U.S. National Language

Crow: States cannot sue the federal government and state powers are anything the federal government does not claim for itself. Were you trying to dispute that information?
No, I was just weighing in on the states rights issue.

Bi0Hazard: In the current system, states rights are preferable, as a localized power structure helps keep the government accountable .

In another regard, most states are composed of very different ethnic heritages, cultural influences, and subcultures. States can represent their interests more than the federal government, but they will still fail most of the time.

Crow: If you got your way, you would just abolish the federal government altogether.

Bi0Hazard: Yeah, and state governments.

Crow: Sovereign immunity does not override the constitution though, does it? The supreme court has occasionally struck down rights that the federal government has claimed even though they are not among the enumerated powers. So while states cannot sue the federal government, the federal government cannot simply make any law it pleases. From my understanding, this is not a power that is delegated to the federal government. Therefore any strict constructionist is gonna oppose it, and that's going to be the basis for a lawsuit.

This was somewhat enunciated in the article you linked also:
State sovereign immunity does not extend to cases where a plaintiff alleges the state's action is in violation of the federal or state constitution.

admin: Sovereign immunity does not override the constitution though, does it?
The constitution is what gives the federal government sovereign immunity

The supreme court has occasionally struck down rights that the federal government has claimed even though they are not among the enumerated powers

The necessary and proper clause has been able to justify almost any law.

. The supreme court is actually the reason why the federal government has near unlimited powers, because they constantly sided with the government on issues where this clause was contested. The constitution originally only gave the federal government 5 powers, but the supreme court determined that the federal government had implied powers that are not directly mentioned (which is a nonsense technicality and everyone knows it)

Therefore any strict constructionist is gonna oppose it, and that's going to be the basis for a lawsuit.

The government cannot be sued for laws that break the constitution. Those laws can be overridden by the Supreme Court (rarely) , but no one is going to get any money from the Feds.

The only time the federal government can be sued by a person, is when they claim responsibility if something were to happen, and this was specified in a law.

admin: Yep, that's just further elaborating that states have less power. They are accountable to the federal government, but not the other way around. This has been seen in numerous supreme court cases.

The federal government has made thousands of laws that violate the constitutional amendments of states. With sovereign immunity, states are little more than semi-autonomous administrative districts.