802
Souter, J., dissenting
which the immunity is designed to protect,' " ante, at 749 (quoting Idaho v. Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho, 521 U. S. 261, 268 (1997)), and by invoking the many demands on a State's fisc, ante, at 750-751. Apparently beguiled by Gilded Era language describing private suits against States as " 'neither becoming nor convenient,' " ante, at 748 (quoting In re Ayers, 123 U. S. 443, 505 (1887)), the Court calls "immunity from private suits central to sovereign dignity," ante, at 715, and assumes that this "dignity" is a quality easily translated from the person of the King to the participatory abstraction of a republican State, see, e. g., ante, at 749 ("[C]ongressional power to authorize private suits against nonconsenting States in their own courts would be . . . offensive to state sovereignty"). The thoroughly anomalous character of this appeal to dignity is obvious from a reading of Blackstone's description of royal dignity, which he sets out as a premise of his discussion of sovereignty:
"First, then, of the royal dignity. Under every monarchical establishment, it is necessary to distinguish the prince from his subjects. . . . The law therefore ascribes to the king . . . certain attributes of a great and transcendent nature; by which the people are led to consider him in the light of a superior being, and to pay him that awful respect, which may enable him with greater ease to carry on the business of government. This is what I understand by the royal dignity, the several branches of which we will now proceed to examine." 1 Blackstone *241.
It would be hard to imagine anything more inimical to the republican conception, which rests on the understanding of its citizens precisely that the government is not above them, but of them, its actions being governed by law just like their own. Whatever justification there may be for an American
Page: Index Previous 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007