immunity grounds, but we reversed and remanded, holding that the Eleventh Amendment did not provide the State with sovereign immunity from FLSA claims in state courts. Id., 962 S.W.2d 773.
The Supreme Court of the United States, in Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706 (1999), abrogated Jacoby. In Alden, a group of probation officers in Maine filed suit against their employer, the State, alleging that the State violated provisions of the FLSA. The lower federal and state courts dismissed based on sovereign immunity. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and recognized that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court's opinion conflicted with this court's Jacoby opinion. The Court held that Congress cannot subject a State to an action in state court without its consent. Id. at 758.
We reverse the circuit court's ruling for the following reasons. First, this appeal involves a question of state constitutional law. In Jacoby, this court applied federal constitutional law to a federal statute. Jacoby does not apply to the case at bar. The present case concerns our interpretation of the validity of section 11-4-218(e) vis-à-vis article 5, section 20 of the Arkansas Constitution. Thus, the circuit court's reliance on Jacoby was in error.
Second, we acknowledge that the General Assembly enacted the AMWA and allowed "an action for equitable and monetary relief against [the State]." Ark. Code Ann. § 11-4-218(e). Nevertheless, we conclude that the legislative waiver of sovereign immunity in section 11-4-218(e) is repugnant to article 5, section 20 of the Arkansas Constitution. In reaching this conclusion, we interpret the constitutional provision, "The State of Arkansas shall never be made a defendant in any of her courts," precisely as it reads. The drafters of
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