Kansas v. United States

Background

The Attorney General of Kansas filed a bill on behalf of the State, claiming ownership of odd-numbered sections of land in the Indian Territory for the benefit of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company. The suit arose from two 1866 Acts of Congress that granted alternate sections of land to aid railroad construction and from later treaties and allotments in the Creek Nation. The bill asked the court to declare the State trustee for the railroad, to force Creek allottees to surrender land, or alternatively to require the United States to pay more than $10,000,000 in value.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether this case could be heard here at all. It examined the bill and the 1866 statutes and concluded the State was only a nominal party: section 3 envisioned patents issued directly to the railroad company, and the record showed the railroad itself consistently claimed the tracts. The Court also noted that important relief would affect the United States and the Creek allottees, and the United States had not consented to be sued. Because the State was a conduit for a private railroad and the federal government had not agreed to be a defendant, the Court ruled it lacked the power to proceed and dismissed the bill.

Real world impact

The dismissal prevents Kansas from using this federal action to take allotments or extract payment from the United States in this Court. The ruling decides only that the Court cannot hear the case as pleaded; it does not resolve the underlying property rights or the merits of the railroad’s claim.