United States v. Lovett

Background

A group of then-current federal employees sued after they were not paid. Congress passed the Urgent Deficiency Appropriation Act of 1943, which said that after November 15, 1943 certain named or easily identified employees would not be paid out of appropriated money unless reappointed by the President with the Senate’s approval. The Court of Claims found the employees were owed salaries and awarded recovery, and the Supreme Court reviewed that judgment.

Reasoning

The central question was whether the law merely stopped ordinary paycheck disbursements or instead permanently punished and barred those employees from Government service. Justice Black’s opinion concluded the provision singled out named individuals or an easily ascertainable group and inflicted punishment without a judicial trial. That kind of legislative punishment is a bill of attainder and is unconstitutional. Because the provision was invalid as a bill of attainder, the affected employees could recover the unpaid compensation the Government still owed.

Real world impact

The ruling protects federal workers who are targeted by statutes from being deprived of pay without court proceedings. It limits Congress’s ability to single out identifiable people for punishment through appropriations or other statutes. Practically, employees in similar situations can pursue money claims for unpaid salaries, and Congress cannot use disbursing rules to permanently defeat those payment obligations.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Frankfurter, joined by Justice Reed, agreed the employees should recover but read the statute more narrowly: he viewed it as merely blocking ordinary disbursal while leaving the Government’s payment obligation intact, and therefore concurred in the judgment.