Declaratory Relief in Tucker Act Suits: A Broadening of the Money-Judgment Jurisdiction Concept

Abstract

Until recently the Court of Claims took a restricted view of the interrelationship of the Declaratory Judgment Act and its jurisdiction under the Tucker Act. Then in King v. United States these self-imposed jurisdictional limitations were disavowed, and for the first time the United States government was required to defend a declaratory judgment action relying solely on the tucker Act to establish jurisdiction. The rationale in King, as this note interprets it, raises broad questions touching the continued viability of the sovereign immunity concept as well as more particularized procedural problems for plaintiffs who seek the newly available declaratory relief.