The question
Whether the New Jersey Transit Corporation is an arm of the State of New Jersey entitled to share in New Jersey's interstate sovereign immunity.
Galette v. New Jersey Transit Corp.
What the Court decided
The Court held that NJ Transit is not an arm of New Jersey and cannot claim the State's interstate sovereign immunity, so the suits against it may proceed. The reason is that sovereign immunity is personal to the State and reaches only arms of the State itself, not legally independent entities the State creates. NJ Transit was chartered as a body corporate and politic with its own power to sue and be sued, and its organic statute makes its debts and liabilities its own rather than the State's.
How the justices split
UnanimousThe Court's opinion
Sotomayor, joined by Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kagan, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Jackson
Sovereign immunity is personal to the State and extends only to arms of the State, not to legally independent entities the State creates. Whether an entity is an arm of the State is a question of federal law answered by the state-law provisions defining the entity's character. The Court's cases have treated the corporate form and separate legal personhood as central markers, and an entity chartered as a corporation that can sue and be sued and whose judgments are satisfied from its own property rather than the State's is not an arm of the State. NJ Transit was created as a body corporate and politic with those powers, and its organic statute provides that its debts and liabilities are not the State's, so it is not an arm of New Jersey.
How we know · 5 sourced claims
NJ Transit Corporation is not an arm of New Jersey and is not entitled to share in New Jersey's interstate sovereign immunity.
Source: syllabus, Held
Justice Sotomayor delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
Source: syllabus, lineup
Sovereign immunity is personal to the State and extends only to arms of the State itself, not to legally independent entities that the State creates.
Source: syllabus, Held
Whether an entity is an arm of the State is a question of federal law answered by considering the provisions of state law that define the entity's character.
Source: syllabus, Held
NJ Transit's organic statute provides that no debt or liability of the corporation shall constitute a debt or liability of the State.
Source: syllabus, Held