The 11th Amdt says federal courts have no power to hear cases “prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.” But in Hans v Louisiana (1890), SCOTUS held a citizen can’t sue their OWN state, despite acknowledging the text of the 11th Amdt DOESN’T prohibit a citizen from doing so! SCOTUS claimed it’s “inherent in the nature of sovereignty” for a state “not to be amenable to the suit of an individual without its consent.” SCOTUS seems to forget sovereignty originates in We The People, not the gov’t. Government gets its authority from us, not the other way around. We didn’t give the gov’t authority to stop us from suing our state in federal court, so they don’t have the authority to stop us. So instead of asking whether a state has “consented” to its citizens suing it in federal court, SCOTUS must look to what The People have consented (by reading the text of the Constitution)!

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