## Facts

- Maine probation officers alleged the State violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime provisions and sought back pay and liquidated damages.
- The officers first sued Maine in federal district court; after intervening precedent held Congress could not abrogate state sovereign immunity under Article I in federal court, the federal action was dismissed and affirmed on appeal.
- The officers then filed the same FLSA damages action in Maine state court.
- Maine courts dismissed the state-court suit on sovereign-immunity grounds, concluding Maine was immune from private FLSA damages actions in its own courts.
- The Supreme Court granted review to determine whether Congress may authorize private damages suits against nonconsenting states in state court under Article I, and whether Maine had consented to suit.

## Issues

1. Whether Congress, acting under Article I (including the Commerce Clause), may authorize private suits for damages against a nonconsenting state in the state’s own courts.
2. Whether Maine clearly consented (waived immunity) to private FLSA suits for overtime pay and liquidated damages in Maine courts.

## Decision

- The Court affirmed the judgment dismissing the officers’ state-court FLSA damages action.
- Congress’s Article I powers do not include authority to subject nonconsenting states to private suits for damages in state courts.
- Maine did not clearly waive its immunity to FLSA overtime and liquidated-damages suits in its own courts.

## Legal Principles

- State sovereign immunity is a constitutional limit rooted in the federal structure and the states’ retained sovereignty, not solely in the Eleventh Amendment’s text.
- The absence of Article I power to abrogate state sovereign immunity applies to private damages suits in both federal and state courts.
- A state’s waiver of immunity must be clear and is not lightly implied; immunity concerns include whether and where the state may be sued.
- Congress may authorize private suits against nonconsenting states when acting pursuant to a valid constitutional provision that permits such action (including § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment), but not under Article I alone.
- Federal statutory compliance may be pursued through alternative mechanisms such as enforcement actions by the United States and certain suits against state officials for prospective relief.

## Conclusion

The Court held that Congress cannot, under Article I, require a nonconsenting state to defend a private damages action in its own courts, and it found no clear waiver by Maine; therefore, the probation officers’ FLSA damages claims against the State could not proceed in Maine courts.


Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706 (1999)