evolution of the 11th Essay

Submitted By higino1
Words: 831
Pages: 4

Evolution of the 11th Imagine living in a country where other country’s were able to bring up lawsuits against the states they do not live in, this also limits states from suing each other. Now without the 11th amendment this would all be legal. This amendment was not always accepted by the states, but we would not be the same country today without it. It also had a catalyst behind it to get it passed was Georgia. America was a new country that needed a backbone which was gotten by getting the constitution passed, and then once we got amendments passed we were destined for greatness as a country. When this amendment was first brought to congress it was not originally liked not until a case by the name of Chisholm v. Georgia where the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction when the executer of a South Carolina estate brought an auction to recover the debt Georgia owed (Laws). After this case congress knew something had to be done in order to keep the country whole. The amendment recognizes that states have a certain amount of sovereign immunity. But when the constitution was founded it gave the Supreme Court jurisdiction over all non citizens that brought cases up against a case against the state (Laws). But with the 11th amendment it let the states to limit the power of the Supreme Court. So then aliens are able to sue the state they live in, but not any other. The amendment was then ratified in 1795. Georgia was the main supporter of the 11th they wanted to get this passed because of the lawsuit that was brought up against them by South Carolina that involved the amount of land they should get (Cornell).They thought that they should not be sued as a whole for one simple Lawsuit between a state and another state. So in order to get this problem resolved they needed to bring this issue up to congress. But when they brought this up to congress states like; North Carolina, South Carolina, and New Jersey, Pennsylvania did not approve they thought that this was unconstitutional(Cornell). It took 3 years to get North Carolina, South Carolina to finally ratify it. New Jersey and Pennsylvania never did ratify it because they still thought that it was silly that someone could not sue someone from another state. But the amendment only needs ¾ of the states to pass an amendment (Cornell). The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. These are the exact in the constitution for the 11th amendment this basically means that citizens of another country are not allowed to sue another person from another state. This also limits states from suing each other. For example if a person from Cuba goes to Texas and they fall down a well they would not be able to sue them , also if someone who lives in South Carolina and they live in North Carolina they would not be able to sue the state of South Carolina. Or if one state