## Facts

- Rhode Island and other states sued tobacco manufacturers in the 1990s, alleging industry misconduct caused public expenditures for tobacco-related illness.
- Rhode Island resolved its tobacco litigation through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement and a state consent judgment, with projected payments of roughly $1.4 billion over time.
- A Rhode Island Medicaid recipient, suing on behalf of a putative class of similarly situated recipients, claimed the settlement proceeds were substantively Medicaid “third-party” recoveries for recipients’ medical costs.
- The plaintiff alleged federal Medicaid law required Rhode Island to distribute to Medicaid recipients the portion of the settlement exceeding the state’s actual tobacco-related Medicaid costs.
- The plaintiff sued Rhode Island’s Governor, DHS Director, and Attorney General in their official capacities under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.

## Issues

1. Whether, after Congress’s 1999 amendments to the Medicaid statute addressing tobacco settlement payments, Medicaid recipients retained a federal right to share in a state’s tobacco-settlement proceeds enforceable under § 1983.
2. If such a right existed, whether the Eleventh Amendment would bar the requested relief against state officials.

## Decision

- The First Circuit affirmed dismissal, but on grounds different from the district court.
- The court held the complaint failed to state a claim because the 1999 Medicaid amendments removed the statutory basis for treating tobacco settlement payments as Medicaid third-party recoveries requiring distribution to recipients.
- Applying constitutional avoidance, the court declined to decide the Eleventh Amendment sovereign-immunity question.

## Legal Principles

- A § 1983 claim requires the violation of a federal right; absent a cognizable statutory entitlement, § 1983 provides no remedy.
- Congress’s 1999 Medicaid amendments treated tobacco settlement payments as a special category not subject to the ordinary Medicaid third-party liability recovery and allocation framework asserted by recipients.
- When a statutory amendment forecloses the asserted federal entitlement, courts may resolve the case on that statutory ground without reaching constitutional or sovereign-immunity questions.

## Conclusion

Because the 1999 Medicaid amendments prevented tobacco settlement proceeds from being treated as Medicaid third-party recoveries owed in part to individual recipients, the plaintiff alleged no enforceable federal right and therefore stated no § 1983 claim; dismissal was affirmed without deciding Eleventh Amendment immunity.


Greenless v. Almond, 277 F.3d 601 (1st Cir. 2002)