802 VERMONT AGENCY OF NATURAL RESOURCES v.
UNITED STATES ex rel. STEVENS Stevens, J., dissenting
sufficient to abrogate any common-law defense of sovereign immunity. Moreover, even if one accepts Seminole Tribe as controlling, the State's immunity claim would still fail. Given the facts that (1) respondent is, in effect, suing as an assignee of the United States, ante, at 773; (2) the Eleventh Amendment does not provide the States with a defense to claims asserted by the United States, see, e. g., United States v. Mississippi, 380 U. S. 128, 140 (1965) ("[N]othing in [the Eleventh Amendment] or any other provision of the Constitution prevents or has ever been seriously supposed to prevent a State's being sued by the United States"); and (3) the Attorney General retains significant control over a relator's action, see 162 F. 3d, at 199-201 (case below), the Court of Appeals correctly affirmed the District Court's order denying petitioner's motion to dismiss. Compare New Hampshire v. Louisiana, 108 U. S. 76 (1883), with South Dakota v. North Carolina, 192 U. S. 286 (1904).12 I would, accordingly, affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
12 The agency argues that this is essentially an "end run" around the Eleventh Amendment. Brief for Petitioner 33. It is not at all clear to me, though, why a qui tam action would be considered an "end run" around that Amendment, yet precisely the same form of action is not an "end run" around Articles II and III.
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