Cite as: 517 U. S. 654 (1996)
Thomas, J., dissenting
The majority rejects the proposition, accepted by four of the five Courts of Appeals that have addressed this issue, that a service requirement can serve as a condition on a waiver of sovereign immunity.2 This cannot be, the majority concludes, because service is "not sensibly typed 'substantive' or 'jurisdictional,' " and instead has a " 'procedural' cast" and "deal[s] with case processing." Ante, at 667-668. But the proper inquiry is not whether the condition is in nature "procedural" or "substantive," for we have long maintained that even procedural rules can condition a waiver of sovereign immunity. See Honda, 386 U. S., at 501. The fact that Congress has determined to limit the scope of its consent to suit is sufficient to restrict federal-court jurisdiction over the United States, regardless of the nature of the condition Congress has attached. For instance, though no one would claim that failure to satisfy a statute of limitations in a case between private parties would serve as a jurisdictional bar to the plaintiff's suit, we have long held that a statute of limitations attached to a waiver of sovereign immunity functions as a condition on the waiver and defines the limits of the district court's jurisdiction to hear a claim against the United States. See Williams, 514 U. S., at 534, n. 7; Block, 461 U. S., at 287; United States v. Kubrick, 444 U. S. 111, 117-118 (1979); Soriano v. United States, 352 U. S. 270, 271, 273 (1957). See generally 14 C. Wright,
between private parties, we explained that "[t]he matter [was] not one of procedure but of jurisdiction whose limits are marked by the Government's consent to be sued," and held that the Government's consent to suit "may be conditioned . . . on the restriction of the issues to be adjudicated in the suit, to those between the claimant and the Government." Id., at 591.
2 See United States v. Holmberg, 19 F. 3d 1062 (CA5), cert. denied, 513 U. S. 986 (1994); Libby v. United States, 840 F. 2d 818 (CA11 1988); Amella v. United States, 732 F. 2d 711 (CA9 1984); Battaglia v. United States, 303 F. 2d 683 (CA2), cert. dism'd, 371 U. S. 907 (1962). Only one Circuit has gone the other way. See Jones & Laughlin Steel, Inc. v. Mon River Towing, Inc., 772 F. 2d 62 (CA3 1985).
677
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