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Re:NSA Phone Snooping Cannot Be Challenged in Court, Feds Say by rgbrenner on Friday July 19, 2013 @07:21PM (#6073573)
"So apparently the government cannot break the law, by definition. What the hell?!"

history/explanation in the 'introductory' section:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/hjackson/FedSovereign_21....

Re:NSA Phone Snooping Cannot Be Challenged in Court, Feds Say by abecedarius on Friday July 19, 2013 @09:20PM (#6073922)
That history is pretty unsatisfying when it first quotes Holmes, presumably a century or so after the constitution was ratified. So next I looked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_immunity_in_the_Unite... and it cites a case from 1983. This makes me at least wonder at the idea it derives directly from English law at the founding of the U.S.; "you can't sue the King" does not obviously transfer right over in the atmosphere of the time.

ianal or historian.

Re:NSA Phone Snooping Cannot Be Challenged in Court, Feds Say by jervisfm on Friday July 19, 2013 @08:51PM (#6073853)
IANAL but if the government is right by definition (on a legal basis), does that mean that the various suits now being filed don't have any teeth ?