Sabine River Authority, Louisiana v. Perry Bonin, et al.

Subject matter jurisdiction, a threshold issue, cannot exist in federal court where Louisiana has conditionally waived its sovereign immunity to allow suits against it to proceed only in Louisiana courts. La. R.S. 13:5106; La. Const., Art. XII, §10. Did the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal err in denying Applicant’s Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction where the present suit is proceeding in Texas federal court against Sabine River Authority, State of Louisiana – an entity both Louisiana state courts and the Fifth Circuit itself have recognized is a state agency designated as an “instrumentality of the state of Louisiana,” La. R.S. 38:2324(A) – that qualifies as an “arm of the state” under the applicable test outlined in Clark v. Tarrant County, 798 F.2d 736 (5th Cir. 1986)?

Under Louisiana’s civil law tradition, legislation is the “solemn expression of legislative will,” La. C.C. art. 2, which may not be abrogated by the only other source of law, custom. La. C.C. art. 1. Legislation is the “superior form of law,” La. C.C. art. 3, cmt. d. The Fifth Circuit’s ruling relied upon inapplicable jurisprudence that did not assess Louisiana legislation that specifically and unambiguously defines Sabine River Authority, State of Louisiana as an “agency and instrumentality of the state of Louisiana” thus, entitling it to Eleventh Amendment immunity. Did the Fifth Circuit err when it applied principles of stare decisis that disregard Louisiana’s unique civil law principles?