Throwback Thursday – Seminole Tribe of FL v Florida

In Seminole Tribe of FL v Florida (1996), SCOTUS reiterated that despite the text of the 11th Amdt NOT prohibiting citizens from suing their own states, that’s what was “meant.” 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 SCOTUS held “We have understood the 11th Amendment to stand NOT SO MUCH FOR WHAT IT SAYS but for the presupposition… which it confirms.” Meaning that ” each state is a sovereign entity in our federal system” and it’s “inherent in the nature of sovereignty not to be amenable to the suit of an individual without its consent.” As the dissent pointed out, “we have two 11th amendments, the one ratified in 1795, the other invented by the Court nearly a century later in Hans v Louisiana.” Sovereignty originates in We The People, not the government. SCOTUS just needs to stop “interpreting” the plain words of the Constitution.