Whether Louisiana's conditional waiver of sovereign immunity to allow suits against it to proceed only in Louisiana courts deprives federal courts of subject-matter jurisdiction

QUESTIONS PRESENTED FOR REVIEW 1. Subject matter jurisdiction, a threshold issue, cannot exist in federal court where Louisiana has conditionally waived its sovereign immunity to allow suits against it to proceed only in Louisiana courts. La. R.S. 13:5106; La. Const., Art. XII, §10. Did the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal err in denying Applicant’s Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction where the present suit is proceeding in Texas federal court against Sabine River Authority, State of Louisiana — an entity both Louisiana state courts and the Fifth Circuit itself have recognized is a state agency designated as an “instrumentality of the state of Louisiana,” La. R.S. 38:2324(A) — that qualifies as an “arm of the state” under the applicable test outlined in Clark v. Tarrant County, 798 F.2d 736 (5th Cir. 1986)? 2. Under Louisiana’s civil law tradition, legislation is the “solemn expression of legislative will,” La. C.C. art. 2, which may not be abrogated by the only other source of law, custom. La. C.C. art. 1. Legislation is the “superior form of law,” La. C.C. art. 3, cmt. d. The Fifth Circuit’s ruling relied upon inapplicable jurisprudence that did not assess Louisiana legislation that specifically and unambiguously defines Sabine River Authority, State of Louisiana as an “agency and instrumentality of the state of Louisiana” thus, entitling it to Eleventh Amendment immunity. Did the Fifth Circuit err when it applied principles of stare decisis that disregard Louisiana’s unique civil law principles? ii QUESTIONS PRESENTED FOR REVIEW — Continued 3. The Fifth Circuit’s ruling allows a state agency, designated as an instrumentality of the state of Louisiana, to be haled into a federal court in Texas despite Louisiana legislation that preserves Louisiana’s immunity from suit in this venue consistent with the sovereign immunity granted to Louisiana under the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution. Where legislation is written and implemented in Louisiana with the understanding that it will be interpreted consistently with the civilian methodology, was the Fifth Circuit’s ruling legal error when it did not consider Louisiana’s civil law tradition, thereby placing Louisiana at an inherent disadvantage to all other states in the Union with respect to sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment?