Cite as: 528 U. S. 62 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
575, 582 (1978) ("[B]ut for those changes Congress expressly made [in the ADEA], it intended to incorporate fully the remedies and procedures of the FLSA"). Respondents' argument attempts to create ambiguity where, according to the statute's text and this Court's repeated interpretations thereof, there is none.
Respondents next point to the phrase "court of competent jurisdiction" in § 216(b), and contend that it makes Congress' intent to abrogate less than clear. Relying on our decision in the distinct context of a state waiver of sovereign immunity, Kennecott Copper Corp. v. State Tax Comm'n, 327 U. S. 573 (1946), respondents maintain that perhaps Congress simply intended to permit an ADEA suit against a State only in those cases where the State previously has waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity to suit. We disagree. Our decision in Kennecott Copper must be read in context. The petitioner there contended that Utah had waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity to suit in federal court through a state statute that authorized taxpayers to pay their taxes under protest and " 'thereafter bring an action in any court of competent jurisdiction for the return thereof . . . .' " Id., at 575, n. 1 (quoting Utah Code Ann. § 80-5-76 (1943)). Although the statute undoubtedly provided for suit against the State of Utah in its own courts, we held that the statute fell short of the required "clear declaration by a State of its consent to be sued in the federal courts." 327 U. S., at 579-580 (emphasis added). Section 216(b) contains no such ambiguity. The statute authorizes employee suits against States "in any Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction." § 216(b) (emphasis added). That language eliminates the ambiguity identified in Kennecott Copper—whether Utah intended to permit suits against the sovereign in state court only, or in state and federal court. Under § 216(b), the answer to that question is clear—actions may be maintained in federal and state court. That choice of language sufficiently indicates Congress' in-
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