As each of these subsequent amendments, however, provides that "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation," it has been suggested that this provision may be construed as limiting the prohibition of the eleventh amendment and as empowering Congress to confer on the courts of the United States jurisdiction of suits against states or state officers as an appropriate means of enforcing the later amendments. Mr. Justice Shiras referred to this view in the case of Prout _vs._ Starr and said: "Much less can the eleventh amendment be successfully pleaded as an invincible barrier to judicial inquiry whether the salutary provisions of the fourteenth amendment have been disregarded by state enactments."[38] The courts of the United States and of the several states have generally adopted and applied the English common law as to the amenability of executive and administrative officers to the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts and their personal responsibility for any illegal acts done by them or under their direction. There is no longer any question but that the eleventh amendment does not shield state officers from suits at law in a court of the United States to recover damages for any invasion of private rights under the color of an unconstitutional statute, or to recover possession of real property in the custody of such officers. The rule is axiomatic that no officer in this country is so high that he is above the Constitution of the United States, and that no officer of the law, state or national, may violate it under the color or excuse of a statute, national or state, in conflict with its provisions. The fact that an officer has acted on behalf of a state under the direction or authority of an unconstitutional statute, or under the orders of a superior, constitutes no defense to an action at law for restitution or for damages for any invasion of individual rights any more than the command of the king or the prime minister would constitute a defense in England. The alleged law is treated as a nullity and as absolutely void for all purposes, except perhaps as negativing the existence of malice or bad faith or criminal intent. But it confers no warrant or authority and affords no defense or protection.