Tag Archives: Sovereign Immunity

SCOTUS Opinion: Court Permits Pre-Enforcement Challenge to Texas Abortion Law By Clinics, Not The Federal Government

The Court today resolved both challenges to Texas’ new abortion law, S.B. 8, which empowered private citizens to sue those who provided an abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detectable. In Whole Women’s Health v. Jackson, an abortion clinic sued a variety of defendants, seeking to enjoin enforcement of S.B. 8. The last time that case was before the Court, ... Read More

SCOTUS Opinion: States Immune from Copyright Claims

When North Carolina published a photographer’s copyrighted work recording operations to recover a shipwreck off of its coast, the photographer sued under the Copyright Remedy and Classification Act of 1990. The district court held that the Act abrogated State sovereign immunity from such claims, but the Fourth Circuit reversed, holding that the decision in Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd ... Read More

SCOTUS Opinion: States Are Immune From Private Suits Filed In Other States

Gilbert Hyatt made millions from a technology patent he developed while living in California. Prior to receiving the patent, he moved to Nevada, which has no income tax. The Franchise Tax Board of California thought his move was a sham, and began auditing him. Hyatt sued the Board in Nevada, claiming that the Board had committed numerous torts during its ... Read More

Prior Precedents Did Not Preclude Tribal Sovereign Immunity In A Property Dispute

After the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe purchased a 40-acre parcel of land in Washington State, a survey of that parcel revealed that approximately an acre of it lay on the other side of a boundary fence, which the Tribe’s new neighbors, the Lundgrens, believed they had owned for decades. The Lundgrens file a quiet title action, and the Tribe asserted ... Read More