Conservative SCOTUS majority overturns 40-year-old precedent in sovereign immunity case

Make sure to let us know what you think... we now have comments turned ON below the article!

With the makeup of the Supreme Court now leaning toward the right with a 5-4 conservative majority, it was predicted that the court would be more likely to issue rulings that are in line with the plain text of the U.S. Constitution.

That appears to be true with regard to the court’s recent 5-4 ruling in the case of Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt, which overturned a prior decision from 40 years ago that the current court held was inconsistent with the principle of states’ sovereign immunity.

Overturning precedent

The high court ruled on Monday that a state could not be sued by a private party in a different state unless it had first consented to be sued.

That decision reversed a 1979 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Nevada v. Hall, which declared that the Constitution offered no protection to individual states from private lawsuits originating in other states.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion in the 5-4 decision. The four liberal justices were led in their dissenting opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer.

The liberal justices felt that prior court precedent should have been left alone and criticized the conservatives for overturning of a past ruling by a slim 5-4 majority, revealing their deeper concern that other longstanding precedents could be overturned in the future by a similarly narrow margin.

Thomas’ majority opinion

In the majority opinion, Thomas wrote that the 1979 ruling “misreads the historical record and misapprehends the ‘implicit ordering of relationships within the federal system necessary to make the Constitution a workable governing charter and to give each provision within that document the full effect intended by the Framers.'”

With regard to the precedent set in that case, Thomas wrote that it was “irreconcilable with our constitutional structure and with the historical evidence” which showed that states did enjoy sovereign immunity from private lawsuits

Broader implications?

The case at the heart of the court’s decision involved a dispute between a microchip inventor named Gilbert Hyatt who lived in Nevada and sued the California Franchise Tax Board in 1992.

Hyatt’s suit demanded that the tax agency compensate him for damages resulting from an audit it conducted on suspicion that Hyatt had moved from California to Nevada in order to avoid paying the state’s personal income tax. Hyatt alleged that the board shared personal information about him with business associates and unconstitutionally invaded his privacy.

This was actually the third time this particular case found its way to the Supreme Court, but it will almost assuredly be the last.

Now that the court has overturned its own prior ruling and found that Hyatt had no right to sue California from a Nevada courtroom absent its consent, liberal activists are left worrying about which other precedents may be vulnerable under fresh review.

1,958 Responses

  1. Hello, i think that i saw you visited my web site so i came to “return the favor”.I am attempting to find things to improve my website!I suppose its ok to use a few of your ideas!!|

  2. We are one of Utah’s highest-rated barbershop. We are a small team of barbers providing the best men’s haircuts in salt lake city, Utah. We have been in business for over 6 years and with over 300 5 star reviews on both Yelp and Google.

  3. Do you have a spam problem on this blog; I also am a blogger, and I was wanting to know your situation; many of us have created some nice methods and we are looking to exchange strategies with others, why not shoot me an e-mail if interested.|

  4. Heya! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing many months of hard work due to no data backup. Do you have any methods to stop hackers?|

  5. Hey there! I know this is kinda off topic nevertheless I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest authoring a blog post or vice-versa? My blog covers a lot of the same subjects as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other. If you’re interested feel free to shoot me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Great blog by the way!|

  6. Great beat ! I wish to apprentice whilst you amend your site, how could i subscribe for a weblog website? The account helped me a acceptable deal. I had been a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered brilliant clear idea|

  7. I truly love your site.. Excellent colors & theme. Did you build this site yourself? Please reply back as I’m trying to create my own personal website and would love to learn where you got this from or just what the theme is named. Many thanks!

  8. Hi there! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I genuinely enjoy reading through your posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same topics? Thanks a lot!|

  9. Hola! I’ve been reading your blog for some time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Dallas Tx! Just wanted to tell you keep up the excellent job!|

  10. It’s appropriate time to make some plans for the long run and it is time to be happy. I’ve read this submit and if I may just I want to counsel you some fascinating issues or suggestions. Perhaps you could write next articles regarding this article. I wish to read even more things about it!|

  11. After going over a number of the blog posts on your web site, I seriously like your way of blogging. I saved it to my bookmark site list and will be checking back in the near future. Take a look at my web site too and tell me your opinion.|

  12. I will right away seize your rss feed as I can not to find your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Kindly allow me understand so that I could subscribe. Thanks.

  13. Hey would you mind stating which blog platform you’re working with? I’m looking to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a difficult time choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique. P.S Sorry for being off-topic but I had to ask!|

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Popular