Cite as: 513 U. S. 30 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
Jersey had effectively consented to the litigation. See id., at 306-309 (relying on N. J. Stat. Ann. §§ 32:1-157, 32:1-162 (West 1963); N. Y. Unconsol. Laws §§ 7101, 7106 (McKinney 1979)). Consent is not arguable here, because Hess and Walsh commenced suit too late to meet the 1-year prescription specified by the States. See supra, at 33. Accordingly, we confront directly the sole question petitioners Hess and Walsh present, and we hold that PATH is not entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit in federal court.
II
The Eleventh Amendment largely shields States from suit in federal court without their consent, leaving parties with claims against a State to present them, if the State permits, in the State's own tribunals. Adoption of the Amendment responded most immediately to the States' fears that "federal courts would force them to pay their Revolutionary War debts, leading to their financial ruin." Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U. S. 89, 151 (1984) (Stevens, J., dissenting); see also Petty v. Tennessee-Missouri Bridge Comm'n, 359 U. S. 275, 276, n. 1 (1959); Missouri v. Fiske, 290 U. S. 18, 27 (1933).9 More pervasively, current Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence emphasizes the integrity retained by each State in our federal system:
"The Amendment is rooted in a recognition that the States, although a union, maintain certain attributes of sovereignty, including sovereign immunity. See Hans
(1964); Miller v. Port of New York Authority, 18 N. J. Misc. 601, 606, 15 A. 2d 262, 266 (Sup. Ct. 1939).
9 As Chief Justice John Marshall recounted: "[A]t the adoption of the [C]onstitution, all the States were greatly indebted; and the apprehension that these debts might be prosecuted in the federal Courts" prompted swift passage of the Eleventh Amendment. Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 406 (1821). See generally 1 C. Warren, The Supreme Court in United States History 96-102 (1922).
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