridge the States’ Eleventh Amendment immunity, federal courts routinely permitted suits by
private individuals to proceed against the States. As late as 1998, while applying the Supreme Court’
s narrow construction of the § 5 abrogation authority, 115 this court still held that the ADA validly
abrogated state sovereign immunity. Coolbaugh v. Louisiana , 136 F.3d 430 (5th Cir. 1998), cert.
denied , 525 U.S. 819, 119 S. Ct. 58 (1998) overruled by   Reickenbacker v. Flores , 274 F.3d 974
(5th Cir. 2001). 116

Surely Louisiana should not be penalized for construing the ADA — and counterpart abrogation
language in § 504 and IDEA — just as this court subsequently did in Coolbaugh . Instead, the State
acted quite rationally in assuming between 1996 and 1998 that it had no sovereign immunity to
waive when it accepted federal education funds under conditions specified by § 504 and IDEA. The
State voluntarily accepted federal funds, but its acceptance was not a “knowing” waiver of immunity.
As the Second Circuit put it, since “the proscriptions of Title II [of the ADA] and § 504 are virtually
identical, a State accepting federal funds could not have understood that in doing so it was actually
abandoning its sovereign immunity from private damage suits, since by all reasonable appearances
state sovereign immunity had already been lost.” Garcia , 280 F.3d at 114 (citations omitted). 117

The majority offers two principal arguments against this result. First, the majority conflates
abrogation and waiver when positing that “Louisiana did   have Eleventh Amendment immunity to
waive by accepting the clearly conditioned federal funds.” See Majority Op. at 21 (emphasis in
original). On the contrary, Coolbaugh confirmed, until Garrett and Reickenbacker overruled it, that
Congress had validly exercised its abrogation authority, rendering Louisiana amenable to suit
notwithstanding the Eleventh Amendment. The majority’s suggestion that Congress can abrogate
sovereign immunity, but still permit the States to retain their Eleventh Amendment immunity,
misapprehends the import of abrogation. 118

Still, Congress may, in its discretion, choose to trigger enforcement of any federal statute, even after
it has abrogated sovereign immunity, on the receipt of federal funds. In response, a State, by
refusing federal funds, may reject the terms of the “contract” and potentially avoid statutory liability
to private individuals. But whether it can avoid liability based upon a contractual/waiver theory is a
different question from whether it retained Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity post-
abrogation. 119 Thus, the relevant Eleventh Amendment inquiry remains whether Louisiana
reasonably believed, based on objective evidence, that the Rehabilitation Act and the IDEA validly
abrogated its sovereign immunity — not whether it could have chosen to reject the federal funds
anyway.

Second, the majority contends that requiring the State to make a “clear declaration” problematically
“engraft[s] a subjective- intent element onto an otherwise objective Spending Clause waiver inquiry.”
See Majority Op. at 22. Unfortunately, the majority misunderstands the nature of the “clear
declaration” requirement, a requirement consonant with the Supreme Court’s longstanding objective
approach to waiver. The Supreme Court uniformly applies a “totality of the circumstances” test to
waiver questions involving fundamental constitutional rights. Fare v. Michael C. , 442 U.S. 707, 725,
99 S. Ct. 2560, 2572 (1979). “Only if the totality of the circumstances . . . reveal both an uncoerced
choice and the requisite level of comprehension may a court properly conclude that the . . . rights
have been waived.” See   Burbine , 475 U.S. at 421, 106 S. Ct. at 1135. Hence, the Supreme Court
considers a variety of objective factors, not subjective intent, to determine whether a constitutional
right has validly been waived. Fare , 442 U.S. at 725, 99 S. Ct. at 2572; see   also   United States v.
Sonderup , 639 F.2d 294, 298 (5th Cir. 1981) (relying on the objective indicia to determine whether
a voluntary, knowing and intelligent waiver was made). College Savings Bank ’s “clear declaration”
requirement reiterates the Supreme Court’s waiver test in the Eleventh Amendment context, and so
would I. 120

Given this court’s ruling in Coolbaugh that the State had no immunity to waive, followed by an
unsuccessful en banc poll and the Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari in that case, it is
inconceivable that Louisiana somehow, based on the “straightforward objective facts,” knowingly
chose to waive a right that was non- existent when it acted. In a sense, the State of Louisiana is
being forced, by today’s majority, to bear the burden of this court’s mistake of law in Coolbaugh .
Consider this analogy: the police instruct a criminal defendant, “for his own good,” to sign a waiver of
counsel form, while telling him that the waiver is “meaningless, because you have no counsel rights
to waive.” Who would argue that the waiver is knowing, especially if the police showed him a court
decision confirming this view? That the dupe is an individual defendant rather than the State does
not, per College Savings , make this a different case, nor does the fact that the waiver falls under
the Spending Clause rather than some other type of enactment. The majority’s opinion violates
College Savings Bank .

In this rare instance, Louisiana could not have knowingly waived its sovereign immunity in the
relevant time period before the Garrett decision. The majority’s approach strangely counsels States
to disregard governing caselaw when Supreme Court doctrine is evolving. Such an argument makes
no more sense in this unusual context than it would in any other.

II. ABROGATION

Pace alternatively argues, and this dissent must determine, whether Congress abrogated Louisiana’
s sovereign immunity with respect to claims brought under Title II, § 504, and the IDEA. Pace would
extend the Court’s recent decision in Tennessee v. Lane , 541 U.S. 509, 124 S. Ct. 1978 (2004),
which held that Title II of the ADA validly abrogates State sovereign immunity insofar as it implicates
the physical accessibility of the fundamental constitutional right of access to the courts. The majority
here, having found a waiver of the State’s immunity, declares it unnecessary to opine on abrogation.
The majority goes on, however, to observe that, in Lane , the Supreme Court “refused to consider
[whether Title II abrogates] other rights, including those considered to be fundamental under the
Constitution.” See Majority Op. at 28, citing 124 S. Ct. at 1993. The majority also comments that the
Court “has never before recognized access to public education or freedom from disability
discrimination in education as fundamental rights.” Id. , citing Plyler v. Doe , 457 U.S. 202, 221, 223,
102 S. Ct. 2382, 2396-98 (1982); City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Ctr. , 473 U.S. 432, 446, 105
S. Ct. 3249, 3257 (1985).

I agree with the majority’s dicta that suggests Lane is currently of limited application. Moreover,
because Lane was written very narrowly, I conclude that this court’s decision in Reickenbacker
remains valid in holding that ADA Title II, apart from the Lane scenario, does not validly abrogate
States’ Eleventh Amendment immunity. See   Reickenbacker , 274 F.3d at 983. The fate of § 504
abrogation was also sealed in Reickenbacker based on the court’s conclusion that Title II and § 504
impose “virtually identical” obligations. Id. For the reasons stated in Reickenbacker and in the panel
opinion, I would hold that Congress could not constitutionally abrogate state sovereign immunity in §
504 or the similarly structured IDEA statute pursuant to § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The
remedies imposed by those laws “far exceed [ ] [those] imposed by the Constitution, and [I] cannot
conclude that they are congruent and proportional to the legislative findings of unconstitutional
discrimination against the disabled by the states.” Reickenbacker , 274 F.3d at 983.

III. CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, I conclude that during a narrow period of time, based on uncertainty in
the Supreme Court’s evolving Eleventh Amendment doctrine, the State of Louisiana did not
knowingly waive its Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity when it accepted federal funds under §
2000d-7(a).

I respectfully dissent.

1 Judge Clement recused herself and did not participate in this decision.

2 The hearing examiner made hearings with regard to the Bogalusa City Schools System. In federal
court, Pace brought suit against the Bogalusa City School Board. For all practical purposes, these
two entities are the same and will be referred to as “BCSB.”

3 We do not consider Pace’s § 1983 claim and state law claims because he did not brief them on
appeal. L & A Contracting Co. v. S. Concrete Servs., Inc ., 17 F.3d 106, 113 (5 th Cir. 1994); F.R.A.
P. 28(a)(9)(A).

4 The waiver argument does not apply to Title II because the ADA does not condition the receipt of
federal funds on compliance with the Act or waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity. Rather, Title II
applies to public entities regardless of whether they receive federal funds. See 42 U.S.C. § 12132.

5 U.S. Const. amend. XI.

6 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419 (1793).

7   See   United States ex rel. Foulds v. Texas Tech Univ. , 171 F.3d 279, 286 n.9 (5th Cir. 1999)
(“The Supreme Court’s interpretation of Article III powers in Chisholm , prompted Congress’
‘outraged reversal’ of that decision through enactment of the Eleventh Amendment.”) (citing David P.
Currie, The Constitution in the Supreme Court: The First Hundred Years 99 (1985)).

8 For present purposes, we ignore any role the Eleventh Amendment plays in regulating whether
states may be sued in state courts.

9   College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Educ. Expense Bd. , 527 U.S. 666, 669
(1999).

10   Atascadero State Hosp. v. Scanlon , 473 U.S. 234, 238 (1985).

11   Dellmuth v. Muth , 491 U.S. 223, 228 (1989).

12 U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 5 (“The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article.”).

13 The term “abrogation” is not synonymous with “consent” or “waiver.” When a state consents to
suit or waives its Eleventh Amendment immunity, it knowingly and voluntarily forfeits the immunity’s
protections. In contrast, when Congress acts under its Fourteenth Amendment power to abrogate ,
the state has no choice.

14 274 F.3d 974 (5th Cir. 2001). The continuing validity of Reickenbacker following the Supreme
Court’s decision in Tennessee v. Lane , 124 S. Ct. 1978 (2004), is uncertain. At the very least, its
holding has been overruled as to Title II claims implicating a person’s fundamental right of access to
the courts. In addition, after Lane we do not look solely at the state level for a history and pattern of
unconstitutional action; we also examine discrimination by nonstate government entities. Lane , 124
S. Ct. at 1991 n.16.

15   Id. at 977, 981-83.

16   College Savings Bank , 527 U.S. at 670; Idaho v. Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Idaho , 521 U.S. 261,
267 (1997) (“[A] State can waive its Eleventh Amendment protection and allow a federal court to
hear and decide a case commenced or prosecuted against it.”); Great N. Life Ins. Co. v. Read , 322
U.S. 47, 54 (1944) (“The immunity may, of course, be waived.”); Clark v. Barnard , 108 U.S. 436,
447 (1883) (“The immunity from suit belonging to a State, which is respected and protected by the
Constitution within the limits of the judicial power of the United States, is a personal privilege which it
may waive at pleasure.”).

17 527 U.S. at 682 (citing Johnson v. Zerbst , 304 U.S. 458, 464 (1938)).

18   Id. (quoting Zerbst , 304 U.S. at 464)

19 483 U.S. 203 (1987).

20   Id. at 205.

21   Id. at 206. See   also   New York v. United States , 505 U.S. 144, 161-69 (1992) (holding that
although the Tenth Amendment prevents Congress from directly commandeering state officials into
regulating radioactive waste, Congress can “hold out incentives to the States as a method of
influencing a State’s policy choices”).

22   Dole , 483 U.S. at 207 (quoting United States v. Butler , 297 U.S. 1, 66 (1936)). See   also
United States v. Lipscomb , 299 F.3d 303, 319 (5th Cir. 2002) (“Congress’s spending power, like its
power to tax, is ‘to provide for the general welfare,’ and is therefore untrammeled by the specific
grants of legislative power found elsewhere in Article I, Section 8.”) (citation omitted).

23   See   Dole , 483 U.S. at 206-07; United States v. Am. Library Ass’n, Inc. , 539 U.S. 194, 203
(2003) (“Congress has wide latitude to attach conditions to the receipt of federal assistance in order
to further its policy objectives.”).

25 483 U.S. at 211 (quoting Steward Machine Co. v. Davis , 301 U.S. 548, 590 (1937)).

26 451 U.S. 1 (1981).

27   Id. at 17 (emphasis added) (citations omitted).

28   See   also   Dole , 483 U.S. at 207.

29 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-7(a)(1). Congress enacted § 2000d-7 in response to Atascadero , in which
the Court held that the Rehabilitation Act neither abrogated Eleventh Amendment immunity nor
effectively conditioned states’ receipt of federal funds on a waiver of that immunity. Atascadero , 473
U.S. at 245-47. According to the Court, the statute did not contain a clear statement of
congressional intent either to abrogate or to require a waiver. Id.

30 20 U.S.C. § 1403(a) reads as follows: “A State shall not be immune under the eleventh
amendment to the Constitution of the United States from suit in Federal court for a violation of this
chapter.”

31 The section was passed by Congress in response to Dellmuth v. Muth , 491 U.S. 223 (1989). In
Dellmuth , the Supreme Court held that the predecessor to the IDEA (the Education of the
Handicapped Act) lacked a sufficiently clear statement of Congressional intent to abrogate Eleventh
Amendment immunity to claims under the statute. Id. at 232. The conditional-spending issue was not
raised in the case.

32 In its en banc brief, Louisiana mentioned a relatedness challenge to § 2000d-7, but that
argument was not presented to the panel, and Louisiana’s en banc brief fails to develop it beyond a
bare assertion. Thus, Louisiana has waived its relatedness challenge. See   L & A Contracting Co. v.
S. Concrete Servs., Inc. , 17 F.3d 106, 113 (5th Cir. 1994); Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(9)(A); Ccf.
Koslow v. Pennsylvania , 302 F.3d 161, 175-76 (3d Cir. 2002) (rejecting a relatedness challenge to
the validity of a state’s conditional-spending waiver of immunity to § 504 suits).

33   E.g. , Pederson v. Louisiana State Univ. , 213 F.3d 858, 876 (5th Cir. 2000) (“A state may waive
its immunity by voluntarily participating in federal spending programs when Congress expresses a
clear intent to condition participation in the programs ... on a State’s consent to waive its
constitutional immunity.”) (citation and quotation marks omitted); id. at 875 (holding that “in enacting
§ 2000d-7 Congress permissibly conditioned a state university’s receipt of [federal] funds on an
unambiguous waiver of the university’s Eleventh Amendment immunity, and that, in accepting such
funding, the university has consented to litigate private suits in federal court .”) (internal punctuation
and citation omitted) (emphasis added). Cf.   AT&T Comm. v. BellSouth Telecom. Inc. , 238 F.3d
636, 645 (5th Cir.), reh’g en banc denied , 252 F.3d 437 (2001) (“[A]fter College Savings , Congress
may still obtain a non-verbal voluntary waiver of a state’s Eleventh Amendment immunity, if the
waiver can be inferred from the state’s conduct in accepting a gratuity after being given clear and
unambiguous statutory notice that it was conditioned on waiver of immunity.”).

34 Eight circuits have reached this conclusion in § 504 cases. See   Nieves-Márquez v. Puerto Rico ,
353 F.3d 108, 129-30 (1st Cir. 2003); A.W. v. Jersey City Pub. Schs. , 341 F.3d 234, 244-51 (3d Cir.
2003); Bruggeman v. Blagojevich , 324 F.3d 906, 912 (7th Cir. 2003); Garrett v. Univ. of Ala. at
Birmingham Bd. of Trs. , 344 F.3d 1288, 1292-93 (11th Cir. 2003) (per curiam); Lovell v. Chandler ,
303 F.3d 1039, 1051-52 (9th Cir. 2002); Koslow , 302 F.3d at 172 (3d Cir.); Robinson v. Kansas ,
295 F.3d 1183, 1189-90 (10th Cir. 2002); Nihiser v. Ohio E.P.A. , 269 F.3d 626, 628 (6th Cir. 2001);
Jim C. v. Arkansas Dep’t of Educ. , 235 F.3d 1079, 1081 (8th Cir. 2000) (en banc); Stanley v.
Litscher , 213 F.3d 340, 344 (7th Cir. 2000). Other courts of appeals have reached the same
conclusion for the other predicate statutes of § 2000d-7. See , e.g. , Cherry v. Univ. of Wis. Sys. Bd.
of Regents , 265 F.3d 541, 553-55 (7th Cir. 2001) (Title IX); Sandoval v. Hagan , 197 F.3d 484 (11th
Cir. 1999) (Title VI), rev’d in part on other grounds , 532 U.S. 275 (2001); Litman v. George Mason
Univ. , 186 F.3d 544 (4th Cir. 1999) (Title IX). Circuits have reached this conclusion about the IDEA,
as well. See , e.g. , M.A. ex rel. E.S. v. State-Operated School Dist. , 344 F.3d 335, 351 (3d Cir.
2003); Oak Park Bd. of Educ. v. Kelly E. , 207 F.3d 931, 935 (7th Cir. 2000).

35 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-7 (2000).

36 In its amicus brief, the State of Texas points to other statutes that have used such terms.

37   Cf.   Woods v. Cloyd W. Miller Co. , 333 U.S. 138, 144 (1948) (“The question of the
constitutionality of action taken by Congress does not depend on recitals of the power which it
undertakes to exercise.”).

38   Lane v. Pena , 518 U.S. 187, 198 (1996). See   also   id. at 200 (noting “the care with which
Congress responded to ... Atascadero by crafting an unambiguous waiver of the States’ Eleventh
Amendment immunity”).

39   213 F.3d at 875-76 (adopting the holding and reasoning of Litman v. George Mason Univ. , 186
F.3d 544 (4th Cir. 1999)).

40 213 F.3d at 876.

41 158 F.3d 213 (5th Cir. 1998), overruled on other grounds , 528 U.S. 18 (1999).

42   Id. at 218. See   also   United States v. Wells , 519 U.S. 482, 495 (1997) (reiterating the
baseline presumption that Congress expects its statutes to be read in conformity with the Supreme
Court’s precedents).

43 238 F.3d at 644.

44 280 F.3d 98 (2d Cir. 2001).

45 531 U.S. 356 (2001).

46   See   id. at 365-74.

47   Id. at 374.

48   Garcia , 280 F.3d at 114 n.4.

49   Id. at 114.

50   Id.

51 Id.

52 Id.

53   Pace , 325 F.3d at 616.

54   Pace , 325 F.3d at 615.

55   Pace , 325 F.3d at 616 .

56   See 29 U.S.C. § 794(a) (prohibiting discrimination against the disabled through “any program or
activity receiving Federal financial assistance”); 20 U.S.C. §§ 1412, 1415 (conditioning state
agencies’ receipt of federal funds on compliance with the requirements of the IDEA).

57   Post at 9 (“[T]he State acted quite rationally in assuming between 1996 and 1998 that it had no
sovereign immunity to waive when it accepted federal education funds under conditions specified by
§ 504 and IDEA.”) .

58   Post at 10 & n.7.

59   College Savings Bank , 527 U.S. at 680.

60   Id. at 686.

61   See   Lapides v. Bd. of Regents , 535 U.S. 613, 621 (2002) (“Motives are difficult to evaluate,
while jurisdictional rules should be clear.”).

62 Since the Pace panel opinion was issued, five circuits have expressly rejected its approach,
which the dissent continues to advocate. See   Nieves-Márquez , 353 F.3d at 129-30 (First Circuit);
A.W. , 341 F.3d at 244-52 (Third Circuit); Shepard v. Irving , 77 Fed. Appx. 615, 619 n.2 (4th Cir.
2003) (unpublished); Doe v. Nebraska , 345 F.3d 593, 600-604 (8th Cir. 2003); Garrett , 344 F.3d
at 1292-93 (Eleventh Circuit). See   also   Koslow , 302 F.3d at 172 n.12 (explaining that “the ‘clear
intent to condition participation in the programs funded,’ required by Atascadero , 473 U.S. at 247,
ensured the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania knew that by accepting certain funds under the
Rehabilitation Act for certain departments or agencies, it waived immunity from suit on Rehabilitation
Act claims for those entities”).

63   See , e.g. , Arecibo Cmty. Health Care, Inc. v. Puerto Rico , 270 F.3d 17, 24-25 (1st Cir. 2001);
Garcia , 280 F.3d at 113; Koslow , 302 F.3d at 172; Pederson , 213 F.3d at 875-76; Nihiser v. Ohio
E.P.A. , 269 F.3d 626, 628 (6th Cir. 2001); Stanley v. Litscher , 213 F.3d 340, 344 (7th Cir. 2000);
Jim C. , 235 F.3d at 1081; Douglas v. Cal. Dep’t of Youth Auth. , 271 F.3d 812, 819, as amended,
271 F.3d 910 (9th Cir. 2001); Robinson , 295 F.3d at 1189-90; Sandoval , 197 F.3d at 493.

64   See   Frost & Frost Trucking Co. v. Railroad Com. of Cal. , 271 U.S. 583, 593-94 (1926) (“[T]he
state ... may not impose conditions which require the relinquishment of constitutional rights.... It is
inconceivable that guaranties embedded in the Constitution of the United States may thus be
manipulated out of existence.”).

65 The only Supreme Court decision that has come close was United States v. Butler . In that 1936
decision, the Court invalidated provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which paid
farmers to reduce their production of crops. 297 U.S. at 74-78. As the Tenth Circuit has explained,
though, “that case relied on an overly narrow view of Congress’ enumerated powers to determine
that Congress had overstepped its authority.” Kansas v. United States , 214 F.3d 1196, 1201 n.6
(10th Cir. 2000) (citing Laurence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law § 5-b, at 836 (3d ed. 2000)
(“[T]he Supreme Court has effectively ignored Butler in judging the limits of congressional spending
power.”)). Accord   Lipscomb , 299 F.3d at 319 (noting that the Supreme Court “quickly abandoned”
the view espoused in Butler ).

66 302 F.3d at 174 (citing Frost & Frost , 271 U.S. at 593; New York , 505 U.S. at 171-72; Dole , 483
U.S. at 210-11).

67   See   id. (“The “unconstitutional conditions” doctrine is based on the proposition that
government incentives may be inherently coercive.”). See   also Kathleen M. Sullivan,
Unconstitutional Conditions , 102 Harv. L. Rev. 1415, 1428-55 (1989).

68   See   supra text accompanying note 24.

69   See 29 U.S.C. § 794(b)(1).

70   See 20 U.S.C. §§ 1411(a)(1), 1412, 1403.

71   See , e.g. , Jim C. , 235 F.3d at 1082 (rejecting a coercion challenge to the validity of a waiver
of state Eleventh Amendment immunity to § 504 claims).

72   124 S. Ct. 1978 (2004) .

73   Id. at 1993.

74   See   Plyler v. Doe , 457 U.S. 202, 221, 223 (1982) (although important, education is not a
fundamental constitutional right).

75   Cf.   City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Ctr. , 473 U.S. 432, 446 (1985) (disability classifications
are subject only to rational-basis scrutiny).

76   See   Hainze v. Richards , 207 F.3d 795, 799 (5th Cir. 2000) (internal citations omitted) (“The
language of Title II generally tracks the language of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
and Congress’ intent was that Title II extend the protections of the Rehabilitation Act ‘to cover all
programs of state or local governments, regardless of the receipt of federal financial assistance’ and
that it ‘work in the same manner as Section 504.’ In fact, the statute specifically provides that ‘[t]he
remedies, procedures and rights’ available under Section 504 shall be the same as those available
under Title II. Jurisprudence interpreting either section is applicable to both.”); Washington v. Indiana
High Sch. Athletic Ass’n, Inc. , 181 F.3d 840, 845 n.6 (7th Cir. 1999) (“Title II of the ADA was
modeled after § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act; the elements of claims under the two provisions are
nearly identical, and precedent under one statute typically applies to the other.”); Gorman v. Bartch ,
152 F.3d 907, 912 (8th Cir. 1998) (“The ADA has no federal funding requirement, but it is otherwise
similar in substance to the Rehabilitation Act, and ‘cases interpreting either are applicable and
interchangeable.’”); McPherson v. Michigan High Sch. Ath. Ass’n , 119 F.3d 453, 459-60 (6th Cir.
1997) (en banc) (same).

77   Compare 28 C.F.R. § 42.520, with 28 C.F.R. § 35.149. Similarly, § 504 and Title II’s regulations
regarding existing facilities are nearly identical. Compare 28 C.F.R. 42.521(a), with 28 C.F.R. 35.150
(a).

78   Compare 28 C.F.R. 42.522(a), with 28 C.F.R. 35.151(a).

79   Compare   Alexander v. Choate , 469 U.S. 287 (1995)(Section 504 does not require covered
entities to make fundamental alterations in their programs); with 28 C.F.R. § 35.150(a)(2)-(3) (Title II
does not require public entities to make fundamental alterations in the nature of a program, service,
or activity). This requirement, however, does not excuse the failure to make altered or new facilities
accessible. Compare 28 C.F.R. § 35.151(a)-(b), with 28 C.F.R. § 42.522(a).

80   42 U.S.C. § 12133.

81   29 U.S.C. § 794a(a)(2).

82   531 U.S. 181 (2002) .

83   Id. at 185.

84   See   Soledad v. U.S. Dept. of Treasury , 304 F.3d 500 (5th Cir. 2002).

85   See 20 U.S.C. 1415(l).

86 The hearing examiner thoroughly reviewed the testimony and physical evidence presented to her
and rejected in wholesale fashion Pace’s various claims of inaccessibility. R. 94.

87 The language used by the SLRP also makes it clear that this review panel found absolutely no
merit to Pace’s inaccessibility claims. R. 64-65.

88   See 20 U.S.C. § 1415 (i)(2) (A) (Any party aggrieved by the findings and decisions...shall have
the right to bring a civil action with respect to the complaint pursuant to this section, which action
may be brought...in a district court of the United States...).

89 Pace sought relief from the district court to remedy the school board’s refusal to make the
following areas accessible:

• bathroom facilities

• classrooms on the second rather than first floor of the school

• elevator access

• exiting classroom during fire drills

• cafeteria

• school health center

• auditorium

• music room

• insufficient parking spaces

• lack of ramps (accessible entrances)

90   See, e.g., 18 James Wm. Moore, et al., Moore’s Federal Practice 3d § 132.02[2][h] (3d ed.
2001). Courts have used slightly differing language to express this idea that legal issues are not
“identical” for issue preclusion purposes if they are significantly different. Compare   Raytech Corp.
v. White , 54 F.3d 187, 191 (3d Cir. 1995) (the differences in the standards must be “substantial”)
with   Talcott v. Allahabad Bank, Ltd. , 444 F.2d 451, 460 (5 th Cir. 1971) (the legal standards are
not identical for issue preclusion purposes only when there is a “demonstrable difference” in the
legal standards by which the facts are evaluated). For purposes of this appeal, these distinctions
are irrelevant.

91   See 42 U.S.C. § 12101(a)(5) (“The Congress finds that ...individuals with disabilities continually
encounter various forms of discrimination, including...the discriminatory effects of architectural...
barriers,... failure to make modifications to existing facilities[,]...segregation, and relegation to lesser
services, programs, [and] activities...”); Id . § 12101(a)(4) (“The Congress finds that...discrimination
against individuals with disabilities persists in such critical areas as education...”); Alexander v.
Choate , 469 U.S. 287, 297 (1985) (noting that the “elimination of architectural barriers was one of
the central aims of the Rehabilitation Act”).

92   See note 78, supra .

93 Subpart D in the regulations to § 504 includes general regulations for preschool, elementary, and
secondary education regarding placement (34 C.F.R. § 104.35), procedural requirements (34 C.F.
R. § 104.36) and the general FAPE requirement (34 C.F.R. § 104.33).

94 Although it is illogical to do so, one can read the § 504 regulations to say that a school need not
comply with accessibility requirements in Subpart C to provide a § 504 FAPE under 104.33 when a
student complains that part of a school’s campus is inaccessible. In such a situation, it is more
sensible to read these regulations as requiring a school’s compliance with subpart C’s accessibility
requirements before it can be said to provide a § 504 FAPE. Regardless of whether the accessibility
requirements must be met before a § 504 FAPE is provided, subpart C of the § 504 regulations
clearly requires new construction in the school to meet the regulation’s accessibility requirements.

95 20 U.S.C. § 1404(b) provides in pertinent part:

...Any construction of new facilities or alteration of existing facilities under subsection (a) of this
section shall comply with the requirements of–

(1) appendix A of part 36 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations (commonly known as the
“Americans with Disabilities Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities”); or

(2) appendix A of part 101-19.6 of title 41, Code of Federal Regulations (commonly known as the
“Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards”).

96 The corresponding regulation to 20 U.S.C. § 1404 is found at 34 C.F.R. § 300.756 and is
identical.

97 38 C.F.R. 35.151(c) provides in pertinent part:

(c) Accessibility standards. Design, construction, or alteration of facilities in conformance with the
Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS)...or with the Americans with Disabilities Act
Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities (ADAAG)...shall be deemed to comply with the
requirements of this section with respect to those facilities...

98 One minor difference between the accessibility regulations under § 504 and the ADA is that,
because § 504 preceded the ADA and the ADA-specific accessibility regulations (ADAAG), § 504
does not give schools the option of complying with either the ADAAG or UFAS (as do both the ADA
and IDEA), but requires compliance with the UFAS.

99 Page five of the State Level Review Panel’s opinion, under the heading “Applicable Law and
Regulations,” provides:

Section 605 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997, states that any
construction of new facilities or alteration of existing facilities with use of program funds shall comply
with the requirements of Americans with Disabilities Accessibility Guidelines (Appendix A of Part 36
of Title 28, Code of Federal Regulations) or Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (Appendix A of
Part 101-19.6 of Title 41, Code of Federal Regulations). (R. 63).

100 The pre-amended version of 20 U.S.C. 1404(a) provided as follows:

(a) Authorization for use of funds

In the case of any program authorized by this chapter, if the Secretary determines that such
program will be improved by permitting the funds authorized for such program to be used for the
acquisition of equipment and the construction of necessary facilities, the Secretary may authorize
the use of such funds for such purposes. (West 1999)

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