Cite as: 517 U. S. 654 (1996)
Thomas, J., dissenting
jurisdiction. For the reasons stated by the Court, I do not think that the legislative scheme here makes the "forthwith" service requirement such a condition.
Justice Thomas, with whom The Chief Justice and Justice O'Connor join, dissenting.
The Suits in Admiralty Act (SAA or Act) entitles the United States to be served with process "forthwith" in all admiralty proceedings brought under the Act. As a statutory condition on the Government's waiver of its immunity, this time restriction on service demands strict compliance and delimits the district court's jurisdiction to entertain suits in admiralty against the United States. The majority's conclusion that this requirement is supplanted by former Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4( j) (now Rule 4(m)) rests on a misreading of the SAA and is irreconcilable with our sovereign immunity jurisprudence. Because I believe that Congress intended to restrict admiralty suits against the United States to those cases in which the United States receives service of process forthwith, I respectfully dissent.
As a sovereign, the United States "is immune from suit save as it consents to be sued." United States v. Sherwood, 312 U. S. 584, 586 (1941). "A necessary corollary of this rule is that when Congress attaches conditions to legislation waiving the sovereign immunity of the United States, those conditions must be strictly observed, and exceptions thereto are not to be lightly implied." Block v. North Dakota ex rel. Board of Univ. and School Lands, 461 U. S. 273, 287 (1983). See also Lehman v. Nakshian, 453 U. S. 156, 160- 161 (1981) ("Like a waiver of [sovereign] immunity itself, which must be 'unequivocally expressed,' 'this Court has long decided that limitations and conditions upon which the Government consents to be sued must be strictly observed and exceptions thereto are not to be implied' " (citations omitted)). The fact that the condition involves a matter of procedure does not affect the analysis, for "in many cases
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