See, e.g., Burcham, 2014 Ark. 61 (reversing and dismissing because a sovereign-immunity waiver did not apply).
Reversed and dismissed.
Special Justice CHAD PEKRON joins in this opinion.
BAKER and HART, JJ., dissent.
GOODSON, J., not participating.
KAREN R. BAKER, Justice, dissenting. I must dissent from the majority's decision to hold that the legislative waiver of sovereign immunity found in the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act is unconstitutional. The majority's opinion is patently flawed for several reasons.
First, the majority's holding yields the untenable position that while private employers are required to pay their employees minimum wage, the State may forgo paying its employees the required minimum wage. By way of example, when an act is passed by the legislature or more specifically, when the citizens of Arkansas pass an act to increase the minimum wage, pursuant to the act, private employers are required to compensate their employees in compliance with the act. However, as a result of the majority's holding, the Minimum Wage Act is no longer applicable to the State. Thus, if the State pays its employees below the required minimum wage threshold, State employees will have no available recourse because there is no longer a right to enforce the Act against the State.
Second, the majority opinion appears to attempt to limit its holding to only legislative waivers of sovereign immunity; however, its holding is much more far-reaching. Article 5, section 20 states that "[t]he State of Arkansas shall never be made defendant in any of her courts." Ark. Const. art. 5, § 20. (emphasis added). The word "made" is the past participle
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