Larkins v. Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation

Summary

The Alabama Supreme Court held that the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation was immune from a private USERRA action in state court under Article I, § 14, of the Alabama Constitution. The court concluded that Congress's Article I military powers did not authorize subjecting Alabama to such suits and that Alabama sovereign immunity deprived the courts of subject-matter jurisdiction. The court affirmed summary judgment for the Department without reaching the merits of the USERRA claims.

Holdings

1. Article I, § 14, of the Alabama Constitution makes the State and its agencies absolutely immune from suit in Alabama courts, and that immunity barred Larkins's USERRA claims against the Department.
2. Congress's Article I powers concerning military preparedness did not authorize it to subject Alabama to a private suit in state court notwithstanding Alabama's sovereign immunity.
3. The Department did not waive its sovereign immunity by failing to assert the defense precisely or apparently failing to raise it in the trial court.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Alabama's sovereign immunity under Article I, § 14, of the Alabama Constitution barred Larkins's state-court action against the Department under USERRA.
2. Whether Congress's authority under Article I of the United States Constitution to regulate the military permitted Congress to subject Alabama to a private USERRA suit in state court.
3. Whether the Department waived or forfeited its sovereign-immunity defense by failing to assert it precisely or in the trial court.

Disposition

affirmed