Townsel v. Missouri
Decision Date | 13 November 2000 |
Docket Number | No. 99-3873,99-3873 |
Citation | 233 F.3d 1094 |
Parties | (8th Cir. 2000) Regenia G. Townsel, Appellant, v. State of Missouri, Appellee. Submitted: |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
Before RICHARD S. ARNOLD, HANSEN, and BYE, Circuit Judges.
Regenia Townsel appeals the District Court's 1 adverse grant of judgment on the pleadings in her suit under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) against her former employer, the State of Missouri.2 We affirm.
Upon de novo review of the record before us, see Porous Media Corp. v. Pall Corp., 186 F.3d 1077, 1079 (8th Cir. 1999), and consideration of the parties' submissions on appeal, we conclude that the District Court properly dismissed Plaintiff's FMLA claim against Defendant as barred by Eleventh Amendment immunity. See Chittister v. Department of Community and Econ. Dev., 226 F.3d 223, 228-29 (3d Cir. 2000) ( ); Kazmier v. Widmann, 225 F.3d 519, 527-29 (5th Cir. 2000) (section of FMLA allowing leave for plaintiff's own "serious health condition" does not effectively abrogate states' Eleventh Amendment immunity; FMLA "prohibits substantially more state employment decisions than would likely be held unconstitutional under the applicable equal protection, rational basis standard" (quoting Kimel v. Florida Bd. of Regents, 120 S. Ct. 631, 647 (2000)); Sims v. University of Cincinnati, 219 F.3d 559, 566 (6th Cir. 2000) ( ); Hale v. Mann, 219 F.3d 61, 69 (2d Cir. 2000) ( ); Garrett v. University of Ala. At Birmingham Bd. of Trustees, 193 F.3d 1214, 1219 (11th Cir. 1999) (same), cert. granted,3 120 S. Ct. 1669 (2000); Cohen v. Nebraska Dep't of Admin. Servs., 83 F. Supp. 2d 1042, 1045 (D. Neb. 2000) ( ).
The key point is that the FMLA makes illegal a great deal of conduct not even arguably prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment, and provides for remedies a great deal more extensive than the Fourteenth Amendment could even arguably require. Accordingly, we hold that the FMLA is " 'so out of proportion to a supposed remedial or preventive object that it cannot be understood as responsive to, or designed to prevent, unconstitutional behavior.' " Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents, supra, 120 S. Ct. at 647, quoting City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507, 537 (1997). The enactment of the FMLA cannot fairly be said to be an exercise of Congress's power to "enforce . . . the provisions of" the Fourteenth Amendment, in a way authorized by 5 of...
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