738
Opinion of the Court
that certain States had consented to be sued by injured workers covered by the FELA, at least in their own courts.
In Hall we considered whether California could subject Nevada to suit in California's courts and determined the Constitution did not bar it from doing so. We noted that "[t]he doctrine of sovereign immunity is an amalgam of two quite different concepts, one applicable to suits in the sovereign's own courts and the other to suits in the courts of another sovereign." 440 U. S., at 414. We acknowledged that "[t]he immunity of a truly independent sovereign from suit in its own courts has been enjoyed as a matter of absolute right for centuries. Only the sovereign's own consent could qualify the absolute character of that immunity," ibid., that "the notion that immunity from suit is an attribute of sovereignty is reflected in our cases," id., at 415, and that "[t]his explanation adequately supports the conclusion that no sovereign may be sued in its own courts without its consent," id., at 416. We sharply distinguished, however, a sovereign's immunity from suit in the courts of another sovereign:
"[B]ut [this explanation] affords no support for a claim of immunity in another sovereign's courts. Such a claim necessarily implicates the power and authority of a second sovereign; its source must be found either in an agreement, express or implied, between the two sovereigns, or in the voluntary decision of the second to respect the dignity of the first as a matter of comity." Ibid.
Since we determined the Constitution did not reflect an agreement between the States to respect the sovereign immunity of one another, California was free to determine whether it would respect Nevada's sovereignty as a matter of comity.
Our opinion in Hall did distinguish a State's immunity from suit in federal court from its immunity in the courts of
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