Alden v. Maine

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Alden v. Maine
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 31, 1999 Decided June 23, 1999
Full case name	Alden et al. v. Maine
Citations	527 U.S. 706 (more) 119 S. Ct. 2240; 144 L. Ed. 2d 636
Case history
Prior	Certiorari to the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine
Holding
Article I of the United States Constitution does not provide Congress with the ability to subject nonconsenting states to private suits for damages in its own courts.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Thomas
Dissent	Souter, joined by Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer
Laws applied
U.S. Const. arts. I, § 8, III, § 2 U.S. Const. amend. XI

Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706 (1999), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States about whether the United States Congress may use its Article I powers to abrogate a state's sovereign immunity from suits in its own courts, thereby allowing citizens to sue a state in state court without the state's consent.