SUPREME COURT BACKS SOUTH CAROLINA PORTS AUTHORITY
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the South Carolina State Ports Authority’s sovereign immunity as a state agency bars the Federal Maritime Commission from adjudicating a private party’s complaint against the SCSPA. The high court’s verdict was 5-4.
South Carolina Maritime Services, Inc., had filed a complaint with the FMC that SCSPA had violated the Shipping Act of 1984 when the ports authority denied Maritime Services permission to berth a cruise ship at the SCSPA’s port facility in Charleston, S.C.
The FMC referred the complaint to an administrative law judge, who found that the SCSPA, as an arm of the State of South Carolina, was entitled to sovereign immunity and dismissed the complaint.
The FMC then reversed the law judge’s ruling, on grounds that state sovereign immunity covers proceedings before judicial tribunals, not Executive Branch agencies. When the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the FMC’s ruling, the FMC appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court’s majority stated that the FMC’s position “reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of sovereign immunity’s primary purpose, which is not to shield state treasuries, but to accord States the respect owed them as joint sovereigns,” it said.
“Dual sovereignty is a defining feature of the Nation’s constitutional blueprint, and an integral component of the sovereignty retained by the States when they entered the Union is their immunity from private suits,” the majority of the high court concluded.