One of the Rehnquist Court's major developments involved reinforcing and extending the doctrine of sovereign immunity, which limits the ability of Congress to subject non-consenting states to lawsuits by individual citizens seeking money damages.
12.
Stevens, using pungent language that did not appear in written dissent, accused the majority of constructing a doctrine of sovereign immunity " much like a mindless dragon that indiscriminately chews gaping holes in federal statutes ."
13.
But the court's liberal wing dissented, accusing the majority of validating the outdated and constitutionally suspect doctrine of sovereign immunity that was designed to protect kings, not states, from being sued in their own courts.
14.
In the same cramped spirit, the court invoked the doctrine of sovereign immunity to protect Florida from having to defend itself in federal courts from legal challenges to its program to help families save for tuition in the state's public universities.
15.
Pinkney was an acquaintance of the Cohen family and a strong proponent of the necessary and proper clause and the doctrine of sovereign immunity, and he organized a public relations campaign on behalf of the federal government's powers for this case.
16.
The doctrine of sovereign immunity has long been the subject of scholarly criticism . ( footnote 1 ) And rightly so, for throughout the doctrine's history, it has clashed with the just principle that there should be a remedy for every wrong.
17.
The appeals court ruled that the Constitution's doctrine of sovereign immunity for state governments only applies when a state is being sued, and doesn't provide legal protection when a state agency itself actually started the case by filing a lawsuit against someone else.
18.
""'College Savings Bank v . Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board " "', 527 U . S . 666 ( 1999 ), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States relating to the doctrine of sovereign immunity.
19.
Judge Stanley Sporkin of U . S . District Court permitted his suit to go forward in 1992, but the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed it last year on the ground that Germany was protected under federal law by the doctrine of sovereign immunity.
20.
"One of the reasons the doctrines of sovereign immunity have eroded over time, " he said " is that it is very difficult for a political body to tell citizens repeatedly that they have no redress when the government commits, time and again, an egregious wrong ."
