The Supreme Court, NJ Transit and Sovereign Immunity Across State Lines

Constitutional and public law attorney Christopher Riano published an article in the New Jersey Law Journal analyzing consolidated appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court that could influence the future of interstate sovereign immunity. The cases – Galette v. New Jersey Transit and New Jersey Transit v. Colt – arose from accidents involving New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) buses that took place in Pennsylvania and New York. NJ Transit argued it could not be sued in either venue, citing interstate sovereign immunity that constitutionally protects it from private lawsuits in other states' courts. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed, but the New York Court of Appeals found the opposite, setting up the clash currently before the Supreme Court. In his article, Mr. Riano elaborates on how these two cases, stemming from seemingly mundane facts, raise an important question whose answer will carry implications far beyond New Jersey: Does a state-created entity that operates with some degree of independence qualify as an "arm of the state" that thus enjoys immunity protections? He traces the doctrinal background for this dispute in the Supreme Court's 2019 Hyatt III decision and describes how the Pennsylvania and New York courts focused on different aspects of NJ Transit's hybrid identity in their analysis. Finally, he shares what is at stake in the high court's ruling: not only the meaning of sovereign dignity, but also a basic question about modern federalism and the evolution of constitutional immunity doctrines.

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