> Judge Easterbrook held that Title VII complainants against state defendants
> could bring their Title VII accommodation cases in state court, but under
> federal law.How does that result square with Alden v. Maine, holding that
> states were immmune from FLSA cases in state court?.
> Marc Stern
Here's the relevant discussion from the Endres case:
The parties' dispute concerns venue, not substance: it is the validity of § 701(a), to the extent it authorizes private parties to sue a state in federal court, and not the validity of § 701(j), that is at issue--for legislation based on the commerce clause may be applied to states (as employers) via suits brought by the federal government in federal court, or via private suits in state courts that are already open to litigation against the state. See Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 144 L. Ed. 2d 636, 119 S. Ct. 2240 (1999).The key is that a state may consent to suit and limit that consent to suits in state court. In Alden, the state hadn’t consented to the FLSA suits.
Ann
--
Ann Althouse
Robert W. & Irma M. Arthur-Bascom Professor
University of Wisconsin Law School
976 Bascom Mall
Madison, Wisconsin 53706
