Opinion ID: 802674
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Other Possible Remedies?

Text: The panel majority refers to “whatever claim Kam- Almaz may have against the United States,” as if he simply chose the wrong forum. However, Customs injury cannot be remedied by tort claim, for in Kosak the Court established that “the Tort Claims Act does not cover suits alleging that customs officials injured property that had been detained by the Customs Service.” 465 U.S. at 862. As mentioned supra, the Kosak Court stated that “at least” the Tucker Act might provide a remedy. Id. at 861 n.22. Whatever the remedial theory, the government is not absolved of responsibility for its misfeasance in dealing with its citizens. The Court of Claims “holds and speaks a nation’s conscience,” see tribute to Chief Judge Peele, 48 Ct. Cl. XXV (Feb 11, 1913). The court has fulfilled this proud tradition since its inception: KAM-ALMAZ v. US 10 A unique and permanent contribution that the Court of Claims has made over the span of its long life as a public institution is in how it helps make Government officials accountable to the citizens whose servants they are, but whose relationship to their masters is sometimes forgotten. In helping to inspire a high standard of conduct for Government officials, it serves the nation well. If there is a constant thread running through the court’s decisions, it would seem to be in holding the Government and its officials to a strict code of conduct in their relations with citizens. Judge Marion Bennett, in The United States Court of Claims: A History 170-72 (1978). The History explained that “[s]uch a court is the flower of a free society.” Id. Persons injured by unjustified damage to their property detained by Customs agents are not excluded from access to the courts. This court’s endorsement of such exclusion misconstrues traditional and constitutional theory, and denies the responsibility carved into this court’s entrance, that: “It is as much a duty of government to render prompt justice against itself, in favor of citizens, as it is to administer the same, between private individuals.” Abraham Lincoln, Dec. 3, 1861. I respectfully dissent.