2 MUSKRAT VS US

Muskrat vs United States

219 US 346 January 23, 1911
Day, J

FACTS:
On July 1902, Congress passed an Act which granted lands to Cherokee Indians,
including Petitioner David Muskrat and Henry Dick. In 1904 and 1906, Congress passed acts
that limited the rights that Indians on the land could exercise. Some Cherokees contended that
said acts could unconstitutionally deprive them of their lands. In 1907, Congress passed an
act granting federal courts the jurisdiction to hear cases regarding the contesting of the
constitutionality of the 1904 and 1906 acts, part of which states:

“And jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the Court of Claims, with the
right of appeal, by either party, to the Supreme Court of the United States,
to hear, determine, and adjudicate each of said suits.

The suits brought hereunder shall be brought… against the United States
as a party defendant.”

ISSUE:
Whether or not Congress can authorize matters for judicial review by virtue of
legislation that are not “cases” or “controversies”.

RULING:
No, the Congress could not create jurisdiction for judicial review. The Constitution
granted the judiciary the power to decide “cases” and “controversies”. The power vested upon
the Court is exclusively judicial; its judicial power defined as the power to decide and
pronounce a judgment and carry it into effect between persons and parties who bring a case
before it for decision. “Case”, in this sense, refers to a suit instituted according to the regular
course of judicial procedure, in which possible adverse parties exist. In this case, defendant by
virtue of legislation is the United States, which has no interest adverse to the claimant, as the
law does not attempt to assert a right as against the government nor demand compensation
for alleged wrongs because of action upon its parts; rather, it simply attempts to determine the
constitutional validation of the acts, which Court maintains as non-judicial in nature. "The right
to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional could only be exercised when a proper case
between opposing parties was submitted for judicial determination.”

CONCLUSION:
The judgments were reverses, and the cases remanded to the Court of Claims with
directions to dismiss the petitions for want of jurisdiction.