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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 411 › Employees v. Missouri Pub. Health Dept.
Petitioners, employees of state health facilities, brought suit for overtime pay due them under § 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and damages, which the District Court dismissed as being an unconsented action against the State of Missouri, and thus barred by the Eleventh Amendment. The Court of Appeals affirmed.
Held: Although amendments to the FLSA in 1966 extended statutory coverage to state employees, the legislative history discloses no congressional purpose to deprive a State of its constitutional immunity to suit in a federal forum by employees of its nonprofit institutions, particularly since Congress made no change in § 16(b), which makes no reference to suits by employees against the State. Parden v. Terminal R. Co., 377 U. S. 184, distinguished. The amendments' extension of coverage to state employees is not without meaning as the Secretary of Labor is thereby enabled to bring remedial action on their behalf under § 17 of the FLSA. Pp. 411 U. S. 281-287.
DOUGLAS, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BURGER, C.J., and WHITE, BLACKMUN, POWELL, and REHNQUIST, JJ., joined. MARSHALL, J., filed an opinion concurring in the result, in which STEWART, J., joined, post, p. 411 U. S. 287. BRENNAN, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 411 U. S. 298.
Although the Eleventh Amendment is not literally applicable, since petitioners who brought suit are citizens of Missouri, it is established that an unconsenting State is immune from suits brought in federal courts by her own citizens, as well as by citizens of another State. See Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U. S. 1; Duhne v. New Jersey, 251 U. S. 311; Parden v. Terminal R. Co., [Footnote 1] 377 U. S. 184; 1 C. Jacobs, The Eleventh Amendment and Sovereign Immunity 109-110 (1972).
The employees seek overtime compensation due them under 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 1069, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), and an equal amount as liquidated damages and attorneys' fees. The District Court dismissed the complaint. The Court of Appeals, sitting in a panel of three, reversed, one judge dissenting. No. 20,204, Apr. 2, 1971 (not reported). On the filing of a petition for rehearing, the Court of Appeals sat en banc and, by a closely divided vote, set aside the panel decision and affirmed the judgment of the District Court. 452 F.2d 820. The case is here on a petition for a writ of certiorari, which we granted. 405 U.S. 1016.
The panel of three thought the present case was governed by Parden v. Terminal R. Co., supra. The court, sitting en banc, thought Parden was distinguishable. That is the central issue argued in the present case.
Parden involved a state-owned railroad operating in interstate commerce, and the claims were those of employees under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), 35 Stat. 65, as amended, 45 U.S.C. § 51 et seq. The term "carrier," for purposes of that Act, was defined by Congress as including "[e]very common carrier by railroad while engaging in commerce between any of the several States." Id., § 51. The Court concluded that Congress designed to bring state-owned, as well as privately owned, carriers within that definition and that it was empowered to do so by the Commerce Clause. The State's operation of its railroad in interstate commerce, it held, was in subordination to the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce and application of the FELA to a State in those circumstances was not precluded by sovereign immunity. 377 U.S. at 377 U. S. 191-193. The Parden case, in final analysis, turned on the question of waiver, a majority of the Court holding that it was a federal question, since any consent of the State to suit did not arise from an act "wholly within its own sphere of authority," but in the area of commerce, which is subject to pervasive federal regulation. Id. at 377 U. S. 196.
(r) of this section. . . ."
"the operation of a hospital, an institution primarily engaged in the care of the sick, the aged, the mentally ill or defective who reside on the premises of such institution, a school for mentally or physically handicapped or gifted children, an elementary or secondary school, or an institution of higher education (regardless of whether or not such hospital, institution, or school is public or private or operated for profit or not for profit). . . ."
Identical language was also added in 1966 to subsection 3(s), which defines "[e]nterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce."
By reason of the literal language of the present Act, Missouri and the departments joined as defendants are constitutionally covered by the Act, as the Court held in Maryland v. Wirtz, 392 U. S. 183. The question is whether Congress has brought the States to heel, in the sense of lifting their immunity from suit in a federal court -- a question we reserved in Maryland v. Wirtz, supra, at 392 U. S. 199-201.
"Any employer who violates the provisions of section 6 or section 7 of this Act shall be liable to the employee or employees affected in the amount of their unpaid minimum wages, or their unpaid overtime compensation, as the case may be, and in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages. Action to recover such liability may be maintained in any court of competent jurisdiction. . . . "
The history and tradition of the Eleventh Amendment indicate that, by reason of that barrier, a federal court is not competent to render judgment against a nonconsenting State. Parden involved the railroad business which Alabama operated "for profit." 377 U.S. at 377 U. S. 185. Parden was in the area where private persons and corporations normally ran the enterprise.
State mental hospitals, state cancer hospitals, and training schools for delinquent girls which are not operated for profit are not proprietary.
"Before 1810, only a few eastern-seaboard states had incorporated private institutions to care for the mentally ill, and Virginia alone had established a public asylum."
action silently. The dramatic circumstances of the Parden case, which involved a rather isolated state activity, can be put to one side. We deal here with problems that may well implicate elevator operators, janitors, charwomen, security guards, secretaries, and the like in every office building in a State's governmental hierarchy. Those who follow the teachings of Kirschbaum v. Walling, supra, and see its manifold applications will appreciate how pervasive such a new federal scheme of regulation would be.
But we have found not a word in the history of the 1966 amendments to indicate a purpose of Congress to make it possible for a citizen of that State or another State to sue the State in the federal courts. The Parden opinion did state that it would be "surprising" to learn that Congress made state railroads liable to employees under the FELA, yet provided "no means by which that liability may be enforced." 377 U.S. at 377 U. S. 197. It would also be surprising in the present case to infer that Congress deprived Missouri of her constitutional immunity without changing the old § 16(b) under which she could not be sued or indicating in some way by clear language that the constitutional immunity was swept away. It is not easy to infer that Congress, in legislating pursuant to the Commerce Clause, which has grown to vast proportions in its applications, desired silently to deprive the States of an immunity they have long enjoyed under another part of the Constitution. Thus, we cannot conclude that Congress conditioned the operation of these facilities on the forfeiture of immunity from suit in a federal forum.
bring suit for unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime compensation under the FLSA. Once the Secretary acts under § 16(c), the right of any employee or employees to sue under § 16(b) terminates. Section 17 gives the Secretary power to seek to enjoin violations of the Act and to obtain restitution in behalf of employees. Sections 16 and 17 suggest that, since private enforcement of the Act was not a paramount objective, disallowance of suits by state employees and remitting them to relief through the Secretary of Labor may explain why Congress was silent as to waiver of sovereign immunity of the States. For suits by the United States against a State are not barred by the Constitution. See United States v. Mississippi, 380 U. S. 128, 380 U. S. 140-141. In this connection, it is not amiss to note that § 16(b) allows recovery by employees not only of the amount of unpaid wages, but of an equal amount as liquidated damages and attorneys' fees. It is one thing, as in Parden, to make a state employee whole; it is quite another to let him recover double against a State. Recalcitrant private employers may be whipped into line in that manner. But we are reluctant to believe that Congress, in pursuit of a harmonious federalism, desired to treat the States so harshly. The policy of the Act, so far as the States are concerned, is wholly served by allowing the delicate federal state relationship to be managed through the Secretary of Labor.
Parden to cover every exercise by Congress of its commerce power, where the purpose of Congress to give force to the Supremacy Clause by lifting the sovereignty of the States and putting the States on the same footing as other employers is not clear.
We are told that the FLSA, in 1971, covered 45.4 million employees, and nearly 2 million establishments, and that 2.7 million of these employees and 118,000 of these establishments were in state or local government employment. We are also told that less than 4% of these establishments can be investigated by the Secretary of Labor each year. The argument is that, if we deny this direct federal court remedy, we, in effect, are recognizing that there is a right without any remedy. Section 16(b), however, authorizes employee suits in "any court of competent jurisdiction." Arguably, that permits suit in the Missouri courts, but that is a question we need not reach. We are concerned only with the problem of this Act, and the constitutional constraints on "the judicial power" of the United States.
"Parden held that a federal court determination of such suits cannot be precluded by the doctrine of sovereign immunity because the States surrendered their sovereignty to that extent when they granted Congress the power to regulate commerce."
"Recognition of the congressional power to render a State suable under the FELA does not mean that the immunity doctrine, as embodied in the Eleventh Amendment with respect to citizens of other States and as extended to the State's own citizens by the Hans case, is here being overridden. It remains the law that a State may not be sued by an individual without its consent."
[a] State's immunity from suit by an individual without its consent has been fully recognized by the Eleventh Amendment and by subsequent decisions of this Court.
Id. at 377 U. S. 196. As we read these passages, and clearly as the dissent in Parden read them, id. at 377 U. S. 198, they dealt with constitutional constraints on the exercise of the federal judicial power. Moreover, if Parden was concerned merely with the surrender of common law sovereign immunity when the States granted Congress the power to regulate commerce, it would seem unnecessary to reach the question of waiver or consent, for Congress could subject the States to suit by their own citizens whenever it was deemed necessary or appropriate to the regulation of commerce. No more would be required. But there can be no doubt that the Court's holding in Parden was premised on the conclusion that Alabama, by operating the railroad, had consented to suit in the federal courts under FELA. Id. at 377 U. S. 186.
"Few departures from colonial practices occurred in the first forty years after independence; the insane commonly languished in local jails and poorhouses, or lived with family and friends. But, in the course of the next few decades, in a dramatic transformation, state after state constructed asylums. Budding manufacturing centers like New York and Massachusetts erected institutions in the 1830's, and so did the agricultural states of Vermont and Ohio, Tennessee and Georgia. By 1850, almost every northeastern and midwestern legislature supported an asylum; by 1860, twenty-eight of the thirty-three states had public institutions for the insane. Although not all of the mentally ill found a place within a hospital, and a good number among the aged and chronic poor remained in almshouses and jails, the institutionalization of the insane became the standard procedure of the society during these years. A cult of asylum swept the country."
case in light of Art. III and the Eleventh Amendment? Portions of the Court's opinion convey the impression that these questions are but a single issue. [Footnote 2/2] I do not agree.
Sovereign immunity is a common law doctrine that long predates our Constitution and the Eleventh Amendment, although it has, of course, been carried forward in our jurisprudence. [Footnote 2/3] While the present-day immunity of a State from suit by its own citizens or by citizens of another State in the absence of consent obviously cannot be justified on the common law rationale that "the King can do no wrong," the principle has been said to be applicable to the States because of "[t]he inherent nature of sovereignty," Great Northern Life Insurance Co. v. Read, 322 U. S. 47, 322 U. S. 51 (1944). See also Kawananakoa v. Polyblank, 205 U. S. 349, 205 U. S. 353(1907).
the States necessarily surrendered any portion of their sovereignty that would stand in the way of such regulation."
Congress having validly exercised its power under the Commerce Clause to extend the protection of the FLSA to state employees such as petitioners, see Maryland v. Wirtz, 392 U. S. 183 (1968), the State may not defeat this suit by retreating behind its common law shield of sovereign immunity.
alteration of the definition of "employer" in § 3(d) clearly sufficed to achieve Congress' purpose [Footnote 2/6] and to express its will. Indeed, to suggest that § 16(b) may not provide for suit by state employees, despite the alteration of § 3(d) to include state employers, ignores the basic canon of statutory construction that different provisions of the same statute normally should be construed consistently with one another. See, e.g., Clark v. Uebersee Finanz-Korporation, A.G., 332 U. S. 480, 332 U. S. 488 (1947); Markham v. Cabell, 326 U. S. 404, 326 U. S. 410-411 (1945); Ex parte Public National Bank, 278 U. S. 101, 278 U. S. 104 (1928).
There remains, though, the question where may these petitioners enforce against the State their congressionally created rights under the FLSA? Section 16(b) authorizes employee suits "in any court of competent jurisdiction." Has Congress thus successfully compelled the State in this case to submit to employee suits in federal court?
"Can we suppose that, when the Eleventh Amendment was adopted, it was understood to be left open for citizens of a State to sue their own state in the federal courts, whilst the idea of suits by citizens of other states, or of foreign states, was indignantly repelled?"
Id. at 134 U. S. 15. The Court rejected such a suggestion in Hans, and it has continued to do so ever since. See Duhne v. New Jersey, 251 U. S. 311 (1920); Fitts v. McGhee, 172 U. S. 516, 172 U. S. 524-525 (1899); North Carolina v. Temple, 134 U. S. 22 (1890).
"it has become established by repeated decisions of this court that the entire judicial power granted by the Constitution does not embrace authority to entertain a suit brought by private parties against a State without consent given: not one brought by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of a foreign State, because of the Eleventh Amendment; and not even one brought by its own citizens, because of the fundamental rule of which the Amendment is but an exemplification,"
Bridge Comm'n, 359 U. S. 275, 359 U. S. 276 (1959); Gunter v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 200 U. S. 273, 200 U. S. 284 (1906); Clark v. Barnard, 108 U. S. 436, 108 U. S. 447 (1883). The issue, then, is whether the State has consented to this suit by its employees under the FLSA.
"Alabama, when it began operation of an interstate railroad approximately 20 years after enactment of the FELA, necessarily consented to such suit as was authorized by that Act."
1966 amendments to the FLSA; by those amendments, Congress created in these employees a federal right to recover from the State compensation owing under the Act. While constitutional limitations upon the federal judicial power bar a federal court action by these employees to enforce their rights, the courts of the State nevertheless have an independent constitutional obligation to entertain employee actions to enforce those rights. See Testa v. Katt, 330 U. S. 386 (1947). See also General Oil Co. v. Crain, 209 U. S. 211 (1908). For Missouri has courts of general jurisdiction competent to hear suits of this character, [Footnote 2/13] and the judges of those courts are co-equal partners with the members of the federal judiciary in the enforcement of federal law and the Federal Constitution, See Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat. 304, 14 U. S. 339-340 (1816). Thus, since federal law stands as the supreme law of the land, the State's courts are obliged to enforce it, even if it conflicts with state policy, see Testa v. Katt, supra, at 330 U. S. 392-394; Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U. S. 1, 223 U. S. 57-58 (1912). I see our decision today, then, as nothing more than a regulation of the forum in which these petitioners may seek a remedy for asserted denial of their rights under the FLSA. At first blush, it may seem hypertechnical to say that these petitioners are entitled personally to enforce their federal rights against the State in a state forum, rather than in a federal forum. If that be so, I think it is a hypertechnicality that has long been understood to be a part of the tension inherent in our system of federalism.
See Jaffe, Suits Against Governments and Officers: Sovereign Immunity, 77 Harv.L.Rev. l, 2-21 (1963).
"to make plain the intent to bring under the coverage of the act employees of hospitals and related institutions, schools for physically or mentally handicapped or gifted children, or institutions of higher education, whether or not any of these hospitals, schools, or institutions are public or private or operated for profit or not for profit."
"Any employer who violates the provisions of . . . this Act shall be liable to the employee or employees affected in the amount of their unpaid minimum wages, or their unpaid overtime compensation, as the case may be, and in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages."
See The Federalist No. 81 (Hamilton); Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U. S. 1, 134 U. S. 12-14 (1890); 1 C. Warren, The Supreme Court in United States History 91 (Rev. Ed.1937); Cullison, Interpretation of the Eleventh Amendment, 5 Houston L.Rev. 1, 6-9 (1967).
My Brother BRENNAN, in dissent, suggests that this case involves only a question of sovereign immunity, and does not involve any question as to the limits of the federal judicial power under Art. III and the Eleventh Amendment. He considers this theory to be entirely consistent with the Court's seminal decision in Hans v. Louisiana, supra. As already indicated, there, the private party attempted to sue his own State in federal court on the basis of the Contract Clause, not on the basis of a congressionally created cause of action. The Court concluded that the State was immune from such a suit in federal court, absent consent. Apparently, my Brother BRENNAN's view is that the result in Hans was due to the fact that, unlike the present case, nothing had occurred to lift the State's common law immunity. But such a reading seems to me at odds with his theory that, at the time the Union was formed, the States surrendered that portion of their sovereignty which conflicted with the supreme federal powers. For if the only relevant issue in Hans was the State's common law immunity, such a view would seem to compel the conclusion that the States had also pro tanto surrendered their common law immunity with respect to any claim under the Contract Clause. After all, the only difference between the Contract Clause and congressionally created causes of action is that the Contract Clause is self-enforcing, see, e.g., 17 U. S. Crowninshield, 4 Wheat. 122, 17 U. S. 197-200 (1819); it requires no congressional act to make its guarantee enforceable in a judicial suit. It seems to me a strange hierarchy that would provide a greater opportunity to enforce congressionally created rights than constitutionally guaranteed rights in federal court. Yet my Brother BRENNAN, given his theory of waiver of common law immunity plus his theory that no constitutional limitation upon the exercise of the federal judicial power exists in the context of a suit brought against a State by one of its citizens, is forced either to this anomalous position or else to the admission that Hans was incorrectly decided. He apparently chooses the former.
However, if the issue of the limits of the judicial power, as well as of common law immunity, is considered to be relevant in cases such as Hans and this case, the decision in Hans is sensibly understood as resting on the former basis alone. For, although the State's common law immunity may have been no defense to a Contract Clause claim, the State had not consented to suit in federal court, and therefore it was not susceptible to the exercise of the federal judicial power -- regardless of the source of the federal claim. Thus, there seems to me little basis for doubting that Hans rested upon considerations as to constitutional limitations on the reach of the federal judicial power, a view confirmed by the decision's lengthy analysis of the constitutional debates surrounding Art. III, see 134 U.S. at 134 U. S. 12-14, and by subsequent decisions of this Court, see, e.g., Ex parte New York, No. 1, 256 U. S. 490, 256 U. S. 497 (1921); Duhne v. New Jersey, 251 U. S. 311, 251 U. S. 313(1920); Georgia Railroad & Banking Co. v. Redwine, 342 U. S. 299, 342 U. S. 304 n. 13(1952).
"[t]he submission to judicial solution of controversies arising between these two governments, 'each sovereign, with respect to the objects committed to it, and neither sovereign with respect to the objects committed to the other,' . . . but both subject to the supreme law of the land, does no violence to the inherent nature of sovereignty,"
United States v. Texas, 143 U. S. 621, 143 U. S. 646 (1892). See also United States v. North Carolina, 136 U. S. 211 (1890). Moreover, it is unavoidable that in a suit between a State and the United States one sovereign will have to appear in the courts of the other.
My Brother BRENNAN argues in his dissent that recognition of a State's power to consent to suit in federal court is inconsistent with any view that the impediment to private federal court suits against a State has constitutional roots in the limited nature of the federal judicial power. He is, of course, correct when he points out that, as a rule, power to hear an action cannot be conferred on a federal court by consent. And it may be that the recognized power of States to consent to the exercise of federal judicial power over them is anomalous in light of present-day concepts of federal jurisdiction. Yet, if this is the case, it is an anomaly that is well established as a part of our constitutional jurisprudence. For there are decisions by this Court -- including at least one joined by my Brother BRENNAN -- clearly holding that constitutional limitations upon the exercise of the federal judicial power over private suits brought against a State may be waived by the State.
Thus, in Clark v. Barnard, 108 U. S. 436, 108 U. S. 447 (1883), the Court rejected Rhode Island's argument that a claim made against it in federal court by a Connecticut corporation was specifically barred by the Eleventh Amendment in light of the fact that initially the State voluntarily intervened in the action to assert a claim of its own and thereby consented. Similarly, in Petty v. Tennessee-Missouri Bridge Comm'n, 359 U. S. 275 (1959), which involved a tort suit brought in federal court by a resident of Tennessee (see 254 F.2d 857, 862 (CA8 1958)) against a bi-state corporation formed by Missouri and Tennessee, the Court treated the suit as one against the States, but rejected their argument that the suit was prohibited by the Eleventh Amendment. The Court found that the States had waived their immunity from federal court suit in the compact by which the bi-state corporation was formed. Given the citizenship of the plaintiff in Petty, my Brother BRENNAN, with his literalist view of the Eleventh Amendment, might say that, as to Tennessee, there was no issue of constitutional magnitude, and that the State had simply waived its common law immunity. But insofar as Missouri was also held to have consented to federal court suit, the Court necessarily dealt with the limits of the federal judicial power since, as to Missouri, the suit was within the literal language of the Eleventh Amendment. See also Missouri v. Fiske, 290 U. S. 18 (1933). In short, I cannot accept my Brother BRENNAN's literalist approach to the Eleventh Amendment in light of prior decisions, and certainly his position is not aided by the clearly erroneous suggestion that any constitutional limitation on the exercise of the federal judicial power over private suits against States would constitute an absolute bar to the prosecution of such suits in federal court.
Whether I would reach a different conclusion with respect to a case of this character if the State had commenced operation of the relevant facilities after passage of the 1966 amendments is a question that I need not now decide. Certainly, I do not accept the Court's efforts to distinguish this case from Parden on the basis that there we dealt with a "proprietary" function, whereas here we deal with a "governmental" function. See ante at 411 U. S. 284-285. I had thought we had escaped such unenlightening characterizations of States' activities. Cf. Maryland v. Wirtz, 392 U. S. 183, 392 U. S. 195 (1968); United States v. California, 297 U. S. 175, 297 U. S. 183-184 (1936).
"In 1971, . . . the [FLSA] covered 45.4 million employees and nearly 2 million establishments; 2.7 million of these employees and 118,000 of these establishments were in the sector of state and local government employment, including state schools and hospitals. Yet less than 4 percent of these establishments can be investigated by the Secretary each year."
Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 22-23 (footnotes omitted). It is obviously unrealistic to expect Government enforcement alone to be sufficient.
nor my Brother MARSHALL's opinion concurring in the result is persuasive that it does not.
Essentially, the Court purports only to distinguish Parden. There is, of course, the distinction that the lawsuits were brought under different statutes. The lawsuit in Parden was brought under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), 45 U.S.C. §§ 51-60, against the State of Alabama, owner and operator of a railroad engaged in interstate commerce, by citizens of Alabama in the employ of the railroad. The suit in the present case was brought under § 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219, as amended in 1966, Pub.L. 89-601, 80 Stat. 830, against the State of Missouri, operator of hospitals and other institutions covered by that Act, by citizens of Missouri employed in such institutions. But the lawsuits have in common that each is an action for damages in federal court brought against a State by citizens of the State in its employ under the authority of a regulatory statute founded on the Commerce Clause. Parden held that a federal court determination of such suits cannot be precluded by the doctrine of sovereign immunity because the States surrendered their sovereignty to that extent when they granted Congress the power to regulate commerce. 377 U.S. at 377 U. S. 191. That holding fits precisely this FLSA lawsuit, and compels reversal of the judgment of the Court of Appeals. I turn, then, to the reasons for my disagreement with the arguments upon which the Court rests its contrary conclusion.
"[o]nly when Congress has clearly considered the problem and expressly declared that any State which undertakes given regulable conduct will be deemed thereby to have waived its immunity. . . ."
377 U.S. at 377 U. S. 198-199. In rejecting that argument, Parden held that the States had surrendered the protection of sovereign immunity in federal court suits authorized by Congress pursuant to the States' grant to Congress of the commerce power. Thus, under Parden, there can exist no basis for today's inquiry "whether Congress has brought the States to heel, in the sense of lifting their immunity from suit in a federal court," ante at 411 U. S. 283, since Parden held that, because of its surrender, no immunity exists that can be the subject of a congressional declaration or a voluntary waiver. There can be room for such inquiry only upon acceptance of the rejected premise underlying the Parden dissent, namely, that the States, in forming the Union, did not surrender their immunity as such to that extent, but only subjected their immunity to congressional control.
"By adopting and ratifying the Commerce Clause, the States empowered Congress to create such a right of action against interstate railroads; by enacting the FELA in the exercise of this power, Congress conditioned the right to operate a railroad in interstate commerce upon amenability to suit in federal court as provided by the Act; by thereafter operating a railroad in interstate commerce, Alabama must be taken to have accepted that condition, and thus to have consented to suit."
377 U.S. at 377 U. S. 192.
In other words, the Parden holding, although perhaps not unambiguously phrased, was that, when Congress conditions engagement in a regulated interstate enterprise upon amenability to suit, States that engage in such enterprise do not have the protection of sovereign immunity in suits in federal court arising from their engagement, because, by surrendering their immunity to that extent when they granted Congress the commerce power, the States, in effect, agreed that Congress might subject them to suits in federal court arising out of their engagement in enterprises regulated by Congress in statutes such as the FELA and the FLSA.
or political subdivisions thereof, employed in the institutions covered by the amendments. I find no support whatever in either the text of the amendments or their legislative history for the arguments made by the Court for its contrary conclusion.
First, the Court observes that § 16(b) was left undisturbed when the amendments were adopted. But § 16(b), in terms, applies to "[a]ny employer" covered by the Act. The extension of coverage to employers of public institutions made by the amendments was only the latest of several extensions made since § 16(b) first appeared in the FLSA as initially adopted. Obviously, the words "[a]ny employer" blanket all FLSA employers, and it is only the sheerest sort of ritualism to suggest that Congress excluded the States from § 16(b) suits by not expressly referring to the States in § 16(b).
"that the Federal Government, when acting within a delegated power, may override countervailing state interests whether these be described as 'governmental' or 'proprietary' in character."
Third, the Court argues that the amendments may saddle the States with "enormous fiscal burdens," and that "Congress, acting responsibly, would not. be presumed to take such action silently." Ante at 411 U. S. 284, 411 U. S. 285. Not only is the ancestry of the supposed presumption not divulged, but the Court offers no explanation how it overbears the clearly declared congressional purpose to subject States to § 16(b) suits. Moreover, this argument tracks the rejected argument of the dissent in Maryland v. Wirtz that the 1966 amendments "overwhelm state fiscal policy," and therefore offend "constitutional principles of federalism" in that they allow "the National Government [to] devour the essentials of state sovereignty, though that sovereignty is attested by the Tenth Amendment." 392 U.S. at 392 U. S. 203-205.
"suggest that, since private enforcement of the Act was not a paramount objective [of Congress], disallowance of suits by state employees and remitting them to relief through the Secretary of Labor may explain why Congress was silent as to waiver of sovereign immunity of the States."
"The unavoidable result is that state employees of schools and hospitals may find themselves in precisely the same situation as the employees in Parden: if they are unable to sue their state employer under Section 16(b), they may be, for all practical purposes, left in the position of having a right without a remedy. . . ."
"In this connection, it is not amiss to note that § 16(b) allows recovery by employees not only of the amount of unpaid wages, but of an equal amount as liquidated damages and attorneys' fees. It is one thing, as in Parden, to make a state employee whole; it is quite another to let him recover double against a State. Recalcitrant private employers may be whipped into line in that manner. But we are reluctant to believe that Congress, in pursuit of a harmonious federalism, desired to treat the States so harshly. The policy of the Act, so far as the States are concerned, is wholly served by allowing the delicate federal state relationship to be managed through the Secretary of Labor."
Ante at 411 U. S. 286.
"We have previously held that the liquidated damage provision is not penal in its nature, but constitutes compensation for the retention of a workman's pay which might result in damages too obscure and difficult of proof for estimate other than by liquidated damages. Overnight Motor Co. v. Missel, 316 U. S. 572. It constitutes a Congressional recognition that failure to pay the statutory minimum on time may be so detrimental to maintenance of the minimum standard of living 'necessary for health, efficiency and general wellbeing of workers' and to the free flow of commerce that double payment must be made in the event of delay in order to insure restoration of the worker to that minimum standard of wellbeing. Employees receiving less than the statutory minimum are not likely to have sufficient resources to maintain their wellbeing and efficiency until such sums are paid at a future date. The same policy which forbids waiver of the statutory minimum as necessary to the free flow of commerce requires that reparations to restore damage done by such failure to pay on time must be made to accomplish Congressional purposes."
"The legislative history of the 1966 FLSA Amendments reflects that passage was to attain a"
standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general wellbeing of workers . . . with all deliberate speed consistent with the policy of the act and the welfare of the American people."
"[S.Rep. No. 1487, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 3(1966).] This demonstrates to our satisfaction that Congress contemplated the financial burden that the Amendments could cause for the states. But the overall purpose of the FLSA tacitly suggests that the imposition of such strain is outweighed by the underlying policy of the Act."
"Congress did not intend this language to limit the jurisdiction of the federal courts, but merely to provide an alternative forum in the state courts."
377 U.S. at 377 U. S. 190 n. 8.
enterprise covered by the 1966 amendments shall be amenable to suit under § 16(b) in federal court. A greater reason for concern, therefore, is with the Court's and my Brother MARSHALL's treatment of the Eleventh Amendment and the doctrine of sovereign immunity as constitutional limitations upon the power of a federal court to entertain a suit brought against a State by one of its citizens. Since the Court's treatment differs from my Brother MARSHALL's in substantial respects, I shall discuss the two separately.
"[t]he history and tradition of the Eleventh Amendment indicate that, by reason of that barrier, a federal court is not competent to render judgment against a nonconsenting State."
"[t]he judicial .Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution . . . between a State and Citizens of another State"
"[t]he Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State"
"the amendment being constitutionally adopted, there could not be exercised any jurisdiction in any case, past or future, in which a state was sued by the citizens of another state. . . ."
Court, by referring to the Amendment in this case after Parden held it to be inapplicable, should lend support to the argument that the Amendment reflects the existence of a constitutional bar to suits against a State brought by its own citizens.
"on the logical and practical ground that there can be no legal right as against the authority that makes the law on which the right depends,"
"if it represents, as the Court has more than once intimated, an unfortunate excrescence of a political and legal order which no longer enlists support. . . ."
"The course of decisions concerning sovereign immunity is a good illustration of the conflicting considerations that often struggle for mastery in the judicial process, at least implicitly. In varying degrees, at different times, the momentum of the historic doctrine is arrested or deflected by an unexpressed feeling that governmental immunity runs counter to prevailing notions of reason and justice. Legal concepts are then found available to give effect to this feeling. . . ."
Larson v. Domestic & Foreign Corp., 337 U. S. 682, 337 U. S. 709 (1949) (dissenting opinion).
"The original clause [Art. III] giving jurisdiction on account of the character of the parties, as aliens, citizens of different States, etc. does not limit, but extends, the judicial power of the Union. The [Eleventh] amendment applies to that alone. It leaves a suit between a State and a citizen, arising under the constitution, laws, etc. where it found it, and the States are still liable to be sued by a citizen, where the jurisdiction arises in this manner, and not merely out of the character of the parties."
"If this writ of error be a suit in the sense of the 11th amendment, it is not a suit commenced or prosecuted 'by a citizen of another State, or by a citizen or subject of any foreign State.' It is not then within the amendment, but is governed entirely by the constitution as originally framed, and we have already seen that, in its origin, the judicial power was extended to all cases arising under the constitution or laws of the United States, without respect to parties."
Id. at 19 U. S. 412 (emphasis added).
"a citizen with a claim under the Constitution or federal law against his own state might sue in the federal courts, while a citizen of another state or an alien, parties exercising much less, if any, influence upon the government of the state for its beneficence, would be denied a federal remedy."
"observation was unnecessary to the decision . . . , and . . . ought not to outweigh the important considerations referred to which lead to a different conclusion,"
despite the outcry about sovereign immunity and the sovereignty of the states which preceded its adoption, does not constitute an exception. That amendment, to be sure, did impose a limitation upon the federal judicial power with respect to suits brought against the states by certain classes of individuals, but its language does not support the Court's far-reaching statement that, 'as to the states, legal irresponsibility was written into the Eleventh Amendment.' [Keifer & Keifer v. Reconstruction Finance Corp., 306 U. S. 381, 306 U. S. 388 (1939).]"
"It is inherent in the nature of sovereignty not to be amenable to the suit of an individual without its consent. This is the general sense and the general practice of mankind, and the exemption, as one of the attributes of sovereignty, is now enjoyed by the government of every State in the Union. Unless, therefore, there is a surrender of this immunity in the plan of the convention, it will remain with the States. . . ."
"So far as States, under the Constitution, can be made legally liable to [federal judicial] authority, so far, to be sure, they are subordinate to the authority of the United States, and their individual sovereignty is in this respect limited. But it is limited no farther than the necessary execution of such authority requires. The authority extends only to the decision of controversies in which a State is a party, and providing laws necessary for that purpose. That surely can refer only to such controversies in which a State can be a party, in respect to which, if any question arises, it can be determined, according to the principles I have supported, in no other manner than by a reference either to preexistent laws [common law] or laws passed under the Constitution and in conformity to it."
the Union upon the principles of the common law, which I have shown to be alone applicable. If it could, I think it is now maintainable here. . . ."
"It seems to us that these views of those great advocates and defenders of the Constitution were most sensible and just, and they apply equally to the present case as to that then under discussion."
any role whatever in that decision. Therefore, even if the Eleventh Amendment be read literally to prohibit the exercise of federal judicial power to entertain suits against a State brought by citizens of another State or foreign country (a question we need not decide in this case), my Brother MARSHALL has no support in Hans for bringing this suit by a State's own citizens within that prohibition. Stated simply, the holding of Hans is that the ancient principles of sovereign immunity limit exercise of the federal power to suits against consenting States. And the fundamental lesson of Parden, as my Brother MARSHALL concedes, is that, by adopting and ratifying the Commerce Clause, the States surrendered a portion of their sovereignty as to those cases in which state activity touches on the federal regulatory power under the Commerce Clause.
"[T]he States, by the adoption of the Constitution, acting 'in their highest sovereign capacity, in the convention of the people,' waived their exemption from judicial power. . . . [J]urisdiction . . . was thus established 'by their own consent and delegated authority' as a necessary feature of the formation of a more perfect Union."
Principality of Monaco v. Mississippi, 292 U. S. 313, 292 U. S. 328-329 (1934).
bar and, accordingly, do not address the highly provocative ancillary question whether such a bar would prohibit federal courts from entertaining suits even against consenting States. Doubtless because my Brother MARSHALL's theory did not occur to the judges, those cases (which did not arise under statutes like the FELA and FLSA) were treated as requiring decision not in terms of my Brother MARSHALL's theory of a jurisdictional bar that may be removed only by actions tantamount to voluntary consent, but rather within the bounds of traditional notions of sovereign immunity -- an immunity, I repeat, that my Brother MARSHALL agrees the States surrendered, as Hamilton said, "in the plan of the convention," at least insofar as Congress conditions a State's engagement in a regulated interstate enterprise upon amenability to suit. Yet he argues that, while the surrendered immunity cannot arise to defeat a suit in state court under § 16(b), it may be resurrected from the grave solely that it may be waived to lift the purported jurisdictional bar of Art. III to state employees' suits in federal court under § 16(b). That reasoning, I say with all respect, simply defies logic. Indeed, even if Hans is a constitutional decision, and I do not think it is, at most, it holds that Art. III is to be read to incorporate the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity. But my Brother MARSHALL's reliance on Hans would fare no better in such case, for then the surrender of the immunity "in the plan of the convention" would obviously foreclose assertion of the immunity in suits in both state and federal courts brought under federal statutes founded on the commerce power.
on the Parden dissent and in its discussion of the inapplicable Eleventh Amendment, and my Brother MARSHALL by rejecting Mr. Chief Justice Marshall's view that no jurisdictional bar may be implied in Art. III.
"These enterprises which are not proprietary, that is, not operated for profit, are engaged in activities which are in substantial competition with similar activities carried on by enterprise organized for a business purpose. Failure to cover all activities of these enterprises will result in the failure to implement one of the basic purposes of the act, the elimination of conditions which 'constitute an unfair method of competition in commerce.'"
"in the circumstances surrounding this legislation, a strong inference that Congress intended to afford state employees the same direct right of suit against their employers as is possessed by covered employees of nongovernmental employers."
452 F.2d 820, 831 (1971) (Bright, J., dissenting).
The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rejected the governmental-proprietary distinction on facts identical to those of the present case. Briggs v. Sagers, 424 F.2d 130, 132-133 (1970). See also Sanitary District v. United States, 266 U. S. 405, 266 U. S. 426 (1925); United States v. California, 297 U. S. 175, 297 U. S. 183-184 (1936); 3 K. Davis, Administrative Law Treatise 459-466 (1958); n. 1, supra.
See the comprehensive discussion in Hodgson v. Wheaton Glass Co., 446 F.2d 527 (CA3 1971). See also Brooklyn Savings Bank v. O'Neil, 324 U. S. 697 (1945); Hodgson v. Ricky Fashions, 434 F.2d 1261 (CA5 1970).
See the discussion infra at 411 U. S. 308.
"In 1971 . . . , the Act covered 45.4 million employees and nearly 2 million establishments; 2.7 million of these employees and 118,000 of these establishments were in the sector of state and local government employment, including state schools and hospitals. Yet less than 4 percent of these establishments can be investigated by the Secretary each year."
Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 22-23.
"the instant case is even more compelling than Parden in asserting that Congress' power to regulate commerce should override sovereign immunity. Since the Supreme Court was willing to find constructive waiver of immunity in order to give protection to a relatively small number of people -- employees of state owned railways -- even where Congress had not made clear its desire that such protection be given, then a fortiori constructive waiver is applicable where Congress has specifically applied legislation to states as employers, where the class of persons meant to be protected is much greater, and where the purpose and need of regulation is a more fundamental and pressing expression of congressional regulation of commerce."
17 Vill.L.Rev. 713, 720-721 (1972).
"[a] suit by a state employee under § 216(b) represents the only remedial provisions of the Act which assures [a state employee] of tho opportunity of having his claim presented to a court."
452 F.2d at 833 (Bright, J., dissenting).
My Brother MARSHALL disagrees with the Court on this issue. He takes the position that the state courts must entertain suits under the FLSA, and, in such case, the State is foreclosed from relying on the protection of the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity. The Court, on the other hand, although stating that it "is a question we need not reach," takes the position that state employees "arguably" may maintain a § 16(b) suit in the state courts, ante at 411 U. S. 287, thus implying that the States are not necessarily compelled to entertain such suits.
"that, at the time the Union was formed, the States surrendered that portion of their sovereignty which conflicted with the supreme federal powers."
"such a view [as to the commerce power] would seem to compel the conclusion that the States had also pro tanto surrendered their common law immunity with respect to any claim under the Contract Clause."
"Whilst the State cannot be compelled by suit to perform its contracts, any attempt on its part to violate property or rights acquired under its contracts may be judicially resisted, and any law impairing the obligation of contracts under which such property or rights are held is void, and powerless to affect their enjoyment."
134 U.S. at 134 U. S. 20-21.

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