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Text: The principal thrust of Justice Breyer's dissent is an attack upon the very legitimacy of state sovereign immunity itself. In this regard, Justice Breyer and the other dissenters proclaim that they are "not yet ready," post, at 699 (emphasis added), to adhere to the still-warm precedent of Seminole Tribe and to the 110-year-old decision in Hans that supports it.[5] Accordingly, Justice Breyer reiterates (but only in outline form, thankfully) the now-fashionable revisionist accounts of the Eleventh Amendment set forth in other opinions in a degree of repetitive detail that has despoiled our northern woods. Compare post, at 700-701, with Atascadero, supra, at 258-302 (Brennan, J., dissenting); Welch, supra, at 504-516 (Brennan, J., dissenting); Seminole Tribe, 517 U. S., at 76-99 (Stevens, J., dissenting); id., at 100-185 (Souter, J., dissenting). But see Alden v. Maine, post, at 760-808 (Souter, J., dissenting). The arguments recited in these sources have been soundly refuted, and the position for which they have been marshaled has been rejected by constitutional tradition and precedent as clear and conclusive, and almost as venerable, as that which consigns debate over whether Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137 (1803), was wrongly decided to forums more otherworldly than ours. See Union Gas, 491 U. S., at 33-34, 35-42 (Scalia, J., dissenting); Seminole Tribe, supra, at 54-73; Alden, post, at 712-730. On this score, we think nothing further need be said except two minor observations peculiar to this case.

First, Justice Breyer and the other dissenters have adopted a decidedly perverse theory of stare decisis. While finding themselves entirely unconstrained by a venerable precedent such as Hans, embedded within our legal system for over a century, see, e. g., Welch, 483 U. S., at 494, n. 27; Union Gas, supra, at 34-35 (Scalia, J., dissenting), at the same time they cling desperately to an anomalous and severely undermined decision (Parden) from the 1960's. Surely this approach to stare decisis is exactly backwards_x0097_ unless, of course, one wishes to use it as a weapon rather than a guide, in which case any old approach will do. Second, while we stress that the following observation has no bearing upon our resolution of this case, we find it puzzling that Justice Breyer would choose this occasion to criticize our sovereign-immunity jurisprudence as being ungrounded in constitutional text, since the present lawsuit that he would allow to go forward_x0097_having apparently been commenced against a State (Florida) by a citizen of another State (College Savings Bank of New Jersey), 948 F. Supp., at 401-402_x0097_ seems to fall foursquare within the literal text of the Eleventh Amendment: "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 . . . ." U. S. Const., Amdt. 11 (emphasis added). See Seminole Tribe, supra, at 82, n. 8 (Stevens, J., dissenting).

As for the more diffuse treatment of the subject of federalism contained in the last portion of Justice Breyer's opinion: It is alarming to learn that so many Members of this Court subscribe to a theory of federalism that rejects "the details of any particular federalist doctrine"_x0097_which it says can and should "change to reflect the Nation's changing needs"_x0097_and that puts forward as the only "unchanging goal" of federalism worth mentioning "the protection of liberty," which it believes is most directly achieved by "promoting the sharing among citizens of governmental decisionmaking authority," which in turn demands (we finally come to the point) "necessary legislative flexibility" for the people's representatives in Congress. Post, at 702-703. The proposition that "the protection of liberty" is most directly achieved by "promoting the sharing among citizens of governmental decisionmaking authority" might well have dropped from the lips of Robespierre, but surely not from those of Madison, Jefferson, or Hamilton, whose north star was that governmental power, even_x0097_indeed, especially_x0097_governmental power wielded by the people, had to be dispersed and countered. And to say that the degree of dispersal to the States, and hence the degree of check by the States, is to be governed by Congress's need for "legislative flexibility" is to deny federalism utterly. (Justice Breyer's opinion comes close to admitting this when the only example of a "federalism" constraint that it can bear to acknowledge as being appropriate for judicial recognition is the invalidation of a State's law under_x0097_of all things, given the passion for text that characterizes some parts of his opinion_x0097_the "dormant Commerce Clause," post, at 703.) Legislative flexibility on the part of Congress will be the touchstone of federalism when the capacity to support combustion becomes the acid test of a fire extinguisher. Congressional flexibility is desirable, of course_x0097_but only within the bounds of federal power established by the Constitution. Beyond those bounds (the theory of our Constitution goes), it is a menace. Our opinion today has sought to discern what the bounds are; Justice Breyer's dissent denies them any permanent place.

Finally, we must comment upon Justice Breyer's comparison of our decision today with the discredited substantive-due-process case of Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905). It resembles Lochner, of course, in the respect that it rejects a novel assertion of governmental power which the legislature believed to be justified. But if that alone were enough to qualify as a mini-Lochner, the list of mini-Lochners would be endless. Most of our judgments invalidating state and federal laws fit that description. We had always thought that the distinctive feature of Lochner, nicely captured in Justice Holmes's dissenting remark about "Mr. Herbert Spencer's Social Statics," id., at 75, was that it sought to impose a particular economic philosophy upon the Constitution. And we think that feature aptly characterizes, not our opinion, but Justice Breyer's dissent, which believes that States should not enjoy the normal constitutional protections of sovereign immunity when they step out of their proper economic role to engage in (we are sure Mr. Herbert Spencer would be shocked) "ordinary commercial ventures," post, at 694. What ever happened to the need for "legislative flexibility"?