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WILLIAMS V. UNITED STATES, 289 U. S. 553 (1933) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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1. The judicial power of the Court of Claims is not vested in virtue of Art. III of the Constitution, so as to bring its judges within the protection of that Article as to tenure of office and compensation. Ex parte Bakelite Corp., 279 U. S. 438. Expressions in @ 80 U. S. 567-568, 289 U. S. 581.
4. The judicial power of Art. III does not attach to the Court of Claims in virtue of the consent of the United States to be sued therein coupled with the clause of that Article extending the judicial power of the United States to "controversies to which the United States shall be a party." Expressions in Minnesota v. Hitchcock, 185 U. S. 373, and Kansas v. United States, 204 U. S. 331, disapproved. Pp. 289 U. S. 571, 289 U. S. 577. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
7. In the light of the rule of sovereign immunity from suit, which was well settled and understood when the Constitution was framed, the proposition that Art. III intended to include suits against the United States is inadmissible. @ 2 U. S. 573.
12. A power which may be devolved at the will of Congress upon any of the three departments plainly is not within the doctrine of the separation and independent exercise of governmental powers contemplated by the tripartite distribution of such powers P. 289 U. S. 580. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Response to questions certified by the Court of Claims, arising in a suit brought in that court by one of its judges against the United States for the purpose of testing the constitutionality of a reduction of his official salary. Cf. the preceding report of O'Donoghue v. United States, ante, p. 289 U. S. .516. This case was argued with that one. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Plaintiff is, and since November 11, 1929, has been, a judge of the Court of Claims of the United States. Since his entry upon the duties of his office, and until June 30, 1932, he received a salary at the rate of $12,500 per annum, as fixed by the Act of December 13, 1926, c. 6, § 1, 44 Stat. 919. Since that date, he has been paid at the rate of $10,000 per annum under a ruling of the Comptroller General of the United States. Compare O'Donoghue v. United States, ante, p. 289 U. S. 516. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In the O'Donoghue case, supra, we have discussed in some detail the purposes which led the framers of the Constitution to incorporate in that instrument the provisions in respect of the permanent tenure of office and the undiminishable character of the compensation of the judges, and have pointed out that the judges of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia plainly come within the spirit and reason of the compensation provision, and must be held to fall within its intent unless that conclusion is precluded by other considerations. Much of what is there said may also be said in respect of the Court of Claims. It is a court of great importance, dealing with claims against the United States which, in the aggregate, amount to a vast sum every year. The questions which it considers call for chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
That court was first established by the Act of February 24, 1855, c. 122, 10 Stat. 612, entitled, "An Act to establish a Court for the Investigation of Claims against the United States." It was to consist of three judges, to hold their offices during good behavior. The act provided that the court should hear and determine certain claims against he government of the United States, and also all claims which might be referred to the court by either house of Congress. The court was to keep a record of its proceedings in each case and make a report to Congress for the action of that body. By the Act of March 3, 1863, c. 92, 12 Stat. 765, the court was for the first time authorized to render final judgments, from which an appeal was allowed in certain cases. Section 14 of that act provided: chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The conclusion, therefore, was that Congress could neither chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The decision of the Gordon case in 2 Wallace was announced on March 10, 1865. At the next session of Congress § 14 was repealed. Chapter 19, 14 Stat. 9. Since that time, it never has been doubted that Congress may authorize an appeal to this Court from a final judgment or decree of the Court of Claims, United States v. Jones, 119 U. S. 477, 119 U. S. 478-479; In re Sanborn, 148 U. S. 222, 148 U. S. 225; Luckenbach S.S. Co. v. United States, 272 U. S. 533, 272 U. S. 536 et seq., or that the judgment of this Court rendered on such appeal constitutes a final determination of the matter. 89 U. S. 647. It is equally certain that the judgments of the Court of Claims, where no appeal is taken, under existing laws are absolutely final and conclusive of the rights of the parties unless a new trial be granted by that court as provided by law. [email protected] Indeed, as appears from the cases already cited and others, such finality and conclusiveness must be assumed as a necessary prerequisite to the exercise of appellate jurisdiction by this Court.
That judicial power apart from that article may be conferred by Congress upon legislative courts, as well as upon constitutional courts, is plainly apparent from the opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in @ 26 U. S. 546, dealing with the territorial courts. "The jurisdiction," he said,
That is to say (1) that the courts of the territories (and, of course, other legislative courts) are invested with judicial power, but (2) that this power is not conferred by the third article of the Constitution, but by Congress in the execution of other provisions of that chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The authority to naturalize aliens has been vested in the courts from the beginning of the government, and it cannot be doubted that, in discharging this function, the courts exercise judicial power. But the courts of the states, with the acquiescence of all the departments of the federal government, have also exercised the same jurisdiction during this long period of time, and their authority to do so must be regarded as conclusively established. Levin v. United States, 128 F.8d 6, 830-831. In that case, Judge Sanborn, in a very carefully drawn opinion, pointed out that Congress cannot vest any portion of the judicial power granted by § 1 and defined by § 2 of the third article of the Constitution in courts not ordained and established by itself; * that the judicial power there granted and defined necessarily extended only to the trial of the classes of cases named in § 2, but that these sections neither expressly nor impliedly prohibited Congress from conferring judicial power upon other courts. "Thus," he says,
With the foregoing principles in mind, we come, then, to a consideration of the crucial question here involved -- is the judicial power exercised by the Court of Claims chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It must be conceded at the threshold that this Court in several cases has expressed, more or less irrelevantly, its opinion in the affirmative. Thus, in 80 U. S. 145, after reference to the legislation with respect of the Court of Claims, the view is expressed that such court was thus constituted one of those inferior courts which Congress authorizes. In United States v. Union Pacific R. Co., 98 U. S. 569, 98 U. S. 603, it was said that, under the authority of Art. III, Congress had created the District Courts, the Circuit Courts, and the Court of Claims, and vested each of them with a defined portion of the judicial power found in the Constitution. In Minnesota v. Hitchcock, 185 U. S. 373, 185 U. S. 386, the Court, after directing attention to the fact that the United States could not be sued without its consent, said that, with its consent, it might be sued, in which event the judicial power of the United States extended to such a controversy, and added: "Indeed, the whole jurisdiction of the court of claims rests upon this proposition." See also Kansas v. United States, 204 U. S. 331, 204 U. S. 342; United States v. Louisiana,@ 123 U. S. 32, 123 U. S. 35.
None of these cases involved the question now under consideration, and the expressions referred to were clearly obiter dicta, which, as said by Chief Justice Marshall in @ 19 U. S. 399, "may be respected, but ought not to control the judgment in a subsequent suit, when the very point is presented for decision."
On the other hand, this Court, in Ex parte Bakelite Corp., 279 U. S. 438, in a fully considered opinion holding that the Court of Customs Appeals was a legislative court, definitely took the opposite view. The status of the Court of Claims is there discussed at length, and the conclusion reached that it likewise is a legislative court. "It chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
opinion that the Court of Claims is a legislative court specially created to consider claims for money against the United States, and, on that basis, distinctly recognized that Congress may require it to give advisory decisions. And, in @ 80 U. S. 144-145, this Court described it as having all the functions of a court, but being, as respects its organization and existence, undoubtedly and completely under the control of Congress."
It is true that the foregoing views expressed in the Bakelite case were likewise not strictly necessary to the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Further reflection tends only to confirm the views expressed in the Bakelite opinion as to the status of the Court of Customs Appeals, and we feel bound to reaffirm and apply them. And, giving these views due effect here, we see no escape from the conclusion that, if the Court of Customs Appeals is a legislative court, so also is the Court of Claims. We might well rest the present case upon that determination, but must not do so without considering another view of the question, which seems to find support in some expressions of this Court -- namely, that when the United States consents to be sued, the judicial power of Art. III at once attaches to the court upon which jurisdiction is conferred in virtue of the clause which in comprehensive terms extends the judicial power to "controversies to which the United States shall be a party." chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We first direct attention to the carefully chosen words of § 2, cl. 1, Art. III. By that clause, the judicial power is extended to all cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution, etc.; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. Then the comprehensive word "all" is dropped, and the enumeration continues in terms to apply to controversies (but not to "all") to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more states, etc. The use of the word "all" in some cases, and its omission in others, cannot be regarded as accidental under the rule stated in an early case, @ 39 U. S. 570-571, 614, and ever since fully accepted, that,
The significance of the use of the word "all" in some instances and its omission in others is commented upon by Mr. Justice Story in 14 U. S. 333-336, and it is there suggested that the word "all," which is used in the earlier part of § 2 of the judicial article, was dropped in the latter ex industria, and that from this difference of phraseology, perhaps, a difference of constitutional intention may with propriety be inferred. See also 2 Story on the Constitution. 4th ed., p. 458, § 1674 et [email protected]
The Judiciary Act of 1789 has always been regarded as practically contemporaneous with the Constitution, and, as chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In terms, this amendment includes only citizens or subjects of another or of a foreign state, not citizens of the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
state called to account. And, in December, 1884, a suit was brought in a federal circuit court against the State of Louisiana by a citizen of that state to recover the amount of certain unpaid coupons annexed to an issue of state bonds. Hans v. Louisiana, 24 F. 55. The Circuit Court dismissed the suit upon the ground that the state could not be sued without its consent. The case then came to this Court on error, and the judgment was affirmed. Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U. S. 1. The precise question considered and determined was does the judicial power of the United States extend to a case arising under the Constitution or laws thereof, brought against a state by one of its own citizens? Mr. Justice Bradley delivered the opinion of the Court. Plaintiff in error contended that, being a citizen of Louisiana, the Eleventh Amendment presented no obstacle to his suit, since that amendment prohibits suits against a state only when brought by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of a foreign state. This Court, conceding that the amendment so reads, said that, if there were no other reason or ground for abating the suit, it might be maintainable, with the anomalous result that a state might be sued in the federal courts by its own citizens, though it could not be sued for a like cause of action by citizens or subjects of another or foreign state. But, it said, such a result would be no less startling and unexpected than was the decision in Chisholm v. Georgia, which in effect had been overruled by the Eleventh Amendment, and the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Iredell, which was characterized as able, was distinctly approved. As opposed to the decision in Chisholm v. Georgia, attention also was called to the utterances of Hamilton and others, pending the adoption of the Constitution, to the precise contrary. Hamilton repudiated the suggestion that the citizens of one state would be enabled, under the original draft of chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The view, therefore, that, when congressional consent has been given to the maintenance of suits against the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In @ 59 U. S. 284, it was declared to be beyond the power of Congress either to "withdraw from judicial cognizance any matter which, from its nature, is the subject of a suit at the common law, or in equity, or admiralty" or, on the other hand, to
Since all matters made cognizable by the Court of Claims are equally susceptible of legislative or executive determination, Bakelite case, supra, pp. 279 U. S. 452, 279 U. S. 458, they are, of course, matters in respect of which there is no constitutional right to a judicial remedy, United States v. Babcock, 250 U. S. 328, 250 U. S. 331, and the authority to inquire chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
into and decide them may constitutionally be conferred on a nonjudicial officer or body. In @ 54 U. S. 48, this Court, referring to an act of Congress (passed in pursuance of a treaty), directing that judges of the territorial courts of Florida should examine and adjudge certain claims against the United States for losses suffered as the result of military operations, with power of review reserved to the Secretary of the Treasury, held that the power conferred, although judicial in nature, was nothing more than the power ordinarily given by law to a commissioner appointed to adjust claims under a treaty. "A power of this description," it was said,
The view under discussion -- that, Congress having consented that the United States may be sued, the judicial power defined in Art. III at once attaches to the court authorized to hear and determine the suits -- must then be rejected, for the further reason, or, perhaps, what comes to the same reason differently stated, that it cannot be reconciled with the limitation fundamentally implicit in the constitutional separation of the powers -- namely, that a power definitely assigned by the Constitution to one department can neither be surrendered nor delegated by that department nor vested by statute in another department or agency. Compare Springer v. Philippine Islands, 277 U. S. 189, 277 U. S. 201-202. And since Congress, whenever it thinks proper, undoubtedly may, without infringing the Constitution, confer upon an executive officer or administrative board, or an existing or specially constituted court, or retain for itself, the power to hear and determine controversies respecting claims against the United States, it follows indubitably that such power, in whatever guise or by whatever agency exercised, is no chanroblesvirtualawlibrary