MATCH-E-BE-NASH-SHE-WISH BAND OF POTTAWATOMI INDIANS v. PATCHAK ET AL.
No. 11-246
Supreme Court of the United States
June 18, 2012
567 U.S. 209
*Together with No. 11-247, Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, et al. v. Patchak et al., also on certiorari to the same court.
Patricia A. Millett argued the cause for petitioner in No. 11-246. With her on the briefs were James T. Meggesto, James E. Tysse, Michael C. Small, Conly J. Schulte, Shilee T. Mullin, and Amit Kurlekar.
Matthew T. Nelson argued the cause for respondents in both cases. With him on the brief for respondent Patchak were Daniel P. Ettinger, Aaron D. Lindstrom, Nicole L. Mazzocco, and Brian J. Murray.†
JUSTICE KAGAN delivered the opinion of the Court.
A provision of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA),
We consider two questions arising from Patchak‘s action. The first is whether the United States has sovereign immunity from the suit by virtue of the Quiet Title Act (QTA), 86 Stat. 1176. We think it does not. The second is whether Patchak has prudential standing to challenge the Secretary‘s acquisition. We think he does. We therefore hold that Patchak‘s suit may proceed.
I
The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (Band) is an Indian tribe residing in rural Michigan. Although the Band has a long history, the Department of the Interior (DOI) formally recognized it only in 1999. See 63 Fed. Reg. 56936 (1998). Two years later, the Band petitioned the Secretary to exercise her authority under § 465 by taking into trust a tract of land in Wayland Township, Michigan, known as the Bradley Property. The Band‘s application explained that the Band would use the property “for gaming purposes,” with the goal of generating the “revenue necessary to promote tribal economic development, self-sufficiency and a strong tribal government capable of providing its members with sorely needed social and educational programs.” App. 52, 41.1
Shortly after the D. C. Circuit ruled against MichGO (but still before the Secretary took title), Patchak filed this suit under the APA advancing a different legal theory. He asserted that § 465 did not authorize the Secretary to acquire property for the Band because it was not a federally recognized tribe when the IRA was enacted in 1934. See App. 37. To establish his standing to bring suit, Patchak contended that he lived “in close proximity to” the Bradley Property and that a casino there would “destroy the lifestyle he has enjoyed” by causing “increased traffic,” “increased crime,” “decreased property values,” “an irreversible change in the rural character of the area,” and “other aesthetic, socioeconomic, and environmental problems.” Id., at 30-31. Notably, Patchak did not assert any claim of his own to the Bradley Property. He requested only a declaration that the decision to acquire the land violated the IRA and an injunction to stop the Secretary from accepting title. See id., at 38-39. The Band intervened in the suit to defend the Secretary‘s decision.
In January 2009, about five months after Patchak filed suit, this Court denied certiorari in MichGO‘s case, 555 U. S. 1137,
The District Court dismissed the suit without considering the merits (including the relevance of Carcieri), ruling that Patchak lacked prudential standing to challenge the Secretary‘s acquisition of the Bradley Property. The court reasoned that the injuries Patchak alleged fell outside § 465‘s “zone of interests.” 646 F. Supp. 2d 72, 76 (DC 2009). The D. C. Circuit reversed that determination. See 632 F. 3d 702, 704-707 (2011). The court also rejected the Secretary‘s and the Band‘s alternative argument that by virtue of the QTA, sovereign immunity barred the suit. See id., at 707-712. The latter ruling conflicted with decisions of three Circuits holding that the United States has immunity from suits like Patchak‘s. See Neighbors for Rational Development, Inc. v. Norton, 379 F. 3d 956, 961–962 (CA10 2004); Metropolitan Water Dist. of Southern Cal. v. United States, 830 F. 2d 139, 143-144 (CA9 1987) (per curiam); Florida Dept. of Bus. Regulation v. Department of Interior, 768 F. 2d 1248, 1253-1255 (CA11 1985). We granted certiorari to review both of
II
We begin by considering whether the United States’ sovereign immunity bars Patchak‘s suit under the APA. That requires us first to look to the APA itself and then, for reasons we will describe, to the QTA. We conclude that the United States has waived its sovereign immunity from Patchak‘s action.
The APA generally waives the Federal Government‘s immunity from a suit “seeking relief other than money damages and stating a claim that an agency or an officer or employee thereof acted or failed to act in an official capacity or under color of legal authority.”
The Government and Band contend that the QTA does so. The QTA authorizes (and so waives the Government‘s sovereign immunity from) a particular type of action, known as a quiet title suit: a suit by a plaintiff asserting a “right, title, or interest” in real property that conflicts with a “right, title, or interest” the United States claims.
Two hypothetical examples might help to frame consideration of this argument. First, suppose Patchak had sued under the APA claiming that he owned the Bradley Property and that the Secretary therefore could not take it into trust. The QTA would bar that suit, for reasons just suggested. True, it fits within the APA‘s general waiver, but the QTA specifically authorizes quiet title actions (which this hypothetical suit is) except when they involve Indian lands (which this hypothetical suit does). In such a circumstance, a plaintiff cannot use the APA to end-run the QTA‘s limitations. “[W]hen Congress has dealt in particularity with a claim and [has] intended a specified remedy“-including its exceptions-to be exclusive, that is the end of the matter; the APA does not undo the judgment. Block v. North Dakota ex rel. Board of Univ. and School Lands, 461 U. S. 273, 286, n. 22 (1983) (quoting H. R. Rep. No. 94-1656, p. 13 (1976)).
But now suppose that Patchak had sued under the APA claiming only that use of the Bradley Property was causing environmental harm, and raising no objection at all to the Secretary‘s title. The QTA could not bar that suit because even though involving Indian lands, it asserts a grievance altogether different from the kind the statute concerns. JUSTICE SCALIA, in a former life as Assistant Attorney General, made this precise point in a letter to Congress about the APA‘s waiver of immunity (which we hasten to add, given the author, we use not as legislative history, but only for its persuasive force). When a statute “is not addressed to the type of grievance which the plaintiff seeks to assert,” then the statute cannot prevent an APA suit. Id., at 28 (May 10, 1976, letter of Assistant Atty. Gen. A. Scalia).3
We think that principle controls Patchak‘s case: The QTA‘S “Indian lands” clause does not render the Government immune because the QTA addresses a kind of grievance different from the one Patchak advances. As we will explain, the QTA-whose full name, recall, is the Quiet Title Act-concerns (no great surprise) quiet title actions. And Patchak‘s suit is not a quiet title action, because although it contests the Secretary‘s title, it does not claim any competing interest in the Bradley Property. That fact makes the QTA‘s “Indian lands” limitation simply inapposite to this litigation.
In reaching this conclusion, we need look no further than the QTA‘s text. From its title to its jurisdictional grant to its venue provision, the Act speaks specifically and repeatedly of “quiet title” actions. See 86 Stat. 1176 (“An Act [t]o permit suits to adjudicate certain real property quiet title actions“);
And the QTA‘s other provisions make clear that the recurrent statutory term “quiet title action” carries its ordinary meaning. The QTA directs that the complaint in such an action “shall set forth with particularity the nature of the right, title, or interest which the plaintiff claims in the real property.”
In two prior cases, we likewise described the QTA as addressing suits in which the plaintiff asserts an ownership interest in Government-held property. In Block v. North Dakota ex rel. Board of Univ. and School Lands, 461 U. S. 273 (1983), we considered North Dakota‘s claim to land that the United States viewed as its own. We held that the State could not circumvent the QTA‘s statute of limitations by invoking other causes of action, among them the APA. See id., at 277-278, 286, n. 22. The crux of our reasoning was that Congress had enacted the QTA to address exactly the kind of suit North Dakota had brought. Prior to the QTA, we explained, “citizens asserting title to or the right to possession of lands claimed by the United States” had no recourse; by passing the statute, “Congress sought to rectify this state of affairs.” Id., at 282. Our decision reflected that legislative purpose: Congress, we held, “intended the QTA to provide the exclusive means by which adverse claimants could challenge the United States’ title to real property.” Id., at 286. We repeat: “adverse claimants,”
Our decision in United States v. Mottaz, 476 U.S. 834 (1986), is of a piece. There, we considered whether the QTΑ, or instead the Tucker Act or General Allotment Act, governed the plaintiff‘s suit respecting certain allotments of land held by the United States. We thought the QTA the relevant statute because the plaintiff herself asserted title to the property. Our opinion quoted the plaintiff‘s own description of her suit: “At no time in this proceeding did [the plaintiff] drop her claim for title. To the contrary, the claim for title is the essence and bottom line of [the plaintiff‘s] case.” Id., at 842 (quoting Brief for Respondent in Mottaz, O. T. 1985, No. 85-546, p. 3). That fact, we held, brought the suit “within the [QTA‘s] scope“: “What [the plaintiff] seeks is a declaration that she alone possesses valid title.” 476 U. S., at 842. So once again, we construed the QTA as addressing suits by adverse claimants.
But Patchak is not an adverse claimant and so the QTA (more specifically, its reservation of sovereign immunity from actions respecting Indian trust lands) cannot bar his suit. Patchak does not contend that he owns the Bradley Property, nor does he seek any relief corresponding to such a claim. He wants a court to strip the United States of title to the land, but not on the ground that it is his and not so that he can possess it. Patchak‘s lawsuit therefore lacks a defining feature of a QTA action. He is not trying to disguise a QTA suit as an APA action to circumvent the QTA‘s “Indian lands” exception. Rather, he is not bringing a QTA suit at all. He asserts merely that the Secretary‘s decision to take land into trust violates a federal statute-a garden-variety APA claim. See
The Band and Government, along with the dissent, object to this conclusion on three basic grounds. First, they contend that the QTA speaks more broadly than we have indicated, waiving immunity from suits “to adjudicate a disputed title to real property in which the United States claims an interest.”
But the Band and Government can reach that result only by neglecting key words in the relevant provision. That sentence, more fully quoted, reads: “The United States may be named as a party defendant in a civil action under this section to adjudicate a disputed title to real property in which the United States claims an interest.”
The Band and Government next invoke cases holding that “when a statute provides a detailed mechanism for judicial consideration of particular issues at the behest of particular persons,” the statute may “impliedly preclude[]” judicial review “of those issues at the behest of other persons.” Block v. Community Nutrition Institute, 467 U. S. 340, 349 (1984); see United States v. Fausto, 484 U. S. 439, 455 (1988). Here, the Band and Government contend, the QTA‘s specific authorization of adverse claimants’ suits creates a negative implication: non-adverse claimants like Patchak cannot challenge Government ownership of land under any other statute. See Reply Brief for Tribal Petitioner 7-10; Reply Brief for Federal Parties 7-9; see also post, at 230. The QTA, says the Band, thus “preempts [Patchak‘s] more general remedies.” Brief for Tribal Petitioner 23 (internal quotation marks omitted).
But we think that argument faulty, and the cited cases inapposite, for the reason already given: Patchak is bringing a different claim, seeking different relief, from the kind the QTA addresses. See supra, at 217-221. To see the point, consider a contrasting example. Suppose the QTA authorized suit only by adverse claimants who could assert a property interest of at least a decade‘s duration. Then suppose an adverse claimant failing to meet that requirement (because, say, his claim to title went back only five years) brought suit under a general statute like the APA. We would surely bar that suit, citing the cases the Government and Band rely on; in our imaginary statute, Congress delineated the class of persons who could bring a quiet title suit, and that judgment would preclude others from doing so. But here, once again, Patchak is not bringing a quiet title action at all. He is not claiming to own the property, and he is not demanding that the court transfer the property to him. So to succeed in
Last, the Band and Government argue that we should treat Patchak‘s suit as we would an adverse claimant‘s because they equally implicate the “Indian lands” exception‘s policies. According to the Government, allowing challenges to the Secretary‘s trust acquisitions would “pose significant barriers to tribes[‘]... ability to promote investment and economic development on the lands.” Brief for Federal Parties 24. That harm is the same whether or not a plaintiff claims to own the land himself. Indeed, the Band argues that the sole difference in this suit cuts in its direction, because non-adverse claimants like Patchak have “the most remote injuries and indirect interests in the land.” Brief for Tribal Petitioner 13; see Reply Brief for Federal Parties 11-12; see also post, at 228, 234, 236.6
That argument is not without force, but it must be addressed to Congress. In the QTA, Congress made a judgment about how far to allow quiet title suits-to a point, but no further. (The “no further” includes not only the “Indian
III
We finally consider the Band‘s and the Government‘s alternative argument that Patchak cannot bring this action because he lacks prudential standing. This Court has long held that a person suing under the APA must satisfy not only Article III‘s standing requirements, but an additional test: The interest he asserts must be “arguably within the zone of interests to be protected or regulated by the statute” that he says was violated. Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 153 (1970). Here, Patchak asserts that in taking title to the Bradley Property, the Secretary exceeded her authority under § 465, which authorizes the acquisition of property “for the purpose of providing land for Indians.” And he alleges that this statutory violation will cause him economic, environmental, and aesthetic harm as a nearby property owner. See supra,
The prudential standing test Patchak must meet “is not meant to be especially demanding.” Clarke v. Securities Industry Assn., 479 U. S. 388, 399 (1987). We apply the test in keeping with Congress‘s “evident intent” when enacting the APA “to make agency action presumptively reviewable.” Ibid. We do not require any “indication of congressional purpose to benefit the would-be plaintiff.” Id., at 399-400.7 And we have always conspicuously included the word “arguably” in the test to indicate that the benefit of any doubt goes to the plaintiff. The test forecloses suit only when a plaintiff‘s “interests are so marginally related to or inconsistent with the purposes implicit in the statute that it cannot reasonably be assumed that Congress intended to permit the suit.” Id., at 399.
Patchak‘s suit satisfies that standard, because § 465 has far more to do with land use than the Government and Band
The Department‘s regulations make this statutory concern with land use crystal clear. Those regulations permit the Secretary to acquire land in trust under § 465 if the “land is necessary to facilitate tribal self-determination, economic development, or Indian housing.”
The Secretary‘s acquisition of the Bradley Property is a case in point. The Band‘s application to the Secretary highlighted its plan to use the land for gaming purposes. See App. 41 (“[T]rust status for this Property is requested in order for the Tribe to acquire property on which it plans to conduct gaming“); id., at 60-61 (“The Tribe intends to... renovate the existing... building into a gaming facility... to offer Class II and/or Class III gaming“). Similarly, DOI‘s notice of intent to take the land into trust announced that the land would “be used for the purpose of construction and operation of a gaming facility,” which the Department had already determined would meet the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act‘s requirements. 70 Fed. Reg. 25596;
And because § 465‘s implementation encompasses these issues, the interests Patchak raises-at least arguably-fall “within the zone... protected or regulated by the statute.” If the Government had violated a statute specifically addressing how federal land can be used, no one would doubt that a neighboring landowner would have prudential standing to bring suit to enforce the statute‘s limits. The difference here, as the Government and Band point out, is that § 465 specifically addresses only land acquisition. But for the reasons already given, decisions under the statute are closely enough and often enough entwined with considerations of land use to make that difference immaterial. As in this very case, the Secretary will typically acquire land with its eventual use in mind, after assessing potential conflicts that use might create. See
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The QTA‘s reservation of sovereign immunity does not bar Patchak‘s suit. Neither does the doctrine of prudential standing. We therefore affirm the judgment of the D. C. Circuit, and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
In enacting the Quiet Title Act (QTA or Act), Congress waived the Government‘s sovereign immunity in cases seeking “to adjudicate a disputed title to real property in which the United States claims an interest.”
The Court‘s opinion sanctions an end-run around these vital limitations on the Government‘s waiver of sovereign immunity. After today, any person may sue under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to divest the Federal Government of title to and possession of land held in trust for Indian tribes-relief expressly forbidden by the QTA-so long as the complaint does not assert a personal interest in the land. That outcome cannot be squared with the APA‘s express admonition that it confers no “authority to grant relief if any other statute that grants consent to suit expressly or impliedly forbids the relief which is sought.”
I
A
Congress enacted the QTA to provide a comprehensive solution to the problem of real-property disputes between private parties and the United States. The QTA strikes a careful balance between private parties’ desire to adjudicate such disputes, and the Government‘s desire to impose “appropriate safeguards” on any waiver of sovereign immunity to ensure “the protection of the public interest.” Block, 461 U. S., at 282-283; see also S. Rep. No. 92-575, р. 6 (1971).
Section 2409a(a) provides expansively that “[t]he United States may be named as a party defendant in a civil action under this section to adjudicate a disputed title to real property in which the United States claims an interest.” That language mirrors the title proposed by the Executive Branch for the legislation that Congress largely adopted: “A BILL TO permit suits to adjudicate disputed titles to lands in which the United States claims an interest.” Id., at 7.
The remainder of the Act, however, imposes important conditions upon the Government‘s waiver of sovereign immunity. First, the right to sue “does not apply to trust or restricted Indian lands.”
Second, the Act preserves the United States’ power to retain possession or control of any disputed property, even if a
Finally, the Act limits the class of individuals permitted to sue the Government to those claiming a “right, title, or interest” in disputed property.
Congress considered these conditions indispensable to its immunity waiver.1 “[W]hen Congress attaches conditions to
Notes
For that reason, we held that Congress did not intend to create a “new supplemental remedy” when it enacted the APA‘s general waiver of sovereign immunity. Block, 461 U. S., at 286, n. 22. “It would require the suspension of disbelief,” we reasoned, “to ascribe to Congress the design to allow its careful and thorough remedial scheme to be circumvented by artful pleading.” Id., at 285 (quoting Brown v. GSA, 425 U. S. 820, 833 (1976)). If a plaintiff could oust the Government of title to land by means of an APA action, “all of the carefully crafted provisions of the QTA deemed necessary for the protection of the national public interest could be averted,” and the “Indian lands exception to the QTA would be rendered nugatory.” Block, 461 U. S., at 284-285. We therefore had little difficulty concluding that Congress did not intend to render the QTA‘s limitations obsolete by affording any plaintiff the right to dispute the Government‘s title to any lands by way of an APA action-and to empower any such plaintiff to “disposses[s] [the United States] of the disputed property without being afforded the option of paying damages.” Id., at 285.
B
The majority nonetheless permits Patchak to circumvent the QTA‘s limitations by filing an action under the APA. It primarily argues that the careful limitations Congress imposed upon the QTA‘s waiver of sovereign immunity are “simply inapposite” to actions in which the plaintiff advances a different “grievance” to that underlying a QTA suit, i. e., cases in which a plaintiff seeks to “strip the United States of title to the land... not on the ground that it is his,” but rather because “the Secretary‘s decision to take land into trust violates a federal statute.” Ante, at 217, 220. This analysis is unmoored from the text of the APA.
Section 702 focuses not on a plaintiff‘s motivation for suit, nor the arguments on which he grounds his case, but only on whether another statute expressly or impliedly forbids the
In any event, the “grievance” Patchak asserts is no different from that asserted in Block-a case in which we unanimously rejected a plaintiff‘s attempt to avoid the QTA‘S restrictions by way of an APA action or the similar device of an officer‘s suit.3 That action, like this one, was styled as a suit claiming that the Government‘s actions respecting land were “““not within [its] statutory powers.““” 461 U. S., at 281. Cf. ante, at 220 (“[Patchak] asserts merely that the Secretary‘s decision to take land into trust violates a federal statute“). The relief requested was also identical to that sought here: injunctive relief directing the United States to
The only difference that the majority can point to between Block and these cases is that Patchak asserts a weaker interest in the disputed property. But that is no reason to imagine that Congress intended a different outcome. As the majority itself acknowledges, the harm to the United States and tribes when a plaintiff sues to extinguish the Government‘s title to Indian trust land is identical “whether or not a plaintiff claims to own the land himself.” Ante, at 223. Yet, if the majority is correct, Congress intended the APA‘s waiver of immunity to apply to those hypothetical plaintiffs differently. Congress, it suggests, intended to permit anyone to circumvent the QTA‘s careful limitations and sue to force the Government to relinquish Indian trust lands-anyone, that is, except those with the strongest entitlement to bring such actions: those claiming a personal “right, title, or interest” in the land in question. The majority‘s conclusion hinges, therefore, on the doubtful premise that Congress intended to waive the Government‘s sovereign immunity wholesale for those like Patchak, who assert an “aesthetic” interest in land, ante, at 212, while retaining the Government‘s sovereign immunity against those who assert a constitutional interest in land-the deprivation of property without due process of law. This is highly implausible. Unsurprisingly, the majority does not even attempt to explain why Congress would have intended this counterintuitive result.
It is no answer to say that the QTA reaches no further than an “ordinary quiet title suit.” Ante, at 221. The action permitted by § 2409a is not an ordinary quiet title suit. At common law, equity courts “permit[ted] a bill to quiet title to be filed only by a party in possession [of land] against a defendant, who ha[d] been ineffectually seeking to establish a legal title by repeated actions of ejectment.” Wehrman v. Conklin, 155 U. S. 314, 321-322 (1894) (emphasis added).
The majority attempts to bolster its reading by emphasizing an unexpected source within § 2409a: the clause specifying that the United States may be sued “in a civil action under this section.” Ante, at 221. The majority understands this clause to narrow the QTA‘s scope (and its limitations on the Government‘s immunity waiver) to quiet title claims only. But “this section” speaks broadly to civil actions “to adjudicate a disputed title to real property in which the United States claims an interest.” § 2409a. Moreover,
Even if the majority were correct that the QTA itself reached only as far as ordinary quiet title actions, that would establish only that the QTA does not expressly forbid the relief Patchak seeks. The APA, however, does not waive the Government‘s sovereign immunity where any other statute “expressly or impliedly forbids the relief which is sought.”
II
Three consequences illustrate the difficulties today‘s holding will present for courts and the Government. First, it will render the QTA‘s limitations easily circumvented. Although those with property claims will remain formally prohibited from bringing APA suits because of Block, savvy plaintiffs and their lawyers can recruit a family member or neighbor to bring suit asserting only an “aesthetic” interest in the land but seeking an identical practical objective-to divest the Government of title and possession.
Finally, the majority‘s rule creates substantial uncertainty regarding who exactly is barred from bringing APA claims. The majority leaves unclear, for instance, whether its rule bars from suit only those who “claim any competing interest” in the disputed land in their complaint, ante, at 217, or those who could claim a competing interest, but plead only that the
As these observations illustrate, the majority‘s rule will impose a substantial burden on the Government and leave an array of uncertainties. Moreover, it will open to suit lands that Congress and the Executive Branch thought the “national public interest” demanded should remain immune from challenge. Congress did not intend either result.
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For the foregoing reasons, I would hold that the QTA bars the relief Patchak seeks. I respectfully dissent.