Tenth Amendment bars federal statute

[Stephen Siegel]

I'm not a Tenth Amendment maven, so I'd like to what folk think of Jinks
v. Richland County, just reported at 2002 WL 654174.

Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court, in Raygor v. University of
Minnesota, said the Eleventh Amendment barred a federal statute that
tolled the statute of limitations for claims against nonconsenting States
filed in federal court but subsequently dismissed on Eleventh Amendment
grounds.

Now, if I read Jinks right, the South Carolina has extended Raygor, by
holding that the Tenth Amendment bars the same federal statute from
tolling the statute of limitations for suits filed against the state's
political subdivisions, such as the County at bar.  Apparently, as South
Carolina cites Lynn v. City of Jackson, 63 S.W.3d 332 (Tenn.2001, this is
not the first case reaching this conclusion.

Is this revolutionary, or par for the course?

Stephen Siegel
DePaul University College of Law