| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | Hans had some bonds from LA that were diw. LA declines to pay, saying that an amendment to the LA constitution "remitted" them. Hans thinks this violates the Contracts Clause. |
| Posture: | Suit in federal court; lower court dismissed, and Hans appeals. |
| Issue: | Can a state be sued in federal court by one of its own citizens? |
| Holding: | No. The circuit court is affirmed. |
| Rule: | It is inherent in the nature of sovreignty not to be amenable to the suit of an individual without its consent. |
| Reasoning: | Without respect to the parties, a federal court has jurisdiction over a matter if it arises under the constitution. We've got 11A that says citizens of another state can't sue the state. So you might think that 11A only bars diversity suits against states, but 11A was a response to a specific crisis, and everybody knows the states are actually soverign. That's part of what "sovereign" means. |
| Dicta: | |