Opinion ID: 496991
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: congressional power to abrogate the states' eleventh

Text: AMENDMENT IMMUNITY 38 Appellee Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the amici states correctly note that, if we find that Congress has clearly indicated its intent to abrogate the eleventh amendment, we must face a constitutional issue: whether Congress' Article I commerce clause powers are sufficient to abrogate the states' eleventh amendment immunity. As Justice Marshall structured the question, abrogation concerns a two-step inquiry: 39 (1) did Congress ... effectively lift the State's protective veil of sovereign immunity; and (2) even if Congress did lift the State's general immunity, is the exercise of federal judicial power barred in the context of this case in light of Art. III and the Eleventh Amendment? 40 Employees, 411 U.S. at 287-88, 93 S.Ct. at 1619 (Marshall, J., concurring in the result); see also Edelman, 415 U.S. at 672, 94 S.Ct. at 1360 (inquiring into threshold fact of congressional authorization); cf. In re McVey Trucking, 812 F.2d 311, 314 (7th Cir.1987) (reversing the order of this two-step inquiry), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 1088 S.Ct. 227, 98 L.Ed.2d 186 (1987). We therefore turn to the issue of Congress' power to allow citizen suits against the states pursuant to CERCLA, despite the eleventh amendment's limitation on Article III federal jurisdiction. 5 41 The Commonwealth and amici argue that only certain types of exercise of congressional power may abrogate the eleventh amendment, and that the Constitution does not grant Congress the power to create an exception to the eleventh amendment in CERCLA. They argue that Congress may only directly abrogate the eleventh amendment when it acts pursuant to constitutional amendments passed after the eleventh. The Commonwealth and amici argue that, because of the unique character of the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress may, through an unequivocal expression of its intent, subject an unconsenting state to a private suit in federal court when seeking to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment. Brief of Amici at 9. According to this reasoning, the thirteenth, nineteenth, and twenty-fourth amendments would also allow Congress to limit the eleventh amendment because they (1) were ratified with an awareness of the eleventh amendment, (2) restrict the powers of states, and (3) grant authority to Congress to enact enforcing legislation. 42 We fully agree with the contention that Congress may override the eleventh amendment when acting pursuant to the powers enumerated above. We disagree, however, with the argument that congressional power to abrogate the eleventh amendment is limited only to those powers granted by the Constitution to Congress after the ratification of the eleventh amendment. Our reasoning is set forth below. 43 The Supreme Court has explicitly recognized that the fourteenth amendment grants Congress the power to subject states to suit in federal court notwithstanding the limitations of the eleventh amendment. Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 U.S. 445, 96 S.Ct. 2666, 49 L.Ed.2d 614 (1976). Congress enacted CERCLA, however, pursuant to its Article I commerce clause power, see Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining and Reclamation Association, 452 U.S. 264, 282, 101 S.Ct. 2352, 2363, 69 L.Ed.2d 1 (1981); Wickland Oil Terminals v. Asarco, Inc., 654 F.Supp. 955, 957 (N.D.Cal.1987), not its power under section five of the fourteenth amendment. We must therefore decide whether Congress may subject states to private suits in federal court when acting pursuant to its Article I commerce clause powers. This question has never been directly answered by the Supreme Court, which has chosen either to expressly reserve the question, see County of Oneida, New York v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York State, 470 U.S. 226, 252, 105 S.Ct. 1245, 1261, 84 L.Ed.2d 169 (1985), or to assume, without deciding or intimating a view of the question, that the authority of Congress to subject consenting States to suit in federal court is not confined to Sec. 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Welch, 107 S.Ct. at 2946. Our analysis of Congress' authority to subject states to suit under Article I requires an examination of the significance of distinctions between Article I and the fourteenth amendment, the history and language of the eleventh amendment, and the inherent protections offered to state sovereignty in the constitutional framework. 44
45 Constitution on a Timeline? 46 As a threshold matter, we disagree with Appellee's submission that only the amendments following the eleventh may override it. This reasoning would require that we read the Constitution on a timeline, a proposition we reject. Rather, we believe that we must interpret every provision in the Constitution in the light of the entire document. As the Supreme Court recognized long ago, 47 [t]he Constitution of the United States, with the several amendments thereof, must be regarded as one instrument, all of whose provisions are to be deemed of equal validity. It would, indeed, be most unfortunate if the immunity of the individual states from suits by citizens of other states, provided for in the Eleventh Amendment, were to be interpreted as nullifying those other provisions which confer power on Congress to regulate commerce among the several states, which forbid the states from entering into any treaty, alliance or confederation, from passing any bill of attainder, ex post facto law or law impairing the obligation of contracts ...--all of which provisions existed before the adoption of the Eleventh Amendment, which still exist, and which would be nullified and made of no effect, if the judicial power of the United States could not be invoked to protect citizens affected by the passage of state laws disregarding these constitutional limitations. 48 Prout v. Starr, 188 U.S. 537, 543, 23 S.Ct. 398, 400, 47 L.Ed. 584 (1903); accord Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24, 42-43, 94 S.Ct. 2655, 2665-66, 41 L.Ed.2d 551 (1974). In Billings v. United States, 232 U.S. 261, 282, 34 S.Ct. 421, 424, 58 L.Ed. 596 (1914), the Court further recognized that the Constitution is not self-destructive. In other words, that the powers which it confers on the one hand it does not immediately take away on the other.... 49 Thus, even though the fourteenth amendment gives Congress the power to create causes of action that would subject a state to private suits in federal court, [t]he fact that the Fourteenth Amendment was enacted after the Eleventh Amendment does not abrogate the latter in cases involving the former. The two amendments must be interpreted in light of each other. Townsend v. Edelman, 518 F.2d 116, 120 (7th Cir.1975). Similarly, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in McVey Trucking refused to accept the notion that the fourteenth amendment repealed the eleventh and hence rejected the premise that only post-fourteenth amendment congressional powers could serve as the basis for legislation to abrogate the amendment. 812 F.2d at 316. We, too, reject the argument that Congress may override the eleventh amendment only under authority granted after the enactment of the eleventh amendment. 50 Although we recognize that Congress must act under a plenary grant of constitutional authority to abrogate the eleventh amendment, see McVey Trucking, 812 F.2d 311, 320 (7th Cir.1987) (citing Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U.S. 528, 105 S.Ct. 1005, 83 L.Ed.2d 1016 (1985)), we disagree with the appellant's contention that the fourteenth amendment's grant of plenary powers to Congress is unique and thus distinguishable from Congress' plenary power to regulate interstate commerce as granted in Article I. In this matter we are persuaded by the reasoning of McVey Trucking, where the court examined possible distinctions between the fourteenth amendment and Article I for purposes of eleventh amendment abrogation and found them untenable. 51 In a thorough, scholarly opinion, authored by Judge Flaum, McVey Trucking reviewed and rejected the notion that the fourteenth amendment represents an ultra-plenary grant of authority. 6 812 F.2d at 319-23. McVey Trucking also rejected the notion that Fitzpatrick could be read to suggest that each grant of power contained in the Constitution must be linked to a provision that 'by [its] own terms' limits state authority in order for Congress, acting under that power, to create a cause of action for money damages against a state. 812 F.2d at 320 (citation omitted). The court observed that any plenary grant of power to Congress is a limitation on state authority, and that the two provisions were not distinguishable on the basis of the explicit reference to states in the fourteenth amendment. Id. at 321. We are convinced, as well, that the power of these two sections of the Constitution does not vary for the purposes of abrogating state immunity from suit. 52 We acknowledge that the Court has drawn a distinction between Article I and the fourteenth amendment in divining congressional intent. 7 Hutto v. Finney suggests something of a sliding scale for the clarity of congressional expression of intent, depending on the source of the congressional power under which Congress is legislating. Where Congress acts pursuant to its Article I power, which has grown to vast proportions in its applications, Employees, 411 U.S. at 285, 93 S.Ct. at 1618 (FLSA regulations), it must do so in unmistakable language in the statute itself. Atascadero, 473 U.S. at 243, 105 S.Ct. at 3148. However, when Congress legislates pursuant to Sec. 5 of the fourteenth amendment, whose other sections by their own terms embody limitations on state authority, Fitzpatrick, 427 U.S. at 456, 96 S.Ct. at 2671, the standard for demonstrating congressional intent is less strict and may be supported by the legislative history alone. Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. at 698 & n. 31, 98 S.Ct. at 2577 & n. 31. Although a clearer expression of intent is required for an Article I enactment, the requirement is not because the fourteenth amendment is a stronger grant of power. Rather, congressional intent to abrogate is easier to infer from a fourteenth amendment enactment. 53
54 In addressing the scope of congressional power to abrogate, an understanding of the purpose and scope of the amendment is required. Therefore, a brief review of the history of the eleventh amendment is essential. 55 The eleventh amendment was a reaction to the Supreme Court's decision in Chisolm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. [2 Dall.] 419, 1 L.Ed. 440 (1793), in which the Court construed Article III's extension of the judicial power over controversies between a State and Citizens of another State to make states amenable to suit in federal court by citizens of another state. 8 See Pennhurst II, 465 U.S. at 91-98, 104 S.Ct. at 903-06; Petty v. Tennessee-Missouri Bridge Commission, 359 U.S. 275, 276, 79 S.Ct. 785, 787, 3 L.Ed.2d 804 (1959); McVey Trucking, 812 F.2d at 317. In swift response to this construction of Article III, Congress and the States passed the eleventh amendment to provide: 56 The 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. U.S. Const. amend. XI. 57 In light of the circumstances surrounding the passage of the eleventh amendment, this language has been construed to mean that courts cannot, pursuant to their Article III powers, subject states to suit. Thus, the language of the amendment does not, nor was it ever intended to, limit Congress' Article I powers; rather, it limits the courts' power to construe the grant of judicial power in Article III to abrogate the state's presumptive immunity from diversity suits. See Tribe, Intergovernmental Immunities in Litigation, Taxation, and Regulation: Separation of Powers Issues in Controversies About Federalism, 89 Harv.L.Rev. 682, 693-99 (1976). 58 Courts have broadly extended the principles of state sovereign immunity that underlie the eleventh amendment and have applied them to cases outside the technical language of the amendment. For example, the eleventh amendment does not, by its terms, limit all Article III jurisdiction. The words of the amendment seem to limit only the diversity jurisdiction over disputes between a State and Citizens of another State. See McVey Trucking, 812 F.2d at 317-19; Fletcher, A Historical Interpretation of the Eleventh Amendment: A Narrow Construction of an Affirmative Grant of Jurisdiction Rather than a Prohibition Against Jurisdiction, 35 Stan.L.Rev. 1033 (1983). However, in Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 10 S.Ct. 504, 33 L.Ed. 842 (1890), the Court held that the eleventh amendment barred suits based on federal question jurisdiction. That case provides an example of the breadth of application. Although the eleventh amendment does not on its face address federal question jurisdiction, the Supreme Court has instructed that we cannot rest with a mere literal application ... or assume that the letter of the Eleventh Amendment exhausts the restrictions upon suits against non-consenting States. Behind the words of the constitutional provisions are postulates which limit and control. Principality of Monaco v. Mississippi, 292 U.S. 313, 322, 54 S.Ct. 745, 748, 78 L.Ed. 1282 (1934). 59 The theory of sovereign immunity, which undergirds the eleventh amendment, has thus led the Supreme Court to fashion a presumption that a congressional enactment conferring general federal question jurisdiction does not operate to subject states to suit. See Hans, 134 U.S. at 13, 10 S.Ct. at 506; McVey Trucking, 812 F.2d at 318 (as a sovereign, a state is presumptively immune from suit in a federal court even if the cause of action arises under federal law). As we have discussed at length in Part II, only Congress' clearly articulated decision to subject the states to suits by private individuals in federal court operates to rebut this presumption. The presumption of immunity and the high threshold for its rebuttal animate the notion of sovereignty that underlies the eleventh amendment. Given this strong presumption, where Congress has clearly articulated its desire to abrogate the eleventh amendment, any further expansion of the eleventh amendment is unwarranted. 60 In sum, the language and history of the eleventh amendment provide substantial checks on the ability of the federal government to subject states to suit in federal court. First, the Supreme Court has extended the reach of the amendment, granting state immunity from suits by citizens of the same state, and from suits involving many federal questions. Second, Congress may only override the eleventh amendment when acting under a grant of plenary authority; the presumption of immunity is high, however, and the congressional exercise of a grant of plenary authority alone is not enough. Thus, where the Court has recognized congressional power to override the amendment, as in section 5 of the fourteenth amendment, the Court has required that Congress speak with unmistakable clarity. 61 Such limitations on abrogation of the eleventh amendment protect state sovereignty consistent with the amendment's purposes, and limit the reach of congressional authority to override under Article I. Moreover, as we discuss in the following section, implicit in the constitutional plan are limitations on Congress' power and incentive to abrogate state sovereign immunity under Article I. As the final phase of our analysis of the question of congressional power to abrogate eleventh amendment protection under the aegis of Article I, we now consider these limitations within the framework of the constitutional design.

62 The eleventh amendment reflects our system of checks and balances by limiting the power to abrogate sovereign immunity to the freely elected legislative branch. This design permits the legislative branch limited power to abrogate state immunity pursuant to grants of constitutional authority, while preventing the judiciary from independently using Article III to do the same. By adopting the eleventh amendment Congress and the states expressed their desire to limit judicial action. Congress, however, never meant to curtail its own power to limit sovereign immunity where appropriate. Indeed, holding that states maintain their immunity in the face of national control is inconsistent with the constitutional plan. Tribe, 89 Harv.L.Rev. at 694-95 (footnotes omitted). 63 This dichotomy between the power of the judiciary and the Congress is particularly significant in the area of commerce clause regulation. In this regard, it is pertinent that CERCLA is a commerce clause regulation. As Justice Brennan has stated in dissent, judicial interpretation of our Constitution settled since the time of Mr. Chief Justice Marshall ... postulate[s] that the Constitution contemplates that restraints upon exercise by Congress of its plenary commerce power lie in the political process and not in the judicial process. National League of Cities v. Usery, 426 U.S. 833, 857, 96 S.Ct. 2465, 2476, 49 L.Ed.2d 245 (1976) (Brennan, J., dissenting). Justice Brennan's dissenting position, which mirrors the majority position in the case overruled by Usery, Maryland v. Wirtz, 392 U.S. 183, 88 S.Ct. 2017, 20 L.Ed.2d 1020 (1968), has again come to be the law of the land. Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U.S. 528, 550-52, 105 S.Ct. 1005, 1017-19, 83 L.Ed.2d 1016 (1985). In contrast, our system of checks and balances dictates that the unelected federal judiciary, isolated from the political pressures that inhere in the need for reelection, must be constrained by such a constitutional restriction from abrogation of sovereign immunity. 64 In addition, the requirement of a clear statement before Congress may override the eleventh amendment assures that congressional intent will be followed, see Peel v. Florida Department of Transportation, 600 F.2d 1070, 1081 (5th Cir.1979), and serves to check judicial interpretation of statutes. See Welch, 107 S.Ct. at 2946; cf. American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Finn, 341 U.S. 6, 17, 71 S.Ct. 534, 542, 95 L.Ed. 702 (1951) (The jurisdiction of the federal courts is carefully guarded against expansion by judicial interpretation....). To extend the eleventh amendment to render nugatory a clear expression of congressional intent to abrogate state immunity would thwart the Constitution's plan by ignoring the representative nature of Congress. 65 The scope of Congress' power to abrogate the eleventh amendment under Article I is also limited by states' representation in Congress. The Congress, comprised wholly of delegates chosen by states (through their subdivisions), will respond to state needs and therefore does not require the eleventh amendment limitation. The Supreme Court in Garcia, 469 U.S. at 550, 105 S.Ct. at 1018, observed that the principal means chosen by the Framers to ensure the role of the States in the Federal system lies in the structure of the Federal Government itself. And, as Professor Tribe notes, it has generally been recognized that the states are represented in Congress and that Congress will be attentive to concerns of state governments as separate sovereigns. Tribe, 89 Harv.L.Rev. at 695 (footnote omitted).
66 Extending the eleventh amendment to prohibit congressional power to abrogate under Article I would ignore the states' representation in Congress and their consent to diminished power implicit in their acceptance of the Constitution. The Supreme Court itself has recognized that in some situations states have given up their immunity in the constitutional plan: States of the Union, still possessing attributes of sovereignty, shall be immune from suits, without their consent, save where there has been 'a surrender of this immunity in the plan of the convention.'  Principality of Monaco, 292 U.S. at 322-23, 54 S.Ct. at 748 (quoting The Federalist, No. 81 (A. Hamilton)) (footnote omitted). 67 Thus, just as Congress acting pursuant to section 5 of the fourteenth amendment is exercising legislative authority that is plenary within the terms of the constitutional grant ... under one section of a constitutional amendment whose other sections by their own terms embody limitations on state authority, Fitzpatrick, 427 U.S. at 456, 96 S.Ct. at 2671, so Congress acts under its Article I powers to regulate Commerce ... among the several States, Sec. 8, cl. 3, and [t]o make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers. Sec. 8, cl. 18. By assenting to federal authority to regulate commerce, the states necessarily surrendered their sovereignty over that area. There was not a State in the Union, in which there did not, at that time, exist a variety of commercial regulations; ... By common consent, those laws dropped lifeless from their statute books, for want of sustaining power that had been relinquished to Congress. Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 1, 226, 6 L.Ed. 23 (1824). 9 68 Congress' authority over interstate commerce stems from the plenary powers that have been granted to our national legislature and represents a displacement of state sovereignty. See Garcia, 469 U.S. at 548-49, 105 S.Ct. at 1016-17 (citing both Art. I, Sec. 8 and the fourteenth amendment as sharp contraction[s] of state sovereignty). Hence, every federal appellate court to have addressed the question has found that Congress may subject the states to suit in federal court, the eleventh amendment notwithstanding, when acting pursuant to its plenary powers. See McVey Trucking, 812 F.2d at 328; County of Monroe v. Florida, 678 F.2d 1124, 1128-35 (2d Cir.1982) (congressional power over extradition, Art. IV, Sec. 2, cl. 2), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1104, 103 S.Ct. 726, 74 L.Ed.2d 951 (1983); Peel v. Florida Department of Transportation, 600 F.2d 1070, 1074-82 (5th Cir.1979) (war powers clause, Art. I, Sec. 8, cl. 11-13); Mills Music, Inc. v. Arizona, 591 F.2d 1278, 1285 (9th Cir.1979) (copyright and patent clause, Art I, Sec. 8, cl. 8); Jennings v. Illinois Office of Educ., 589 F.2d 935, 937-44 (7th Cir.) (war powers clauses), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 967, 99 S.Ct. 2417, 60 L.Ed.2d 1073 (1979). We agree.
69 The constitutional scheme of checks and balances places powerful constraints, both structural and political, upon the abrogation of the states' eleventh amendment immunity. However, the participation of the states in our federal scheme has resulted in a relinquishment of state authority in the commerce area. We conclude that a constitutional grant of plenary authority to Congress is sufficient to support legislation that subjects the states to suit in federal court when the legislation speaks with unmistakable clarity. We, therefore, hold that when acting under the commerce clause to enact CERCLA and amend it with SARA, Congress possessed the power to abrogate the eleventh amendment. 10