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Page Number: 25.0

2 

ALLEN v. COOPER 

BREYER, J., concurring in judgment 

port a federal law providing that, when proven to have pi-
rated intellectual property, States must pay for what they
plundered.  Ante, at 6–10.  To subject nonconsenting States
to private suits for copyright or patent infringement, says
the Court, Congress must endeavor to pass a more “tailored
statute” than the one before us, relying not on the Intellec-
tual Property Clause, but on §5 of the Fourteenth Amend-
ment.  Ante, at 16.  Whether a future legislative effort along 
those  lines  will  pass  constitutional  muster  is  anyone’s 
guess.  But faced with the risk of unfairness to authors and 
inventors  alike,  perhaps  Congress  will  venture  into  this 
great constitutional unknown.

That  our  sovereign-immunity  precedents  can  be  said  to 
call  for  so  uncertain  a  voyage  suggests  that  something  is
amiss.  Indeed, we went astray in Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. 
Florida, 517 U. S. 44 (1996), as I have consistently main-
tained.  See College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Post-
secondary Ed. Expense Bd., 527 U. S. 666, 699–701 (1999) 
(dissenting  opinion);  Federal  Maritime  Comm’n  v.  South 
Carolina  Ports  Authority,  535  U. S.  743,  787–788  (2002) 
(same).  We erred again in Florida Prepaid Postsecondary 
Ed.  Expense  Bd.  v.  College  Savings  Bank,  527  U. S.  627 
(1999),  by  holding  that  Congress  exceeded  its  §5  powers
when it passed a patent counterpart to the copyright stat-
ute at issue here.  See id., at 652–664 (Stevens, J., dissent-
ing).  But  recognizing  that  my  longstanding  view  has  not 
carried  the  day,  and  that  the  Court’s  decision  in  Florida 
Prepaid controls this case, I concur in the judgment.  See 
ante,  9–10,  15–16;  Kimble  v.  Marvel  Entertainment,  LLC, 
576  U. S.  446,  455–456  (2015);  Franchise  Tax  Board  of 
California v. Hyatt, 587 U. S. ___, ___ (2019) (BREYER, J., 
dissenting).