Court Opinion

ID: 9705591
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:12:56.899294+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:12.706925
License: Public Domain

LIPEZ, Justice,
concurring.
Although I recognize that our doctrine of sovereign immunity requires the result announced here, I am troubled by the Court’s conclusion that “[t]he State is protected by sovereign immunity even though the prior notice given to the class members was inadequate and may have constituted a denial of due process.” The proposition that relief from a due process violation of the Federal Constitution can be barred by a state doctrine of sovereign immunity is difficult to reconcile with the supremacy of the Federal Constitution. Nevertheless, I agree, in light of Thiboutot v. State, 405 A.2d 230, 236-37 (Me.1979), aff'd on other grounds, 448 U.S. 1, 100 S.Ct. 2502, 65 L.Ed.2d 555 (1980), and Drake v. Smith, 390 A.2d 541, 543, 546 (Me.1978), that we have relied in the past on federal Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity jurisprudence to develop our own doctrine of sovereign immunity. Plaintiffs have not challenged this reliance, choosing instead to argue, incorrectly, that the notice relief ordered by the Superior Court was prospective only and did not implicate sovereign immunity. Therefore, this is not a proper case in which to examine the incorporation of Eleventh Amendment principles into our state doctrine of sovereign immunity.