Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/370/530/case.php
Timestamp: 2019-12-15 08:00:27
Document Index: 743728434

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 293', '§ 171', '§ 291', '§ 8', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 7', '§ 5', '§ 14', '§ 2', '§ 1331', '§ 29', '§ 28', '§ 3', '§ 1', '§ 1500', '§ 14', '§ 14', '§ 2518', '§ 9', '§ 1491', '§ 1541', '§ 3011', '§ 1541', '§ 1542', '§ 1071', '§ 145', '§ 141', '§ 144', '§ 1543', '§ 1492', '§ 1491', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1495', '§ 412', '§ 1504', '§ 89', '§ 1505', '§ 8', '§ 2', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 1492', '§ 2509', '§ 1542']

In Ex parte Bakelite Corp., 279 U. S. 438, and Williams v. United States, 289 U. S. 553, this Court held that the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the United States Court of Claims were neither confined in jurisdiction nor protected in independence by Article III of the Constitution, but that both had been created by virtue of other, substantive, powers possessed by Congress under Article I. The Congress has since pronounced its disagreement by providing as to each that "such court is hereby declared to be a court established under article III of the Constitution of the United chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
No. 242 is a suit brought by individual employees in a New York state court to recover damages for breach of a collective bargaining agreement, and removed to the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York by the defendant employer on the ground of diversity of citizenship. The employees' right to recover was sustained by a divided panel of the Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Judge J. Warren Madden, then an active judge of the Court of Claims sitting by designation of the Chief Justice of the United States under 28 U.S.C. § 293(a). [Footnote 2] No. 481 is a criminal prosecution instituted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and resulting in a conviction for armed robbery. The trial was presided over by Judge Joseph R. Jackson, a retired judge of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals sitting by a similar designation. [Footnote 3] The petitioner's application for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Apart from this provision, it is settled that neither the tenure nor salary of federal officers is constitutionally protected from impairment by Congress. Crenshaw v. United States, 134 U. S. 99, 134 U. S. 107-108; cf. 51 U. S. 416-418. The statutory declaration, therefore, that the judges of these two courts should serve during good behavior and with undiminished salary, see note 5 supra, was ineffective to bind any subsequent Congress unless those judges were invested at appointment with the protections of Article III. United States v. Fisher, 109 U. S. 143, 109 U. S. 145; see McAllister v. United States, 141 U. S. 174, 141 U. S. 186. And the petitioners naturally point to the Bakelite and Williams cases, supra,@ as establishing that no such constitutional protection was, in fact, conferred.
The distinction referred to in those cases between "constitutional" and "legislative" courts has been productive of much confusion and controversy. Because of the highly theoretical nature of the problem in its present context, [Footnote 7] we would be well advised to decide these cases on narrower grounds if any are fairly available. But, for reasons that follow, we find ourselves unable to do so. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The rule does not obtain, of course, when the alleged defect of authority operates also as a limitation on this Court's appellate jurisdiction. Ayrshire Collieries Corp. v. United States, 331 U. S. 132 (three-judge court); United States v. Emholt, 105 U. S. 414 (certificate of divided opinion). In other circumstances as well, when the statute claimed to restrict authority is not merely technical, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The alleged defect of authority here relates to basic constitutional protections designed in part for the benefit of litigants. See O'Donoghue v. United States, 289 U. S. 516, 289 U. S. 532-534. It should be examinable at least on direct review, where its consideration encounters none of the objections associated with the principle of res judicata, that there be an end to litigation. At the most is weighed in opposition the disruption to sound appellate process entailed by entertaining objections not raised below, and that is plainly insufficient to overcome the strong interest of the federal judiciary in maintaining the constitutional plan of separation of powers. So this Court has concluded chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The question thus raised is itself of constitutional dimension, and one which we need not reach if an Article III judge was, in fact, assigned. In the companion case, No. 242, the necessity for such a judge is uncontested. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sat to determine a question of state contract law presented for its decision solely by reason of the diverse citizenship of the litigants. [Footnote 8] Authority for the Federal Government to chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
No such course, however, appears to be open. The statutes under which Judge Madden and Judge Jackson were appointed speak of service only on those courts. 28 U.S.C. §§ 171, 211. They were not, as were the judges selected for the late Commerce Court, appointed as "additional circuit judges," Act of June 18, 1910, c. 309, 36 Stat. 539, 540, whose tenure might be constitutionally secured regardless of the fortunes of their courts. See 50 Cong.Rec. 5409-5418 (1913); Donegan v. Dyson, 269 U. S. 49; Frankfurter and Landis, The Business of the Supreme Court (1927), 168-173. It is true that, at the time of Judge Jackson's appointment, there was in force a statute authorizing assignment of Court of Customs and Patent Appeals judges to serve on the courts of the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
A more novel suggestion is that the assignment statute itself, 28 U.S.C. §§ 291-296, authorized the Chief Justice to appoint inferior Article III judges in the course of designating them for service on Article III courts. [Footnote 10] See Shartel, Federal Judges -- Appointment, Supervision, and Removal -- Some Possibilities under the Constitution, 28 Mich.L.Rev. 485 (1930); cf. Ex parte Siebold, 100 U. S. 371, 100 U. S. 397-398; Rice v. Ames, 180 U. S. 371, 180 U. S. 378. But we need not consider the constitutional questions involved in this suggestion, for the statute does not readily lend itself chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is significant that Congress did not enact the present broad assignment statute until after it had declared the Court of Claims and the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals to be constitutional courts. Act of August 25, 1958, 72 Stat. 848. A major purpose of these declarations was to eliminate uncertainty whether regular Article III judges might be assigned to assist in the business of those courts when disability or disqualification made it difficult for them to obtain a quorum. [Footnote 12] Those doubts, suggested by dicta in Ex parte Bakelite Corp., 279 U. S. 438, 279 U. S. 460, would be expanded, rather than allayed, were we to hold that the judges of the Court of Claims and the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals enjoy the protections of Article III while leaving at large the status of those courts. For these various reasons, the constitutional quality of tenure and compensation extended chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Federal Housing Administration v. Darlington, Inc., 358 U. S. 84, 358 U. S. 90; accord, New York, P. & N. R. Co. v. Peninsula Exchange, 240 U. S. 34, 240 U. S. 39. Especially is this so when the Congress has been stimulated by decisions of this Court to investigate the historical materials involved and has drawn from them a contrary conclusion. United States v. Hutcheson, 312 U. S. 219, 312 U. S. 235-237. As examination of the House and Senate Reports makes evident, that is what occurred chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
To give due weight to these congressional declarations is not, of course, to compromise the authority or responsibility chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Constitution nowhere makes reference to "legislative courts." The power given Congress in Art. I, § 8, cl. 9, "To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court," plainly relates to the "inferior Courts" provided for in Art. III, § 1; it has never been relied on for establishment of any other tribunals. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
By these arresting observations, the Chief Justice certainly did not mean to imply that the case heard by the Key West court was not one of admiralty jurisdiction otherwise properly justiciable in a Federal District Court sitting in one of the States. Elsewhere in the opinion, he distinctly referred to the provisions of Article III to show that it was such a case. 1 Pet. at 26 U. S. 545. All the Chief Justice meant, and what the case has ever after been chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The reasons for this are not difficult to appreciate so long as the character of the early territories and some of the practical problems arising from their administration are kept in mind. The entire governmental responsibility in a territory where there was no state government to assume the burden of local regulation devolved upon the National Government. This meant that courts had to be established and staffed with sufficient judges to handle the general jurisdiction that elsewhere would have been exercised in large part by the courts of a State. [Footnote 14] But when the territories began entering into statehood, as they soon did, the authority of the territorial courts over matters of state concern ceased, and, in a time when the size of the federal judiciary was still relatively small, that left the National Government with a significant chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Against this historical background, it is hardly surprising that Chief Justice Marshall decided as he did. It would have been doctrinaire in the extreme to deny the right of Congress to invest judges of its creation with authority to dispose of the judicial business of the territories. It would have been at least as dogmatic, having recognized the right, to fasten on those judges a guarantee chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The touchstone of decision in all these cases has been the need to exercise the jurisdiction then and there and for a transitory period. Whether constitutional limitations on the exercise of judicial power have been held inapplicable has depended on the particular local setting, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
But because Congress may employ such tribunals assuredly does not mean that it must. This is the crucial chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
59 U. S. 284. This passage, cited in both the Bakelite and Williams opinions, [Footnote 22] plainly did not mean that the matters referred to could not be entrusted to Article III courts. Quite the contrary; the explicit predicate to Justice Curtis' argument was that such courts could exercise judicial power over such cases. For the very statute whose authorization of summary distress proceedings was sustained in the [email protected] case also authorized the distrainee to bring suit to arrest the levy against the United States in a Federal District Court. And as to this, the author of the opinion stated, just before his more trenchant remark quoted above:
To deny that Congress may create tribunals under Article III for the sole purpose of adjudicating matters that it might have reserved for legislative or executive decision would be to deprive it of the very choice that Mr. Justice Curtis insisted it enjoys. Of course, possession of the choice, assuming it is coextensive with the range of matters confided to the courts, [Footnote 24] subjects those courts to the continuous possibility that their entire jurisdiction may be withdrawn. See Williams v. United States, 289 U. S. 553, 289 U. S. 580-581. But the threat thus facing their independence is not in kind or effect different from that sustained by all inferior federal courts. The great constitutional compromise that resulted in agreement upon Art. III, § 1, authorized, but did not obligate, Congress to create inferior federal courts. I Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention (1911), 118, 124-125; The Federalist, No. 81 (Wright ed.1961), at 509 (Hamilton). Once created, they passed almost a century without exercising any very significant jurisdiction. Warren, New Light on the History of the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789, 37 Harv.L.Rev. 49, 65-70 (1923); Frankfurter, Distribution of Judicial Power Between United States and State Courts, 13 Cornell L.Q. 499 (1928). Throughout this period and beyond it up to today, they remained constantly subject to jurisdictional curtailment. 4 U. S. 10 note (Chase, J.); chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
44 U. S. 245; 49 U. S. 449; Kline v. Burke Construction Co.,@ 260 U. S. 226, 260 U. S. 233-234. Even if it should be conceded that the Court of Claims or the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals is any more likely to be supplanted, we do not think the factor of constitutional significance. [Footnote 25]
A. Court of Claims. -- The Court of Claims was created by the Act of February 24, 1855, c. 122, 10 Stat. 612, primarily to relieve the pressure on Congress caused by the volume of private bills. As an innovation, the court was at first regarded as an experiment, and some of its creators were reluctant to give it all the attributes of a court by making its judgments final; instead, it was authorized to hear claims and report its findings of fact and opinions to Congress, together with drafts of bills designed to carry its recommendations into effect. § 7, 10 Stat. 613; see Cong.Globe, 33d Cong., 2d Sess. 70-72 (1854) (remarks of Senators Brodhead and Hunter). From the outset, however, a majority of the court's proponents insisted that its judges be given life tenure as a means of assuring independence chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
By the Act of March 3, 1863, c. 92, § 5, 12 Stat. 765, 766, Congress adopted the President's recommendation and made the court's judgments final, with appeal to the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The early appeals entertained by the Court furnish striking evidence of its understanding that the Court of Claims had been vested with judicial power. In De Groot, the court had been given jurisdiction by special bill only after the passage of two private bills had failed to produce agreement by administrative officials upon adequate recompense. This Court was thus presented with a vivid illustration of the ways in which the same matter might be submitted for resolution to a legislative committee, to an executive officer, or to a court, Murray's Lessee, supra, and nevertheless accepted appellate jurisdiction over what was, necessarily, an exercise of the judicial power which alone it may review. @ 5 U. S. 174-175.
After the repeal of § 14, the Court was quick to protect the Court of Claims' judgments from executive revision. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Such remained the view of the Court as late as Miles v. Graham, 268 U. S. 501, decided in 1925. There it was held, on the authority of Evans v. Gore, 253 U. S. 245, that the salary of a Court of Claims judge appointed even after enactment of the taxing statute in question was not subject to such diminution. Although the case was afterwards overruled on this point, O'Malley v. Woodrough, 307 U. S. 277, 307 U. S. 283, what is of continuing interest is the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
All of the cases within this grant of jurisdiction arise either immediately or potentially under federal law within the meaning of Art. III, § 2. 22 U. S. 818-819, 22 U. S. 823-825; see Clearfield Trust Co. v. United States, 318 U. S. 363; Federal Crop Insurance Corp. v. Merrill, 332 U. S. 380; Mishkin, The Federal "Question" in the District Courts, 53 Col.L.Rev. 157, 184-196. The cases heard by the Court have chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
been as intricate and far-ranging as any coming within the federal question jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, of the District Courts. E.g., Causby v. United States, 104 Ct.Cl. 342, 60 F.Supp. 751, remanded for further findings, 328 U. S. 256 (eminent domain); Lovett v. United States, 104 Ct.Cl. 557, 66 F.Supp. 142, aff'd, 328 U. S. 303 (bill of attainder); Shapiro v. United States,@ 107 Ct.Cl. 650, 69 F.Supp. 205 (military due process). In none of these cases, nor in others, could it well be suggested that the Court of Claims had adjudged the issues, no matter how important to the Government, otherwise than dispassionately.
Indeed, there is reason to believe that the Court of Claims has been constituted as it is precisely to the end that there may be a tribunal specially qualified to hold the Government to strict legal accounting. From the beginning, it has been given jurisdiction only to award damages, not specific relief. 73 U. S. 330 (Norris-LaGuardia Act). But far from serving as a restriction, this limitation has allowed the Court of Claims a greater freedom than is enjoyed by other federal courts to inquire into the legality of governmental action. See Larson v. Domestic & Foreign Commerce Corp., 337 U. S. 682, 337 U. S. 703-704; Malone v. Bowdoin,@ 369 U. S. 643; Brenner, Judicial Review by Money Judgment in the Court of Claims, 21 Fed.B.J. 179 (1961).
"If there are such things as political axioms," said Alexander Hamilton, "the propriety of the judicial power of a government being coextensive with its legislative, may be ranked among the number." The Federalist, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
B. The Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. -- The Court of Customs Appeals, as it was first known, was established by § 29 of the Customs Administrative Act of 1890, c. 407, 26 Stat. 131, as added by § 28 of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of August 5, 1909, c. 6, 36 Stat. 11, 105, to review by appeal final decisions of the Board of General Appraisers (now Customs Court) respecting the classification and rate of duty applicable to imported merchandise. The Act was silent about the tenure of the judges, as had been the Judiciary Act of 1789, c. 20, §§ 3. 4, 1 Stat. 73-75. The salary, first set at $10,000, was afterwards lowered to the $7,000 then being paid to circuit judges, Act of February 25, 1910, c. 62, § 1, 36 Stat. 202, 214, but before the first nominations had been received or confirmed, see 45 Cong.Rec. 2959, 4003 (1910); and, although it has since been increased, it has never been diminished. [Footnote 29] After the Bakelite case had chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
When disfavor with the court caused its abolition three years later, Act of October 22, 1913, c. 32, 38 Stat. 208, 219, it was decided in Congress after extensive debate that the judges then serving on it were protected in tenure by Article III, and they were thereafter assigned to sit on chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Such an understanding parallels that of previous Congresses since the adoption of the Constitution. Congress has never been compelled to vest the entire jurisdiction provided for in Article III upon inferior courts of its creation; until 1875, it conferred very little of it indeed. See pp. 370 U. S. 551-552, supra. The Court of Customs and Patent Appeals therefore fits harmoniously into the federal judicial system authorized by Article III. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court's opinion dwelt in part upon the omission of the word "all" before "Controversies" in the clause referred to. To derive controlling significance from this semantic circumstance seems hardly to be faithful to John Marshall's admonition that "it is a constitution we are expounding." @ 17 U. S. 407. But it would be needlessly literal to suppose that the Court rested its holding on this point. Rather, it deemed controlling the rule, "well settled and understood" at the time of the Constitutional Convention, that "the sovereign power is immune from suit." 289 U.S. at 289 U. S. 573. Accordingly, it becomes necessary to reconsider whether that principle has the effect claimed of rendering suits against the United States nonjusticiable in a court created under Article III. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Federalist, No. 81 (Wright ed.1961), at 511. But that is because there was no surrender of sovereign immunity in the plan of the convention; [Footnote 32] So chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
that, for suits against the United States, it remained "inherent in the nature of sovereignty not to be amenable to the suit of an individual without its consent." Ibid. (Emphasis in original.) In this sense, and only in this sense, is Article III's extension of judicial competence over controversies to which the United States is a party ineffective to confer jurisdiction over suits to which it is a defendant. For "behind the words of the constitutional provisions are postulates which limit and control." Monaco v. Mississippi, 292 U. S. 313, 292 U. S. 322. But once the consent is given, the postulate is satisfied, and there remains no barrier to justiciability. @Cf. 19 U. S. 383-385.
There have been and are further statutory indications that Congress regards the two courts interchangeably. In 1921, Mr. Justice Brandeis compiled a list of 17 statutes passed during World War I, permitting suits against the United States for the value of property seized for use in the war effort, and authorizing them to be instituted in either the Court of Claims or one of the District Courts. United States v. Pfitsch, 256 U. S. 547, 256 U. S. 553 n. 1. Today, 28 U.S.C. § 1500 gives litigants an election to sue the United States as principal in the Court of Claims or to chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In doing so, as this Court has uniformly held, Congress has enlisted the aid of judicial power whose exercise is amenable to appellate review here. United States v. Alcea Band of Tillamooks, supra; see Colgate v. United States, 280 U. S. 43, 280 U. S. 47-48. Indeed, the Court has held chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Second. Congress has on occasion withdrawn jurisdiction from the Court of Claims to proceed with the disposition of cases pending therein, and has been upheld in so doing by this Court. E.g., District of Columbia v. Eslin, 183 U. S. 62. But that is not incompatible with the possession of Article III judicial power by the tribunal affected. Congress has, consistently with that article, withdrawn the jurisdiction of this Court to proceed with a case then @sub judice, 74 U. S. 42. For, as Hamilton assured those of his contemporaries who were concerned about the reach of power that might be vested in a federal judiciary,
A more substantial question relating to the justiciability of money claims against the United States arises from the impotence of a court to enforce its judgments. It was Chief Justice Taney's opinion, in Gordon v. United chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
But Taney's opinion was not the opinion of the Court. It was a memorandum of his views prepared before his death and circulated among, but not adopted by, his brethren. The opinion of the Court, correctly reported for the first time in United States v. Jones, 119 U. S. 477, 119 U. S. 478, makes clear that its refusal to entertain the Gordon appeal rested solely on the revisory authority vested in the Secretary of the Treasury before the repeal of § 14. See also 73 U. S. 647; Langford v. United States, 101 U. S. 341, 101 U. S. 344-345 -- in each of which the limitation of the [email protected] decision to the difficulties caused by § 14 clearly appears.
For claims in excess of $100,000, 28 U.S.C. § 2518 directs the Secretary of the Treasury to certify them to Congress once review in this Court has been foregone or sought and found unavailing. This, then, is the domain chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
of our problem, for Art. I, § 9, cl. 7, vests exclusive responsibility for appropriations in Congress, [Footnote 34] and the Court early held that no execution may issue directed to the Secretary of the Treasury until such an appropriation has been made. @ 52 U. S. 291.
Ever since Congress first accorded finality to judgments of the Court of Claims, it has sought to avoid interfering with their collection. Section 7 of the Act of March 3, 1863, 12 Stat. 765, 766, provided for the payment of final judgments out of general appropriations. In 1877, Congress shifted for a time to appropriating lump sums for judgments certified to it by the Secretary of the Treasury, not in order to question the judgments, but to avoid the possibility that a large judgment might exhaust the prior appropriation. Act of March 3, 1877, c. 105, 19 Stat. 344, 347; see 6 Cong.Rec. 585-588 (1877). A study concluded in 1933 found only 15 instances in 70 years when Congress had refused to pay a judgment. Note, 46 Harv.L.Rev. 677, 685-686 n. 63. This historical record, surely more favorable to prevailing parties than that obtaining in private litigation, may well make us doubt whether the capacity to enforce a judgment is always indispensable for the exercise of judicial power. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court did not think so in La Abra Silver Mining Co. v. United States, 175 U. S. 423, 175 U. S. 461-462, where the issue was the justiciability under Article III of a declaratory judgment action brought by the United States in the Court of Claims to determine its liability for payment of an award procured by the defendant from an international arbitral commission assertedly through fraud. See also Nashville, C. & St.L. R. Co. v. Wallace, 288 U. S. 249, 288 U. S. 263. Nor has it thought so when faced with the exactly analogous problem presented by suits for money between States in the original jurisdiction. That jurisdiction has been upheld, for example, in South Dakota v. North Carolina, 192 U. S. 286, 192 U. S. 318-321, notwithstanding the Court's recognition of judicial impotence to compel a levy of taxes or otherwise by process to enforce its award. See especially the opinions of Chief Justice Fuller and Chief Justice White at the beginning and inconclusive end of the extended litigation between Virginia and West Virginia, 206 U. S. 206 U.S. 290, 206 U. S. 319 (1907) and 246 U. S. 246 U.S. 565 (1918), in which the Court asserted jurisdiction to award damages for breach of contract despite persistent and never-surmounted challenges to its power to enforce a decree. [Footnote 35] If this Court may rely on the good faith of state governments or other public bodies to respond to its judgments, there seems to be no sound reason why the Court of Claims may not rely on the good faith of the United States. We conclude that the presence of the United States as a party defendant to suits maintained in the Court of Claims and the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals does not debar those courts from exercising the judicial power provided for in Article III. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The principal question raised by the parties under this head of the argument is whether the matters referred by Congress to the Court of Claims and the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals are submitted to them in a form consonant with the limitation of judicial power to "cases or chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is unquestioned that the Tucker Act cases assigned to the Court of Claims, 28 U.S.C. § 1491, advance to judgment "according to the regular course of legal procedure." Under this grant of jurisdiction, the court hears tax cases, cases calling into question the statutory authority for a regulation, controversies over the existence or extent of a contractual obligation, and the like. See generally Schwartz and Jacoby, Government Litigation (tentative ed.1960), 131-223. Such cases, which account for as much as 95% of the court's work, [Footnote 37] form the staple chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The same may undoubtedly be said of the customs jurisdiction vested in the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals by 28 U.S.C. § 1541. [Footnote 44] Contests over classification chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
and valuation of imported merchandise have long been maintainable in inferior federal courts. Under R.S. § 3011 (1878), suits after protest against the collector were authorized in the circuit courts. E.g., 59 U. S. 175. This Court took unquestioned appellate jurisdiction from those courts on numerous occasions. E.g., United States v. Ballin, 144 U. S. 1; Hoeninghaus v. United States, 172 U. S. 622. It has continued to accept review by certiorari from the Court of Customs Appeals since the jurisdiction of the Circuit Courts was transferred to it in 1909. E.g., Five Per Cent. Discount Cases, 243 U. S. 97; Barr v. United States,@ 324 U. S. 83. That the customs litigation authorized by § 1541 conforms to conventional notions of case or controversy seems no longer open to doubt.
Doubt has been expressed, however, about the jurisdiction conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 1542 and 60 Stat. 435 (1946), as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 1071, to review application and interference proceedings in the Patent Office relative to patents and trademarks. Parties to those proceedings are given an election to bring a civil action to contest the Patent Office decision in a District Court under 35 U.S.C. §§ 145, 146, or to seek review in the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 141. If the latter choice is made, the Court confines its review to the evidence adduced before the Patent chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The latter provision was evidently instrumental in prompting a decision of this Court, at a time when review of Patent Office determinations was vested in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, that the ruling called for by the statute was not of a judicial character. Postum Cereal Co. v. California Fig Nut Co., 272 U. S. 693, 272 U. S. 699. That is the most that the Postum holding can be taken to stand for, as United States v. Duell, 172 U. S. 576, 172 U. S. 588-589, had upheld the judicial nature of the review in all other respects. [Footnote 45] And the continuing vitality of the decision even to this extent has been seriously weakened, if not extinguished, by the subsequent holding in Hoover Co. v. Coe, 325 U. S. 79, 325 U. S. 88, sustaining the justiciability of the alternative remedy by civil action even though the Court deemed "the effect of adjudication in equity the same as that of decision on appeal." See Kurland and Wolfson, Supreme Court Review of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals: Patent Office and Tariff Commission Cases, 18 G.W.L.Rev.192, 194-198 (1950). chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Mr. Justice Brandeis, the author of the Tutun opinion, had also prepared the Court's opinion in United States v. Ness, 245 U. S. 319, which upheld the Government's right to seek denaturalization even upon grounds known to and chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
(Emphasis added.) Like naturalization proceedings in a District Court, appeals from Patent Office decisions under 35 U.S.C. § 144 are relatively summary -- since the record is limited to the evidence allowed by that office -- and are not themselves subject to direct review by appeal as of right. [Footnote 49] It chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We turn finally to the more difficult questions raised by the jurisdiction vested in the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals by 28 U.S.C. § 1543 to review Tariff Commission findings of unfair practices in import trade, and the congressional reference jurisdiction given the Court of Claims by 28 U.S.C. §§ 1492 and 2509. The judicial quality of the former was called into question though not resolved, in Ex parte Bakelite Corp., 279 U. S. 438, 279 U. S. 460-461, [Footnote 50] while that of the latter must be taken to have been adversely decided, so far as susceptibility to Supreme Court review is concerned, by In re Sanborn, 148 U. S. 222. [Footnote 51] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
At the outset, we are met with a suggestion by the Solicitor General that, even if the decisions called for by these heads of jurisdiction are nonjudicial, their compatibility with the status of an Article III court has been settled by O'Donoghue v. United States, 289 U. S. 516, 289 U. S. 545-548. It is true that O'Donoghue upheld the authority of Congress to invest the federal courts for the District of Columbia with certain administrative responsibilities -- such as that of revising the rates of public utilities [Footnote 52] -- but only such as were related to the government of the District. See Pitts v. Peak, 60 App.D.C. 195, 197, 50 F.2d 485, 487, cited and relied upon in O'Donoghue, 289 U.S. at 289 U. S. 547-548. [Footnote 53] To extend that holding to the wholly nationwide jurisdiction of courts whose seat is in the District of Columbia would be to ignore the special importance attached in the O'Donoghue opinion to the need there for an independent national judiciary. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The restraints of federalism are, of course, removed from the powers exercisable by Congress within the District. For, as the Court early stated, in @ 37 U. S. 619:
But those are not the only limitations embodied in Article III's restriction of judicial power to cases or controversies. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It does not follow, however, from the invalidity, actual or potential, of these heads of jurisdiction, that either the Court of Claims or the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals must relinquish entitlement to recognition as an Article III court. They are not tribunals as are, for example, the Interstate Commerce Commission or the Federal Trade Commission, a substantial and integral part of whose business is nonjudicial. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Congress that enacted the assignment statute, with its accompanying declarations, was apprised of the possibility that a reexamination of the Bakelite and Williams decisions might lead to disallowance of some of these courts' jurisdiction. See 99 Cong.Rec. 8944 (1953) (remarks of Senator Gore); 104 Cong.Rec. 17549 (1958) (remarks of Senator Talmadge). Nevertheless it chose to pass the statute. We think with it that, if necessary, the particular offensive jurisdiction, and not the courts, would fall. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
That recognition suffices to dispose of the present cases. For it can hardly be contended that the specialized functions of these judges deprive them of capacity, as a matter of due process of law, to sit in judgment upon the staple business of the District Courts and Courts of Appeals. Whether they should be given such assignments may be and has been a proper subject for congressional debate, e.g., 62 Cong.Rec.190-191, 207-209 (1921), but, once legislatively resolved, it can scarcely rise to the dignity of a constitutional question. To be sure, a judge of specialized experience may at first need to devote extra time and energy to familiarize himself with criminal, labor relations, or other cases beyond his accustomed ken. But to elevate this temporary disadvantage into a constitutional disability would be tantamount to suggesting that the President may never appoint to the bench a lawyer whose life's practice may have been devoted to patent, tax, antitrust, or any other specialized chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Far from being "incapable of receiving" federal question jurisdiction, the territorial courts have long exercised a jurisdiction commensurate in this regard with that of the regular federal courts, and have been subjected to the appellate jurisdiction of this Court precisely because they do so. 50 U. S. 447; Reynolds v. United States, 98 U. S. 145, 98 U. S. 154; United States v. Coe, 155 U. S. 76, 155 U. S. 86; Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U. S. 298, 258 U. S. 312-313; International Longshoremen's Union v. Juneau Spruce Corp., 342 U. S. 237, 342 U. S. 240-241; cf. 14 U. S. 338; see Pope v. United States, 323 U. S. 1, 323 U. S. 13-14.
Under 62 U. S. 584, for example, the federal courts in the States were incompetent to render divorces; but in the territories, where the legislative power of the United States of necessity extended to all such local matters, the territorial courts took cognizance of them. Simms v. Simms, 175 U. S. 162, 175 U. S. 167-168; De la Rama v. De la Rama,@ 201 U. S. 303.
50 U. S. 240, 50 U. S. 244. For statutory techniques since developed to avoid the interregnal problems involved in that case, see Metlakatla Indian Community v. Egan,@ 363 U. S. 555, 363 U. S. 557-559; 1 Moore, Federal Practice (2d ed.1961), 32-34.
See 80 U. S. 441-445; 85 U. S. 655-656.
Williams itself recognized that the jurisdiction conferred on the Court of Claims by the Tucker Act, now 28 U.S.C. § 1491, to award just compensation for a governmental taking, empowered that court to decide what had previously been described as a judicial, and not a legislative, question. 289 U.S. at 289 U. S. 581; see, e.g., Monongahela Navigation Co. v. United States, 148 U. S. 312, 148 U. S. 327. As for Bakelite, its reliance, 279 U.S. at 279 U. S. 458 n. 26, on @ 44 U. S. 250.
As there was, for example, in suits between States and by the United States against a State. 37 U. S. 720; United States v. Texas,@ 143 U. S. 621, 143 U. S. 639-646.
Long before Glidden v. Zdanok was filed, the Congress had declared the Court of Claims "to be a court established under article III of the Constitution of the United States." Act of July 28, 1953, § 1, 67 Stat. 226. Not that this ipse dixit made the Court of Claims an Article III court, for it must be examined in light of the congressional power exercised and the jurisdiction enjoyed, together with the characteristics of its judges. But the 1953 Act did definitely establish the intent of the Congress, which, prior to that time, was not clear in light of the Williams holding 20 years earlier that it was not an Article III court. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is my belief that, prior to 1953, the Court of Claims had all of the characteristics of an Article III court -- jurisdiction over justiciable matters, issuance of final judgments, judges appointed by the President with consent of the Senate -- save as to the congressional reference matters. It was the fact that a substantial portion of its jurisdiction consisted of congressional references that compelled the decision in Williams that it was not an Article III court, and therefore the salaries of its judges could be reduced. [Footnote 2/2] Since that time, the Article III jurisdiction of the Court of Claims has been enlarged by including original jurisdiction under several Acts, e.g., suits against the United States for damages for unjust conviction, Act of May 24, 1938, §§ 1-4, 52 Stat. 438, 28 U.S.C. § 1495, and appellate jurisdiction over tort suits against the United States tried in the District Courts, Act of Aug. 2, 1946, § 412(a)(2), 60 Stat. 844, 28 U.S.C. § 1504, and over suits before the Indian Claims Commission, Act of May 24, 1949, § 89(a), 63 Stat. 102, 28 U.S.C. § 1505. In addition, the former jurisdiction over questions referred by the Executive branch was withdrawn in 1953. Act of July 28, 1953, § 8, 67 Stat. 226. The result is that practically all of the court's jurisdiction chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Likewise, I find that the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals has been an Article III court since 1958. It was created by the Congress in 1909 to exercise exclusive appellate jurisdiction over customs cases. Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of Aug. 5, 1909, 36 Stat. 11, 105-108. At that time, these cases were reviewed by Circuit Courts of Appeals -- clearly of Article III status -- 36 Stat. 106, and they have since been considered on certiorari by this Court without suggestion that they were not "cases" in the Article III sense. E.g., 243 U. S. Discount chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
As I have indicated supra, the handling of the tariff references -- numbering only 6 in 40 years -- is not an Article III court function. The Congress has declared chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
That its original jurisdiction was in "cases" in the Article III, § 2, sense cannot be questioned. See In re Frischer Co., 16 Ct.Cust.App. 191, 198 (1928); 22 U. S. 819 (1824); Interstate Commerce Commission v. Brimson, 154 U. S. 447 487 (1894); Tutun v. United States,@ 270 U. S. 568, 270 U. S. 576-577 (1926).
The decision in these cases has nothing to do with the character, ability, or qualification of the individuals who sat on assignment on the Court of Appeals in No. 242 and chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Prior to today's decision, the distinction between the two courts had been clear and unmistakable. By Art. I, § 8, Congress is given a wide range of powers, including chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
the power "to pay the Debts" of the United States and the power to "lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises." By Art. I, § 8, Congress is also given the power "To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers." Pursuant to the latter -- the Necessary and Proper Clause -- the Court of Claims was created "to pay the Debts"; [Footnote 3/2] and the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals was created in furtherance of the collection of duties. My Brother HARLAN shows that the Court of Customs Appeals traces back to the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of August 5, 1909, which should be proof enough that it is an administrative court, performing essentially an executive task. [Footnote 3/3] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Mr. Justice Van Devanter, in Ex parte Bakelite, marked the line between the Court of Claims and the Court of chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
My Brother HARLAN emphasizes that both Judge Madden of the Court of Claims and Judge Jackson of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals "enjoy statutory assurance of tenure and compensation", and so they do. But that statement reveals one basic difference between an Article III judge and an Article I judge. The latter's tenure is statutory, and statutory only; Article I contains no guarantee that the judges of Article I courts have life appointments. Nor does it provide that their salaries may not be reduced during their term of office. On the other hand, the tenure of an Article III judge is during "good behaviour"; moreover, Article III provides that its judges shall have a compensation that "shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office." See O'Malley v. Woodrough, 307 U. S. 277. To repeat, there is not a word in Article I giving its courts such protection in tenure or in salary. A constitutional amendment would be necessary to supply Article I judges with the guarantees chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The majority says that, once the United States consents to be sued, all problems of "justiciability" are satisfied, and chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Judges of the Article III courts work by standards and procedures which are either specified in the Bill of Rights or supplied by well known historic precedents. Article III courts are law courts, equity courts, and admiralty courts [Footnote 3/5] -- all specifically named in Article III. They sit chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
to determine "cases" or "controversies." But Article I courts have no such restrictions. They need not be confined to "cases" or "controversies," but can dispense legislative largesse. See United States v. Tillamooks, 329 U. S. 40; 341 U. S. 341 U.S. 48. Their decisions may affect vital interests; yet, like legislative bodies, zoning commissions, and other administrative bodies, they need not observe the same standards of due process required in trials of Article III "cases" or "controversies." See Bi-Metallic Co. v. Colorado, 239 U. S. 441. That is what Chief Justice Marshall meant when he said, in 26 U. S. 545-546, that an Article I court (in that case, a territorial court) could make its adjudications without regard to the limitations of Article III. On the other hand, as the Court in O'Donoghue v. United States, supra,@ at 289 U. S. 546, observed, Article III courts could not be endowed with the administrative and legislative powers (or with the power to render advisory opinions) which Article I tribunals or agencies exercise.
In other words, the question, apart from the constitutional guarantee of tenure and the provision against diminution of salary, concerns the functions of the particular tribunal. Article III courts have prescribed for them constitutional standards, some of which are in the Bill of Rights, while some (as, for example, those concerning bills of attainder and ex post facto laws) are in the body of the Constitution itself. Article I courts, on the other hand, are agencies of the legislative or executive branch. Thus, while Article III courts of law must sit with a jury in suits where the value in controversy exceeds $20, the Court of Claims -- an Article I court -- is not so confined by the Seventh Amendment. The claims which chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The judicial functions exercised by Article III courts cannot be performed by Congress nor delegated to agencies under its supervision and control. [Footnote 3/6] The bill of chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Id. 328 U. S. 317-318. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Thus, I cannot say, as some do, that the distinction between the two kinds of courts is a "matter of language." [Footnote 3/8] The majority over and again emphasizes the declaration by Congress that each of the courts in question is an Article III court. It seems that the majority tries to gain momentum for its decision from those congressional declarations. This Court, however is the expositor of the meaning of the Constitution, as Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, held, and a congressional enactment in the field of Article III is entitled to no greater weight than in other areas. The declarations by Congress that these legislative tribunals are Article III chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
My view is that we subtly undermine the constitutional system when we treat federal judges as fungible. If members of the Court of Claims and of the Court of Customs chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
and Patent Appeals can sit on life-and-death cases in Article III courts, so can a member of any administrative agency who has a statutory tenure that future judges sitting on this Court by some mysterious manner may change to constitutional tenure. With all deference, this seems to me to be a light-hearted treatment of Article III functions. [Footnote 3/11] Men of highest quality chosen as Article I judges might never pass muster for Article III courts when tested by their record of tolerance for minorities chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Ex parte Bakelite Corp., supra, 370 U. S. 458.
As respects admiralty, Chief Justice Marshall said in @ 26 U. S. 545:
"261 U.S. at 435 [argument of counsel -- omitted]. There, as here, the power relied upon was that given Congress to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, and to make all laws necessary and proper to carry such powers into effect. But this Court clearly and unequivocally rejected the contention that Congress could thus extend the jurisdiction of constitutional courts, citing the note to 2 U. S. 410 (1792); United States v. Ferreira, 13 How. 40, note, p. 52 (1851), and Gordon v. United States, 117 U.S.Appx. 697 (1864). These and other decisions of this Court clearly condition the power of a constitutional court to take cognizance of any cause upon the existence of a suit instituted according to the regular course of judicial procedure, Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137 (1803), the power to pronounce a judgment and carry it into effect between persons and parties who bring a case before it for decision, Muskrat v. United States, 219 U. S. 346 (1911); Gordon v. United States, supra, the absence of revisory or appellate power in any other branch of Government, Hayburn's Case, supra; United States v. Ferreira, supra, and the absence of administrative or legislative issues or controversies, Keller v. Potomac Electric Co., supra; Postum Cereal Co. v. California Fig Nut Co.,@ 272 U. S. 693 (1927)."
See 28 U.S.C. § 1492, giving the Court of Claims power "to report to either House of Congress on any bill referred to the court by such House." And see 28 U.S.C. §§ 2509, 2510. 28 U.S.C. § 1542 gave the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals a kind of administrative review over certain decisions of the patent office. And see 370 U. S. supra.
See 88 U. S. 575; The Osceola,@ 189 U. S. 158.