Cite as: 538 U. S. 488 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
(" '[T]axes are the life-blood of government' " (quoting Bull v. United States, 295 U. S. 247, 259-260 (1935))). But the university employee's educational mission in Hall might also be so described. Cf. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483, 493 (1954) ("[E]ducation is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments").
If we were to compare the degree to which the allegedly tortious acts here and in Hall are related to a core sovereign function, we would be left to ponder the relationship between an automobile accident and educating, on one hand, and the intrusions alleged here and collecting taxes, on the other. We discern no constitutionally significant distinction between these relationships. To the extent CFTB complains of the burdens and expense of out-of-state litigation, and the diversion of state resources away from the performance of important state functions, those burdens do not distinguish this case from any other out-of-state lawsuit against California or one of its agencies.
States' sovereignty interests are not foreign to the full faith and credit command. But we are not presented here with a case in which a State has exhibited a "policy of hostility to the public Acts" of a sister State. Carroll v. Lanza, 349 U. S., at 413. The Nevada Supreme Court sensitively applied principles of comity with a healthy regard for California's sovereign status, relying on the contours of Nevada's own sovereign immunity from suit as a benchmark for its analysis. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 10-13.
In short, we heed the lessons learned as a result of Bradford Elec. Light Co. v. Clapper, 286 U. S. 145 (1932), and its progeny. Without a rudder to steer us, we decline to embark on the constitutional course of balancing coordinate States' competing sovereign interests to resolve conflicts of laws under the Full Faith and Credit Clause.
The judgment of the Nevada Supreme Court is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
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