FFF Sovereign Immunity Series – Part IV

We continue our alphabetical 50-state survey of sovereign immunity with our fourth installment in the series – this week summarizing sovereign immunity in Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine and Maryland.

We start with a quick refresher. While sovereign immunity can be a complex area of the law, at a high level, it's a rather simple principle: the government cannot be sued unless it first consents. As we have noted in prior articles and further detail below, many state governments do in fact voluntarily waive their Eleventh Amendment rights to sovereign immunity in particular situations. Courts and lawmakers have recognized and created exceptions to the principle of sovereign immunity in part because of the perceived injustice such immunity would otherwise inject into commercial transactions.