Source: http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/503/607/case.html
Timestamp: 2014-03-14 11:35:05
Document Index: 74740818

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1323', '§ 1323', '§ 1323', '§ 1323', '§ 1331', '§ 1323', '§ 1251', '§ 6901', '§ 1342', '§ 1342', '§ 123', '§ 6926', '§ 271']

Department of Energy v. Ohio - 503 U.S. 607 (1992) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center
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Department of Energy v. Ohio - 503 U.S. 607 (1992)
Case	OCTOBER TERM, 1991SyllabusUNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY v.
OHIO ET AL.CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUITNo. 90-1341. Argued December 3, 1991-Decided April 21, 1992*The Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) prohibit the discharge or disposal of pollutants without a permit, assign primary authority to issue permits to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and allow EPA to authorize a State to supplant the federal permit program with one of its own under specified circumstances. Respondent State sued petitioner Department of Energy (DOE) over its operation of a uranium-processing plant in Ohio, seeking, among other relief, both state and federal civil penalties for past violations of the CWA and RCRA and of state laws enacted to supplant those federal statutes. Although conceding, inter alia, that both statutes render federal agencies liable for "coercive" fines imposed to induce compliance with injunctions or other judicial orders designed to modify behavior prospectively, DOE asserted sovereign immunity from liability for "punitive" fines imposed to punish past violations. The District Court held that both statutes waived federal sovereign immunity from punitive fines, by both their federal-facilities and citizensuit sections. The Court of Appeals affirmed in part, holding that Congress had waived immunity as to punitive fines in the CWA's federal-facilities section and RCRA's citizen-suit section, but not in RCRA's federal-facilities section.Held: Congress has not waived the National Government's sovereign immunity from liability for civil fines imposed by a State for past violations of the CWA or RCRA. Pp. 615-629.(a) This Court presumes congressional familiarity with the common rule that any waiver of the Government's sovereign immunity must be unequivocal. See United States v. Mitchell, 445 U. S. 535, 538-539. Such waivers must be construed strictly in favor of the sovereign and not enlarged beyond what the language requires. See, e. g., Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, 463 U. S. 680, 685-686. P. 615.(b) Although both the CWA and RCRA citizen-suit sections authorize a State to commence a civil action "against any person (including ...*Together with No. 90-1517, Ohio et al. v. United States Department of Energy, also on certiorari to the same court.
608Syllabusthe United States ... )," and authorize the district courts to impose punitive fines under the Acts' civil-penalties sections, the incorporation of the latter sections must be read to encompass their exclusion of the United States from among the "person[s]" who may be fined, see, e. g., Engel v. Davenport, 271 U. S. 33, 38. The citizen-suit sections' initial inclusion of the United States as a "person" goes only to the clauses subjecting the Government to suit, and a broader waiver may not be inferred. Both the CWA and RCRA contain various provisions expressly defining "person" for purposes of the entire section in which the term occurs, thereby raising the inference that a special definition not described as being for purposes of its "section" or "subchapter" was intended to have the more limited application to its own clause or sentence. This textual analysis gives effect to all the language of the citizen-suit sections, since their incorporations of their statutes' civilpenalties sections will effectively authorize punitive fines where a polluter other than the United States is brought to court, while their explicit authorizations for suits against the United States concededly authorize coercive sanctions. Pp. 615-620.(c) The relevant portion of the CWA's federal-facilities section, 33 U. S. C. § 1323(a)-which, inter alia, subjects the Government to "all ... State ... requirements ... and process and sanctions"; explains that the Government's corresponding liability extends to "any requirement, whether substantive or procedural ... , and ... to any process and sanction ... enforced in ... cour[t]"; and provides that the Government "shall be liable only for those civil penalties arising under Federal law or imposed by a State ... court ... to enforce [its] order or ... process"-does not waive the Government's immunity as to punitive fines. Ohio's first argument, that § 1323(a)'s use of the word "sanction" must be understood to encompass punitive fines, is mistaken, as the term's meaning is spacious enough to cover coercive as well as punitive fines. Moreover, good reason to infer that Congress was using "sanction" in its coercive sense, to the exclusion of punitive fines, lies in the fact that § 1323(a) twice speaks of "sanctions" in conjunction with judicial "process," which is characteristically "enforced" through forward-looking coercive measures, and distinguishes "process and sanctions" from substantive "requirements," which may be enforced either by coercive or punitive means. Pp. 620-623.(d) Ohio's second § 1323(a) argument, that fines authorized under an EPA-approved state permit program are within the scope of the "civil penalties" covered by the section's final waiver proviso, also fails. The proviso's second modifier makes it plain that "civil penalties" must at least include a coercive penalty since they are exemplified by penalties "imposed by a State ... court to enforce [its] order." Moreover, the
609contention that the proviso's "arising under federal law" modifier is broad enough to include penalties prescribed by EPA-approved state statutes supplanting the CWA is answered by this Court's interpretation of the phrase "arising under" federal law in 28 U. S. C. § 1331 to exclude cases in which the plaintiff relies on state law, even when the State's exercise of power in the particular circumstances is expressly permitted by federal law, see, e. g., Gully v. First Nat. Bank in Meridian, 299 U. S. 109, 116, and by the probability that Congress adopted the same interpretation of "arising under federal law" here, see, e. g., ICC v. Locomotive Engineers, 482 U. S. 270, 284-285. The plain language of the "civil penalties arising under federal law" phrase suggests an apparently expansive, but uncertain, waiver that is in tension with the clear waiver for coercive fines evinced in § 1323(a)'s antecedent text; that tension is resolved by the requirement that any statement of waiver be unequivocal and the rule that waivers be narrowly construed. Pp. 623-627.(e) RCRA's federal-facilities section-which, in relevant part, subjects the Government to "all ... State ... requirements, both substantive and procedural (including any requirement for permits or reporting or any provisions for injunctive relief and such sanctions as may be imposed by a court to enforce such relief)," and provides that the United States "shall [not] be immune ... from any process or sanction of any ... Court with respect to the enforcement of any such injunctive relief"-is most reasonably interpreted as including substantive standards and the coercive means for implementing those standards, but excluding punitive measures. All of the textual indications of the kinds of requirements meant to bind the Government refer either to mechanisms requiring review for substantive compliance (permit and reporting requirements) or to mechanisms for enforcing substantive compliance in the future (injunctive relief and sanctions to enforce it), in stark contrast to the statute's failure to mention any mechanism for penalizing past violations. Moreover, the fact that the only specific reference to an enforcement mechanism in the provision's final sentence describes "sanction" as a coercive means of injunctive enforcement bars any inference that a waiver of immunity from "requirements" somehow extends to punitive fines that are never so much as mentioned. Pp. 627-628.904 F.2d 1058, reversed and remanded.SOUTER, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court with respect to Part II-C, and the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II-A, II-B, and III, in which REHNQUIST, C. J., and O'CONNOR, SCALIA, KENNEDY, and THOMAS, JJ., joined. WHITE, J., filed an opinion concurring in
610Syllabuspart and dissenting in part, in which BLACKMUN and STEVENS, JJ., joined, post, p. 629.James A. Feldman argued the cause for petitioner in No. 90-1341 and respondent in No. 90-1517. With him on the briefs were Solicitor General Starr, Acting Assistant Attorney General Hartman, Deputy Solicitor General Wallace, Robert L. Klarquist, and Jacques B. Gelin.Jack A. Van Kley, Assistant Attorney General of Ohio, argued the cause for respondents in No. 90-1341 and petitioners in No. 90-1517. With him on the brief were Lee Fisher, Attorney General, and Timothy J. Kern and Terrence S. Finn, Assistant Attorneys General. ttBriefs of amici curiae were filed for the State of California et al. by Gale A. Norton, Attorney General of Colorado, Raymond T. Slaughter, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Timothy M. Tymkovich, Solicitor General, Martha E. Rudolph, Cynthia M. Vagelos, and Mary Capdeville, Assistant Attorneys General, Daniel E. Lungren, Attorney General of California, Roderick E. Walston, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Theodora Berger and R. H. Connett, Senior Assistant Attorneys General, Edwin F. Lowry, Deputy Attorney General, Charles E. Cole, Attorney General of Alaska, Grant Woods, Attorney General of Arizona, Paige Murphy-Young, Assistant Attorney General, Winston Bryant, Attorney General of Arkansas, Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General of Connecticut, Warren Price III, Attorney General of Hawaii, Larry EchoHawk, Attorney General of Idaho, Roland W Burris, Attorney General of Illinois, Linley E. Pearson, Attorney General of Indiana, Bonnie J. Campbell, Attorney General of Iowa, Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General of Kentucky, Michael E. Carpenter, Attorney General of Maine, Dennis J. Harnish, Assistant Attorney General, J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General of Maryland, Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General of Michigan, Hubert H. Humphrey III, Attorney General of Minnesota, William L. Webster, Attorney General of Missouri, Marc Racicot, Attorney General of Montana, Frankie Sue Del Papa, Attorney General of Nevada, Robert J. Del Tufo, Attorney General of New Jersey, Tom Udall, Attorney General of New Mexico, Lacy H. Thornburg, Attorney General of North Carolina, Nicholas J. Spaeth, Attorney General of North Dakota, T. Travis Medlock, Attorney General of South Carolina, Charles W Burson, Attorney General of Tennessee, Michael D. Pearigen, Deputy Attorney General, Dan Morales, Attorney General of Texas, Thomas Edwards, Assistant Attorney General, Paul Van Dam, Attorney
611JUSTICE SOUTER delivered the opinion of the Court.The question in these cases is whether Congress has waived the National Government's sovereign immunity from liability for civil fines imposed by a State for past violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA), 86 Stat. 816, as amended, 33 U. S. C. § 1251 et seq., or the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), 90 Stat. 2796, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 6901 et seq. We hold it has not done so in either instance.
IThe CW A prohibits the discharge of pollutants into navigable waters without a permit. Section 402, codified at 33 U. S. C. § 1342, gives primary authority to issue such permits to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EP A), but allows EP A to authorize a State to supplant the federal permit program with one of its own, if the state scheme would include, among other features, sufficiently stringent regulatory standards and adequate provisions for penalties to enforce them. See generally 33 U. S. C. § 1342(b) (requirements and procedures for EPA approval of state water-pollution permit plans); see also 40 CFR §§ 123.1-123.64 (1991) (detailed requirements for state plans). RCRA regulates the disposal of hazardous waste in much the same way, with a permit program run by EPA but subject to displacement by an adequate state counterpart. See generally 42 U. S. C. § 6926 (requirements and procedures for EP AGeneral of Utah, Denise Chancellor, Assistant Attorney General, Jeffrey L. Amestoy, Attorney General of Vermont, Mary Sue Terry, Attorney General of Virginia, Patrick O'Hare, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Kenneth Q Eikenberry, Attorney General of Washington, James K. Pharris, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Jay J. Manning, Assistant Attorney General; for the Natural Resources Defense Council by Philip F. W Ahrens III; and for the National Governors' Association et al. by Richard Ruda, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., and Barry Levenstam.
612approval of state hazardous-waste disposal permit plans); see also 40 CFR §§ 271.1-271.138 (1991) (detailed requirements for state plans).This litigation began in 1986 when respondent State of Ohio sued petitioner Department of Energy (DOE) in Federal District Court for violations of state and federal pollution laws, including the CWA and RCRA, in operating its uranium-processing plant in Fernald, Ohio. Ohio sought, among other forms of relief, both state and federal civil penalties for past violations of the CW A and RCRA and of state laws enacted to supplant those federal statutes. See, e. g., Complaint , 64 (seeking penalties for violations of state law and of regulations issued pursuant to RCRA); id., , 115 (seeking penalties for violations of state law and of CW A).l Before the District Court ruled on DOE's motion for dismissal, the parties proposed a consent decree to settle all but one substantive claim,2 and Ohio withdrew all outstanding claims for relief except its request for civil penalties for DOE's alleged past violations. See Consent Decree Between DOE and Ohio, App. 63. By a contemporaneous stipulation, DOE and Ohio agreed on the amount of civil penalties DOE will owe if it is found liable for them, see Stipulation Between DOE and Ohio, id., at 87. The parties thus left for determination under the motion to dismiss only the issue we consider today: whether Congress has waived the National Government's sovereign immunity from liability for civil fines imposed for past failure to comply1 Federal- and state-law fin