U.S. Supreme Court WILLIAMS v. UNITED STATES, 289 U.S. 553 (1933)

[Page 289 U.S. 553, 581]

part of the judicial power vested in the constitutional courts by the third article. That is to say, a power which may be devolved, at the will of Congress, upon any of the three departments, plainly is not within the doctrine of the separation and independent exercise of governmental powers contemplated by the tripartite distribution of such powers. Compare Kilbourn v. Thompson, , 190-191.

We find nothing which militates against the foregoing views in the requirement that the Court of Claims, in cases properly brought before it in respect of property expropriated in the exercise of the power of eminent domain, must award just compensation under the Fifth Amendment, or in the provision of the Tucker Act (U.S. Code, title 28, 252) requiring the court in cases brought against the government also to consider and decide set-offs and other claims made by the government against the petitioner and award judgment accordingly. In the former case the requirement is one imposed by the Constitution and equally applicable whether jurisdiction be exercised by a legislative court or a constitutional court; and the latter is simply a provision which the claimant must accept as a condition upon which he may avail himself of the privilege of suing the government in the special court organized for that purpose. McElrath v. United States, supra at page 440 of 102 U.S..

From whatever point of view the question be regarded, the conclusion is inevitable that the Court of Claims receives no authority and its judges no rights from the judicial article of the Constitution, but that the court derives its being and its powers and the judges their rights from the acts of Congress passed in pursuance of other and distinct constitutional provisions. The questions propounded will be answered accordingly.

Question No. 1, No.

Question No. 2, No.

Question No. 3, Yes. Footnotes

[Footnote *] The lack of authority in Congress to devolve any part of the judicial power defined by article 3 upon courts other than those created by itself must not be confused with its authority to vest jurisdiction in respect of some cases in courts whose judicial power is otherwise derived. Compare Robertson v. Baldwin, 165 U.S. 275, 278-280, 17 S.Ct. 326; Claflin v. Houseman, 93 U.S. 130, 136, et seq.; Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U.S. 1, 55, et seq., 32 S.Ct. 169, 38 L.R.A.(N.S.) 44.