decided April 4, 2025
In this case, the Court halted the operation of a federal “District” court’s preliminary injunction that implicitly ordered the federal government to resume certain payments under certain federal grants to the plaintiffs that the government had abruptly stopped paying. The Court explained that the federal “District Court” in which the lawsuit had been brought probably did not have jurisdiction to award money to the plaintiffs under the specific statute they had invoked for relief, the federal Administrative Procedures Act. The Court held that the government’s waiver of sovereign immunity under that particular statute probably did not apply to contractual demands for money from the federal government. See 5 U.S.C. §702. The Court left the case open for a final decision on the issue of the District Court’s jurisdiction; but held that the government did not have to pay anything further to plaintiffs under their respective grants until a final decision was reached. The vote on the Court was 5-4, with Justices Kagen, Sotomayor, and Jackson, dissenting, and Chief Justice Roberts simply refusing to agree with the five-Justice majority.
Comment: This was, and is one of many high-profile lawsuits currently challenging the validity of “executive orders” issued by President Donald Trump since his inauguration less than three months ago. The power of any federal court, beyond the contractually oriented Court of Federal Claims, to order the federal government to pay money to the winner of a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the government does present a serious jurisdictional issue. That issue is still open.
RECENT RULINGS 