the law and those to
restrain the performance of special duties under an unconstitutional
statute had been largely lost even before Fitts _v._ McGhee, in Reagan
_v._ Farmers' Loan and Trust Company[32] and Smyth _v._ Ames,[33] where
injunctions issued by the lower federal courts to restrain the
enforcement of railroad rate regulations were sustained even though the
officials against whom the suits were brought were acting under general
law. What remained of the distinction as a limitation upon suits against
State officials was dispelled by Ex parte Young,[34] which not only
sustained an injunction restraining State officials from exercising
their discretionary duties but also upheld the authority of the lower
court to enjoin the enforcement of the statute prior to a determination
of its unconstitutionality. While Ex parte Ayers and Fitts _v._
McGhee[35] were not overruled, the inevitable effect of the Young Case
was to abrogate the rule that a suit in equity against a State official
to enjoin discretionary action is a suit against the State, and to
convert the injunction into a device to test the validity of State
legislation in the federal courts prior to its interpretation in the
State courts and prior to any opportunity for State officials to put the
act into operation.[36]

But the earlier rule still crops up at times. Thus as recently as 1937,
Ex parte Ayers[37] was applied to the interpretation of the Federal
Interpleader Act,[38] so as to prevent taxpayers from enjoining tax
officials from collecting death taxes arising from the competing claims
of two States as being the last domicile of a decedent.[39] On the other
hand, the Eleventh Amendment was held not to be infringed by joinder of
a State court judge and receiver in an interpleader proceeding in which
the State had no interest and neither the judge nor the receiver was
enjoined by the final decree.[40]

Tort Actions Against State Officials

In tort actions against State officials the rule of United States _v._
Lee[41] has been substantially incorporated into the Eleventh Amendment.
In Tindal _v._ Wesley[42] the Lee Case was held to permit a suit by
claimants to real property in South Carolina which they had purchased
from the State sinking fund commission but which had been retaken by the
State because the purchaser insisted on paying for the property with
revenue bond scrip issued by the State. In other cases the Court had
held that the immunity of