Kempthorne

For over two decades, the district court has overseen a series of consent decrees entered into by appellants, the Governor of Idaho and other state officials, to remedy alleged constitutional and statutory violations in the provision of services to a class of more than 2,000 indigent Idaho children who suffer from severe emotional and mental disabilities. At this stage of the litigation, the state officials invoke Eleventh Amendment immunity and also contend that the district court no longer has subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331 to enforce the consent decrees. In essence, after promising so much over the past twenty years, the officials now claim that those promises are not enforceable. The district court rejected these arguments, and the state officials have appealed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We hold that the district court continues to have jurisdiction and that the Eleventh Amendment *847 does not bar the enforcement of the consent decrees. We therefore affirm and return this case to the district court.

I. Factual Background and Procedural History

The history of this case is a sad record of promises made and broken over two…