''Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank'', 527 U.S. 627 (1999), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States relating to the doctrine of

sovereign immunity Sovereign immunity, or crown immunity, is a legal doctrine whereby a sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution, strictly speaking in modern texts in its own courts. A similar, stronger ...

. ''Florida Prepaid'' was a companion case to the similarly named (but not to be confused) '' College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board'', 527 U.S. 666 (1999). Where ''College Savings Bank'' was an action brought under the

Lanham Act The Lanham (Trademark) Act (, codified at et seq. () is the primary federal trademark statute of law in the United States. The Act prohibits a number of activities, including trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and false advertising. ...

, ''Florida Prepaid'' was a concurrent action brought under the Patent and Plant Variety Protection Remedy Clarification Act. Although it was unnecessary to reach the question of whether Congress had validly abrogated Florida's sovereign immunity in ''College Savings Bank'', the question was unavoidable in ''Florida Prepaid''.

Findings

In a 5–4 decision authored by Chief Justice

William Rehnquist William Hubbs Rehnquist ( ; October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney and jurist who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years, first as an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and then as the 16th chief justice from ...

, the court held that the Act's abrogation of States' sovereign immunity was invalid. Congress could only abrogate sovereign immunity pursuant to its powers under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment and not Article I (see '' Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer''; '' Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida''). Applying the § 5 test provided in ''

City of Boerne v. Flores ''City of Boerne v. Flores'', 521 U.S. 507 (1997), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning the scope of Congress's power of enforcement under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case also had a signific ...

'', the validity of the Act could not be sustained.

Implications

The results of the case are cited repeatedly in subsequent patent cases, and criticized. Justice

Stephen Breyer Stephen Gerald Breyer ( ; born August 15, 1938) is a retired American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 until his retirement in 2022. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton, and repl ...

, in '' Active Liberty'' (Federalism), mentions the case as example of potentially overreaching or counterproductive restriction of federal authority to "create uniform individual remedies under legislation dealing with nationwide problems—for example, private civil damages actions for citizens injured by a state's unlawful use of their intellectual property."

References

External links

* United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court United States Eleventh Amendment case law Legal history of Florida 1999 in United States case law United States Constitution Article One case law {{SCOTUS-case-stub

Findings

Implications

See also

References

External links