Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶81

Against Franklin, respondents point to Sossamon. But Sossamon cannot bear anything close to the weight respondents place on it. There, we held that the same RLUIPA provision at issue today does not authorize damages in one very particular context, one with a different who: “where the defendant is a sovereign.” Sossamon, 563 U. S., at 286. Sovereigns enjoy sovereign immunity, and “[t]he essence of sovereign immunity . . . is that remedies against the government differ from ‘general remedies principles’ applicable to private litigants.” Id., at 291, n. 8. We did not question the obvious meaning of “appropriate relief ” in lawsuits against individuals. See ibid.

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
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