Opinion ID: 197448
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Recital/Declamation of Power Issue

Text: 13 Both sides in this dispute agree that Congress referred to its Commerce Clause powers when it enacted both the original FLSA and the subsequent amendments to the Act that are at issue in this case. See 29 U.S.C. § 202(b) (declaring that the FLSA is an exercise by Congress of its power to regulate commerce among the several States and with foreign nations.). The probation officers concede that, whatever may have been the law of the land under the holding of Union Gas, see 491 U.S. at 23, 109 S.Ct. at 2286, Seminole Tribe now precludes Congress from using its Commerce Clause powers or any of its other Article I powers to grant jurisdiction to federal courts in suits involving states that do not consent to be sued. See 517 U.S. at ---- - ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1131-32. The probation officers, however, point out that Seminole Tribe reaffirmed Congress' power to abrogate state immunity from suit in federal court by enacting legislation pursuant to section five of the Fourteenth Amendment, see id. at ----, ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1125, 1128 (citing Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 U.S. 445, 452-56, 96 S.Ct. 2666, 2669-71, 49 L.Ed.2d 614 (1976)), and contend that the FLSA amendments still subject unwilling states to suit in federal court because Congress had the power to enact those amendments under section five of the Fourteenth Amendment. 14 While Congress' invocation of its Commerce Clause powers is probative, it is not dispositive of whether it had the power to enact the FLSA amendments in question under section five of the Fourteenth Amendment.  'Our duty in passing on the constitutionality of legislation is to determine whether Congress had the authority to adopt legislation, not whether it correctly guessed the source of that power.'  Timmer, 104 F.3d at 839 (quoting Usery v. Charleston County Sch. Dist., 558 F.2d 1169, 1171 (4th Cir.1977)). As the Supreme Court has explained, [t]he question of the constitutionality of action taken by Congress does not depend on recitals of the power which it undertakes to exercise. Woods v. Cloyd W. Miller Co., 333 U.S. 138, 144, 68 S.Ct. 421, 424, 92 L.Ed. 596 (1948) (quoted in EEOC v. Wyoming, 460 U.S. 226, 243-44 n. 18, 103 S.Ct. 1054, 1064 n. 18, 75 L.Ed.2d 18 (1983) and Ramirez v. Puerto Rico Fire Serv., 715 F.2d 694, 698 (1st Cir.1983)). See also Laurence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law 307 n. 6 (2d ed. 1988) (An otherwise valid exercise of congressional authority is not, of course, invalidated if Congress happens to recite the wrong clause [of the Constitution] ... or, indeed, if Congress recites no clause at all.) (citing Woods ). 15 Specifically with respect to congressional exercises of power pursuant to section five of the Fourteenth Amendment, we have indicated that [t]he omission of any ritualistic incantation of powers by the Congress is not determinitive, for there is no requirement that the statute incorporate buzz words such as 'Fourteenth Amendment' or 'section 5' or 'equal protection'. Ramirez, 715 F.2d at 698. Our Fourteenth Amendment approach is one that we have directly adopted from Supreme Court precedent. See Wyoming, 460 U.S. at 243-44 n. 18, 103 S.Ct. at 1064 n.18. 16 Accordingly, as we have had previous occasion to point out, absent an outright congressional declamation, it is th[is] court's task to decipher whether Congress has enacted legislation pursuant to its section 5 powers.... Such an inquiry necessarily focuses upon whether or not the objectives of the legislation are within the scope of Congress' power under section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Ramirez, 715 F.2d at 698. In undertaking this inquiry, we are mindful of the Supreme Court's cautionary admonition that we should not quickly attribute to Congress an unstated intent to act under its authority to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment. Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 451 U.S. 1, 16, 101 S.Ct. 1531, 1539, 67 L.Ed.2d 694 (1981). This word of warning suggests that a court should carefully consider the propriety and effect of concluding that Congress has acted pursuant to § 5. Timmer, 104 F.3d at 840. 17 In this case, the litigants do not dispute that there is no congressional statement in the FLSA or the statute's legislative history of any recourse to section five, Fourteenth Amendment powers. Indeed, the State of Maine essentially contends that because Congress invoked its Commerce Clause powers in passing the FLSA and the amendments pertinent to this dispute, the statute cannot be justified under section five of the Fourteenth Amendment or any constitutional provision other than the Commerce Clause. Even considering Pennhurst 's 'proceed with caution' rule, the problem with this argument is that it is contrary to binding Supreme Court precedent and prior decisions of this circuit and is not logical. As other federal courts have explained in looking at the 1974 amendments to the FLSA, one cannot read Congress' statement regarding the Act's validity under the Commerce Clause to indicat[e] that Congress intended to exclude other applicable constitutional bases for the Act. Brown v. County of Santa Barbara, 427 F.Supp. 112, 114 (C.D.Cal.1977) (citing Usery v. Allegheny County Institution Dist., 544 F.2d 148, 155 (3d Cir.1976)). 18 Because Congress' recital of its Commerce Clause powers did not evince an intent to exclude other constitutional bases for its action, we thus must carefully consider, see Timmer, 104 F.3d at 840, whether the FLSA amendments at issue in this case are within the scope of Congress' power under section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Ramirez, 715 F.2d at 698. 1