Court Opinion

ID: 9432703
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:36:02.343014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:35.401116
License: Public Domain

Justice White,
concurring.
I agree with Parts I, II, and IV of the Court’s opinion but would prefer not to address the Appropriations Clause issue.
As Justice Blackmun indicates, ante, at 89, the Government argues that because the Appropriations Clause bars reaching the funds transferred to the Treasury’s Assets Forfeiture Fund, the case is either moot or falls into the useless judgment exception to appellate in rem jurisdiction. I am surprised that the Government would take such a transparently fallacious position. The case is not moot and a ruling by the Court of Appeals would not be a useless judgment. Had the funds not been transferred to Washington, the Court of Appeals, if it thought the District Court had erred in rejecting the Bank’s innocent-owner defense, would have been free to reverse the lower court, direct that the Bank be paid out of the res, and to that extent rule against the United States’ forfeiture claim. The United States does not ques*97tion this, for when the property was sold, the Government agreed to hold the proceeds pending resolution of the claims against the res.
The funds are, of course, no longer in Florida, but that fact, as the Court now holds, did not deprive the Court of Appeals of jurisdiction to reverse the District Court and direct entry of judgment against the United States for the amount of the Bank’s lien, nor did it prevent the Court of Appeals from declaring that the Bank was entitled to have its lien satisfied from the res and, therefore, that the Government had no legal entitlement to the proceeds from the sale of the house. The case is obviously not moot. Nor should the Government suggest that a final judgment against the United States by a court with jurisdiction to enter such a judgment is useless because the United States may refuse to pay it. Rather, it would be reasonable to assume that the United States obeys the law and pays its debts and that in most people’s minds a valid judgment against the Government for a certain sum of money would be worth that very amount. This is such a reasonable expectation that there is no need in this case to attempt to extract the transferred res from whatever fund in which it now is held.
There is nothing new about expecting governments to satisfy their obligations. Thus, in Steffel v. Thompson, 415 U. S. 452, 468-471 (1974), the Court discussed the comparative propriety of entering a declaratory judgment as opposed to an injunction. Describing the cases of Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113 (1973), and Doe v. Bolton, 410 U. S. 179 (1973), the Court explained:
“In those two cases, we declined to decide whether the District Courts had properly denied to the federal plaintiffs, against whom no prosecutions were pending, in-junctive relief restraining enforcement of the Texas and Georgia criminal abortion statutes; instead, we affirmed the issuance of declaratory judgments of unconstitution*98ality, anticipating that these would be given effect by state authorities.” 415 U. S., at 469.
See also Roe, supra, at 166: “We find it unnecessary to decide whether the District Court erred in withholding injunctive relief, for we assume the Texas prosecutorial authorities will give full credence to this decision that the present criminal abortion statutes of that State are unconstitutional”; Bolton, supra, at 201 (same). More generally, it goes without saying that a creditor must first have judgment before he is entitled to collect from one who has disputed the debt, and it frequently happens that the losing debtor pays up without more. Perhaps, however, the judgment creditor will have collection problems, but that does not render his judgment a meaningless event.
For the same reasons, it is unnecessary for the Court at this point to construe the Appropriations Clause, either narrowly or broadly. Normally, we avoid deciding constitutional questions when it is reasonable to avoid or postpone them. Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold Reservation v. Wold Engineering, P. C., 467 U. S. 138, 157 (1984); Liverpool, New York & Philadelphia S. S. Co. v. Commissioners of Emigration, 113 U. S. 33, 39 (1885). It is apparent, moreover, that the Court has struggled to reach a satisfactory resolution of the Appropriations Clause issue. I would not anticipate that the United States would default and that the Bank would require the help of the Judiciary to collect the debt. I would leave it to the Executive Branch to determine in the first instance, when and if it suffers an adverse judgment, whether it would have authority under existing statutes to liquidate the judgment that might be rendered against it. It will be time enough to rule on the Appropriations Clause when and if the position taken by the Government requires it.
I bow, however, to the will of the Court to rule prematurely on the Appropriations Clause, and on that issue I agree with The Chief Justice and join his opinion.
*99Justice Stevens,
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
While I agree with Justice Blackmun’s analysis of the Government’s Appropriations Clause argument, and join his opinion in its entirety, I also agree with The Chief Justice that 31 U. S. C. § 1304, together with 28 U. S. C. §2465, provide a satisfactory alternative response. Moreover, like Justice White, and for the reasons stated in his separate opinion, I am surprised that the Government would make “such a transparently fallacious” argument in support of its unconscionable position in this case. See ante, at 96.
Justice Thomas,
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
I cannot join the Court’s discussion of jurisdiction because that discussion is unnecessary and may very well constitute an advisory opinion. In my view, we should determine the applicability of § 1521 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992, 106 Stat. 4062. Effective October 28, 1992, § 1521 amended 28 U. S. C. § 1355 to provide that “[i]n any case in which a final order disposing of property in a civil forfeiture action or proceeding is appealed, removal of the property by the prevailing party shall not deprive the court of jurisdiction.” 106 Stat. 4062-4063. The clear import of the new law is to preserve the jurisdiction of a court of appeals in a civil forfeiture action where the res has been removed by the prevailing party — the very issue involved in this case. This law would appear by its plain terms to be dispositive of this case, thus rendering academic the discussion in Part II of the Court’s opinion.*
The Court.mentions §1521 in a single footnote, stating simply that “we do not now interpret that statute or deter*100mine the issue of its retroactive application to the present case.” Ante, at 89, n. 5. As a general rule, of course, statutes affecting substantive rights or obligations are presumed to operate prospectively only. Bennett v. New Jersey, 470 U. S. 632, 639 (1985). “Thus, congressional enactments . . . will not be construed to have retroactive effect unless their language requires this result.” Bowen v. Georgetown Univ. Hospital, 488 U. S. 204, 208 (1988). But not every application of a new statute to a pending case will produce a “retroactive effect.” “[WJhether a particular application is retroactive” will “depen[d] upon what one considers to be the determinative event by which retroactivity or prospectivity is to be calculated.” Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. v. Bonjorno, 494 U. S. 827, 857, and n. 3 (1990) (Scalia, J., concurring) (emphasis in original).
In the case of newly enacted laws restricting or enlarging jurisdiction, one would think that the “determinative event” for retroactivity purposes would be the final termination of the litigation, since statutes affecting jurisdiction speak to the power of the court rather than to the rights or obligations of the parties. That conclusion is supported by longstanding precedent. We have always recognized that when jurisdiction is conferred by an Act of Congress and that Act is repealed, “the power to exercise such jurisdiction [is] withdrawn, and ... all pending actions f[a]ll, as the jurisdiction depend[s] entirely upon the act of Congress.” Assessors v. Osbornes, 9 Wall. 567, 575 (1870). “This rule — that, when a law conferring jurisdiction is repealed without any reservation as to pending cases, all cases fall with the law — has been adhered to consistently by this Court.” Bruner v. United States, 343 U. S. 112, 116-117 (1952). See id., at 117, n. 8 (citing cases). Moreover, we have specifically noted that “[t]his jurisdictional rule does not affect the general principle that a statute is not to be given retroactive effect unless such construction is required by explicit language or by necessary implication.” Ibid.
*101The same rule ordinarily mandates the application to pending eases of new laws enlarging jurisdiction. We so held in United States v. Alabama, 362 U. S. 602 (1960) (per curiam). There, the District Court had concluded that it was without jurisdiction to entertain a civil rights action brought by the United States against a State, and the Court of Appeals had affirmed. Id., at 603. While the case was pending before this Court, the President signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which authorized such actions. Relying on “familiar principles,” we held that “the case must be decided on the basis of law now controlling, and the provisions of [the new statute] are applicable to this litigation.” Id., at 604 (emphasis added) (citing cases). We therefore held that “the District Court has jurisdiction to entertain this action against the State,” and we remanded for further proceedings. Ibid. Similarly, in Andrus v. Charlestone Stone Products Co., 436 U. S. 604 (1978), we held that because the general federal-question statute had been amended in 1976 to eliminate the amount-in-controversy requirement for suits against the United States, “the fact that in 1973 respondent in its complaint did not allege $10,000 in controversy is now of no moment.” Id., at 608, n. 6 (emphasis added).
It could be argued that the language of § 1521 implies an earlier determinative event for retroactivity purposes — such as the removal of the res or the point when the final order disposing of the property “is appealed.” 106 Stat. 4062. I do not find these terms sufficiently clear to overcome the general rule that statutes altering jurisdiction are to be applied to pending cases; I would therefore decide this case on the basis of the new law. If the Court is plagued with doubts about the “retroactive application” of § 1521, ante, at 89, n. 5, the Court should, at a minimum, seek further briefing from the parties on this question before embarking on what appears to me to be an unnecessary excursion through the law of admiralty. There is no legitimate reason not to take the time to do so, for if the Government were to concede the *102new law’s applicability, the Court’s opinion would be advisory. I can, therefore, concur only in the Court’s judgment on the issue of jurisdiction.
I do, however, join the opinion of The ChieF Justice regarding the Appropriations Clause. Because the Court of Appeals retains continuing jurisdiction over this proceeding pursuant to § 1521, we cannot avoid addressing the Government’s arguments on this issue.

By letter dated October 30, 1992, the Government advised the Court of the enactment of the new law without taking a position on its applicability. On November 3 petitioner informed us by letter that in its view § 1521 applies and is controlling.