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The Constitution of the United States of America

Note 433 — ARTICLE III (continued 2)

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United States v. Lee, 106 U.S. 196, 207-208 (1882). The principle of sovereign immunity was further disparaged in a brief essay by Justice Miller on the subject of the rule of law, as follows: "Under our system the people * * * are sovereign. Their rights, whether collective or individual, are not bound to give way to a sentiment of loyalty to the person of a monarch. The citizen here knows no person, however near to those in power, or however powerful himself, to whom he need yield the rights which the law secures to him when it is well administered. When he, in one of the courts of competent jurisdiction, has established his right to property, there is no reason why deference to any person, natural or artificial, not even the United States, should prevent him from using the means which the law gives him for the protection and enforcement of that right." Ibid. 208-209.

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