Hughes Aircraft Company v. United States, Ex Rel. William J. Schumer

Decided June 16, 1997. Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 95-1340 · 520 U.S. 939 (1997) · Cited 600 times

Holding

Because the 1986 amendment does not apply retroactively to qui tam suits regarding allegedly false claims submitted prior to its enactment, this action should have been dismissed, as required by the pre1986 version of the FCA.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Landgraf v. USI Film Products · 511 U.S. 244 (1994)
• Collins v. Youngblood · 497 U.S. 37 (1990)
• United States Ex Rel. Marcus v. Hess · 317 U.S. 537 (1943)
• Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. v. Bonjorno · 494 U.S. 827 (1990)
• Beazell v. Ohio · 269 U.S. 167 (1925)
• Rivers v. Roadway Express, Inc. · 511 U.S. 298 (1994)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Republic of Austria v. Altmann · 541 U.S. 677 (2004)
• Hamdan v. Rumsfeld · 548 U.S. 557 (2006)
• Vartelas v. Holder · 566 U.S. 257 (2012)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr · 533 U.S. 289 (2001)
• Rockwell International Corp. v. United States · 549 U.S. 457 (2007)
• Lindh v. Murphy · 521 U.S. 320 (1997)
• Graham County Soil & Water Conservation District v. United States Ex Rel. Wilson · 559 U.S. 280 (2010)
• Martin v. Hadix · 527 U.S. 343 (1999)
• Jones v. R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co. · 541 U.S. 369 (2004)
• Fernandez-Vargas v. Gonzales · 548 U.S. 30 (2006)
• Cook County v. United States Ex Rel. Chandler · 538 U.S. 119 (2003)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1997). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).