United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Lane v. Morrison, 246 U.S. 214 (1918)

Lane v. Morrison

No. 169

Argued January 30, 1918

Decided March 4, 1918

246 U.S. 214

Syllabus

Congress, in the act making appropriations under the general head for the "current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department [or Bureau] and fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes," having long made a practice of appropriating each year specifically for the "civilization and self-support" of Chippewa Indians in Minnesota out of their trust fund under the Act of January 14, 1889, c. 24, 25 Stat. 642, held that the appropriation so expressed in the appropriation act for the fiscal year 1915 was repeated for the fiscal year 1916 by the Joint Resolution of March 4, 1915, 38 Stat. 1228, which, in default of a new appropriation act, declared the

Page 246 U. S. 216

appropriations for the former year continued for the latter, employing only the general language of the former appropriation acts to designate the purpose, and providing against the duplication of special payments and the execution of any purpose intended by the former act to be paid for but once or confined to the former fiscal year.

45 App.D.C. 79 reversed.

The case is stated in the opinion.