Thomas, J., dissenting
agencies “regularly us[e] conditions to direct state and local governments in their regulatory and spending policies.” P. Hamburger, Purchasing Submission 139 (2021) (Hamburger). As a result, “the priorities and programs of state and local governments have increasingly come to reflect federal decisions,” to the point that the States have virtually become “disaggregated sites of national governance, not separate sovereigns.” Id., at 141 (internal quotation marks omitted). Given the profound consequences of spending conditions for the Nation’s governance and the fundamental shift that they have wrought in our federalist system, a sound understanding of their constitutional basis and permissible legal effects is essential.
II
This case presents one aspect of that question: whether spending conditions that impose obligations on States for the benefit of third parties may be enforced under §1983. That statute provides a cause of action against any “person who, under color” of state law, deprives the plaintiff “of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws.” Accordingly, for the violation of a federal statutory provision to give rise to a cognizable §1983 claim, the provision must confer “rights, privileges, or immunities” that are “secured by … la[w].” This Court’s cases make clear that a right is secured by law in the relevant sense if, and only if, federal law imposes a binding obligation on the defendant to respect a corresponding substantive right that belongs to the plaintiff.[1]
- ↑ See Golden State Transit Corp. v. Los Angeles, 493 U. S. 103, 106 (1989) (“[T]he plaintiff must assert the violation of a federal right. … In deciding whether a federal right has been violated, we have considered whether the provision in question creates obligations binding on the governmental unit” and “whether the provision in question was intended to benefit the putative plaintiff” (alteration and internal quotation marks
billion or 37.5% of state and local government expenditures.” Ibid. (footnotes omitted).
