United States v. Tohono O'odham Nation (09-846)

argument 09-846

United States v. Tohono O'odham Nation

Supreme Court of the United States 59 min 6 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 6 days ago official recording ↗

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What is the Supreme Court hearing in United States v. Tohono O'odham Nation?

John G. Roberts 0:01

We'll hear argument next in case zero nine eight forty six, United States versus Tohono Odam Nation. Mr. Yang.

Mr. Yang 0:09

Mr Chief Justice, and may it please the court. This court in Keene held that Section fifteen hundred of Title twenty eight Prives the Court of Federal Claims of jurisdiction When the plaintiff has a pending suit in another court based on substantially the same operative facts, and left open the question whether some overlap in the le relief requested is also necessary to trigger that bar. The Federal Circuit erred in holding that Section fifteen hundred applies when both suits only when both suits seek the same relief, and that the critical distinction in this regard is whether the particular relief in the plaintiff's plea for relief is deemed legal or equitable. Section fifteen hundred's text broadly bars CFC jurisdiction.

Mr. Yang 0:52

whenever any suit that the plaintiff has pending in any other court is a suit for the CFC claim, or is merely a suit in respect to that claim. In other words, another suit for a different but a related claim will trigger Section fifteen hundred. That provision was intended to protect the government from simultaneous duplicative suits against the United States and its agents By forcing plaintiffs to elect between those related suits.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1:22

Sequential suits could be brought. So That if the case in the district court. went to final judgment. then it it would be okay to go to the uh Court of Federal Claims.

Mr. Yang 1:39

That that is correct. In some in in in perhaps in in a good number of cases it's possible to uh if you're seasonably prompt in your uh Court of Federal Claims case or your district court case first.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1:52

But you but you don't have control over how long the district court case is going to take. And there's no mechanism to stop the running of the statute of limitations.

Mr. Yang 2:04

Well, I think there is some control that y you can exercise over the how promptly the suit proceeds, particularly if we're talking about suits against the government. Many suits proceed on an administrative record and go directly to summary judgment. That can be done in a relatively prompt manner. But even if not The Congress that enacted Section fifteen hundred in eighteen sixty eight knew that essentially what it was doing in many, many cases, would prevent a second suit from going forward. That's because the Congress was concerned with the cotton claimants. The cotton claimants had authorization to bring suit in the Court of Claims But there was a two year statute of limitations. That statute ran from the end of the Civil War, and this court in a case called US versus Anderson at seventy six US and the relevant pages are seventy to seventy one.

Mr. Yang 2:53

made clear that the end of the Civil War for the purposes of that statute was August um in eighteen sixty six. Congress enacted Section fifteen hundred in June of eighteen sixty eight. There was a two month window, if that, to bring suit and Congress recognized, would have been recognized, that if you filed suit or were forced to elect at that point, that would be the end of the game. There was also another statutory provision that Congress enacted um during the Civil War that put a two-year statute of limitations on suits against officers. That was discussed in this court's uh decision, Mitch Mitchell versus Clark, 110 US six thirty-three at pages six forty one and six forty two. So given the time

Mr. Yang 3:34

At which Congress was enacting Section 1500, it knew it was putting plaintiffs to a very hard choice. You had to elect. between the Court of Federal Claims remedy and between a remedy in another court against an officer, that remedy would likely be the end of the game. And Congress did that in a very particular way. It did it in a targeted statute that limited the authority of the court that had its hands on the purse strings of the federal government. and that performed the very function that Congress just a few years earlier had itself exercised through the enactment of private bills through its appropriations power. So Section fifteen hundred ultimately states in essence that if you're going to bring suit in this specialised court where Congress has vested the Court of Claims with the very special power of distributing money from the federal fiscal,