Federal Maritime Comm'n v. South Carolina Ports Authority, 535 U.S. 743, 35 (2002)

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Cite as: 535 U. S. 743 (2002)

Breyer, J., dissenting

justified? As I have said, I cannot find that principle anywhere in the Constitution.

II

The Court's principle lacks any firm anchor in the Constitution's text. The Eleventh Amendment cannot help. It says:

"The Judicial power of the United States shall not . . . extend to any suit . . . commenced or prosecuted against one of the . . . States by Citizens of another State." (Emphasis added.)

Federal administrative agencies do not exercise the "[j]udicial power of the United States." Compare Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22 (1932) (explaining why ordinary agency adjudication, with safeguards, is not an exercise of Article III power), with Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U. S., at 890-891 (Tax Court, a special Article I court, exercises Article III power), and Williams v. United States, 289 U. S. 553, 565- 566 (1933) (same as to Court of Claims). Of course, this Court has read the words "Citizens of another State" as if they also said "citizen of the same State." Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U. S. 1 (1890). But it has never said that the words "[j]udicial power of the United States" mean "the executive power of the United States." Nor should it.

The Tenth Amendment cannot help. It says:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

The Constitution has "delegated to the United States" the power here in question, the power "[t]o regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States." U. S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 3; see California v. United States, 320 U. S. 577, 586 (1944). The Court finds within this delegation a hidden reservation, a reservation that, due to sovereign immunity, embodies the legal principle the Court enunciates.

777

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