Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-1164_7li8.pdf
Page Number: 18

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

3 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

Court  reaffirmed  this  “settled  principl[e]”  in  the  specific
context  of  “[a]  statute  of  limitations  requiring  that  a  suit 
against the Government be brought within a certain time 
period.”  Id.,  at  608.  Such  a  requirement,  the  Court  ex-
plained, “is one of ” the “terms of [the United States’] con-
sent to be sued” and, therefore, “define[s] th[e] court’s juris-
diction  to  entertain  the  suit.”    Ibid.  (emphasis  added;
internal quotation marks omitted).

Those straightforward principles resolve this case.  The 
Quiet Title Act partially waives the immunity of the United
States by granting federal district courts “exclusive original 
jurisdiction of civil actions under section 2409a to quiet title
to an estate or interest in real property in which an interest
is claimed by the United States.”  28 U. S. C. §1346(f ).  This 
provision’s  cross-reference  to  §2409a  incorporates  several
conditions  on  this  waiver.  For  example,  the  Act  specifies
that the United States “shall not be disturbed in possession
or control” of contested land “pending a final judgment or
decree,  the  conclusion  of  any  appeal  therefrom,  and  sixty 
days,”  and  “if  the  final  determination  [is]  adverse,”  the 
United States shall have the right to purchase the land for 
just compensation.  §2409a(b).  Similarly, the Act provides
that any “civil action against the United States under this
section shall be tried by the court without a jury” and bars
suits based on adverse possession.  §§2409a(f ), (n).  It also 
incorporates  the  time  bar  at  issue  here:  “Any  civil  action
under this section, except for an action brought by a State,
shall be barred unless it is commenced within twelve years
of  the  date  upon  which  it  accrued.  Such  action  shall  be 
deemed to have accrued on the date the plaintiff or his pre-
decessor in interest knew or should have known of the claim 
of the United States.”  §2409a(g). 

These provisions carefully delineate the scope of the Act’s 
limited  waiver  of  sovereign  immunity,  establishing  condi-
tions on which the United States has consented to be sued. 
The United States has not, for example, consented to a jury