Rights without remedy

With one hand, the Supreme Court struck a blow for states’ rights Wednesday. With the other, it slapped around states’ workers and employers.

By a 5-4 vote, the Supremes ruled that Maine probation officers cannot sue the state in state court for overtime pay they claim is owed them under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The majority opinion was that Congress’s authority over the states must end somewhere, and the ability to shortchange state workers is as good a place as any. The minority view was that denying anyone access to the courts is indefensible; holding private employers to a higher standard than that business enterprise known as state government is just plain wrong.

In another decision — same vote, same day — the court ruled that the state of Florida cannot be sued for violating federal trademark and copyright laws. Again, private-sector violators pay the price; the state gets a walk.

The question of federal authority over state sovereignty has been a sore spot since the founding of the republic. But even the most fervent federalists never imagined the answer would be to place state government as an employer above the law and state employees and private employers beneath it. For all the grousing state governments do about federal intrusion — environmental laws, education mandates and the like — stiffing state workers is a sorry place to take a stand. And it will certainly be fun to watch what happens the next time the state hauls some mom-and-pop business into court for refusing to pay time-and-a-half.

The majority of justices maintain that the Maine probation officers are not without recourse: They can sue the state in federal court. All they need is a federal prosecutor willing to take on their case, and the cases of every victimized state worker in every state. Recourse exists, but only in theory.

The problem with this court is not that it has a conservative tilt. The nation has had conservative courts before and been just fine. The problem is that it is a court dominated by theoreticians — if the ability to seek redress exists by the wildest stretch of the imagination, it exists. This country’s justice system is founded upon the principle that every right guaranteed by law has a remedy, every person denied a right has a way to get it back. Theoretical ways don’t count.

Almost as bad as what this decision says about the U.S. Supreme Court is what this case says about the state of Maine. These probation officers have been trying to get paid for work performed since 1993; six legislative sessions have come and gone with nothing done in their behalf. Meanwhile, it has become quite the fashion in Augusta to fret about Mainers’ low incomes, about the flight of our brightest young people to more rewarding elsewheres, about how difficult it is to recruit and retain good people for civil service, and, most of all, about whether Maine has an oppressive business climate.

At least that last worry has been assuaged. Maine’s business climate is wonderful — but only for that business known as state government.