Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust v. PRS Media Partners, LLC

MEMORANDUM

PRS Media Partners, LLC and Rick Norsigian (together, PRS) appeal the district court’s dismissal of PRS’s claim against The University of Arizona (University) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. We review questions of subject matter jurisdiction de novo. Hughes v. United States, 953 F.2d 531, 535 (9th Cir.1992).

We affirm the district court’s conclusion that the University is entitled to sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. As a non-jural entity under Arizona law, the University cannot be sued in its own name; rather, the Arizona Board of Regents (Board), as the governing body for Arizona’s public universities, is the proper defendant for all actions against the University. Whether the Board is immune under the Eleventh Amendment is a legal question that the Ninth Circuit has answered in Rutledge v. Arizona Board of Regents, 660 F.2d 1345 (9th Cir.1981), and Ronwin v. Shapiro, 657 F.2d 1071 (9th Cir.1981). Nothing has changed since the Rutledge and Ronwin rulings that would cause the Board to lose its immunity.

PRS argues that this court’s decision in Mitchell v. Los Angeles Community College District, 861 F.2d 198, 201 (9th Cir.1989), enumerates a…