Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. v. Hyatt, 538 U.S. 488, 10 (2003)

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Cite as: 538 U. S. 488 (2003)

Opinion of the Court

recognize a sister State's legislatively recaptured immunity once before. In Nevada v. Hall, 440 U. S. 410 (1979), an employee of the University of Nevada was involved in an automobile accident with California residents, who filed suit in California and named Nevada as a defendant. The California courts refused to apply a Nevada statute that capped damages in tort suits against the State on the ground that "to surrender jurisdiction or to limit respondents' recovery to the $25,000 maximum of the Nevada statute would be ob-noxious to its statutorily based policies of jurisdiction over nonresident motorists and full recovery." Id., at 424.

We affirmed, holding, first, that the Constitution does not confer sovereign immunity on States in the courts of sister States. Id., at 414-421. Petitioner does not ask us to reexamine that ruling, and we therefore decline the invitation of petitioner's amici States, see Brief for State of Florida et al. as Amici Curiae 2, to do so. See this Court's Rule 14.1(a); Mazer v. Stein, 347 U. S. 201, 206, n. 5 (1954) ("We do not reach for constitutional questions not raised by the parties").

The question presented here instead implicates Hall's second holding: that the Full Faith and Credit Clause did not require California to apply Nevada's sovereign immunity statutes where such application would violate California's own legitimate public policy. 440 U. S., at 424. The Court observed in a footnote:

"California's exercise of jurisdiction in this case poses no substantial threat to our constitutional system of cooperative federalism. Suits involving traffic accidents occurring outside of Nevada could hardly interfere with Nevada's capacity to fulfill its own sovereign responsibilities. We have no occasion, in this case, to consider whether different state policies, either of California or of Nevada, might require a different analysis or a different result." Id., at 424, n. 24.

497

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