Rodriguez v. Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Admin.

• Decision Date: 03 February 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-7029.,05-7029.
• Citation: 435 F.3d 378
• Parties: Emma RODRIGUEZ, Individually and on Behalf of Others Similarly Situated, Appellee v. PUERTO RICO FEDERAL AFFAIRS ADMINISTRATION, and Individual Defendants, et al., Appellants United States of America, Intervenor.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

435 F.3d 378

Emma RODRIGUEZ, Individually and on Behalf of Others Similarly Situated, Appellee v. PUERTO RICO FEDERAL AFFAIRS ADMINISTRATION, and Individual Defendants, et al., Appellants United States of America, Intervenor.

No. 05-7029.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued November 22, 2005.

Decided February 3, 2006.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 03cv02246).

Richard H. Pildes argued the cause for appellants. On the briefs were Lawrence I. Kiern and Gene C. Schaerr. Eric P. Gotting entered an appearance.

Dan Getman argued the cause and filed the brief for appellee.

Scott R. McIntosh, Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, argued the cause for intervenor. With him on the brief were Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, Gregory G. Katsas, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Mark B. Stern, Appellate Litigation Counsel, Allen H. Feldman, Associate Deputy Solicitor, U.S. Department of Labor, Nathaniel I. Spiller, Senior Counselor, and Edward D. Sieger, Senior Attorney. Kenneth L. Wainstein, U.S. Attorney, entered an appearance.

Before: TATEL and GARLAND, Circuit Judges, and EDWARDS, Senior Circuit Judge.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TATEL.

TATEL, Circuit Judge.

The issue presented arises from the intersection of the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act (FRA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and principles of state sovereign immunity as set forth in two Supreme Court decisions: Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44, 116 S.Ct. 1114, 134 L.Ed.2d 252 (1996), and Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 119 S.Ct. 2240, 144 L.Ed.2d 636 (1999). Holding that Article I of the United States Constitution gives Congress no authority to abrogate State sovereign immunity, Seminole Tribe and Alden effectively invalidated the FLSA's private right of action as applied against state agencies. In this case, we must decide whether, despite those two decisions, the FLSA's private right of action still applies against an agency of the Puerto Rican government. Because FRA section 734 provides that "[t]he statutory laws of the United States . . . shall have the same force and effect in Puerto Rico as in the United States," and because Seminole Tribe and Alden have left the FLSA's private right of action without "force and effect" against state agencies "in the United States," we hold that it does not.

I.

Ending the Spanish American War, the 1899 Treaty of Paris ceded Puerto Rico to the United States as a territory entirely subject to Congress's regulatory will. Treaty of Paris, 30 Stat. 1754 (1899). According to the Treaty, "[t]he civil rights and political status of [Puerto Rico's] native inhabitants. . . shall be determined by the Congress." Id. at 1759. Moreover, Article IV of the Constitution authorizes Congress to "make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory . . . belonging to the United States." See U.S. Const. art. IV, § 3, cl. 2.

In a series of statutes beginning with the Foraker Act of 1900 and culminating with the enactment of Public Law 600 in 1950, Congress granted Puerto Rico ever increasing self-governing authority. See Foraker Act, ch. 191, 31 Stat. 77 (1900) (establishing Puerto Rico's first civilian government and vesting it with executive, legislative, and judicial powers); Jones Act of 1917, ch. 145, 39 Stat. 951 (1917) (providing Puerto Rico with a wider degree of local self-government, establishing a territorial bill of rights, and conferring American citizenship on Puerto Rican citizens); Elective Governor Act, Pub. L. No. 80-362, 61 Stat. 770 (1947) (investing the People of Puerto Rico with full control over the executive branch); Act of July 3, Pub. L. No. 81-600, 64 Stat. 319 (1950). "[A]dopted in the nature of a compact," Public Law 600 authorized the People of Puerto Rico to "organize a government pursuant to a constitution of their own adoption." Act of July 3, Pub. L. No. 81-600, 64 Stat. 319 (1950). Through popular referendum, the People of Puerto Rico approved Public Law 600's proposed allocation of power—supreme national power to the U.S. Congress and full local control to the Puerto Rican government—and then adopted a draft constitution. Congress approved the constitution, subject to three amendments: two unrelated to the claim before us and one requiring any future amendments to be "consistent with the resolution enacted by the Congress of the United States approving this constitution, with the applicable provisions of the Constitution of the United States, with the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act, and with Public Law 600, Eighty-first Congress, adopted in the nature of a compact." H.R.J. Res. 430, 82nd Cong. (1952). The Constitutional Convention of Puerto Rico accepted the amendments and then ratified the constitution "in the name of the people." See id. (outlining procedure for ratification); Examining Bd. of Eng'rs, Architects & Surveyors v. Flores de Otero, 426 U.S. 572, 594-95, 96 S.Ct. 2264, 49 L.Ed.2d 65 (1976) (noting Puerto Rico's acceptance of amendments and ratification of the constitution).

Public Law 600 included the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act, Act of July 3, Pub. L. No. 81-600, § 4, 64 Stat. 319 (1950), which codified all earlier statutory provisions regarding Puerto Rico that survived the Compact, including the following language first drafted for the Foraker Act: "[t]he statutory laws of the United States . . . shall have the same force and effect in Puerto Rico as in the United States." 48 U.S.C. § 734; see Jones Act of 1917, ch. 145, § 9, 39 Stat. 954 (1917) (containing section 734's language), Foraker Act, ch. 191 § 14, 31 Stat. 77 (1900) (containing language similar to section 734). Now found in FRA section 734 and central to the issue before us, that language has defined the application of federal law to Puerto Rico since 1900. See, e.g., P.R. Dep't of Consumer Affairs v. Isla Petroleum Corp., 485 U.S. 495, 499, 108 S.Ct. 1350, 99 L.Ed.2d 582 (1988) (relying on section 734 to delineate the test for federal preemption of Puerto Rican law).

The Fair Labor Standards Act protects employees from "labor conditions [that are] detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living," 29 U.S.C. § 202(a). The Act prescribes minimum wage and overtime rates for employees either engaged in interstate commerce or working for employers engaged in interstate commerce. Id. §§ 206, 207. In order "[t]o encourage employees to enforce their FLSA rights in court, and thus to further the public policies underlying the FLSA," Barrentine v. Arkansas-Best Freight Sys., Inc., 450 U.S. 728, 740 n.16, 101 S.Ct. 1437, 67 L.Ed.2d 641 (1981), FLSA section 16(b) provides that "[a]n action to recover" for violations of the Act's minimum wage, overtime, and non-retaliation provisions "may be maintained against any employer (including a public agency) in any Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction by any one or more employees." 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). Congress added the parenthetical reference to public agencies—defined to include both states and territories—to "overcome . . . the Supreme Court [decision] in Employees of the Department of Public Health v. Missouri (411 U.S. 279, 93 S. Ct. 1614, 36 L.Ed.2d 251, April 18, 1973) which stated that Congress had not explicitly provided . . . [that] State and local employees could bring an action against their employer in a Federal court under section 16." H.R. Rep. No. 93-913, at 45 (1974); see also 29 U.S.C. § 203(x) (defining "[p]ublic agency" to include "the government of a State or political subdivision thereof" and "any agency of . . . a State, or a political subdivision of a State"); id. § 203(c) (defining "State" to mean "any State of the United States or the District of Columbia or any Territory or possession of the United States").

In Seminole Tribe, however, the Supreme Court held that Article I gives Congress no authority to divest States of sovereign immunity from suit in federal court. Seminole Tribe, 517 U.S. at 72-73. And three years later in Alden, which involved FLSA section 16(b), the Court extended Seminole Tribe to suits brought in state court. Alden, 527 U.S. at 754. Taken together, Seminole Tribe and Alden mean that state employees no longer have any "court of competent jurisdiction," 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), in which to sue their employers for FLSA violations.

Appellee, Emma Rodriguez, filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia under FLSA section 16(b), alleging that the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA), an executive agency of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, violated the FLSA by underpaying her and then retaliating against her after she complained. PRFAA moved to dismiss, arguing that Seminole Tribe and Alden entitled it to sovereign immunity from FLSA suits. The district court denied the motion, explaining that "[i]t is for Congress, and not this court, to decide, in light of Seminole Tribe and its progeny," whether Puerto Rico should be subject to suit under section 16(b) when States are not. Rodriguez v. P.R. Fed. Affairs Admin., 338 F. Supp. 2d 125, 130 (D.D.C. 2004). PRFAA then moved under section 1292(b) to certify the sovereign immunity question for interlocutory appeal. See 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) (allowing district courts to certify for interlocutory appeal any "controlling question of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion and [if] an immediate appeal . . . may materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation"). The district court granted the motion, Rodriguez v. P.R. Fed. Affairs Admin., No. 03-2246 (D.D.C. Dec. 13, 2004), and PRFAA timely filed a petition for permission to appeal. Fed. R. App. P. 5(a) (requiring that parties petition for permission to bring discretionary appeals "within the time specified by the statute or rule authorizing the appeal"). Because the district court...