National Association of Police Organizations: Press Releases and Bulletins

Attention all state-employed law enforcement officers! Recently, a situation occurred in the state of Maine involving the denial of overtime benefits guaranteed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to law enforcement officers. Could this happen in your state too?

The National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) recently filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in John H. Alden et al. vs. State of Maine, on behalf of involving 64 Maine parole and probation officers who are seeking overtime pay guaranteed to them under FLSA. NAPO got involved in the case, hoping to reverse the judgment of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine which had affirmed the trial court's dismissal of the officers' legitimate claims, and to assure that State employees elsewhere have a remedy to enforce their rights.

Incredibly, the State of Maine violated federal law that protects public workers by denying these officers their overtime pay. And Maine's courts yielded to this violation, by dismissing the officers' claims. However, this dismissal was not based on the merits of their claims, since no trial was ever held. Instead, the trial court dismissed the claims based on Maine's declaration of sovereign immunity to keep the state from being sued in state court. This was clearly done in order to keep from having to pay these officers what is owed to them under federal law.

The outcome of this case is critical to all state employees because it will establish whether state governments may disregard the supremacy of federal law under the Constitution. By asserting sovereign immunity, states may attempt to disregard and ignore FLSA requirements concerning overtime pay and minimum wages, as applied to state employees. In fact, New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin have followed Maine's lead including barring FLSA lawsuits in their courts.

Let me provide some background: FLSA obligates states to compensate covered employees at premium rates for hours worked in excess of the applicable statutory threshold or, alternatively, allows states to provide compensatory time under certain circumstances, with limitations as to maximum number of hours. Law enforcement employees are entitled to overtime pay under the special provisions that apply to such employees. Maine's action seriously violates the Supremacy Clause. The Maine Superior Court's dismissal of employees' FLSA claims stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of the Congress, specifically, in this case, the enactment of the FLSA protections and remedies and their extension to public workers in 1966 and 1974. Therefore, the Maine court's action is preempted by the Supremacy Clause, because it thwarts or conflicts with the FLSA and its enforcement.

Maine's claim of sovereign immunity for the purpose of not paying what is owed to its employees under FLSA therefore violates the Constitution and nullifies the only remedy available to these workers, because state court is the only realistic forum now available for affected employees to vindicate that right. (Several years ago, the Supreme Court shut the door to FLSA lawsuits against state governments in federal courts, under the Seminole Tribe of Florida case.)

By affirming the decision of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, the Supreme Court would be sending a signal to other States that they are free to refuse to hear private enforcement actions against state governments under the FLSA and are therefore able to nullify Congress's extension of the FLSA coverage to all public employees. Allowing some States to effectively bar FLSA lawsuits by their employees, in order to escape the FLSA wage and overtime provisions, while other States allow such lawsuits, could have far-reaching and undesirable consequences. It would create disparate enforcement among the States, with individuals in those States invoking sovereign immunity facing an insurmountable obstacle in vindicating their Federal statutory rights. Significantly, other federal laws protecting employees which are applicable to the States could be negatively impacted if the Supreme Court does not reverse the Maine court's decision. It is inconceivable that the uniformity of federal law and its application as the supreme law of the land could long survive if the lower court's decision is allowed to stand.

Maine State employees have a constitutional congressionally enacted right, under the FLSA, to bring a cause of action against the State of Maine in state court, and Maine's refusal to entertain those actions must be invalidated as unconstitutional!

The National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) is a coalition of police unions and associations from across the United States that serves in Washington, DC to advance the interests of America's law enforcement officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education. Founded in 1978, NAPO now represents more than 4,000 police unions and associations, 250,000 sworn law enforcement officers, 3,000 retired officers and more than 100,000 citizens who share a common dedication to fair and effective crime control and law enforcement.

NOTE TO READER: FOR A COPY OF THE BRIEF, CALL JODY COUSER AT THE NAPO OFFICE (202) 842-3560.