Opinion ID: 165800
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Presumption against implied amendment

Text: 50 This leads to the Shawnee's second argument, which is that implied amendments and implied repeals are disfavored, and therefore we should not read § 2841 as impliedly amending the reach of § 523 with regard to the Sunflower Property. See City of Tulsa v. Midland Valley R. Co., 168 F.2d 252, 254 (10th Cir.1948) (Since repeals by implication are not favored in the law, we should not impute to the Legislature an intent to repeal, modify or supersede the former Act unless such intention is manifestly clear from the context of the legislation.). The Shawnee Tribe correctly points out that § 2841's more recent Sunflower-specific grant of discretion to the Secretary of the Army was added to the 2005 military authorization bill without discussion or reference to its impact on either § 523 or the Property Act more generally. 51 Nonetheless, § 2841 is very specific, applying only to the Sunflower Property. Therefore, it is exceedingly difficult to imagine that Congress did not intend § 2841 to control over any other statutory property provisions that might otherwise have affected this case. Moreover, § 523 is not repealed or even amended; it simply has no application to the Sunflower Property so long as the property is subject to disposal in this alternative fashion by the Secretary of the Army. 52 C. Congressional authority to moot this lawsuit 53 Having held that § 2841 controls this case in light of the Secretary of the Army's election to exercise his discretion to dispose of the Sunflower Plant pursuant to § 2841, we must decide whether Congress had the power to moot the Shawnee's pending claim under § 523 by enacting § 2841 after the lower court's decision in this case. 12 It is well settled that the enactment of legislation can moot an appeal even though there may have been a viable issue in the district court. New Mexico State Highway Dep't v. Goldschmidt, 629 F.2d 665, 667 (10th Cir.1980); see also 5 Am.Jur.2d Appellate Review § 657. This includes legislation that specifically eliminates the source of the original dispute or changes the law pertaining to a particular lawsuit. e.g., Khodara Envtl., Inc. v. Beckman, 237 F.3d 186, 193-94 (3rd Cir.2001); Walker v. United States Dept. of Housing and Urban Dev., 912 F.2d 819, 828-29 (5th Cir.1990); Stop H-3 Ass'n v. Dole, 870 F.2d 1419, 1432, 1435 n. 24 (9th Cir.1989); Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Weinberger, 562 F.Supp. 265, 270-71 (D.D.C.1983). 54 Congress clearly can make changes in the law and apply those changes to cases still pending on appeal. Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc., 514 U.S. 211, 233 n. 7, 115 S.Ct. 1447, 131 L.Ed.2d 328 (1995). Thus, when a plaintiff, as here, seeks only prospective relief, appellate courts must consider the law as it exists at the time of the appeal. 13 Kikumura v. Hurley, 242 F.3d 950, 961 n. 5 (10th Cir.2001); Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Slater, 228 F.3d 1147, 1158 (10th Cir.2000). 55 However, the principle of separation of powers does place some limits on the ability of Congress to dictate the work of the Article III courts. See generally Plaut, 514 U.S. at 219-25, 115 S.Ct. 1447. Congress cannot set aside a final judgment of an Article III court by retroactive legislation. Id. at 240, 115 S.Ct. 1447. Similarly, the separation of powers prevents Congress from vesting in the Executive Branch the authority to review the decisions of Article III courts. Hayburn's Case, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 408, 410 (1792). 56 Finally, and most importantly for our purposes, Congress cannot dictate findings or command specific results in pending cases. See United States v. Klein, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 128, 146-47, 20 L.Ed. 519 (1871). In Klein, the Supreme Court refused to give effect to a statute that was said to prescribe rules of decision to the Judicial Department of the government in cases pending before it. Id. at 146. In Klein, the Court considered a proviso in an appropriations bill for the Court of Claims in which Congress attempted to prevent the court from considering previously granted presidential pardons as the proof of loyalty required to restore individuals' property rights in the aftermath of the Civil War. See United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. 371, 402-08, 100 S.Ct. 2716, 65 L.Ed.2d 844 (1980) (setting out facts in Klein ). The proviso also required the court to dismiss any pending case, and any future case, where a pardon had been used to establish loyalty or where a claimant had received a pardon. Id. at 403, 100 S.Ct. 2716. The Court in Klein found unacceptable this proviso's great and controlling purpose ... to deny to pardons granted by the President the effect which this court had adjudged them to have in pending cases. 14 Klein, 80 U.S. at 145. 57 Although Klein might be read broadly, it has been significantly limited by subsequent Supreme Court decisions. See, e.g., Plaut, 514 U.S. at 218, 115 S.Ct. 1447 (Whatever the precise scope of Klein, however, later decisions have made clear that its prohibition does not take hold when Congress amends applicable law.) (quotations, alterations omitted). In Robertson v. Seattle Audubon Society, 503 U.S. 429, 441, 112 S.Ct. 1407, 118 L.Ed.2d 73 (1992), for example, the Court upheld a provision in an appropriations bill that Congress passed in direct response to ongoing litigation involving timber sales in the Northwest. The new statute at issue in Robertson mandated new standards for forest management in thirteen national forests that were intended to serve as adequate consideration for the purpose of meeting the statutory requirements that are the basis for the consolidated cases in the litigation in question. Id. at 434-35, 112 S.Ct. 1407 (quotation omitted). The Court held that this new authority compelled changes in law, not findings or results under old law and therefore was a permissible exercise of legislative power. Id. at 438, 112 S.Ct. 1407. In addition, the Court stressed that the new authority did not purport[ ] to direct any particular findings of fact or applications of law, old or new, to fact. Id. Instead, because Congress left the courts to adjudicate the impact of the newly articulated standards in the particular cases at bar, the act was lawful. Id.; see also Anixter v. Home-Stake Prod. Co., 977 F.2d 1533, 1544 (10th Cir.1992) (recognizing Congress can change existing law or create new law as long as the courts are left to their adjudicative function of interpreting and applying the meaning and effect of the new governing law); Miller v. French, 530 U.S. 327, 342-44, 120 S.Ct. 2246, 147 L.Ed.2d 326 (2000). 58 In this case, § 2841 simply provides a supervening way to dispose of the particular Sunflower Property. As long as the Secretary of the Army exercises that authority to dispose of the property, we hold that any claim under § 523 is moot. However, § 2841 itself purports neither to compel a particular decision in the case before us nor to decide how the law applies to our specific facts. That function is left to us as a court. Therefore, we conclude that § 2841 is a constitutional exercise of Congress's power to amend existing law and make it applicable to the property which is the subject of this pending case. See Adarand Constructors, 228 F.3d at 1158. Thus, we conclude that § 2841 constitutionally makes § 523 inapplicable to the Sunflower Property and moots the Shawnee's claim that they are entitled to such a transfer. 59 D. Effect of § 2841 on Shawnee Tribe's other claims 60 Finally, we need to determine what effect § 2841 has on the Shawnee Tribe's breach of the federal trust and due process claims. In its Rule 28(j) letter, the Government does note that § 2841 might not moot these claims that are not based directly on § 523. However, the district court never reached these other claims because it concluded they were moot once the court determined the Shawnee reservation had been terminated pursuant to the 1854 Treaty. Shawnee Tribe, 311 F.Supp.2d at 1196-97. 61 To be clear, the Shawnee's other claims, as articulated by the district court, are: 62 that Defendants breached their fiduciary duties by: (1) refusing to act on the Tribe's transfer requests; (2) refusing to stay proceedings pending review of the requests; (3) failing to represent the best interests of the Tribe; (4) allowing sham transactions to dispossess the Shawnees of their land; (5) failing to notify the Shawnees of the surplus status of the SFAAP; (6) allowing the SFAAP to be contaminated and environmentally challenged; and (7) failing to keep current records of federally-recognized Indian tribes[, and] the Tribe claims that they were deprived of due process under the Constitution by the arbitrary and capricious actions of Defendants. 63 Id. In addition, the Tribe originally raised an equity claim relating, at least in part, to alleged misrepresentations made by the United States in Nineteenth Century treaty negotiations; however, the Tribe agreed to dismiss this claim voluntarily before the district court issued its decision. Id. at 1196 n. 4. 64 Some of these remaining claims are facially distinct from a § 523 transfer obligation — particularly the allegations of improper record-keeping of federally recognized tribes, the contaminated state of the Sunflower Property, and the unspecified sham transactions that allegedly dispossessed the Shawnee of the land. However, all of the relief the Tribe seeks is tied to its quest for a transfer of the Sunflower Property pursuant to § 523. 65 Specifically, the Tribe seeks only injunctive and declaratory relief. Id. at 1196. In particular, the Tribe asks the court to declare that Defendants' refusal to transfer the SFAAP to the Shawnee Tribe is unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious, and to enjoin Defendants from transferring the SFAAP to any other federal or non-federal entity, other than to the DOI to be held in trust for the benefit of the Tribe. 15 Id. 66 Because we conclude that the Army's authority under § 2841 now controls in this case, we are unable to grant the Shawnee any of the prospective relief they seek. In other words, we can no longer order the GSA to transfer the property to the Shawnee or declare that the Shawnee are entitled to a § 523 transfer because the Sunflower Property is now subject to transfer to another entity, by another official, pursuant to other constitutional legislation. [A] case becomes moot when it becomes impossible for the court to grant any effectual relief whatever to a prevailing party. District 22 United Mine Workers of Am. v. Utah, 229 F.3d 982, 987 (10th Cir.2000). Because we simply could not give the Shawnee Tribe the relief they seek — even as to the non § 523 claims and even though the status of the reservation itself remains an important legal question — this entire suit is moot. See Park County, 817 F.2d at 615. E. Vacatur 67 Generally, [w]hen causes beyond the appellant's control make a case moot pending appeal, a federal appellate court generally should vacate the judgment below and remand with a direction to dismiss. McClendon v. City of Albuquerque, 100 F.3d 863, 868 (10th Cir.1996); see also United States v. Munsingwear, 340 U.S. 36, 39, 71 S.Ct. 104, 95 L.Ed. 36 (1950) (describing Supreme Court's established practice of reversing and vacating lower courts' decisions when case becomes moot on appeal). Because the Shawnee Tribe sought a review on the merits of the adverse ruling below, and is now precluded from that review because of circumstances beyond the Tribe's control, in fairness we will not force the Shawnee to acquiesce in the district court's judgment. See Jones v. Temmer, 57 F.3d 921, 923 (10th Cir.1995). Thus, we will remand the case and order that the district court's order be vacated, leaving the important issue of the Shawnee's reservation status open for full consideration another day.