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Text: North Carolina takes exception to the Special Master’s recommendation in his Preliminary Report to deny with­ out prejudice its motion to dismiss the Commission’s claims on the ground that they are barred by the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution and by structural princi­ ples of state sovereign immunity. The Special Master assumed for the sake of argument that a State possesses sovereign immunity against a claim brought by an entity, like the Commission, created by an interstate compact,5 Preliminary Report 5. But he recommended denying North Carolina’s motion to dismiss “at this point in the proceedings.” Ibid.

The Special Master relied upon our decision in Arizona v. California, 460 U. S. 605 (1983), which held that the Eleventh Amendment did not bar the participation of several Indian Tribes in an original action concerning the allocation of rights to the waters of the Colorado River. The United States had already intervened, in its capacity as trustee for several Indian Tribes; but the Tribes moved to intervene as well, and the States opposed. We granted the Tribes’ motion, stating that the States do not enjoy sovereign immunity against the United States, and “[t]he Tribes do not seek to bring new claims or issues against the States, but only ask leave to participate in an adjudi­ cation of their vital water rights that was commenced by the United States.” Id., at 614. Thus, “our judicial power over the controversy is not enlarged by granting leave to intervene, and the States’ sovereign immunity protected by the Eleventh Amendment is not compromised.” Ibid. Relying on this holding, the Special Master held that sovereign immunity does not bar the Commission’s suit, so long as the Commission asserts the same claims and seeks the same relief as the other plaintiffs. Whether that is so, he said, “cannot be resolved without further factual and legal development[s],” Preliminary Report 6, and so North Carolina is free to renew its motion at a later point, id., at 13–14. See Second Report 45–48.

Assuming (as the Special Master did) that the Commis­ sion’s claims against North Carolina implicate sovereign immunity, we agree with his disposition. North Carolina contends that making application of the Constitution’s waiver of sovereign immunity turn upon whether a nonsovereign party seeks to expand the relief sought is ——————

an entity’s suit against a State is barred by sovereign immunity.

inconsistent with our decisions construing state sovereign immunity as a “personal privilege.” College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd., 527 U. S. 666, 675 (1999) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Alden, 527 U. S., at 758. But nothing in those cases suggests that Arizona v. California has been implic­ itly overruled.6 See Shalala v. Illinois Council on Long Term Care, Inc., 529 U. S. 1, 18 (2000). Neither of them arose under our original jurisdiction, and neither cited Arizona v. California or discussed—at all—the sovereign immunity issue that case addressed. That sovereign immunity is a personal privilege of the States says noth­ ing about whether that privilege “is not compromised,” Arizona v. California, supra, at 614, by an additional, nonsovereign plaintiff’s bringing an entirely overlapping claim for relief that burdens the State with no additional defense or liability.7

North Carolina contends that Arizona v. California cannot apply to the Commission’s claims, because the Commission does not—indeed, cannot—assert the same claims or seek the same relief as the plaintiff States. We disagree. In the bill of complaint, the States and the Commission assert the same claims and request the same relief. Bill of Complaint ¶¶62–86 and Prayer for Relief. Their claim for restitution of $80 million cannot, given the other allegations of the complaint, be thought to be $80 million payable to each of the four plaintiff States and the Commission.

North Carolina argues, however, that summary judg­ ment in its favor is appropriate because it is clear that the Commission, and not the plaintiff States, provided $80 million to North Carolina—wherefore, as a matter of law, only the Commission can claim entitlement to $80 million, either as a measure of damages for breach of the Compact under Counts I and II of the bill of complaint, see Re­ statement §370, Comment a, and §373, or under the un­ just enrichment, promissory estoppel, and money-had-and­ received theories of recovery in Counts III, IV, and V, see, e.g., Restatement of Restitution §1, Comment a (1936). And, it contends, a stand-alone suit by the Commission is barred by sovereign immunity.

With regard to Counts I and II, at least, we disagree. The Commission’s claims under those Compact-related Counts are wholly derivative of the States’ claims. See Arizona v. California, supra, at 614. The Commission is “a legal entity separate and distinct from” the States that are parties to the Compact. Art. 4(M)(1), 99 Stat. 1877. Since it is not a party it has neither a contractual right to performance by the party States nor enforceable statutory rights under Article 5 of the Compact, see Bennett v. Spear, 520 U. S. 154, 162–163 (1997). The Compact does, however, authorize the Commission to “act or appear on behalf of any party [S]tate or [S]tates . . . as an intervenor or party in interest before . . . any court of law,” Art. 4(E)(10), 99 Stat. 1875, and it is obviously in this capacity that the Commission seeks to vindicate the plaintiff States’ statutory and contractual rights in Counts I and II. Its Count I and Count II claims therefore rise or fall with the claims of the States. While the Commission may not bring them in a stand-alone action under this Court’s original jurisdiction, see §1251(a), it may assert them in this Court alongside the plaintiff States, see Arizona v. California, 460 U. S., at 614. The summary judgment disallowing the underlying claims on their merits renders the sovereign immunity question with regard to any relief the Commission alone might have on those claims moot.

Counts III–V, which do not rely upon the Compact, stand on a different footing. As to them, while the Com­ mission again seemingly makes the same claims and seeks the same relief as the States, it is conceivable that as a matter of law the Commission’s claims are not identical. The Commission can claim restitution as the party that paid the money to North Carolina; the other plaintiffs cannot claim it on that basis. Whether this means that the claims are not identical for Arizona v. California pur­ poses, and that the Commission’s Counts III–V claims must be dismissed on sovereign immunity grounds, is a question that the Special Master declined to resolve until the merits issues were further clarified. We have ap­ proved his deferral of those issues, and we likewise ap­ prove his deferral of the related sovereign immunity issue.