548
Opinion of Ginsburg, J.
III
We hold that respondent never consented to suit in federal court on petitioners' state law claims and that § 1367(d) does not toll the period of limitations for state law claims asserted against nonconsenting state defendants that are dismissed on Eleventh Amendment grounds. Therefore, § 1367(d) did not operate to toll the period of limitations for petitioners' claims, and we affirm the judgment of the Minnesota Supreme Court dismissing those claims.
It is so ordered.
Justice Ginsburg, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
I join the Court's judgment and its opinion in principal part. I agree with the decision's twin rulings. First, prevailing precedent supports the view that, in the absence of a clear statement of congressional intent to abrogate the States' Eleventh Amendment immunity, 28 U. S. C. § 1367(a)'s extension of federal jurisdiction does not reach claims against nonconsenting state defendants. See ante, at 540-542. Second, absent "affirmative indicatio[n]" by Congress, see Vermont Agency of Natural Resources v. United States ex rel. Stevens, 529 U. S. 765, 787 (2000), § 1367(d)'s tolling provision does not reach claims "asserted," but not maintainable, under § 1367(a) against nonconsenting state defendants. See ante, at 542-545.
The pathmarking decision, it appears to me, is Vermont Agency.1 There, the Court declined to read the word "person," for purposes of qui tam liability, to include a non-consenting State. Bolstering the Court's conclusion in Vermont Agency were the two reinforcements pivotal here:
1 This Court's majority, in contrast to the Minnesota Supreme Court, does not invoke Alden v. Maine, 527 U. S. 706 (1999), in support of today's decision. I joined the dissent in Alden and, in a suitable case, would join a call to reexamine that decision. Cf. post, at 554-555 (Stevens, J., dissenting).
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