Thacker v. Tennessee Valley Authority
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 29, 2019 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- April 29, 2019
- Term
- October Term 2018
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Kagan
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice KAGAN delivered the opinion of the Court. Federal law provides that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a Government-owned corporation supplying electric power to millions of Americans, "[m]ay sue and be sued in its corporate name." Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933 (TVA Act), 48 Stat. 60, 16 U.S.C. § 831c(b). That provision serves to waive sovereign immunity from suit. Today, we consider how far the waiver goes. We reject the view, adopted below and pressed by the Government, that the TVA remains immune from all tort suits arising from its performance of so-called discretionary functions. The TVA's sue-and-be-sued clause is broad and contains no such limit. Under the clause-and consistent with our precedents construing similar ones-the TVA is subject to suits challenging any of its commercial activities. The law thus places the TVA in the same position as a private corporation supplying electricity. But the TVA might have immunity from suits contesting one of its governmental activities, of a kind not typically carried out by private parties. We remand this case for consideration of whether that limited immunity could apply here. I Congress created the TVA-a "wholly owned public corporation of the United States"-in the throes of the Great Depression to promote the Tennessee Valley's economic development. TVA v. Hill , 437 U.S. 153, 157, 98 S.Ct. 2279, 57…
Excerpt of a 19,993-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.