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Opinion of the Court
Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.
In 1992, Congress amended the patent laws and expressly abrogated the States' sovereign immunity from claims of patent infringement. Respondent College Savings then sued the State of Florida for patent infringement, and the Court of Appeals held that Congress had validly abrogated the State's sovereign immunity from infringement suits pursuant to its authority under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. We hold that, under City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U. S. 507 (1997), the statute cannot be sustained as legislation enacted to enforce the guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, and accordingly reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals.
I
Since 1987, respondent College Savings Bank, a New Jersey chartered savings bank located in Princeton, New Jersey, has marketed and sold certificates of deposit known as the CollegeSure CD, which are essentially annuity contracts for financing future college expenses. College Savings obtained
ference of State Legislatures et al. by Richard Ruda and James I. Crowley; and for the Regents of the University of California by Charles A. Miller, Caroline M. Brown, Jason A. Levine, Gerald P. Dodson, James E. Holst, P. Martin Simpson, Jr., and Richard L. Stanley.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers et al. by Michael R. Klipper; for the Association of American Publishers, Inc., et al. by Charles S. Sims; for the Association of American Railroads by Betty Jo Christian and Shannen W. Coffin; for the Federal Circuit Bar Association by George E. Hutchinson and William M. Atkinson; for the New York Intellectual Property Law Association by Charles P. Baker, Bruce M. Wexler, and Howard B. Barnaby; and for the Pacific Legal Foundation by Eric Grant and James S. Burling.
Briefs of amici curiae were filed for the American Intellectual Property Law Association by Joseph R. Re, Michael K. Friedland, and Don W. Martens; and for the Association of the Bar of the City of New York by Leon Friedman, Louis A. Craco, Jr., and James F. Parver.
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