Opinion of the Court
inconsistent with our decisions construing state sovereign immunity as a "personal privilege." College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd., 527 U. S. 666, 675 (1999) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Alden, 527 U. S., at 758. But nothing in those cases suggests that Arizona v. California has been implicitly overruled.[1] See Shalala v. Illinois Council on Long Term Care, Inc., 529 U. S. 1, 18 (2000). Neither of them arose under our original jurisdiction, and neither cited Arizona v. California or discussed—at all—the sovereign immunity issue that case addressed. That sovereign immunity is a personal privilege of the States says nothing about whether that privilege "is not compromised," Arizona v. California, supra, at 614, by an additional, nonsovereign plaintiff's bringing an entirely overlapping claim for relief that burdens the State with no additional defense or liability.[2]
North Carolina contends that Arizona v. California cannot apply to the Commission's claims, because the Commission does not—indeed, cannot—assert the same claims or seek the same relief as the plaintiff States. We disagree. In the bill of complaint, the States and the Commission assert the same claims and request the same relief. Bill of Complaint ¶¶62–86 and Prayer for Relief. Their claim for restitution of $80 million cannot, given the
- ↑ North Carolina has not asked us to overrule Arizona v. California, 460 U. S. 605 (1983). We decline to do so on our own motion and without argument. We therefore do not address the merits of The Chief Justice's dissent.
- ↑ North Carolina also asserts that our decisions in Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U. S. 89 (1984), and County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation of N. Y., 470 U. S. 226 (1985), undermine Arizona v. California, supra, at 614. They do not. In neither case were there entirely overlapping claims for relief between sovereign and nonsovereign plaintiffs. See Pennhurst, supra, at 103, n. 12. Indeed, in County of Oneida there was no sovereign plaintiff.
