Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly Volume 29 Article 2 Number 3 Spring 2002 1-1-2002 Congressional Authority to Induce Waivers of State Sovereign Immunity: The onditC ional Spending Power (and Beyond) Michael T. Gibson Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly Part of the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation Michael T. Gibson, Congressional Authority to Induce Waivers of State Sovereign Immunity: The Conditional Spending Power (and Beyond), 29 Hastings Const. L.Q. 439 (2002). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol29/iss3/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Congressional Authority to Induce Waivers of State Sovereign Immunity: The Conditional Spending Power (and Beyond) by MICHAEL T. GIBSON* I. State Sovereign Immunity vs. American Business A. State Sovereign Immunity Invades Silicon Valley Supporters of state sovereign immunity eventually will rue June 23, 1999. On that day, the Supreme Court's conservative justices seemingly produced three triumphs for states' rights.' In Alden v. Maine, they revealed that sovereign immunity protects States from suits in federal and state courts.2 In Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank,3 they let a state intentionally infringe upon a federal patent without fear of monetary liability.4 In College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board, they let the same state violate a federal trademark with the same impunity In all three cases, they said that Congress could not use Article I to abrogate state sovereign Professor, Oklahoma City University School of Law; BA, University of Nebraska; JD, Yale University.