Cite as: 513 U. S. 30 (1994)
O'Connor, J., dissenting
Corp. v. Multistate Tax Comm'n, 434 U. S. 452, 485 (1978) (White, J., dissenting). But the consent clause neither transforms the nature of state power nor makes Congress a full-fledged participant in the underlying agreement; it requires only that Congress "check any infringement of the rights of the national government." J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States § 1403, p. 264 (T. Cooley ed. 1873). In consenting, Congress certifies that the States are acting within their boundaries in our federal scheme and that the national interest is not offended. Once Congress consents to cooperative state activity, there is no reason to presume that immunity does not attach. Sovereign immunity, after all, inheres in the permissible exercise of state power. "If congress consent[s], then the states [are] in this respect restored to their original inherent sovereignty; such consent being the sole limitation imposed by the constitution, when given, [leaves] the states as they were before . . . ." Rhode Island v. Massachusetts, 12 Pet. 657, 725 (1838); see also L. Tribe, American Constitutional Law § 6-33, p. 523 (2d ed. 1988).
Even if the Court were correct that the States ceded a portion of their power to Congress in ratifying the consent provision, it would not logically or inevitably follow that any particular entity receives no immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. In Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 U. S. 445, 455- 456 (1976), we held that the States surrendered a portion of their sovereign authority to Congress in ratifying § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Despite this, we have consistently required " 'an unequivocal expression of congressional intent to overturn the constitutionally guaranteed immunity of the several States' " before allowing suits against States to proceed in federal court. Atascadero State Hospital v. Scan-lon, 473 U. S. 234, 240 (1985), quoting Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U. S. 89, 99 (1984). Assuming, arguendo, that States ceded power to Congress to abrogate States' Eleventh Amendment immunity in the
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