Nevada v. Hall (1979) Majority Opinion (State immunity from suit in the courts of another state)

Audio of Nevada v. Hall (1979) Majority Opinion (State immunity from suit in the courts of another state)

Today I'll be reading the 1979 opinion of the Court in Nevada v. Hall in which respondents, residents of California, sued the State of Nevada for injuries that they sustained on a California highway when a Nevada-owned vehicle on official business collided with a vehicle occupied by the California respondents - killing the Nevada driver.

The question before the Court in this case was whether a state is constitutionally immune from suit in the courts of another state. And, in a 6-3 decision, the Court  they are not- permitting sovereign states to be haled into another state's courts without the first state's consent.

Forty years later, in 2019, in a 5-4 decision split along ideological lines, the Court overturned Nevada v. Hall in a case I'll be reading next episode - Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt, which held that that states are indeed immune from suit in the courts of other states.

Music by Epidemic Sound