Acts Concerning Claims

Special Acts Concerning Claims (Necessary and Proper Clause)

The Necessary and Proper Clause enables Congress to pass special laws to require other departments of the government to prosecute or adjudicate particular claims, whether asserted by the government itself or by private persons. In 1924,1 Congress adopted a Joint Resolution directing the President to cause suit to be instituted for the cancellation of certain oil leases alleged to have been obtained from the government by fraud and to prosecute such other actions and proceedings, civil and criminal, as were warranted by the facts. This resolution also authorized the appointment of special counsel to have charge of such litigation. Private acts providing for a review of an order for compensation under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act,2 or conferring jurisdiction upon the Court of Claims, after it had denied recovery, to hear and determine certain claims of a contractor against the government, have been held constitutional.3

Resources

References

This text about Acts Concerning Claims is based on “The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation”, published by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

[Footnote 1] 43 Stat. 5 (1924). See Sinclair v. United States, 279 U.S. 263 (1929).

[Footnote 2] Paramino Co. v. Marshall, 309 U.S. 370 (1940).

[Footnote 3] Pope v. United States, 323 U.S. 1 (1944).

Tables of Contents

• Acts Concerning Claims and other Topics in the Contents – Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution
• U.S. Constitutional Law Category
• List of amendments to the U.S. Constitution
• Acts Concerning Claims and other Topics in the Constitution Contents
• Interpretation of the U.S. Constitution (Table of Contents)
• Clauses of the Constitution (Table of Contents)