Thomas, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 21–11647
LARRY STEVEN WILKINS, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. UNITED STATES
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
[March 28, 2023]
Justice Thomas, with whom The Chief Justice and Justice Alito join, dissenting.
The doctrine of sovereign immunity bars suits against the United States. But, in the Quiet Title Act of 1972, Congress waived this immunity and consented to suits against the United States in order to determine the status of disputed property. 28 U. S. C. §2409a. Congress conditioned this consent on, among other things, a 12-year statute of limitations: “Any civil action under this section, except for an action brought by a State, shall be barred unless it is commenced within twelve years of the date upon which it accrued.” §2409a(g). This Court has long construed such conditions on waivers of sovereign immunity as jurisdictional. And, it has acknowledged the jurisdictional nature of the Quiet Title Act’s statute of limitations in several precedents.
In holding that §2409a(g) is not jurisdictional, the majority commits two critical errors. First, it applies the same interpretive approach to a condition on a waiver of sovereign immunity that it would apply to any run-of-the-mill procedural rule. Second, by reading the Court’s prior Quiet Title Act precedents in this way, the Court disregards their express recognition of the jurisdictional character of the Act’s time bar. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
