Thomas, J., dissenting
themselves fully sovereign nations,” and part of that sovereignty “was their immunity from private suits.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 6) (internal quotation marks omitted). When advocating for the Constitution’s ratification, leading Federalists then assured their opponents that the Constitution would not allow private citizens to hale States into federal court without their consent. See ibid. Though this Court held otherwise soon thereafter in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. 419 (1793), the Eleventh Amendment’s swift ratification confirmed that Chisholm was wrong. See Hyatt, 587 U. S., at ___–___ (slip op., at 11–12). Thus, in general, the Constitution does not allow federal or state courts to hear cases against States without their consent. See id., at ___–___ (slip op., at 13–16); Alden v. Maine, 527 U. S. 706, 730–731 (1999). This deeply rooted rule “inheres in the system of federalism” that the Constitution establishes. See id., at 730.[1]
Here, however, all sides agree that Puerto Rico is a Territory, not a State. See Puerto Rico v. Sánchez Valle, 579 U. S. 59, 75–77 (2016). Accordingly, it is difficult to see how the same inherent sovereign immunity that the States enjoy in federal court would apply to Puerto Rico. To be sure, the United States has urged us to hold that Puerto Rico enjoys a form of common-law immunity that, it claims, territorial governments can invoke in federal court. See Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 16–19. But the Board has, at every stage, argued only that it possesses the same immunity as States. That argument appears untenable.
- ↑ The Court has described this unique form of sovereign immunity as belonging to the 13 original States by dint of their post-Independence and pre-Ratification independent sovereignty and to the subsequently admitted States as a result of their admission to the Union on an equal footing with the original States. Alden, 527 U. S., at 713; see also Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community, 572 U. S. 782, 816, n. 1 (2014) (Thomas, J., dissenting); accord, Hyatt, 587 U. S., at ___–___ (slip op., at 11–14) (noting unique nature of state sovereign immunity).
