"The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State." -- Eleventh Amendment (1795)
The Eleventh Amendment grants a State immunity from suit in federal court by citizens of other States, U. S. Const., Amdt. 11, and by its own citizens as well, Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U. S. 1 (1890).
-- LAPIDES v. BOARD OF REGENTS OF UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA (2002)
A rather esoteric, but quite important, dispute has been raging in the Supreme Court in recent years regarding the true reach of the Eleventh Amendment, and the power of sovereign state immunity it is said to imply.
I say important because of the individual rights and congressional powers are at stake, especially given that a primary alternative offered (direct suits by the U.S. government) is unwieldy and unlikely to be available in many cases. A look at the words and history of the amendment would suggest things shouldn't be too difficult, but things have not turned out that way.
Nor has things just started with the current Supreme Court. The battle lines were clearly drawn in 1987, if not over ten years earlier. It was just a matter of time that court personnel change would lead to the current era, misguided (see the excellent dissents) as it might be.
The road to this result turns out to be rather interesting, as suggested by a book cited by the primary dissent in the 1987 cited above, Judicial Power of the United States by John V. Orth.
I learnt of the book because the author wrote a fascinating little book on Due Process of Law that explained its long English law roots, roots that justify in various extents a substantive (basic rights instead of just "procedural" protections) reach for that protection.
I got a hold of Orth's (who has continued to write on the subject) book, and though it is in various ways as out of date as the yellowing pages of my copy suggests, it is a fairly straightforward read with valuable historical insights.
A more up to date criticism of recent "Eleventh Amendment" jurisprudence is Narrowing The Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides with The States by Judge John T. Noonan, Jr. See also, Original Sin by Samuel A. Marcosson and a whole slew of other books, law articles, court dissents, et. al.
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Politics: A while back, I noted my belief that Howard Dean had little chance of winning the general election, an opinion I tempered given his later success. Always go with your first judgment, I guess.
Oh, I guess, I will join with Mike Doonesbury's daughter and withhold judgment, but when he starts suggesting that he might be willing to be a vice presidential candidate (one wonders who would pick him), you know he is in trouble. It also was suggested by several people that there was a good chance for a brokered convention, i.e., no one would get enough delegates to have a majority.
This too seemed somewhat unlikely to me, and if John "zzzzz" Kerry continues to succeed, things will be almost pro forma before I even vote in March! Key primaries occur in the next two weeks.
I saw John Kerry recently give a stump speech, after Gephardt threw his support Kerry's way. First off, though Gephardt's endorsement is surely a help (for union support alone), it surely doesn't do much to endear me to the guy. After all, the tired nature of Gephardt along with his vote on the Iraq resolution (to add insult to injury, he went over to the White House to voice his support without telling Sen. Daschle, then Majority Leader of the Senate ... such assholic rejection of party loyalty deserves my contempt) is just the sort of thing I dislike about the Democratic Party.
To the extent Kerry is the "establishment" candidate, this doesn't help me like the guy. Anyway, the guy put me to sleep as he droned on and on. And, I just worry about this guy in the Fall.
I do wish the other candidates would join together somehow, at least Clark and Edwards, who together might work, but apart just split the anti-Kerry vote. If not, John Kerry should be sitting pretty before he makes an appearance at a St. Pat. Day parade. If so, good luck ... and please work on voters like me so we will not see voting for you in November as some necessary chore.