College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd., 527 U.S. 666, 5 (1999)

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670

COLLEGE SAVINGS BANK v. FLORIDA PREPAID POSTSECONDARY ED. EXPENSE BD.

Opinion of the Court

case of Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U. S. 1 (1890). See also Ex parte New York, 256 U. S. 490, 497-498 (1921); Principality of Monaco, supra, at 320-328, Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U. S. 89, 97-98 (1984); Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Florida, 517 U. S. 44, 54, 66-68 (1996).

While this immunity from suit is not absolute, we have recognized only two circumstances in which an individual may sue a State. First, Congress may authorize such a suit in the exercise of its power to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment—an Amendment enacted after the Eleventh Amendment and specifically designed to alter the federal-state balance. Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 U. S. 445 (1976). Second, a State may waive its sovereign immunity by consenting to suit. Clark v. Barnard, 108 U. S. 436, 447-448 (1883). This case turns on whether either of these two circumstances is present.

II

Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U. S. C. § 1125(a), enacted in 1946, created a private right of action against "[a]ny person" who uses false descriptions or makes false representations in commerce. The TRCA amends § 43(a) by defining "any person" to include "any State, instrumentality of a State or employee of a State or instrumentality of a State acting in his or her official capacity." § 3(c), 106 Stat. 3568. The TRCA further amends the Lanham Act to provide that such state entities "shall not be immune, under the eleventh amendment of the Constitution of the United States or under any other doctrine of sovereign immunity, from suit in Federal court by any person, including any governmental or nongovernmental entity for any violation under this Act," and that remedies shall be available against such state entities "to the same extent as such remedies are available . . . in a suit against" a nonstate entity. § 3(b) (codified in 15 U. S. C. § 1122).

Petitioner College Savings Bank is a New Jersey chartered bank located in Princeton, New Jersey. Since 1987,

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