Any lawyer who practices in the § 19831 area will confirm that the procedural and substantive complexities of litigating under the statute have become huge. In cases involving claims against sheriffs, the confusion has been compounded by the ramifications of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in McMillian v. Monroe County. For § 1983 purposes, McMillian treats the status of sheriffs as a question of federal law, informed by state law, with classification of the sheriff as a state or local policymaker dependent, in part, upon the particular function performed by the sheriff in that case. If a sheriff is determined to be making policy for the state when engaged in the challenged conduct, the plaintiff cannot sue the sheriff in his official capacity, as that would be tantamount to a suit against the state, forbidden by both the Eleventh Amendment and the Supreme Court’s construction of § 1983.8 A county, subject to suit for constitutional violations caused by its own policymakers, will bear no liability for conduct attributed to a sheriff who is a state policymaker. While a suit against a state policymaker may proceed against the official in his individual capacity, plaintiffs are often precluded from recovering damages by the official’s assertion of the qualified-immunity defense.