Abstract
Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, the federal and state governments of the United States cannot be sued or prosecuted unless they voluntarily waive their own impunity. In recent decades, the Supreme Court has expanded the scope of the sovereign immunity of the state governments. This Note argues that such an expansion is a profound and shortsighted mistake. It proposes that the most effective way to balance governmental functionality with civic accountability is to pass and ratify a constitutional amendment that solidifies national sovereign immunity and abolishes state sovereign immunity. It argues that such action is necessary to ensure the primacy of the United States in international affairs, to maintain comity among the states, and to secure the economic prosperity and military might of the nation. Short of a constitutional amendment, this Note argues that the Supreme Court should overturn Seminole Tribe v. Florida, redefine the abrogation doctrine, and grant Congress the power to override state sovereign immunity under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.
Recommended Citation
William T. Olmstead,
Shadows of the Crown: The Virtue of Equilibrium in American Sovereign Immunity,
73 Clev. St. L. Rev.
171
(2024)
available at https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevstlrev/vol73/iss1/14
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