Jinks v. Richland County, 538 U.S. 456, 9 (2003)

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464

JINKS v. RICHLAND COUNTY

Opinion of the Court

with the assurance that state-law claims asserted under § 1367(a) will not become time barred while pending in federal court.

We are also persuaded, and respondent does not deny, that § 1367(d) is "plainly adapted" to the power of Congress to establish the lower federal courts and provide for the fair and efficient exercise of their Article III powers. There is no suggestion by either of the parties that Congress enacted § 1367(d) as a "pretext" for "the accomplishment of objects not entrusted to the [federal] government," McCulloch, supra, at 423, nor is the connection between § 1367(d) and Congress's authority over the federal courts so attenuated as to undermine the enumeration of powers set forth in Article I, § 8, cf. United States v. Lopez, 514 U. S. 549, 567-568 (1995); United States v. Morrison, 529 U. S. 598, 615 (2000).

Respondent and its amici further contend, however, that § 1367(d) is not a "proper" exercise of Congress's Article I powers because it violates principles of state sovereignty. See Printz v. United States, 521 U. S. 898, 923-924 (1997). Respondent views § 1367(d)'s tolling rule as a regulation of state-court "procedure," and contends that Congress may not, consistent with the Constitution, prescribe procedural rules for state courts' adjudication of purely state-law claims. See, e. g., Bellia, Federal Regulation of State Court Procedures, 110 Yale L. J. 947 (2001); Congressional Authority to Require State Courts to Use Certain Procedures in Products Liability Cases, 13 Op. Off. Legal Counsel 372, 373-374 (1989) (stating that "potential constitutional questions" arise when Congress "attempts to prescribe directly the state court procedures to be followed in products liability cases"). Assuming for the sake of argument that a principled dichotomy can be drawn, for purposes of determining whether an Act of Congress is "proper," between federal laws that regulate state-court "procedure" and laws that change the "substance" of state-law rights of action, we do not think that

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