Court Opinion

ID: 9426528
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:18:12.918605+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:01.486972
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Brennan,
concurring in the judgment.
This suit was brought by present and retired employees of the State of Connecticut against the State Treasurer, the State Comptroller, and the Chairman of the State Employees’ Retirement Commission. In that circumstance, Connecticut may not invoke the Eleventh Amendment, since that Amendment bars only federal-court suits against States by citizens of other States. Rather, the question is whether Connecticut may avail itself of the nonconstitutional but ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity as a bar to a claim for damages under Title VII. In my view Connecticut may not assert sovereign immunity for the reason I expressed in dissent in Employees v. Missouri Public Health Dept., 411 U. S. 279, 298 (1973): The States surrendered that immunity, in Hamilton’s words, “in the plan of the Convention” that formed the Union, at least insofar as the States granted Congress *458specifically enumerated powers. See id., at 319 n. 7; Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U. S. 651, 687 (1974) (Brennan, J., dissenting); Parden v. Terminal R. Co., 377 U. S. 184 (1964). Congressional authority to enact the provisions of Title VII at issue in this case is found in the Commerce Clause, Art. I, § 8, cl. 3, and in § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, two of the enumerated powers granted Congress in the Constitution. Cf. Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 U. S. 112, 131-134 (1970) (Black, J.); id., at 135-150 (Douglas, J.); id., at 216-217 (Harlan, J.); id., at 236-281 (Brennan, White, and Marshall, JJ.) ; id., at 282-284 (Stewart, J.); Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U. S. 641, 651 (1966). I remain of the opinion that “because of its surrender, no immunity exists that can be the subject of a congressional declaration or a voluntary waiver.” Employees v. Missouri Public Health Dept., supra, at 300.
I therefore concur in the judgment of the Court.