United States: Sovereign Immunity: Public Sector Government

For hundreds of years, the world’s sovereign nations refused to allow any other foreign sovereign to be sued in their courts without the sovereign’s consent. The guiding principle was “absolute sovereign immunity,” an outgrowth of the ancient legal precept rex non potest peccare, understood to mean “the king can do no wrong.” The principle also was recognized as wise foreign policy because it extended "grace and comity" to other sovereigns.

As we previously reported, animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), sued the National Institutes of Health and Mental Health in federal court seeking to compel the defendants...

The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel ("BAP") has held for the first time that neither sovereign immunity nor the Younger abstention doctrine constrain bankruptcy courts from enjoining State...