Cite as: 510 U. S. 471 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
Section 1346(b) grants the federal district courts jurisdiction over a certain category of claims for which the United States has waived its sovereign immunity and "render[ed]" itself liable. Richards v. United States, 369 U. S. 1, 6 (1962). This category includes claims that are:
"[1] against the United States, [2] for money damages, . . . [3] for injury or loss of property, or personal injury or death [4] caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government [5] while acting within the scope of his office or employment, [6] under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred." 28 U. S. C. § 1346(b).
A claim comes within this jurisdictional grant—and thus is "cognizable" under § 1346(b)—if it is actionable under § 1346(b). And a claim is actionable under § 1346(b) if it alleges the six elements outlined above. See Loeffler, supra, at 562 (§ 2679(a) limits the scope of sue-and-be-sued waivers "in the context of suits for which [Congress] provided a cause of action under the FTCA" (emphasis added)).5
Applying these principles to this case, we conclude that Meyer's constitutional tort claim is not "cognizable" under § 1346(b) because it is not actionable under § 1346(b)—that is, § 1346(b) does not provide a cause of action for such a claim. As noted above, to be actionable under § 1346(b), a claim must allege, inter alia, that the United States "would be liable to the claimant" as "a private person" "in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred." A constitutional tort claim such as Meyer's could
5 Because we were not asked to define "cognizability" in Loeffler, our language was a bit imprecise. The question is not whether a claim is cognizable under the FTCA generally, as Loeffler suggests, but rather whether it is "cognizable under section 1346(b)." 28 U. S. C. § 2679(a) (emphasis added).
477
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