Tuesday audio. Non-Article III Reax Papers due at the beginning of class Tuesday.
We continue with Eleventh Amendment/Sovereign Immunity.
Torres v. Texas Dept. of Public Safety is from 2022, showing how the Court has shifted in its approach to abrogation and Article I. 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 besides plain meaning? What is the textual argument for the diversity theory? What 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, what logic explains the different outcomes? Can Congress subject states to suit under the Spending Clause and why, if it is a § 8 power?
