Editing United States v. Klein (section)

== Background ==
On December 8, 1863, President [[Abraham Lincoln]] issued a [[Ten percent plan|proclamation]] offering a pardon to any person who had supported or fought for the [[Confederate Army]], with full restoration of property rights, subject only to taking an oath of allegiance. The [[United States Congress]] had passed an act in 1863 that permitted an owner of property confiscated during the war to receive the proceeds from the sale of the confiscated property.

Based on the statute and the President's proclamation, V.F. Wilson took the oath of allegiance and honored it until his death on July 22, 1865. John A. Klein, administrator of Wilson's estate, then applied properly to the Court of Claims to recover the proceeds of the sale of property seized from Mr. Wilson.

Congress repealed the statute in 1867. The Court of Claims in 1869 decided that Wilson's estate was entitled to the proceeds from the sale of his property. In 1870, Congress passed a law that prohibited the use of a presidential pardon as the basis for claiming sale proceeds and further said that the acceptance of such a pardon was evidence that the person pardoned had provided support to the South and was ineligible to recover sale proceeds. The statute contained a [[jurisdiction stripping]] provision: "the Supreme Court, on appeal, shall have no further jurisdiction of the cause, and shall dismiss the same for want of jurisdiction".<ref>{{cite web |title=Congress' Power over Courts: Jurisdiction Stripping and the Rule of Klein |url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44967/5 |website=congress.gov |publisher=Congressional Research Service}}</ref>

The United States appealed to the Supreme Court based on the 1870 statute, which provided that since Wilson had accepted a presidential pardon, his estate was not entitled to the sale proceeds.