Ex Parte Young

In Ex Parte Young (209 U.S. 123, 159-160, 28 S Ct 441, 52 L Ed 714 1908), the Court held that "if the act which the state officer seeks to enforce be a violation of the Federal Constitution, the officer, in proceeding under such enactment, comes into conflict with the superior authority of that Constitution, and he is in that case stripped of his official or representative character and is subjected in his person to the consequences of his individual conduct. The state has no power to impart to him any immunity from responsibility to the supreme authority of the United States".