Case Citator › Parden v. Terminal Railway of Alabama State Docks Department

Parden v. Terminal Railway of Alabama State Docks Department

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Overruled
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
377 U.S. 184
Decided
Confirmed treatments
3
Flagged citations read
156 of 156
Citing cases (total)
644
Treatment dates
1987–2024
Overruled
A reviewed court has overruled this case. Parden v. Terminal Railway of Alabama State Docks Department is overruled: all 156 flagged citations have been read, and the 3 confirmed treatments are listed below. Welch v. Texas Department of Highways & Public Transportation first overruled Parden in part by rejecting implied congressional abrogation without unmistakably clear statutory language.
More on how this was screened

College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board then expressly overruled every remaining part of Parden's constructive-waiver doctrine. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Rural Housing Service v. Kirtz later criticized Parden's reliance on legislative-history inferences. The other reviewed opinions applied or distinguished Parden, repeated the treatment history, addressed party arguments or dissents, or concerned opinions later withdrawn or vacated.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

644 later cases cite Parden v. Terminal Railway of Alabama State Docks Department; 156 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Parden v. Terminal Railway of Alabama State Docks Department?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Overruled

  • The Court rejected Parden's constructive-waiver doctrine and expressly overruled every part that remained after Welch.

    College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    Whatever may remain of our decision in Parden is expressly overruled.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Overruled in part

  • The Court overruled Parden to the extent it allowed congressional abrogation of Eleventh Amendment immunity without unmistakably clear statutory language.

    Welch v. Texas Department of Highways & Public Transportation · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    Accordingly, to the extent that Parden v. Terminal Railway, supra, is inconsistent with the requirement that an abrogation of Eleventh Amendment immunity by Congress must be expressed in unmistakably clear language, it is overruled.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Criticized

  • The Court called Parden's method of displacing sovereign immunity through legislative-history inferences without clear statutory direction an error.

    Department of Agriculture Rural Development Rural Housing Service v. Kirtz · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    And just as it is error to displace sovereign immunity based on inferences from legislative history without clear statutory direction (Parden), so it is error to grant sovereign immunity based on inferences from legislative history in the face of clear statutory direction waiving that immunity (Employees).
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Does this case still carry your argument?

Describe your facts. Ezel reads Parden v. Terminal Railway of Alabama State Docks Department and the cases that treated it, then tells you whether it still holds for your situation, with citations.

Opens in Ezel Pro.

  • Checks the law as it stands today, not only this page
  • Cites every source it relies on, so you can verify it
  • Chat, drafting and research in one workspace