The Georgia Court of Appeals expanded state sovereign immunity when it unanimously overturned precedential case law in an Americans with Disabilities Act as Amended, or ADAAA, suit reversal on March 5.

“At its core, this case is about one thing: Does the state waive its sovereign immunity against a federal law simply by its waiving immunity against a similar state law? Of course not,” wrote the defendant-appellant, the Augusta Public Defender’s Office, represented by the state Attorney General’s Office. “Georgia can only waive its sovereign immunity with a specific waiver, and so a waiver for a different cause of action brought under a different law does not suffice.”