Breyer, J., dissenting
States would risk interfering with sovereign rights that the Tenth Amendment leaves to the States.
To illustrate that principle, Hall cited Georgia v. Chattanooga, 264 U. S. 472 (1924), which concerned condemnation proceedings brought by a municipality against property owned by a neighboring State. See Hall, 440 U. S., at 426, n. 29. The Court in Chattanooga held that one State (Georgia) that had purchased property for a railroad in a neighboring State (Tennessee) could not exempt itself from the eminent domain power of the Tennessee city in which the property was located. 264 U. S., at 480. The reason was obvious: “The power of eminent domain is an attribute of sovereignty,” and Tennessee did not surrender that sovereign power simply by selling land to Georgia. Ibid. In light of the competing sovereignty interests on both sides of the matter, the Court in Chattanooga found no basis to interpose a federally mandated resolution.
Similar reasoning applied in Hall. Mandating absolute interstate immunity “by inference from the structure of our Constitution and nothing else” would “intru[de] on the sovereignty of the States—and the power of the people—in our Union.” 440 U. S., at 426–427.
II
The majority disputes both Hall’s historical conclusion regarding state immunity before ratification and its conclusion that the Constitution did not alter that immunity. But I do not find the majority’s arguments convincing.
A
The majority asserts that before ratification “it was well settled that States were immune under both the common law and the law of nations.” Ante, at 9. The majority thus maintains that States were exempt from suit in each other’s courts.
But the question in Hall concerned the basis for that
