Ask Lemmy

So Democrats could still waive sovereign immunity in the future?

Well, hypothetically, I expect so.

Are there any limits to the amount of money on class action lawsuits?

So, I don't think that there are limits to class action suits as such, but in...I think the 1990s or so, can't recall the exact timeframe, there was a wave of tort reform, and a lot of states placed limits on punitive damages on lawsuits in general as some kind of multiple of compensatory damages. I don't know if federal torts have such limits or if so, what they are off-the-cuff.

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It sounds like there is such a limit on punitive damages in case law implied by the US Constitution according to BMW of North America, Inc v. Gore, but I don't think that it's spelled out precisely what that limit is.

I mean, if you suffer $1 in damages and then try to sue for $1 in compensatory damage and $1 trillion in punitive damages, I'd imagine that it'd probably run afoul of that.

Actually...I'm not totally sure whether punitive damages can be applied to the government at all. I mean, the idea behind them is to deter and the idea is that elections are supposed to do that if the party involved is the government.

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https://legalclarity.org/are-eeoc-punitive-damages-available-against-the-federal-government/

Punitive Damages and the Federal Government

Punitive damages are penalties intended solely to punish an employer and deter future intentional misconduct. While generally available in private sector Title VII claims where the employer acted with malice or reckless indifference, the law explicitly prohibits their award against the federal government, or any state or local government entity. This prohibition is rooted in the doctrine of sovereign immunity, which protects the government from being sued for money damages unless Congress has clearly waived that immunity.

When Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which authorized compensatory and punitive damages, it included a specific exception. The statute states that punitive damages cannot be recovered against a government agency or political subdivision. Therefore, a federal employee cannot receive punitive damages in an EEOC administrative claim or a subsequent civil lawsuit against the federal agency. The focus of recovery against a federal agency remains on restoring the employee to the position they would have occupied without the discrimination.

So I'd guess probably punitive damages are available in the general case of the US waiving sovereign immunity, because otherwise the CRA wouldn't have had that exception prohibiting punitive damages present. So I suppose probably one can go for punitive damages, as long as there isn't some similar exception restricting punitive damages in whatever waiver on whatever you're thinking of suing over.

EDIT: Honestly, though, if you think that the Trump administration has caused some general harm and you're hoping that the Democrats explicitly want to pay for it, my bet, without knowing the specifics of what you're concerned about, is that a more-likely outcome would be the Democrats explicitly budgeting funds for it, not arranging to send it to court with the idea of losing a lawsuit and then being ordered to pay out funds.