460
Opinion of the Court
B
On October 14, 1994, Carl H. Jinks was arrested and jailed for failure to pay child support. Four days later, while confined at respondent's detention center, he died of complications associated with alcohol withdrawal. In 1996, within the applicable statute of limitations, petitioner Susan Jinks, Carl Jinks's widow, brought an action in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina against respondent, its detention center director, and its detention center physician. She asserted a cause of action under Rev. Stat. § 1979, 42 U. S. C. § 1983, and also supplemental claims for wrongful death and survival under the South Carolina Tort Claims Act. See S. C. Code Ann. § 15-78-10 et seq. (West Supp. 2002). On November 20, 1997, the District Court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment on the § 1983 claim, and two weeks later issued an order declining to exercise jurisdiction over the remaining state-law claims, dismissing them without prejudice pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 1367(c)(3).
On December 18, 1997, petitioner filed her wrongful-death and survival claims in state court. After the jury returned a verdict of $80,000 against respondent on the wrongful-death claim, respondent appealed to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which reversed on the ground that petitioner's state-law claims were time barred. Although they would not have been time barred under § 1367(d)'s tolling rule, the State Supreme Court held that § 1367(d) was unconstitutional as applied to claims brought in state court against a State's political subdivisions, because it "interferes with the State's sovereign authority to establish the extent to which its political subdivisions are subject to suit." 349 S. C. 298, 304, 563 S. E. 2d 104, 107 (2002).
We granted certiorari, 537 U. S. 972 (2002).
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