Wednesday, October 4, 2023

For Monday

Tuesday audio. Non-Article III Reax Papers due at the beginning of class Tuesday. To be clear: I can review papers with you, so long as I don't see the Blind ID #.

Torres v. Texas Dept. of Public Safety is from 2022, showing how the Court has shifted in its approach. Read at least Justice Breyer's majority opinion. Then read the remainder of the assigned pages in both treatises.

What are the competing theories of the Eleventh Amendment's meaning? WWhat are the purposes of sovereign immunity--what does it hope to achieve? What does immunity protect states from and what does it not protect them from? What is abrogation and when can Congress abrogate or not? How does abrogation relate to and depart from the concept of the "plan of the Convention" before and after PennEast and Torres. What are the "structural safeguards of federalism" and how does that explain abrogation? Looking at what abrogation has been allowed for modern civil rights statutes under § 5, its there a logical way to explain the different outcomes? Can Congress subject states to suit under the Spending Clause and why, if it is a § 8 power?