Galette v. New Jersey Transit Corp. · ¶42

The Court's precedents also focus on whether the entity is liable for its own judgments or whether the State is formally liable, i.e., whether “any judgment” against the entity “must be satisfied out of the state treasury.” Hess, 513 U. S., at 51; Planters' Bank, 9 Wheat., at 907; see also Regents, 519 U. S., at 430. One of the central “underlying rationales for state sovereign immunity” is protecting States' “ability to make [their] own decisions about `the allocation of scarce resources.' ” Lewis v. Clarke, 581 U. S. 155, 167 (2017) (quoting Alden, 527 U. S., at 751). If the State is formally liable for judgments against an entity, that entity is more likely to be an arm of the State because its liabilities necessarily undermine the State's ability to make choices about how to allocate the State fsc.

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