## Facts

- The United States Department of Energy (DOE) operated a uranium-processing plant in Fernald, Ohio.
- Ohio sued DOE in federal court alleging violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and corresponding state laws administering analogous permitting programs.
- Ohio sought civil penalties for DOE’s past violations, in addition to other relief.
- The parties entered a consent decree resolving most claims, leaving only the request for civil penalties for past violations, with a stipulated amount if DOE were found liable.
- DOE conceded the statutes allowed coercive fines designed to compel future compliance with court orders, but asserted sovereign immunity from punitive civil penalties for past conduct.

## Issues

1. Whether the CWA and RCRA federal-facilities provisions waive federal sovereign immunity for state-imposed civil penalties for past violations.
2. Whether the CWA and RCRA citizen-suit provisions waive federal sovereign immunity for civil penalties for past violations when they authorize suits against “any person (including … the United States).”
3. Whether statutory language requiring federal agencies to comply with state requirements “in the same manner, and to the same extent” as private entities unambiguously authorizes punitive monetary penalties against the United States.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court held that Congress did not waive federal sovereign immunity from state civil penalties imposed for past violations of the CWA or RCRA.
- The Court rejected waiver arguments under both the federal-facilities provisions and the citizen-suit provisions.
- The Court distinguished permissible coercive sanctions tied to prospective compliance from punitive penalties for past violations, concluding the latter were barred absent clear statutory authorization.
- The Court reversed the lower court rulings to the extent they allowed punitive civil penalties against DOE for past violations.

## Legal Principles

- Waivers of federal sovereign immunity must be unequivocally expressed and are strictly construed in favor of the United States; ambiguity defeats waiver.
- Citizen-suit provisions authorizing suits against the United States do not, without clear text, extend to punitive civil-penalty liability when the incorporated penalty provisions exclude the United States from the class of “persons” subject to fines.
- Federal-facilities provisions requiring compliance “in the same manner, and to the same extent” as nongovernmental entities authorize prospective, coercive enforcement measures, but do not clearly authorize punitive civil penalties for past violations.
- Policy arguments about enforcement symmetry cannot expand sovereign-immunity waivers beyond the statute’s language.

## Conclusion

The Court ruled that, absent an unequivocal waiver, the United States is immune from state civil penalties that punish past violations under the CWA and RCRA, while leaving intact the availability of coercive measures to secure prospective compliance.


United States Department of Energy v. Ohio, 503 U.S. 607 (1992)