Page:Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt.pdf/25

4 The Court in Hall relied on this reasoning. See 440 U. S., at 416–417. Drawing on the comparison to foreign nations, the Court in Hall emphasized that California had made a sovereign decision not to “exten[d] immunity to Nevada as a matter of comity.” Id., at 418. Unless some constitutional rule required California to grant immunity that it had chosen to withhold, the Court “ha[d] no power to disturb the judgment of the California courts.” Ibid.

The Court in Hall next held that ratification of the Constitution did not alter principles of state sovereign immunity in any relevant respect. The Court concluded that express provisions of the Constitution—such as the Eleventh Amendment and the Full Faith and Credit Clause of Article IV.—did not require States to accord each other sovereign immunity. See id., at 418–424. And the Court held that nothing “implicit in the Constitution” treats States differently in respect to immunity than international law treats sovereign nations. Id., at 418; see also id., at 424–427.

To the contrary, the Court in Hall observed that an express provision of the Constitution undermined the assertion that States were absolutely immune in each other’s courts. Unlike suits brought against a State in the State’s own courts, Hall noted, a suit against a State in the courts of a different State “necessarily implicates the power and authority of” both States. Id., at 416. The defendant State has a sovereign interest in immunity from suit, while the forum State has a sovereign interest in defining the jurisdiction of its own courts. The Court in Hall therefore justified its decision in part by reference to “the Tenth Amendment’s reminder that powers not delegated to the Federal Government nor prohibited to the States are reserved to the States or to the people.” Id., at 425. Compelling States to grant immunity to their sister