United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Sloan v. United States, 193 U.S. 614 (1904)

Sloan v. United States

No. 453

Argued March 16-17, 1904

Decided April 4, 1904

193 U.S. 614

Syllabus

Where a suit does not really and substantially involve a dispute or controversy as to effect or construction of the Constitution and laws of the United States upon the determination whereof the result depends, it is not a suit under such Constitution and laws within the meaning of the fifth section of the Act of March 3, 1891, 26 Stat. 827, and the jurisdiction of this Court cannot be maintained of a direct appeal from the Circuit Court.

Actions brought against the United States in the circuit court under the Act of August 7, 1882, 22 Stat. 342, for allotments of land in which both the complainants and the United States rely upon the construction of the act of 1882, and the construction of various treaties between the United States and Indian tribes is not substantially or in any other than a merely incidental or remote manner drawn in question, do not involve the construction of such treaties within the meaning of § 5 of the act of 1891, and direct appeals to this Court will be dismissed.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.