PORT AUTHORITY TRANS-HUDSON CORP. v. FEENEY
No. 89-386
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 26, 1990—Decided April 30, 1990
495 U.S. 299
Joseph Lesser argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Arthur P. Berg, Anne M. Tannenbaum, and Carlene V. McIntyre.
Richard W. Miller argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief was Peter M. J. Reilly.†
JUSTICE O‘CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.
These cases call upon the Court to determine whether the Eleventh Amendment bars respondents’ suits in federal
I
In 1921, New York and New Jersey entered a bistate compact creating the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Authority).
Respondents Patrick Feeney and Charles Foster alleged injuries incurred during their employment with PATH. Both filed separate complaints against PATH in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to recover damages pursuant to the
The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the Eleventh Amendment did not bar Feeney‘s suit because “the Eleventh Amendment immunity either does not extend to [PATH] or has been waived.” 873 F. 2d 628, 628-629 (1989). The court concluded that PATH did not enjoy the States’ sovereign immunity, principally because the treasuries of New York and New Jersey are largely insulated from PATH‘s liabilities. Id., at 631-632. In reaching its conclusion that the States had waived any immunity that PATH possessed, the court relied upon two provisions of an Act governing suits against the Authority and its subsidiaries and passed by New York (in 1950) and New Jersey (in 1951).
“The foregoing consent [of
N. J. Stat. Ann. § 32:1-157 ;N. Y. Unconsol. Laws § 7101 ] is granted upon the condition that venue in any suit, action or proceeding against the Port Authority shall be laid within a county or a judicial district, established by one of said States or by the United States, and situated wholly or partially within the Port of New York District. The Port Authority shall be deemed to be a resident of each such county or judicial district for the purpose of such suits, actions, or proceedings.”N. J. Stat. Ann. § 32:1-162 (West 1963);N. Y. Unconsol. Laws § 7106 (McKinney 1979).
The court concluded that, despite the “somewhat anomalous” location of an indication of waiver in a venue provision, the statutory provisions demonstrated “an intent to allow the Port Authority to be sued in the designated federal courts and is thus an explicit waiver, albeit partial, of the Eleventh Amendment [immunity].” 873 F. 2d, at 633. The Second Circuit reversed the District Court‘s dismissal of Foster‘s complaint on identical grounds. 873 F. 2d 633 (1989). Two days before the Second Circuit issued these decisions, the Third Circuit had reaffirmed and elaborated its conclusion that the States had not waived the sovereign immunity that extended to PATH. See Leadbeater v. Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corp., 873 F. 2d 45 (1989), cert. pending, No. 89-479. That court acknowledged that “[i]t is certainly arguable that the consent to suit statutes, read in light of this venue provision, create the ‘overwhelming implication’ of consent to suit in federal court,” but held that “[n]ot without some unease, we conclude that the venue provision fails to constitute the requisite showing that the states intended to waive P. A. T. H.‘s [E]leventh [A]mendment immunity.” Id., at 49. To resolve this conflict, we granted certiorari to
II
The Eleventh Amendment states: “The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.”
Respondents challenge PATH‘s claim that it is a state agency entitled to the Eleventh Amendment immunity of New York and New Jersey. Petty v. Tennessee-Missouri Bridge Comm‘n, 359 U. S. 275 (1959), guides our resolution of this issue. In Petty, the Court considered whether the Eleventh Amendment barred a federal court from entertaining an action under the
Well-established law governs abrogation and waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity. Because “abrogation of sovereign immunity upsets ‘the fundamental constitutional balance between the Federal Government and the States,‘” Dellmuth v. Muth, supra, at 227 (quoting Atascadero State Hospital, 473 U. S., at 238), and because States are unable directly to remedy a judicial misapprehension of that abrogation, the Court has adopted a particularly strict standard to evaluate claims that Congress has abrogated the States’ sovereign immunity. See id., at 242 (“Congress may abrogate the States’ constitutionally secured immunity from suit in federal court only by making its intention unmistakably clear in the language of the statute“). Respondents do not assert that Congress has abrogated the States’ sovereign immunity through any of the statutes that underlie their claims against PATH, and such arguments would be unavailing. See Welch v. Texas Dept. of Highways and Public Transp., 483 U. S., at 468 (opinion of Powell, J.); id., at 495 (SCALIA, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). Similar solicitude for States’ sovereign immunity underlies the standard that this Court employs to determine whether a State has waived that immunity. The Court will give effect to a State‘s waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity “‘only where stated by the most express language or by such overwhelming implication from the text as [will] leave no room for any other reasonable construction.‘” Atascadero State Hospital, supra, at 239-240 (quoting Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U. S. 651, 673 (1974) (internal quotation omitted)). A State does not waive its Eleventh Amendment immunity by consenting to suit only in its own courts, see, e. g., Florida Dept. of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Florida Nursing Home Assn., 450 U. S. 147, 150 (1981) (per curiam), and “[t]hus, in order for a state statute or constitutional provision to constitute a waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity, it must specify the State‘s intention to subject itself to suit in federal court.” Atascadero State Hospital, supra, at 241.
New York and New Jersey have expressly consented to suit in expansive terms. The statutory consent to suit provision, which provides that the States “consent to suits, actions, or proceedings of any form or nature at law, in equity or otherwise... against the Port of New York Authority,”
In this case, the statutory venue provision suffices to resolve any ambiguity contained in the States’ general consent to suit provision by expressly indicating that the States’ consent to suit extends to suit in federal court. The section provides that “[t]he foregoing consent [of
Finally, petitioner suggests no “reasonable construction,” Atascadero State Hospital, 473 U. S., at 241, that might be given to the venue provision‘s phrase, “judicial district, established... by the United States,” other than that the States consented to suit in federal court. See Brief for Petitioner 36-38; Tr. of Oral Arg. 15-16. We agree with the court below that the phrase cannot reasonably be construed as an ineffectual attempt to limit venue for suits for which Congress has abrogated the States’ immunity. See 873 F. 2d, at 633; see also Leadbeater, 873 F. 2d, at 49 (declining to accept similar construction). Amici curiae supporting petitioner also confess their inability to provide any reasonable alternative construction of the phrase. Brief for Council of State Governments et al. as Amici Curiae 17. The Third Circuit, in the course of upholding petitioner‘s immunity defense in a similar suit, professed similar bafflement regarding the import of the venue provision. See Leadbeater, 873 F. 2d, at 49; supra, at 304. Petitioner essentially presents the choice between giving the venue provision its natural meaning and giving the provision no meaning at all. Charged with giving effect to the statute, we do not find the choice to be a difficult one.
We conclude that the statutory consent to suit provision, elucidated by the venue provision, establishes the States’
Affirmed.
JUSTICE BRENNAN, with whom JUSTICE MARSHALL, JUSTICE BLACKMUN, and JUSTICE STEVENS join, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
While I agree with the Court that New York and New Jersey consented, on behalf of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH), to suit in federal court, I write separately to add that their consent is not necessary to our decision today. I do not join Part II of the Court‘s opinion1 because it presupposes the validity of this Court‘s current characterization of the Eleventh Amendment as cloaking the States with sovereign immunity unless abrogated by Congress or waived by the States themselves. I adhere to my belief that this doctrine “rests on flawed premises, misguided history, and an untenable vision of the needs of the federal system it purports to protect.” Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon, 473 U. S. 234, 248 (1985) (BRENNAN, J., dissenting); see also Welch v. Texas Dept. of Highways and Public Transp., 483 U. S. 468, 497 (1987) (BRENNAN, J., dissenting). Nevertheless, under either the Court‘s or my own view of the Eleventh Amendment,2 PATH and similarly situated interstate entities may be subjected to suit in federal courts.
Respondents seek to hold PATH liable under a variety of federal statutes for injuries they have suffered.3 In my view, the States’ consent is irrelevant to these suits for two reasons. First, the Eleventh Amendment secures States only from being haled into federal court by out-of-state or foreign plaintiffs asserting state-law claims, where jurisdiction is based on diversity. The Amendment did not constitutionalize some general notion of state sovereign immunity; it is a jurisdictional provision. Neither States nor Congress may consent to jurisdiction that is not provided and, therefore, the question is not waiver but reach. In my opinion, the Eleventh Amendment does not reach, and therefore does not bar, suits brought under federal-question or admiralty jurisdiction. See Welch, supra, at 504-516 (BRENNAN, J., dissenting); Papasan v. Allain, 478 U. S. 265, 292-293 (1986) (BRENNAN, J., concurring in part, concurring in judgment in part, and dissenting in part); Green v. Mansour, 474 U. S. 64, 78-79 (1985) (BRENNAN, J., dissenting); Atascadero, supra, at 252-302 (BRENNAN, J., dissenting); see also Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co., 491 U. S. 1, 23 (1989) (STEVENS, J., concurring).
Second, to the extent that States retain a common-law defense of state sovereign immunity, States surrendered that immunity, insofar as challenges under federal statutes are concerned, “‘in the plan of the Convention‘”4 when they
agreed to form a union and granted Congress specifically enumerated powers. See Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U. S. 651, 687 (1974) (BRENNAN, J., dissenting); Employees v. Missouri Dept. of Public Health and Welfare, 411 U. S. 279, 318-322 (1973) (BRENNAN, J., dissenting); see also Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co., supra, at 14 (plurality opinion) (quoting Parden v. Terminal Railway of Alabama Docks Dept., 377 U. S. 184, 191-192 (1964)). Neither the Eleventh Amendment nor the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity, as I view them, would bar respondents’ suits even had they been brought directly against New York or New Jersey because both suits allege violations of federal statutes. Thus, I would affirm the decisions below on that ground.
II
Even under the Court‘s current interpretation of the Eleventh Amendment, however, I do not believe that PATH had any defense to waive. The Eleventh Amendment bars federal jurisdiction only over suits “commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States.” PATH is a subsidiary of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Port Authority) which is a bistate agency created by interstate compact; it is not “one of the United States.” By its terms, then, the Eleventh Amendment would appear to be inapplicable. But this Court has created two very limited exceptions to a literal reading of the phrase “one of the United States,” so that immunity applies: (1) where the entity being sued is so intricately intertwined with the State that it can best be un-
A
The inherent nature of interstate agencies precludes their being found so intricately intertwined with the State as to constitute an “arm of the State.” The Court developed the “arm-of-the-State” doctrine as a tool for determining which entities created by a State enjoy its Eleventh Amendment protection and which do not. This Court has found that a private suit against a state agency is barred by the Eleventh Amendment. See Alabama v. Pugh, 438 U. S. 781, 782 (1978) (reversing a lower court‘s decision to enjoin the State of Alabama and the Alabama Board of Corrections). Nonetheless, this Court has long held that counties and cities are not so integrally related to the State that they are shielded from suit in federal court. In Lincoln County v. Luning, 133 U. S. 529, 530 (1890), the Court held that the Eleventh Amendment does not bar suit against counties in federal court, noting that the “Eleventh Amendment limits the jurisdiction [of the federal courts] only as to suits against a State.” The Court continued: “[W]hile the county is territorially a
In Mt. Healthy City Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U. S. 274, 280 (1977), the Court noted that “[t]he bar of the Eleventh Amendment to suit in federal courts... does not extend to counties and similar municipal corporations” and looked to the “nature of the entity created by state law” to determine whether local school boards in Ohio appeared to be more like a county or city or more like an arm of the State. The Court concluded that the school boards’ extensive powers to issue bonds and levy taxes, and their categorization under state law as a form of political subdivision, rendered them “[o]n balance... more like a county or city.” Ibid.
The rule to be derived from our cases is that the Eleventh Amendment shields an entity from suit in federal court only when it is so closely tied to the State as to be the direct means by which the State acts, for instance a state agency. In contrast, when a State creates subdivisions and imbues them with a significant measure of autonomy, such as the ability to levy taxes, issue bonds, or own land in their own name, these subdivisions are too separate from the State to be considered its “arms.” This is so even though these political subdivisions exist solely at the whim and behest of their State. See, e. g., ibid; Graham v. Folsom, supra, at 252.
In addition, States may not create an interstate agency without the express approval of Congress; they surrendered their right to do so “in the plan of the Convention” when they accepted the Interstate Compact Clause. The Clause provides:
“No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State....”
U. S. Const., Art. I, § 10, cl. 3 .
The Constitution also prohibits States from entering into any “Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation” either with other States or with foreign governments.
Thus, it is not within the autonomous power of any State to create and regulate an interstate agency. Each State‘s sovereign will is circumscribed by that of the other States in the compact and circumscribed further by the veto power relinquished to Congress in the Constitution. If counties are not “arms” of their States merely because the State conferred a certain autonomy on them—an autonomy it can withdraw at
B
Although this Court has held that a suit in which the State, rather than the nominal defendant, is the real party in interest is a suit against “one of the United States” within the meaning of the Eleventh Amendment, a State is the real party in interest generally only when the State is directly liable for a money judgment.9 In Ford Motor Co. v. Department of Treasury of Indiana, 323 U. S. 459, 464 (1945), the Court held that a suit against a state treasury department and the individuals constituting its board for a refund of taxes
Conversely, when a State is not liable for the obligations of an interstate agency, it is not a real party in interest in a suit against that agency. The court below found that no State is liable for PATH‘s obligations. It concluded:
“We believe it clear that a judgment against PATH would not be enforceable against either New York or New Jersey. The Port Authority is explicitly barred from pledging the credit of either state or from borrowing money in any name but its own. Even the provision [permitting] the appropriation of moneys for administrative expenses up to $100,000 per year requires prior approval by the governor of each state and an actual appropriation [by the legislature] before obligations for such expenses may be incurred. Moreover, the [provision‘s] phrase ‘salaries, office and other administrative expenses’ clearly limits this essentially optional obligation of the two states to a very narrow category of expenses and thus also evidences an intent to insulate the states’ treasuries from the vast bulk of the Port Authority‘s operating and capital expenses, including personal injury judgments. No provision commits the treasuries of the two states to satisfy judgments against the Port Authority.” 873 F. 2d 628, 631 (CA2 1989).
Therefore neither New York nor New Jersey is a real party in interest in respondents’ suits, as this Court has understood and applied the concept in the Eleventh Amendment area.
C
This is not to say that the only restriction on whether an interstate agency can be sued in federal court is the Eleventh
But it cannot be disputed that there is no such showing here. Congress has not passed any law conferring any immunity on the Port Authority. Nor did the compact to which Congress consented include any provision attempting to grant immunity from suit in federal court. Consequently, I believe that this Court, following its current view of the Eleventh Amendment, could have rested its decision today on the absence of an Eleventh Amendment defense as well as on waiver.