Prior to the establishment of the Court, members of Congress believed that it would be a violation of sovereign immunity and the separation of powers to empower an institution to provide monetary awards from the Treasury.
[2] In 1861, Abraham Lincoln in his Annual Message to Congress asked that the court be given the power to issue final judgments.
Congress granted the power with the Act of March 3, 1863,[3] and it explicitly allowed the judgments to be appealed to the Supreme Court.
However, it also modified the law governing the Court so that its reports and bills were sent to the Department of the Treasury rather than directly to Congress.
The conflict inherent between the two provisions was made manifest when in 1864, the decision in Gordon v. United States was appealed to the Supreme Court.
Depredations against American shipping committed by the French during the Quasi-War of 1793 to 1800 led to claims against France that were relinquished by the terms of the Treaty of 1800.
Since the claims against France were no longer valid, claimants continually petitioned Congress for the relief that had been waived by the treaty.
340, written by Judge John Davis, includes a complete discussion of the historical and political circumstances that led to the hostilities between the United States and France and their resolution by treaty.
In 1932, Congress reduced the salary of the judges of the Court of Claims as part of the Legislative Appropriation Act of 1932.
[9] Ironically, the judges could no longer sit on Congressional reference cases because of this change since an independent court could not act in an advisory role to Congress.
One of the most famous of these cases was United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, which ultimately reached the Supreme Court.