Since it’s a state actor, it should be bound by the 14th amendment from depriving its students, who are first citizens, of the right to petition the government as guaranteed by the 1st amendment.
Can a public university demand as a condition to anything that a student grant civil impunity to it?
I believe that state universities are generally immune to civil lawsuits under the 11th Amendment unless they waive the immunity.
So how do court cases like Hayut vs State University of New York (Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit) arise?
The ‘sovereign’ (i.e., the state university seen as an organ of state government) can only be sued with its consent.
In the U.S., a state may not be sued by residents of another state under the 11th Amendment.
What if the student is the resident of the same state?
Also, why would the state ever consent to being sued. If it never grants consent, how could anyone bring section 1983 suits against it?
Because states have legislatures, and so are ultimately responsible to the people, anyway. At the federal level, the Federal Tort Claims Act is the primary vehicle by which the federal government is required to waive sovereign immunity in most cases.
Most states have similar statutes which require the state to waive sovereign immunity in specific kinds of cases.
Has a state ever challenged the constitutionality of its own tort statute?
Public universities definitely get sued. I work for one and they are quite paranoid about getting a hit with a copyright suit after the one that was brought against UCLA regarding streaming videos on their site. Incidentally, there was another suit against the same school in 2009 over a tasering incident, which they settled for $220,000.
nm. Posted to wrong thread.