Law Lets Texas Decide Who Can File Suit Against It
After December 2009, you have to assume that lawyers for every coach thinking about taking a job at a Texas college — or anyone looking at any contract with the state — have boned up on sovereign immunity law.
They would be stupid not to. With only a few exceptions, the law prevents anyone from collecting on a lawsuit against the state government, or even from successfully suing the state, without the state’s permission.
It is the shoelace that tripped Mike Leach, the former head football coach at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, when he claimed that the school violated his ...
Comments (2)
Jon Roland
Sovereign immunity, like its cousin, official immunity, is not to be found in constitutions. It is a judicial doctrine, created by judges and sustained by another judicial doctrine, binding stare decisis. It was sustained by the 11th Amendment, which denied federal court jurisdiction to cases between a citizen and his state, but then the 14th Amendment opened federal court jurisdiction for cases involving fundamental rights. The problem since then has been reluctance of federal courts to deem many rights "fundamental" enough to be protected.
About the only way to correct the problem is through constitutional amendments. See http://amend-it.org for examples of how it might be done.
Bill Hobby
I quit giving away taxpayer's money by passing "resolutions to sue the state" my last two sessions as Lieutenant Governor.