Supreme Court to Decide if US Can Be Sued as Creditor

The US Supreme Court will consider whether the federal government agreed to be sued for money damages when it amended consumer protection laws in 1996.

The court on Tuesday agreed to review a US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruling that Reginald Kirtz could sue the Agriculture Department (USDA) for incorrectly noting on his credit report that his Rural Housing Service loans were past due.

Congress waived the government’s immunity from suit when it amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act to impose new requirements on lenders, the Third Circuit said.

“That conclusion cannot be reconciled with this Court’s precedents requiring waivers of sovereign immunity to be unequivocal and unambiguous,” the Biden administration said in asking the justices to take up the case.

The case is Department of Agriculture Rural Development Rural Housing Service v. Kirtz, U.S., No. 22-846.