Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1023_m64o.pdf
Page Number: 33

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

29 

Opinion of the Court 

expenditures,” id., at 906, n. 42.  Thus, the suit in Bowen 
“was not merely for past due sums, but for an injunction to 
correct the method of calculating payments going forward.” 
Great-West  Life & Annuity Ins. Co. v. Knudson, 534 U. S. 
204, 212 (2002).  And because the Court of Federal Claims 
“does  not  have  the  general  equitable  powers  of  a  district 
court  to  grant  prospective  relief,”  487  U. S.,  at  905,  the
Court reasoned that Bowen belonged in district court.

Second,  the  parties’  relationship  in  Bowen  also  differs 
from the one implicated here.  The State had employed the 
Administrative Procedure Act in Bowen because of the liti-
gants’  “complex  ongoing  relationship,”  which  made  it  im-
portant that a district court adjudicate future disputes.  Id., 
at 905; see also id., at 900, n. 31.  The Court added that the 
Administrative Procedure Act  “is tailored” to “[m]anaging 
the relationships between States and the Federal Govern-
ment that occur over time and that involve constantly shift-
ing  balance  sheets,”  while  the  Tucker  Act  is  suited  to 
“remedy[ing] particular categories of past injuries or labors 
for  which  various  federal  statutes  provide  compensation.” 
Id., at 904–905, n. 39. 

These  observations  confirm  that  petitioners  properly 
sued the Government in the Court of Federal Claims.  Peti-
tioners’ prayer for  relief under the Risk Corridors statute 
looks  nothing  like  the  requested  redress  in  Bowen.  Peti-
tioners  do  not  ask  for  prospective,  nonmonetary  relief  to 
clarify  future  obligations;  they  seek  specific  sums  already 
calculated, past due, and designed to compensate for com-
pleted labors.  The Risk Corridors statute and Tucker Act 
allow them that remedy.  And because the Risk Corridors 
program expired years ago, this litigation presents no spe-
cial  concern  about  managing  a  complex  ongoing  relation-