The following day, Young filed a proceeding in Minnesota state court to force the railroads to comply with the statute, in violation of the federal injunction.

Marshals Service, and so he filed a petition with the United States Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus for his release.

The Eleventh Amendment had recently been held in Hans v. Louisiana[2] to prohibit the federal courts from hearing suits by citizens against their own states.

Conversely, the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the states from violating the due process rights of their citizens.

Failure to enjoin the unconstitutional statute would require the person subject to a potential violation to either pay the increased rate or face the threat of prosecution.

The Court noted that the railroads could never recover the costs of obeying the law while waiting for it to be adjudicated unconstitutional.

He therefore condemned the decision as a "radical change in our government system" that "would place the states of the Union in a condition of inferiority never dreamed of when the Constitution was adopted or when the Eleventh Amendment was made a part of the supreme law of the land."