| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | ME employs some people, and they think that the state violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provisions about overtime pay. |
| Posture: | Filed in federal court, but the Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida is decided, and that says that Congress can't abrogate State sovereign immunity, so they re-file in state court. Dismissed. |
| Issue: | Can congress require nonconsenting states to answer private suits in state court? |
| Holding: | No. Affirmed. |
| Rule: | 11A codifies sovereign immunity. |
| Reasoning: | The power to press a state's own courts into federal service to coerce other branches of the state is the power to commandeer the whole machinery of the state. There are limits on that immunity: states can waive it, 14A allows some causes of action. But basically if congress wants to make states do something, they can't use the states to get it done. |
| Dicta: | The allocation of scarce resources among competing needs an interests lies at the heart of the political process. |