In a case handled by Rick Strickland and Paul Scott, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that Georgia sheriffs are entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity with regard to employment claims filed under Section 1983 and the ADA. Pellitteri v. Prine, 776 F.3d 777 (11th Cir. 2015). In 2012, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that sheriffs were not entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity with regard to such claims. However, the Pellitteri opinion now makes clear that Eleventh Amendment immunity bars such claims.
This ruling from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals is one of the most significant employment-law decisions affecting Georgia constitutional officers that has been issued in a number of years.