76
Opinion of the Court
tent, in the ADEA, to abrogate the States' Eleventh Amendment immunity to suits by individuals.
Although Justice Thomas concedes in his opinion that our cases have never required that Congress make its clear statement in a single section or in statutory provisions enacted at the same time, post, at 104-105 (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part), he concludes that the ADEA lacks the requisite clarity because of the "sequence of events" surrounding the enactment and amendment of §§ 216(b) and 626(b), post, at 102. Justice Thomas states that he is unwilling to assume that when Congress amended § 216(b) in 1974, it recognized the consequences that amendment would have for the ADEA. Ibid. We respectfully disagree. The fact that Congress amended the ADEA itself in the same 1974 Act makes it more than clear that Congress understood the consequences of its actions. Indeed, Congress amended § 216(b) to provide for suits against States in precisely the same Act in which it extended the ADEA's substantive requirements to the States. See 1974 Act, § 6(d)(1), 88 Stat. 61 (amending § 216(b)); § 28(a), 88 Stat. 74 (extending ADEA to the States). Those provisions confirm for us that the effect on the ADEA of the § 216(b) amendment was not mere happenstance. In any event, we have never held that Congress must speak with different gradations of clarity depending on the specific circumstances of the relevant legislation (e. g., amending incorporated provisions as opposed to enacting a statute for the first time). The clear statement inquiry focuses on what Congress did enact, not when it did so. We will not infer ambiguity from the sequence in which a clear textual statement is added to a statute.
We also disagree with Justice Thomas' remaining points, see post, at 105-109. Although the ADEA does contain its own enforcement provision in § 626(c)(1), the text of § 626(b) acknowledges § 626(c)(1)'s existence and makes clear that the ADEA also incorporates § 216(b), save as indicated
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