Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-86_l5gm.pdf
Page Number: 38.0

Cite as:  598 U. S. ____ (2023) 

5 

GORSUCH, J., concurring in judgment 

worse,  it  exhibits  familiarity  with  none  of  them.  No  one 
disputes  that  §1331  represents  a  valid  exercise  of  Con-
gress’s authority to regulate the jurisdiction of the district 
courts.    No  one  questions  that  §1331  permits  cases  like 
those before us to proceed.  No Member of the Court points 
to any statute Congress has adopted that speaks otherwise. 
Under the law, that should be the end of the matter.  But 
under Thunder Basin, courts may refuse individuals their 
right to a judicial forum based on nothing more than sup-
positions  about  “implici[t]”  congressional  “inten[tions].” 
Ante, at 7.  Divesting jurisdiction by mere implication goes 
from out-of-bounds to the name of the game.  Along the way, 
this Court arrogates to itself a power to control the jurisdic-
tion of lower federal courts that the Constitution reserves 
to Congress. 

All  to  what  end?  At  bottom,  Thunder  Basin rests  on  a 
view that it is sometimes more important to allow agencies 
to  work  without  the  bother  of  having  to  answer  suits 
against  them  than  it  is  to  allow  individuals  their  day  in 
court.  But when Congress holds that view, it does not ask 
us to juggle a variety of factors and then guess at the im-
plicit intentions of legislators past.  It simply tells us.  See, 
e.g., 12 U. S. C. §1818(i)(1) (“[E]xcept as otherwise provided 
in this section or under section 1831o or 1831p–1 of this ti-
tle no court shall have jurisdiction to affect by injunction or 
otherwise the issuance or enforcement of any notice or order 
under  any  such  section”);  42  U. S. C.  §405(h)  (“No  action 
against the United States, the Commissioner of Social Se-
curity, or any officer or employee thereof shall be brought 
under  section  1331  or  1346  of  title  28  to  recover  on  any 
claim arising under this subchapter”).2 

—————— 

2 These  are only  a  few  of  the  conceptual  problems  with  the  Thunder 
Basin project.  Here’s another:  If the Thunder Basin factors really did 
delineate the bounds of §1331 jurisdiction, a district court would have to 
balance them in every case where there is even the possibility of parallel 
agency  proceedings.  That  would  hold  true  regardless  of  whether  the