Immunity (legal)
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Comment by zuma on May 9th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Here are the issues that are not addressed in Judicial or Sovereign Immunity.
In America it is said the the true and only sovereigns in our democracy are the people, not the govt! The govt derives its powers from the people, not like the kings of Europe who believed that God gave them immunity.
The people never gave Immunity to the federal govt or any judge or court and never gave the govt authority to grant immunity to anyone, so the govt and judges just took it, and called it a doctrine. But doctrines are not law and we have no place for them in our form of govt.
The states or colonies never had immunity as I fail to find any state(colony) consitution that gives govt immunity from the people that create the colony!
Just as you may agree or disagree with a “womens right to choose” we all know it was never discussed by the founders before or after the Constitution was affirmed by the states.
So we are living under pure myth! There is no legal or other basis for immunity in this country.
While the 11th Amedment denied suits against states by citizens of other states, it does not give the state immunity from suit by its own citizens. So our Supreme Court ruled, that those who wrote the 11th Amendment meant for it to include states by it own citizens too? However, we ratified the amendment as it was written and therefore we dont accept that those who wrote it were so stupid that they just left that out.
But here is the issue on this/ Under our Constitution states cant pass laws impairing contracts, can declare war, can coin money, grant titles of nobility etc. Now what if they do those things and citizens of several states are hurt by them? Does the 11th Amendment prohibit suit? For if it does it negates all the restrictions placed on states by the people in the Constitution!
It is coming in America where the govt will have to decide if their job is to protect the people or protect itself?
For if it is the latter, it will do it without the people!
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on May 11th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Thank you for your comments and interest in improving New World Encyclopedia.
It is indeed the case that sovereign immunity is not absolute in the United States, either on the federal or state level. The same is true today in the United Kingdom. However, it is also the case that sovereign immunity generally applies to sovereignties (law making authorities) with regard to those laws that they made, whether those sovereignties are democratically elected or took power by other means. In a democracy the people have the power not to re-elect politicians if they abuse this privilege and only protect themselves. On the other side, if the government takes responsibility for mistakes and waives immunity, those guilty of wrongdoing can indeed be sued.
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