Court rules foreign governments may be sued over taxes
on Jun 14, 2007 at 10:03 am
The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that foreign governments are not immune to being sued to force them to pay local property taxes on residences for their diplomats at the United Nations. “Property ownership is not an inherently sovereign function,” the Court found. The ruling, by a vote of 7-2, was written by Justice Clarence Thomas. The case was India Mission v. New York City (06-134). The decision did not address whether the India and Mongolia missions actually owe the taxes; it was confined to whether New York City may sue them to try to collect.
In a second decision authored by Justice Thomas, the Court split 5-4 in deciding that federal appeals courts do not have the authority to consider an appeal that was filed after the time for filing a notice of appeal had expired, even if a District Court has allowed the appeal to be filed outside those limits. Time limits for filing a notice of appeal, the Court said, have long been held to be jurisdictional in nature, so the Court cannot create an equitable exception. The ruling came in Bowles v. Russell (06-5306). In the course of its opinion, the Court overruled two of its precedents that had embraced an exception to avoid hardship in relying upon orders of a judge — Harris Truck Lines v. Cherry Meat Packers (1962) and Thompson v. INS (1964). In Thursday’s decision, the dissenters protested vigorously that the Court had simply ignored a recent trend in the Court’s rulings away from treating time limits for filing as jurisdictional in nature.
In the final of three decisions on the merits Thursday, the Court ruled that it is not a violation of the First Amendment for a state to bar a labor union representing government employees from using non-union workers’ dues for political causes if those workers have not explicitly consented. The result was approved unanimously, but there were three partial concurring votes. The decision, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, was issued in a pair of consolidated cases, Davenport v. Washington Education Association (05-1589) and Washington v. Washington Education Association (05-1657). The Court stressed that it was ruling only on an authorization requirement for public employee unions, not those representing workers in the private sector; Washington’s law appears to reach those, too.
The Court will next issue opinions on Monday, June 18. A total of 15 opinions remain to be issued; the number could be 14 if the Court issues a consolidated opinion in two major cases on voluntary public school integration plans.
