Gordon v. United States

7 Ct. Cl. 1

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: December 15, 1871
• Status: Published

Opinion

Chief Justice Chase

delivered the opinion of the court:

The court has fully considered the able and instructive arguments of counsel upon the question of jurisdiction, which presents itself at the threshold of this cause, and has found itself constrained to the conclusion that under the Constitution it can exercise no appellate jurisdiction over the decisions of the Court of Claims.

We think that the authority given to the head of an executive department, by necessary implication, in the fourteenth section of the amended Court of Claims act, to revise all the decisions of this court requiring payment of money, denies to it the judicial power from the exercise of which appeals can be taken to this court.

The reasons which necessitate this conclusion may be more fully announced hereafter. At present we restrict ourselves to this general statement, and to the direction that the case be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.

Justices Miller and Field dissented.