By: Derek Hawkins//April 29, 2016//
Case Name: Bank Markazi v. Peterson
Case No.: 14-770
Section 22 U.S.C. Sec. 8772 does not violate the separation of powers
“Article III of the Constitution establishes an independent Judiciary with the “province and duty . . . to say what the law is” in particular cases and controversies. Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 177. Necessarily, that endowment of authority blocks Congress from “requir[ing] federal courts to exercise the judicial power in a manner that Article III forbids.” Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc., 514 U. S. 211, 218. Although Article III bars Congress from telling a court how to apply pre-existing law to particular circumstances, Robertson v. Seattle Audubon Soc., 503 U. S. 429, 438–439, Congress may amend a law and make the amended prescription retroactively applicable in pending cases, Landgraf v. USI Film Products, 511 U. S. 244, 267– 268; United States v. Schooner Peggy, 1 Cranch 103, 110. In United States v. Klein, 13 Wall. 128, 146, this Court enigmatically observed that Congress may not “prescribe rules of decision to the Judicial Department . . . in [pending] cases.” More recent decisions have clarified that Klein does not inhibit Congress from “amend[ing] applicable law.” Robertson, 503 U. S., at 441; Plaut, 514 U. S., at 218. Section 8772 does just that: It requires a court to apply a new legal standard in a pending postjudgment enforcement proceeding. No different result obtains because, as Bank Markazi argues, the outcome of applying §8772 to the facts in the proceeding below was a “foregone conclusio[n].” Brief for Petitioner 47. A statute does not impinge on judicial power when it directs courts to apply a new legal standard to undisputed facts. See Pope v. United States, 323 U. S. 1, 11.”
Affirmed
DISSENTING: ROBERTS, SOTOMAYOR