Law Commons^™

The Unconstitutionality Of State And Local Enactments In The United States Restricting Business Ties With Burma (Myanmar), David Schmahmann, James Finch

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

As a punitive measure against the military regime in Burma, state and municipal governments in the United States have adopted laws penalizing firms that conduct business in that nation. This Article analyzes the validity of these statutes and ordinances under various provisions of the U.S. Constitution.

After introducing the nature of this development and the constitutional issues raised, Part II of this Article proceeds to examine the character of the local enactments and the political backdrop which lead to their adoption. In Part II, the Authors analyze four federal constitutional issues surrounding the local legislation: implied preemption by federal legislation, …

What Is Eleventh Amendment Immunity?, Carlos Manuel Vázquez

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Supreme Court's Eleventh Amendment decisions give conflicting signals about what the Amendment does. On one view, the Amendment functions as a forum-allocation principle--immunizing states from liability in suits filed in federal court, but leaving open the possibility that states may be compelled to entertain suits against themselves in their own courts. A separate line of cases, however, implies that state courts enjoy an immunity from suit in their own courts and that nothing in the Constitution withdraws such immunity; on this view, the Eleventh Amendment, by protecting the states from suit in the federal courts, effectively immunizes the states …