# Sovereign Immunity **Status: stub — expand.** The principle that a government cannot be sued without its consent. Two distinct bodies of law share the name. **Federal sovereign immunity** is a background common-law rule; Congress waives it by statute — the Federal Tort Claims Act for torts, the Tucker Act for contract and takings claims in the Court of Federal Claims, and the Administrative Procedure Act's § 702 waiver for non-monetary relief against agencies. Whether a claim is "at law for money damages" often decides which court hears it. **State sovereign immunity** is constitutional, running through the [[Eleventh Amendment]] and structural inference. Congress may abrogate it only under § 5 of the [[Fourteenth Amendment]], not under Article I powers. The practical escape in both systems is to sue the **officer**, not the sovereign, for prospective relief — *Ex parte Young* on the state side, APA and *Larson* actions on the federal side. ## See also - [[Eleventh Amendment]] · [[Federalism Powers Crosswalk]]