Keeton

We consider in this case whether Congress had the power and intent to abrogate the states’ Eleventh Amendment immunity from claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. We conclude that Congress satisfied the prerequisites to abrogation, and affirm the district court’s order so holding.

The plaintiffs, all educators and employees of the University of Nevada and the University of Nevada System, instituted the instant class action in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada on April 5, 1994 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d (“Title VII”), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 621-634 (“ADEA”). Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants subjected full-time educators over the age of forty holding graduate degrees to inequitable and discriminatory treatment based on age. Plaintiffs requested monetary, injunctive, and declaratory relief.

Defendants moved to dismiss the action for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1). The district court granted the motion with regard to the Plaintiffs’ Title VII claim, but denied the motion as to the ADEA cause of action, finding that Congress had…