754
Opinion of the Court
We have recognized that Congress may require state courts to hear only "matters appropriate for the judicial power," Printz, 521 U. S., at 907. Our sovereign immunity precedents establish that suits against nonconsenting States are not "properly susceptible of litigation in courts," Hans, 134 U. S., at 12, and, as a result, that "[t]he 'entire judicial power granted by the Constitution' does not embrace authority to entertain such suits in the absence of the State's consent," Principality of Monaco, 292 U. S., at 329 (quoting Ex parte New York, 256 U. S., at 497); accord, 292 U. S., at 322- 323 (private suits against nonconsenting sovereigns are not "of a justiciable character"). We are aware of no constitutional precept that would admit of a congressional power to require state courts to entertain federal suits which are not within the judicial power of the United States and could not be heard in federal courts. As we explained in Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U. S. 64 (1938): "[T]he Constitution of the United States . . . recognizes and preserves the autonomy and independence of the States—independence in their legislative and independence in their judicial departments. Supervision over either the legislative or the judicial action of the States is in no case permissible except as to matters by the Constitution specifically authorized or delegated to the United States. Any interference with either, except as thus permitted, is an invasion of the authority of the State and, to that extent, a denial of its independence." Id., at 78-79.
In light of history, practice, precedent, and the structure of the Constitution, we hold that the States retain immunity from private suit in their own courts, an immunity beyond the congressional power to abrogate by Article I legislation.
III
The constitutional privilege of a State to assert its sovereign immunity in its own courts does not confer upon the
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