Osborn v. Haley

(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2006 1

Syllabus

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is
being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

OSBORN v. HALEY ET AL.

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

No. 05–593. Argued October 30, 2006—Decided January 22, 2007
The federal statute commonly known as the Westfall Act accords fed
eral employees absolute immunity from tort claims arising out of acts
undertaken in the course of their official duties, 28 U. S. C.
§2679(b)(1), and empowers the Attorney General to certify that a fed
eral employee sued for wrongful or negligent conduct “was acting
within the scope of his office or employment at the time of the inci
dent out of which the claim arose,” §2679(d)(1), (2). Upon such certi
fication, the United States is substituted as defendant in place of the
employee, and the action is thereafter governed by the Federal Tort
Claims Act. If the action commenced in state court, the Westfall Act
calls for its removal to a federal district court, and renders the Attor
ney General’s certification “conclusiv[e] . . . for purposes of removal.”
§2679(d)(2).
Plaintiff-petitioner Pat Osborn sued federal employee Barry Haley
in state court. Osborn alleged that Haley tortiously interfered with
her employment with a private contractor, that he conspired to cause
her wrongful discharge, and that his efforts to bring about her dis
charge were outside the scope of his employment. The United States
Attorney, serving as the Attorney General’s delegate, certified that
Haley was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of
the conduct alleged in Osborn’s complaint. She thereupon removed
the case to a federal district court, where she asserted that the al
leged wrongdoing never occurred. The District Court, relying in
Osborn’s allegations, entered an order that rejected the Westfall Act
certification, denied the Government’s motion to substitute the
United States as defendant in Haley’s place, and remanded the case
to the state court. The Sixth Circuit vacated the District Court’s or
der, holding that a Westfall Act certification is not improper simply
2 OSBORN v. HALEY

Syllabus

because the United States denies the occurrence of the incident on
which the plaintiff centrally relies. Based on §2679(d)(2)’s direction
that certification is “conclusiv[e] . . . for purposes of removal,” the
Court of Appeals instructed the District Court to retain jurisdiction
over the case.
Held:
1. The Attorney General’s certification is conclusive for purposes of
removal, i.e., once certification and removal are effected, exclusive
competence to adjudicate the case resides in the federal court, and
that court may not remand the suit to the state court. Pp. 9–17.
(a) The Sixth Circuit had jurisdiction to review the order reject
ing the Attorney General’s certification and denying substitution of
the United States as defendant. Under the collateral order doctrine
of Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U. S. 541, the Dis
trict Court’s ruling, which effectively denied Haley Westfall Act pro
tection, qualifies as a reviewable final decision under 28 U. S. C.
§1291. Meeting Cohen’s three criteria, the District Court’s denial of
certification and substitution conclusively decided a contested issue,
the issue decided is important and separate from the merits of the ac
tion, and the District Court’s disposition would be effectively unre
viewable later in the litigation. 337 U. S., at 546. Pp. 9–11.
(b) The Sixth Circuit also had jurisdiction to review the District
Court’s remand order. Pp. 11–17.
(1) The Sixth Circuit had jurisdiction to review the District
Court’s remand order, notwithstanding 28 U. S. C. §1447(d), which
states that “[a]n order remanding a case to the State court . . . is not
reviewable on appeal or otherwise . . . .” This Court held, in Therm
tron Products, Inc. v. Hermansdorfer, 423 U. S. 336, that §1447(c)
confines §1447(d)’s scope. Section §1447(c) provides that a case must
be remanded “if . . . it appears that the district court lacks subject
matter jurisdiction.” Under Thermtron, “only remand orders issued
under §1447(c) and invoking the [mandatory ground] specified
therein . . . are immune from review” under §1447(d). Id., at 346. To
determine whether Thermtron’s reasoning controls here, the Westfall
Act’s design, particularly its prescriptions regarding the removal and
remand of actions filed in state court, must be examined.
When the Attorney General certifies that a federal employee
named defendant in a state-court tort action was acting within the
scope of his or her employment at the time in question, the action
“shall be removed” to federal court and the United States must be
substituted as the defendant. §2679(d)(2). Of prime importance
here, §2679(d)(2) concludes with the command that the “certification
of the Attorney General shall conclusively establish scope of office or
employment for purposes of removal.” (Emphasis added.) This direc
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Syllabus

tive markedly differs from Congress’ instruction for cases in which
the Attorney General “refuse[s] to certify scope of office or employ
ment.” §2679(d)(3). In that event, the defendant-employee may peti
tion the court in which the action is instituted to make the scope-of
employment certification. If the employee so petitions in an action
filed in state court, the Attorney General may, at his discretion, re
move the action to federal court. If removal has occurred, and there
after “the district court determines that the employee was not acting
within the scope of his office or employment, the action . . . shall be
remanded to the State court.” Ibid. (emphasis added).
The Act’s distinction between removed cases in which the Attorney
General issues a scope-of-employment certification and those in
which he does not leads to the conclusion that Congress gave district
courts no authority to return cases to state courts on the ground that
the Attorney General’s certification was unwarranted. Section
2679(d)(2) does not preclude a district court from resubstituting the
federal official as defendant for purposes of trial if the court deter
mines, postremoval, that the Attorney General’s scope-of-employment
certification was incorrect. For purposes of establishing a forum for
adjudication, however, §2679(d)(2) renders the Attorney General’s
certification dispositive. Were it open to a district court to remand a
removed action on the ground that the Attorney General’s certifica
tion was erroneous, §2679(d)(2)’s final instruction would be weight
less. Congress adopted the “conclusiv[e] . . . for the purposes of re
moval” language to “foreclose needless shuttling of a case from one
court to another,” Gutierrez de Martinez v. Lamagno, 515 U. S. 417,
433, n. 10. The provision assures that “once a state tort action has
been removed to a federal court after a certification by the Attorney
General, it may never be remanded to the state system.” Id., at 440
(SOUTER, J., dissenting).
Thermtron held that §1447(d) must be read together with §1447(c).
There is stronger cause to hold that §1447(c) and (d) must be read to
gether with the later enacted §2679(d)(2). Both §1447(d) and
§2679(d)(2) are antishuttling provisions that aim to prevent “pro
longed litigation of questions of jurisdiction of the district court to
which the cause is removed.” United States v. Rice, 327 U. S. 742,
751. Once the Attorney General certifies scope of employment, trig
gering removal of the case to a federal forum, §2679(d)(2) renders the
federal court exclusively competent and categorically precludes a re
mand to the state court. By declaring certification conclusive as to
the federal forum’s jurisdiction, Congress has barred a district court
from passing the case back to state court based on the court’s dis
agreement with the Attorney General’s scope-of-employment deter
mination. Of the two antishuttling commands, §1447(d) and
4 OSBORN v. HALEY

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§2679(d)(2), only one can prevail and the Court holds that the latter
controls. Tailor-made for Westfall Act cases, §2679(d)(2) “conclu
sively” determines that the action shall be adjudicated in the federal
forum, and may not be returned to the state system. Pp. 11–16.
(2) The Westfall Act’s command that a district court retain ju
risdiction over a case removed pursuant to §2679(d)(2) does not run
afoul of Article III. An Article III question could arise in this case
only if, after full consideration, the District Court determined that
Haley engaged in tortious conduct outside the scope of his employ
ment. Because, at that point, little would be left to adjudicate as to
his liability, and because a significant federal question (whether he
has Westfall Act immunity) would have been raised at the outset, the
case would “aris[e] under” federal law as that term is used in Article
III. Even if only state-law claims remained after resolution of the
federal question, the District Court would have authority, consistent
with Article III, to retain jurisdiction. Pp. 16–17.
2. Westfall Act certification is proper when a federal officer charged
with misconduct asserts, and the Attorney General concludes, that
the incident or episode in suit never occurred. Pp. 17–24.
(a) Because the Westfall Act’s purpose is to shield covered em
ployees not only from liability but from suit, it is appropriate to af
ford protection to an employee on duty at the time and place of an
“incident” alleged in a complaint who denies that the incident oc
curred. Just as the Government’s certification that an employee “was
acting within the scope of his employment” is subject to threshold ju
dicial review, Lamagno, 515 U. S., at 434, so a complaint’s charge of
conduct outside the scope of employment, when contested, warrants
immediate judicial investigation. Otherwise, a federal employee
would be stripped of suit immunity not by what the court finds, but
by what the complaint alleges. This position is supported by Wil
lingham v. Morgan, 395 U. S. 402, which concerned 28 U. S. C.
§1442, the federal officer removal statute. Section 1442 allows a fed
eral officer to remove a civil action from state court if the officer is
“sued in an official or individual capacity for any act under color of
such office.” The Court held in Willingham that the language of
§1442 is “broad enough to cover all cases where federal officers can
raise a colorable defense arising out of the duty to enforce federal
law.” 395 U. S., at 406–407. There is no reason to conclude that the
Attorney General’s ability to remove a suit to federal court under
§2679(d)(2), unlike a federal officer’s ability to remove under §1442,
should be controlled by the plaintiff’s allegations. Pp. 19–21.
(b) Tugging against this reading is a “who decides” concern. If
the Westfall Act certification must be respected unless and until the
District Court determines that Haley, in fact, engaged in conduct be
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 5

Syllabus

yond the scope of his employment, then Osborn may be denied a jury
trial. Upon the Attorney General’s certification, however, the action
is “deemed to be . . . brought against the United States,” §2679(d)(2),
and the Seventh Amendment, which preserves the right to a jury
trial in common-law suits, does not apply to proceedings against the
sovereign. Thus, at the time the district court reviews the Attorney
General’s certification, the plaintiff has no right to a jury trial. The
Westfall Act’s core purpose—to relieve covered employees from the
cost and effort of defending the lawsuit and to place those burdens on
the Government—also bears on the appropriate trier of any facts es
sential to certification. Immunity-related issues should be decided at
the earliest opportunity. See, e.g., Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U. S. 224,
228 (per curiam). Pp. 22–24.
422 F. 3d 359, affirmed.

GINSBURG, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS,
C. J., and STEVENS, KENNEDY, and ALITO, JJ., joined, in which SOUTER,
J., joined except for Parts II–B and II–C, and in which BREYER, J.,
joined as to Parts I and II. SOUTER, J., and BREYER, J., filed opinions
concurring in part and dissenting in part. SCALIA, J., filed a dissenting
opinion, in which THOMAS, J., joined.
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 1

Opinion of the Court

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________

No. 05–593
_________________

PAT OSBORN, PETITIONER v. BARRY HALEY ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

[January 22, 2007]

JUSTICE GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Federal Employees Liability Reform and Tort Com
pensation Act of 1988, commonly known as the Westfall
Act, accords federal employees absolute immunity from
common-law tort claims arising out of acts they undertake
in the course of their official duties. See 28 U. S. C.
§2679(b)(1). When a federal employee is sued for wrongful
or negligent conduct, the Act empowers the Attorney
General to certify that the employee “was acting within
the scope of his office or employment at the time of the
incident out of which the claim arose.” §2679(d)(1), (2).
Upon the Attorney General’s certification, the employee is
dismissed from the action, and the United States is substi
tuted as defendant in place of the employee. The litigation
is thereafter governed by the Federal Tort Claims Act
(FTCA), 60 Stat. 842. If the action commenced in state
court, the case is to be removed to a federal district court,
and the certification remains “conclusiv[e] . . . for purposes
of removal.” §2679(d)(2).
In Gutierrez de Martinez v. Lamagno, 515 U. S. 417, 420
(1995), we held that the Attorney General’s Westfall Act
scope-of-employment certification is subject to judicial
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Opinion of the Court

review. Today, we address three further questions regard
ing the Westfall Act’s operation: (1) Is Attorney General
certification proper when a federal officer denies the oc
currence of the tortious conduct alleged by the plaintiff; (2)
does §2679(d)(2), by rendering the Attorney General’s
certification “conclusiv[e] . . . for purposes of removal,” bar
remand even if the federal court determines that the
United States should not be substituted as defendant in
place of the federal employee; and (3) does 28 U. S. C.
§1447(d)’s bar on appellate review of remand orders over
ride §2679(d)(2)’s direction that, for purposes of removal,
the Attorney General’s certification is conclusive. The
first two questions were advanced in the petition for cer
tiorari; in our order granting review, we asked the parties
to address the impact of §1447(d) on this case.
Pat Osborn, plaintiff-petitioner in the civil action now
before the Court, sued federal employee Barry Haley in a
Kentucky state court. She alleged that Haley tortiously
interfered with her employment with a private contractor
and conspired to cause her wrongful discharge. Osborn
further alleged that Haley’s efforts to bring about her
discharge were outside the scope of his employment. The
United States Attorney, serving as the Attorney General’s
delegate, countered Osborn’s allegations by certifying that
Haley “was acting within the scope of his employment . . .
at the time of the conduct alleged in [Osborn’s] complaint.”
App. to Brief in Opposition 23 (hereinafter Luber App.).
Based on this certification, the case was removed to the
United States District Court for the Western District of
Kentucky, as §2679(d)(2) instructs.
In the federal forum, the United States Attorney denied
the tortious conduct Osborn attributed to Haley, asserting
that the wrongdoing she alleged never occurred. Accept
ing Osborn’s allegations as true, the District Court entered
an order that rejected the Attorney General’s Westfall Act
certification, denied the Government’s motion to substi
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 3

Opinion of the Court

tute the United States as defendant in place of Haley, and
remanded the case to the state court. On appeal, the
Sixth Circuit vacated the District Court’s order, and in
structed that court to retain jurisdiction over the case.
We affirm the Court of Appeals’ judgment. On the
merits, we agree with the Sixth Circuit that the District
Court, in denying substitution of the United States as
defendant in lieu of Haley, misconstrued the Westfall Act.
Substitution of the United States is not improper simply
because the Attorney General’s certification rests on an
understanding of the facts that differs from the plaintiff’s
allegations. The United States, we hold, must remain the
federal defendant in the action unless and until the Dis
trict Court determines that the employee, in fact, and not
simply as alleged by the plaintiff, engaged in conduct
beyond the scope of his employment. On the jurisdictional
issues, we hold that the Attorney General’s certification is
conclusive for purposes of removal, i.e., once certification
and removal are effected, exclusive competence to adjudi
cate the case resides in the federal court, and that court
may not remand the suit to the state court. We also hold
that §1447(d)’s bar on appellate review of remand orders
does not displace §2679(d)(2), which shields from remand
an action removed pursuant to the Attorney General’s
certification.
I
Petitioner Pat Osborn worked for Land Between the
Lakes Association (LBLA), a private company that con
tracted with the United States Forest Service to provide
staff for the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation
Area in Kentucky.1 While employed by LBLA, Osborn
applied for a trainee position with the Forest Service.
——————
1 We draw this account of the facts from the District Court’s opinion

and order denying reconsideration, supplemented by the allegations in
Osborn’s complaint.
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Opinion of the Court

Respondent Barry Haley, a Forest Service officer, was
responsible for the Service’s hiring process. At a meeting
with LBLA employees, Haley announced that he had hired
someone else for the job Osborn sought. Osborn asked
why Haley did not inform her before the meeting, and she
made a joke at Haley’s expense. After the meeting,
Osborn’s supervisor told her to apologize to Haley; she
refused.
A few weeks later, Osborn filed a complaint with the
United States Department of Labor, asking the Depart
ment to investigate whether the Forest Service, in its
hiring decision, had given appropriate consideration to the
veterans’ preference points to which she was entitled. The
Department’s investigator, Robert Kuenzli, after inter
viewing Haley, concluded that the hiring procedure had
been handled correctly. Kuenzli so informed Osborn, who
then asked him to close her complaint. On the same day
LBLA’s executive director, respondent Gaye Luber, sum
moned Osborn and demanded that she apologize to Haley
for “not being a good Forest Service partner.” Complaint
¶18, Luber App. 4. Osborn again refused. Two days later,
she was fired.
Osborn filed suit against Haley, Luber, and LBLA in a
Kentucky state court. She alleged that Haley tortiously
interfered with her employment relationship with LBLA
and conspired to cause her wrongful discharge. Specifi
cally, she charged that Haley maliciously induced Luber to
fire her, and that Haley did so in retaliation for Osborn’s
Department of Labor complaint requesting a veterans’
preference inquiry. Complaint ¶29, Luber App. 7. In
response the local United States Attorney, invoking the
Westfall Act, certified on behalf of the Attorney General
that Haley “was acting within the scope of his employment
with the U. S. Forest Service at the time of the conduct
alleged in [Osborn’s] complaint.” Luber App. 23. As is
customary, the certification stated no reasons for the
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Opinion of the Court

determination.2
In the Westfall Act, Congress instructed:
“Upon certification by the Attorney General that the
defendant employee was acting within the scope of his
office or employment at the time of the incident out of
which the claim arose, any civil action or proceeding
commenced upon such claim in a State court shall be
removed without bond at any time before trial by the
Attorney General to the district court of the United
States for the district and division embracing the
place in which the action or proceeding is pending.
Such action or proceeding shall be deemed to be an ac
tion or proceeding brought against the United States
under the provisions of this title and all references
thereto, and the United States shall be substituted as
the party defendant. This certification of the Attorney
General shall conclusively establish scope of office or
employment for purposes of removal.” 28 U. S. C.
§2679(d)(2) (emphasis added).
Citing this provision, as well as the federal officer removal
statute, §1442,3 the United States removed the case to the
——————
2 The certification read:
“I, Monica Wheatley, Acting United States Attorney, Western Dis
trict of Kentucky, acting pursuant to the provisions of 28 U. S. C.
§2679(d)(2), and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Appen
dix to 28 C.F.R. §15.3 (1990), hereby certify that the Office of the
United States Attorney has reviewed the available facts in this matter.
On the basis of the information now available to me with respect to the
allegations in the complaint, I find that the named federal defendant,
Barry Haley, was acting within the scope of his employment with the
U. S. Forest Service, at the time of the conduct alleged in the com
plaint.” Luber App. 23.
3 The federal officer removal statute provides that “[a] civil action or

criminal prosecution commenced in a State court against” “any officer
. . . of the United States . . . sued in an official or individual capacity for
any act under color of such office” “may be removed . . . to the district
court of the United States for the district and division embracing the
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Opinion of the Court

United States District Court for the Western District of
Kentucky. The United States Attorney notified the Dis
trict Court that the United States should be substituted
for Haley as defendant, and filed a motion to dismiss on
the ground that Osborn had not exhausted administrative
remedies, as required by the FTCA.
Osborn opposed the substitution and the motion to
dismiss. She argued that Haley’s conduct was outside the
scope of his employment, hence the Westfall Act afforded
him no immunity. As support for her opposition, Osborn
submitted a memorandum of understanding between the
LBLA and the Forest Service, which cautioned Forest
Service employees against involvement in LBLA employ
ment decisions.
Apparently under the impression that the United
States, at that preliminary stage, did not dispute Osborn’s
factual allegations, the District Court declined to conduct
an evidentiary hearing. Under Kentucky law, the court
observed, if Osborn’s allegations were true, Haley had
acted outside the scope of his employment. In the District
Court’s view the closeness in time of Osborn’s request for a
Department of Labor investigation, Kuenzli’s call to Ha
ley, and Luber’s demand for an apology justified an infer
ence that Haley interfered with Osborn’s employment in
violation of the LBLA-Forest Service memorandum of
understanding. So reasoning, the District Court overruled
the Westfall Act certification and denied substitution.
Under this ruling, the United States was no longer before
the court. Furthermore, the parties were not of diverse
citizenship and no federal law was at issue. The District
Court therefore held that it lacked subject-matter jurisdic
tion over the case.4 Invoking §1447(c),5 the court con
——————
place wherein it is pending.” §1442(a), (a)(1), (b).
4 The District Court did not address the propriety of removal under

§1442. See infra, at 20, n. 11.
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Opinion of the Court

cluded that the case must be remanded to the state court.
The United States moved for reconsideration, urging
that, contrary to the District Court’s impression, the Gov
ernment did contest Osborn’s factual allegations. Recall
ing that it had denied Osborn’s allegations in its answer to
her complaint, the United States submitted sworn decla
rations from Haley and Luber. Haley’s stated that he was
not in communication with Luber between the time of
Kuenzli’s investigation and Osborn’s firing. Luber’s decla
ration stated that Osborn’s request for an investigation
regarding her veterans’ preference points could not have
had any bearing on Osborn’s termination, for Luber was
unaware of the request at the relevant time. Absent
contrary evidence, the Government maintained, these
declarations sufficed to support the certification and the
continuance of the United States as defendant in place
of Haley. In the alternative, the Government sought
discovery. 6
——————
5 Section 1447(c) provides:
“A motion to remand the case on the basis of any defect other than
lack of subject matter jurisdiction must be made within 30 days after
the filing of the notice of removal under section 1446(a). If at any time
before final judgment it appears that the district court lacks subject
matter jurisdiction, the case shall be remanded. An order remanding
the case may require payment of just costs and any actual expenses,
including attorney fees, incurred as a result of the removal. A certified
copy of the order of remand shall be mailed by the clerk to the clerk of
the State court. The State court may thereupon proceed with such
case.”
6 The District Court refused to entertain the alternative argument

that, if a relevant Haley-Luber conversation did occur, Haley was
acting within the scope of his employment. Because Haley had de
clared, under oath, that he did not communicate with Luber, the court
was unwilling to allow discovery on the question whether, if Haley did
contact Luber, he was acting within the scope of his employment. But
cf. Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 8(e)(2) (subject to Rule 11 obligations, parties
may plead claims or defense “alternately or hypothetically”). We
express no opinion on the propriety of the District Court’s refusal to
consider the Government’s alternative pleading.
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Opinion of the Court

The District Court denied the Government’s reconsid
eration motion. The Haley and Luber declarations, the
court said, clarified that the controversy centered on
whether there had been any communication between
Haley and Luber influencing Luber’s decision to fire
Osborn. The Westfall Act would have shielded Haley, the
Court suggested, had the United States admitted a Haley-
Luber communication but defended its content as within
the scope of Haley’s employment. Westfall Act certifica
tion was improper, the court concluded, because the
United States did not admit, but instead denied, the oc
currence of the event central to proof of Osborn’s claim.
The District Court acknowledged disagreement among the
Circuits on the availability of a Westfall Act certification
when the United States “den[ies] the occurrence of the
basic incident charged.” Wood v. United States, 995 F. 2d
1122, 1124 (CA1 1993) (en banc). Compare ibid. and
McHugh v. University of Vermont, 966 F. 2d 67, 74–75
(CA2 1992) (prohibiting incident-denying certifications),
with Heuton v. Anderson, 75 F. 3d 357, 360 (CA8 1996);
Kimbro v. Velten, 30 F. 3d 1501, 1508 (CADC 1994); and
Melo v. Hafer, 13 F. 3d 736, 746–747 (CA3 1994) (allowing
incident-denying certifications). Choosing to follow the
First Circuit’s opinion in Wood, the District Court adhered
to its prior ruling that the Westfall Act certification in this
case was invalid.
On appeal, the Sixth Circuit vacated the District Court’s
order denying certification and substitution. 422 F. 3d
359, 365 (2005). The Court of Appeals, in accord with
Heuton, Kimbro, and Melo, held that a Westfall Act certifi
cation is not improper simply because the United States
denies the occurrence of the incident on which the plaintiff
centrally relies. 422 F. 3d, at 364. Rather, the court held,
where “the Attorney General’s certification is based on a
different understanding of the facts than is reflected in the
complaint, including a denial of the harm-causing inci
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Opinion of the Court

dent, the district court must resolve the factual dispute.”
Ibid. (quoting Melo, 13 F. 3d, at 747).
The Sixth Circuit also vacated the District Court’s order
remanding the case to the state court. Section 2679(d)(2),
the Court of Appeals stressed, instructs that the “certifica
tion of the Attorney General shall conclusively establish
scope of office or employment for purposes of removal.”
The court read that instruction to proscribe shuttling
cases back to state courts and, instead, to require district
court adjudication of the controversy even when a Westfall
Act certification is rejected and, correspondingly, substitu
tion of the United States as defendant is denied. 422
F. 3d, at 365. On that issue too, the Court of Appeals
noted a division among the Circuits. Compare Borneman
v. United States, 213 F. 3d 819, 826 (CA4 2000); Garcia v.
United States, 88 F. 3d 318, 325–327 (CA5 1996); and
Aliota v. Graham, 984 F. 2d 1350, 1356 (CA3 1993) (hold
ing that a district court lacks authority to remand a case
removed under §2679(d)(2)), with Haddon v. United
States, 68 F. 3d 1420, 1427 (CADC 1995); and Nasuti v.
Scannell, 906 F. 2d 802, 814, n. 17 (CA1 1990) (holding
remand proper when district court rejects the Attorney
General’s certification). We granted certiorari. 547 U. S.
__ (2006).
II
We consider first the Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction to
review the District Court’s disposition of this case. We
address in turn the questions whether the appellate court
had jurisdiction to review (1) the order rejecting the At
torney General’s certification and denying substitution of
the United States as defendant, and (2) the order remand
ing the case to the state court.
A
The District Court’s rejection of certification and substi
tution effectively denied Haley the protection afforded by
10 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of the Court

the Westfall Act, a measure designed to immunize covered
federal employees not simply from liability, but from suit.
See §2(a)(5), 102 Stat. 4563; Lamagno, 515 U. S., at 425–
426; H. R. Rep. No. 100–700, p. 4 (1988). Under the col
lateral order doctrine of Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial
Loan Corp., 337 U. S. 541 (1949), this ruling qualifies as a
reviewable final decision within the compass of 28 U. S. C.
§1291.7
Meeting the three criteria of Cohen, the District Court’s
denial of certification and substitution conclusively de
cided a contested issue, the issue decided is important and
separate from the merits of the action, and the District
Court’s disposition would be effectively unreviewable later
in the litigation. 337 U. S., at 546. See Mitchell v. For
syth, 472 U. S. 511, 525–527 (1985) (holding that district
court rejection of a defendant’s qualified immunity plea is
immediately appealable under the Cohen doctrine because
suit immunity “is effectively lost if a case is erroneously
permitted to go to trial” against the immune official). As
cogently explained by the Fifth Circuit in Mitchell v. Carl
son, 896 F. 2d 128, 133 (1990), retaining the federal em
ployee as a party defendant
“effectively denie[s] [him] immunity from suit if [he]
was entitled to such immunity under the Westfall Act.
Under the Act, once the United States Attorney certi
fies that the federal employee acted within the scope
of [his] employment, the plaintiff properly can proceed
only against the United States as defendant. The fed
eral employee remains immune from suit. By [reject
ing the Attorney Genera’s certification], the district
court subject[s] [the employee] to the burden of de
fending a suit . . ., a burden from which [the Westfall
Act spares him].”
——————
7 Section 1291 provides that “[t]he courts of appeals . . . shall have

jurisdiction of appeals from all final decisions of the district courts.”
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 11

Opinion of the Court

Tellingly, the Courts of Appeals are unanimous in hold
ing that orders denying Westfall Act certification and
substitution are amenable to immediate review under
Cohen. See Woodruff v. Covington, 389 F. 3d 1117, 1124
(CA10 2004); Mathis v. Henderson, 243 F. 3d 446, 448
(CA8 2001); Borneman, 213 F. 3d, at 826 (CA4); Lyons v.
Brown, 158 F. 3d 605, 607 (CA1 1998); Taboas v. Mlync
zak, 149 F. 3d 576, 579 (CA7 1998); Coleman v. United
States, 91 F. 3d 820, 823 (CA6 1996); Flohr v. Mackovjak,
84 F. 3d 386, 390 (CA11 1996); Kimbro, 30 F. 3d, at 1503
(CADC); Aliota, 984 F. 2d, at 1354 (CA3); Pelletier v. Fed
eral Home Loan Bank, 968 F. 2d 865, 873 (CA9 1992);
McHugh, 966 F. 2d, at 69 (CA2); Carlson, 896 F. 2d, at 133
(CA5). We confirm that the Courts of Appeals have ruled
correctly on this matter.
B
In our order granting certiorari we asked the parties to
address, in addition to the issues presented in the petition,
this further question: Did the Court of Appeals have juris
diction to review the District Court’s remand order, not
withstanding 28 U. S. C. §1447(d)’s declaration that “[a]n
order remanding a case to the State court from which it
was removed is not reviewable on appeal or otherwise”?
In answering this question, we also resolve the second
question presented in the petition for certiorari—whether
the Westfall Act’s rule against remanding actions removed
pursuant to §2679(d)(2) applies when the federal court
determines that the United States should not be substi
tuted as defendant in place of the federal employee. Our
disposition is informed by, and tracks, the Third Circuit’s
reasoning in Aliota, 984 F. 2d, at 1354–1357.
We begin with the provision we asked the parties to
address: §1447(d). That provision states in relevant part:
“An order remanding a case to the State court from which
it was removed is not reviewable on appeal or otherwise
12 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of the Court

. . . .” In Thermtron Products, Inc. v. Hermansdorfer, 423
U. S. 336 (1976), we held that the preceding subsection,
§1447(c), confined §1447(d)’s scope. Under §1447(d), the
Court explained, “only remand orders issued under
§1447(c) and invoking the [mandatory] grounds specified
therein—that removal was improvident and without
jurisdiction—are immune from review.” Id., at 346.8
Thermtron had been properly removed to the federal court.
The sole reason the District Court gave for remanding it
was that court’s crowded docket. This Court held the
remand order reviewable, observing that §1447(c) could
not sensibly be read to confer on the district courts “carte
blanche authority . . . to revise the federal statutes govern
ing removal.” Id., at 351. See also Quackenbush v.
Allstate Ins. Co., 517 U. S. 706 (1996) (holding abstention-
based remand order immediately appealable). But see
Gravitt v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 430 U. S. 723
(1977) (per curiam) (holding unreviewable a remand order
purporting to rest on a ground within the scope of
§1447(c)).
The United States urges us to apply Thermtron and hold
the remand order in this case reviewable because that
order was not based on a ground specified in §1447(c). To
determine whether Thermtron controls, we must start
with an examination of the Westfall Act’s design, particu
larly its prescriptions regarding the removal and remand
of actions filed in state court.
As earlier noted, see supra, at 1, the Act grants the
Attorney General authority to certify that a federal em
ployee named defendant in a tort action was acting within
the scope of his or her employment at the time in question.
——————
8 At the time Thermtron was decided, §1447(c) required a district

court to remand a case if it appeared that the case had been “removed
improvidently and without jurisdiction.” 28 U. S. C. §1447(c) (1970
ed.). Section 1447(c) now provides that a case must be remanded if “it
appears that the district court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.”
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 13

Opinion of the Court

§2679(d)(1), (2). If the action is commenced in a federal
court, and the Attorney General certifies that the em
ployee “was acting within the scope of his office or em
ployment at the [relevant] time,” the United States must
be substituted as the defendant. §2679(d)(1). If the action
is launched in a state court, and the Attorney General
makes the same certification, the action “shall be re
moved” to the appropriate federal district court, and again
the United States must be substituted as the defendant.
§2679(d)(2). Of prime importance to our decision,
§2679(d)(2) concludes with the command: “Th[e] certifica
tion of the Attorney General shall conclusively establish
scope of office or employment for purposes of removal.”
(Emphasis added.)
This directive markedly differs from Congress’ instruc
tion for cases in which the Attorney General “refuse[s] to
certify scope of office or employment.” §2679(d)(3). In that
event, the defendant employee may petition the court in
which the action was instituted to make the scope-of
employment certification. If the complaint was filed in a
state court, the Attorney General may remove the case to
the appropriate federal court, but he is not obliged to do
so. Ibid. If the court, state or federal, issues the certifica
tion, “the United States shall be substituted as the party
defendant.” Ibid. If removal has occurred, and thereafter
“the district court determines that the employee was not
acting within the scope of his office or employment, the
action . . . shall be remanded to the State court.” Ibid.
(emphasis added).
The Act’s distinction between removed cases in which
the Attorney General issues a scope-of-employment certifi
cation, and those in which he does not, leads us to con
clude that Congress gave district courts no authority to
return cases to state courts on the ground that the Attor
ney General’s certification was unwarranted. Absent
certification, §2679(d)(3) directs that the case must be
14 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of the Court

remanded to the state court in which the action com
menced. In contrast, when the Attorney General certifies
scope of employment, his certificate “conclusively estab
lish[es] scope of office or employment for purposes of re
moval.” §2679(d)(2) (emphasis added). Section 2679(d)(2)
does not preclude a district court from resubstituting the
federal official as defendant for purposes of trial if the
court determines, postremoval, that the Attorney Gen
eral’s scope-of-employment certification was incorrect. For
purposes of establishing a forum to adjudicate the case,
however, §2679(d)(2) renders the Attorney General’s certi
fication dispositive.9
Were it open to a district court to remand a removed
action on the ground that the Attorney General’s certifica
tion was erroneous, the final instruction in §2679(d)(2)
would be weightless. The Attorney General’s certification
would not “conclusively establish scope of office or em
ployment” for either trial or removal. Instead, the Attor
ney General’s scope certification would supply only a
tentative basis for removal, rather than a conclusive one.
In Lamagno, the Court unanimously agreed that Congress
spoke unambiguously on this matter: Congress adopted
the “conclusiv[e] . . . for purposes of removal” language to
“foreclose needless shuttling of a case from one court to
another.” 515 U. S., at 433, n. 10; see id., at 440 (SOUTER,
J., dissenting) (“[T]here is nothing equivocal about
[§2679(d)(2)’s] provision that once a state tort action has
been removed to a federal court after a certification by the
——————
9 As explained by the Third Circuit in Melo v. Hafer, 912 F. 2d 628,
641 (1990), “[t]here are significant policy reasons why Congress would
choose to give the government an unchallengeable right to have a
federal forum for tort suits brought against its employees.” But Con
gress’ endeavor to secure that right does not mean that Congress also
intended to render unreviewable substitution of the United States as
defendant in place of the employee. See ibid.; cf. Gutierrez de Martinez
v. Lamagno, 515 U. S. 417, 430–434 (1995).
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 15

Opinion of the Court

Attorney General, it may never be remanded to the state
system.”).
With the Westfall Act’s provisions on removal of actions
filed in state court in clear view, we return to the question
whether an order remanding a case removed pursuant to
§2679(d)(2) is reviewable. Thermtron held that §1447(d)
must be read together with §1447(c). There is stronger
cause, we conclude, to hold that §1447(c) and (d) must be
read together with the later enacted §2679(d)(2). Both
§1447(d) and §2679(d)(2) are antishuttling provisions.
Each aims to prevent “prolonged litigation of questions of
jurisdiction of the district court to which the cause is
removed.” United States v. Rice, 327 U. S. 742, 751 (1946).
Section 2679(d)(2) is operative when the Attorney General
certifies scope of employment, triggering removal of the
case to a federal forum. At that point, §2679(d)(2) renders
the federal court exclusively competent and categorically
precludes a remand to the state court.
The command that the Attorney General’s certification
“shall conclusively establish scope of office or employment
for purposes of removal,” §2679(d)(2), differentiates certi
fied Westfall Act cases from the typical case remanded for
want of subject-matter jurisdiction. Ordinarily, when the
plaintiff moves to remand a removed case for lack of sub
ject-matter jurisdiction, the federal district court under
takes a threshold inquiry; typically the court determines
whether complete diversity exists or whether the com
plaint raises a federal question. In Attorney General
certified Westfall Act cases, however, no threshold deter
mination is called for; the Attorney General’s certificate
forecloses any jurisdictional inquiry. By declaring the
Attorney General’s certification “conclusive” as to the
federal forum’s jurisdiction, Congress has barred a district
court from passing the case back to the state court where
it originated based on the court’s disagreement with the
Attorney General’s scope-of-employment determination.
16 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of the Court

Our decision that §2679(d)(2) leaves the district court
without authority to send a certified case back to the state
court scarcely means that whenever the district court
misconstrues a jurisdictional statute, appellate review of
the remand is in order. Such an exception would, of
course, collide head on with §1447(d), and with our prece
dent. See, e.g., Things Remembered, Inc. v. Petrarca, 516
U. S. 124, 127–128 (1995). Only in the extraordinary case
in which Congress has ordered the intercourt shuttle to
travel just one way—from state to federal court—does
today’s decision hold sway.
In short, of the two antishuttling commands, §1447(d)
and §2679(d)(2), only one can prevail. We hold that
§2679(d)(2) controls. Tailor-made for Westfall Act cases,
§2679(d)(2) is a forum-selecting rule Congress made “con
clusive,” beyond the ken of district courts to revise. See
Thermtron, 423 U. S., at 351.
C
In Lamagno, the Court considered, but did not defini
tively resolve, the question whether Article III permits
“[t]reating the Attorney General’s certification as conclu
sive for purposes of removal but not for purposes of substi
tution.” 515 U. S., at 434. It was argued in that case that
if certification is rejected and substitution denied “because
the federal court concludes that the employee acted out
side the scope of his employment, and if the tort plaintiff
and the [defendant-employee] are not of diverse citizen
ship, . . . then the federal court will be left with a case
without a federal question to support the court’s subject-
matter jurisdiction.” Id., at 434–435. Lamagno was an
action commenced in federal court on the basis of diversity
of citizenship, so there was in that case “not even the
specter of an Article III problem.” Id., at 435.
In the case before us, the question would arise only if,
after full consideration, the District Court determines that
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 17

Opinion of the Court

Haley in fact engaged in the tortious conduct outside the
scope of his employment charged in Osborn’s complaint.
At that point, however, little would be left to adjudicate, at
least as to Haley’s liability. Because a significant federal
question (whether Haley has Westfall Act immunity)
would have been raised at the outset, the case would
“aris[e] under” federal law, as that term is used in Article
III. See Verlinden B. V. v. Central Bank of Nigeria, 461
U. S. 480, 493 (1983). Even if only state-law claims re
mained after resolution of the federal question, the Dis
trict Court would have discretion, consistent with Article
III, to retain jurisdiction. See Carnegie-Mellon Univ. v.
Cohill, 484 U. S. 343, 350–351 (1988) (when federal char
acter of removed case is eliminated while the case is sub
judice, court has discretion to retain jurisdiction, to re
mand, or to dismiss); cf. Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U. S.
715, 725 (1966) (pendent jurisdiction may be exercised
when federal and state claims have a “common nucleus of
operative fact” and would “ordinarily be expected to [be
tried] all in one judicial proceeding”). See also 28 U. S. C.
§1367 (“Supplemental jurisdiction”). “[C]onsiderations of
judicial economy, convenience and fairness to litigants,”
Gibbs, 383 U. S., at 726, make it reasonable and proper for
a federal court to proceed to final judgment, once it has
invested time and resources to resolve the pivotal scope-of
employment contest. Thus, under the precedent that
guides us, the Westfall Act’s command that a district court
retain jurisdiction over a case removed pursuant to
§2679(d)(2) does not run afoul of Article III.

III
With the jurisdictional issues resolved, we reach the
principal question raised by petitioner Osborn: whether
the United States Attorney validly certified that Haley
“was acting within the scope of his employment . . . at the
18 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of the Court

time of the conduct alleged in the complaint.” Luber App.
23. We note first that the certificate is formally in order;
it closely tracks the language of the Westfall Act. See
§2679(d)(2) (authorizing certification “that the defendant
employee was acting within the scope of his office or em
ployment at the time of the incident out of which the claim
arose”). In Lamagno, we held that the Attorney General’s
certification is “the first, but not the final word” on
whether the federal officer is immune from suit and, cor
relatively, whether the United States is properly substi
tuted as defendant. 515 U. S., at 432. A plaintiff may
request judicial review of the Attorney General’s scope-of
employment determination, as Osborn did here.
As earlier recounted, see supra, at 6, the District Court
initially accepted Osborn’s allegations as true because it
believed that the United States did not dispute them.
Applying Kentucky law, that court determined that “Ha
ley’s alleged actions occurred outside the scope of his
employment.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 24a. In a motion for
reconsideration, the Government clarified that, far from
admitting Osborn’s allegations, it disputed the very occur
rence of the harm-causing conduct Osborn alleged. In
support of the motion, the Government submitted affida
vits from Haley and Luber denying that they engaged in
the conduct ascribed to them in Osborn’s complaint. The
Government contended that Haley remained within the
proper bounds of his employment at the relevant time
and place because the wrongdoing Osborn alleged never
happened.
The Government’s reconsideration motion asked the
District Court to resolve the factual dispute, i.e., to deter
mine whether, as the complaint alleged, Haley prevailed
upon Luber to discharge Osborn, or whether, as Haley
asserted, he never communicated with Luber about
Osborn’s LBLA employment. The court did not grant the
Government’s request for resolution of the factual dispute.
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 19

Opinion of the Court

Instead, it held the Westfall Act certification invalid pre
cisely because the Government denied that Haley engaged
in harm-causing conduct.
Two Courts of Appeals have held that Westfall Act
certification is improper when the Government denies the
occurrence of the alleged injury-causing action or episode.
See Wood, 995 F. 2d, at 1123 (CA1); McHugh, 966 F. 2d, at
74–75 (CA2). The Sixth Circuit, in this case, and several
other Courts of Appeals have held that a plaintiff’s allega
tion of conduct beyond the scope of a federal official’s
employment does not block certification where the Gov
ernment contends that the alleged tortious conduct did not
occur. See Heuton, 75 F. 3d, at 360 (CA8); Kimbro, 30
F. 3d, at 1508 (CADC); Melo, 13 F. 3d, at 746–747 (CA3).
We agree that Westfall Act certification is proper when a
federal officer charged with misconduct asserts, and the
Government determines, that the incident or episode in
suit never occurred.
A
The Westfall Act grants a federal employee suit immu
nity, we reiterate, when “acting within the scope of his
office or employment at the time of the incident out of
which the claim arose.” §2679(d)(1), (2). That formula
tion, we are persuaded, encompasses an employee on duty
at the time and place of an “incident” alleged in a com
plaint who denies that the incident occurred. See Wood,
995 F. 2d, at 1134 (joint opinion of Coffin, Selya, and
Boudin, JJ., dissenting) (“[S]urely the statute applies with
the same force whether a postal service driver says that he
did not hit the plaintiff's car or that he did so but was not
at fault.”); Melo, 13 F. 3d, at 747. And just as the Gov
ernment’s certification that an employee “was acting
within the scope of his employment” is subject to threshold
judicial review, Lamagno, 515 U. S., at 434, so a com
plaint’s charge of conduct outside the scope of employ
20 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of the Court

ment, when contested, warrants immediate judicial inves
tigation. Were it otherwise, a federal employee would be
stripped of suit immunity not by what the court finds, but
by what the complaint alleges.10
In sum, given the purpose of the Westfall Act to shield
covered employees not only from liability but from suit, it
is altogether appropriate to afford protection to a “negli
gent . . . employee . . . as a matter of course.” Wood, 995
F. 2d, at 1135 (joint opinion of Coffin, Selya, and Boudin,
JJ., dissenting). But it would make scant sense to read
the Act as leaving an employee charged with an inten
tional tort11 to fend for himself when he denies wrongdoing
and asserts he “engaged only in proper behavior occurring
wholly within the scope of his office or employment.” Ibid.
See also Hueton, 75 F. 3d, at 360 (“[I]t is illogical to as
sume that Congress intended to protect guilty employees
but desert innocent ones.”).12
——————
10 In an opinion resembling his majority opinion in Wood v. United

States, 995 F. 2d 1122 (CA1 1993) (en banc), JUSTICE BREYER takes the
view that the Attorney General may issue a Westfall Act certification if
he contests the plaintiff’s account of the episode-in-suit, but he must
“assume some kind of incident” in order to certify. Post, at 2. Thus he
would not permit “purely incident-denying certifications,” and he places
the certification here in that category. Ibid. We agree with the Wood
dissenters’ appraisal of JUSTICE BREYER’s distinction between incident-
denying and incident-recharacterizing certifications: That approach
would require district courts “to engage in difficult, time-wasting
controversies . . . about precisely which facts pertaining to the scope of
employment issue are for the district judge and which are for the jury.”
995 F. 2d, at 1136, and n. 7 (joint opinion of Coffin, Selya, and Boudin,
JJ., dissenting). Accord Kimbro v. Velten, 30 F. 3d 1501, 1507 (CADC
1994) (“[I]t would be impossible . . . to draw a distinction between a
characterization of an incident and whether or not it actually
occurred.”).
11 See id., at 1505 (observing that the question here presented

“tend[s] to arise in cases of alleged intentional torts”).
12 Under JUSTICE BREYER’s view, when, in fact, “nothing involving the

employee happened at all . . . no Westfall Act immunity would be
available.” Post, at 6–7. He thinks this “is just as it should be. ” Post,
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 21

Opinion of the Court

Willingham v. Morgan, 395 U. S. 402 (1969), in which
the Court construed the federal officer removal statute, 28
U. S. C. §1442, supports our reading of the Westfall Act.13
Section 1442(a)(1) allows an officer of the United States to
remove a civil action commenced in state court if the
officer is “sued in an official or individual capacity for any
act under color of such office.” In Willingham, a federal
inmate sued two federal prison officials in state court,
alleging that they had assaulted, beaten, and tortured
him. 395 U. S., at 403. The defendants removed pursuant
to §1442(a)(1), and the District Court upheld their defense
of official immunity. The Tenth Circuit reversed, reading
§1442(a)(1) to permit removal only when a defendant
“exclude[s] the possibility that the suit is based on acts or
conduct not justified by his federal duty.” Morgan v.
Willingham, 383 F. 2d 139, 141 (1967). We rejected that
narrow construction of the statute and held §1442 “broad
enough to cover all cases where federal officers can raise a
colorable defense arising out of the duty to enforce federal
law.” 395 U. S., at 406–407.
The plaintiff in Willingham disputed that the defendant
federal officials had acted under color of office. He alleged
that they “had been acting on a frolic of their own which
had no relevancy to their official duties as employees or
officers of the United States.” Id., at 407 (internal quota
tion marks omitted). The Court held that the officers
“should have the opportunity to present their version of the
facts to a federal, not a state, court.” Id., at 409 (emphasis
——————
at 7. We disagree. Congress did not, and sensibly should not, com
mand that innocent employees be left outside the Westfall Act’s grant
of suit immunity. “Congress’ statute and its policy,” we agree, “both
look in the opposite direction.” Wood, 995 F. 2d, at 1136 (joint opinion
of Coffin, Selya, and Boudin, JJ., dissenting).
13 The notice of removal in this case invoked §1442 as well as §2679.

In the Sixth Circuit, however, the Government did not urge §1442 as a
separate ground for reversing the District Court.
22 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of the Court

added).
We see no reason to conclude that the Attorney Gen
eral’s ability to remove a suit to federal court under
§2679(d)(2), unlike a federal officer’s ability to remove
under §1442, should be controlled by the plaintiff’s allega
tions. In Willingham, the federal officer’s “relationship to
[the plaintiff] derived solely from their official duties.”
Ibid. Similarly here, Haley interacted with Osborn and
Luber only through his employment as a Forest Service
officer.14 For purposes of removal under §1442(a), the
defendants in Willingham were not required to accept the
——————
14 In the context of §1442, we have held that, to qualify for removal, a

federal official must show “a nexus . . . between the charged conduct
and asserted official authority.” Jefferson County v. Acker, 527 U. S.
423, 431 (1999) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). We
need not today decide whether qualification for Westfall Act immunity
is similarly limited, for in this case, a nexus plainly exists connecting
the incident Osborn alleged and Haley’s federal employment. We note,
however, that nothing in our opinion commits the Court to the view
that Westfall Act immunity is available in fanciful situations like the
one JUSTICE BREYER hypothesizes, post, at 1–2, in which the plaintiff’s
allegations are wholly unrelated to the defendant’s federal employment.
JUSTICE BREYER posits the case of a Yellowstone Park forest ranger
accused of misdeeds at Coney Island. He says we would find Westfall
Act immunity—more accurately, we would uphold Westfall Act certifi
cation—even if the ranger’s “presen[ce] on Coney Island must have
been . . . on a frolic of his own.” Post, at 1. If JUSTICE BREYER is imagin
ing a case in which the ranger was in fact on a frolic at Coney Island,
but the Attorney General nevertheless issued a Westfall Act certificate,
we would not approve the certification. In that imaginary case, there
would be no sense in which the ranger was acting within the scope of
his employment at the time of the incident charged in the plaintiff’s
complaint. If, instead, JUSTICE BREYER has in mind a ranger accused of
frolicking at Coney Island, when all the while he stayed close to his
desk at Yellowstone Park, then JUSTICE BREYER is correct: Westfall Act
immunity might be available under our approach. If such a case ever
shows up in a federal court, however, the district judge might be called
upon to determine whether removal and substitution under §2679(d)(2)
are limited by a nexus requirement similar to the one that limits
removal under §1442.
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 23

Opinion of the Court

truth of the plaintiff’s allegations that they were “on a
frolic of their own,” id., at 407 (internal quotation marks
omitted), and had tortured plaintiff “out of malice,” 383
F. 2d, at 140 (internal quotation marks omitted). So here,
for purposes of removal under §2679(d)(2), Haley and the
Government were not required to accept as true Osborn’s
allegations that Haley “maliciously induced” her dismissal
from LBLA “in retaliation for plaintiff filing a veterans’
preference inquiry.” Complaint ¶29, Luber App. 7. Haley,
like the defendant in Willingham, may have been on frolic
of his own as Osborn alleged, and therefore may not be
entitled to immunity. But like the officers in Willingham,
he should have the opportunity to “present [his] version of
the facts to a federal . . . court.” 395 U. S., at 409.
B
Tugging against our reading of the Westfall Act, we
recognize, is a “who decides” concern. If the Westfall Act
certification must be respected unless and until the Dis
trict Court determines that Haley, in fact, engaged in
conduct beyond the scope of his employment, then Osborn
may be denied a jury trial. Compare Wood, 995 F. 2d, at
1126, 1130, with id., at 1134–1138 (joint opinion of Coffin,
Selya, and Boudin, JJ., dissenting). Should the District
Court find that Haley did not maliciously induce Luber to
discharge Osborn, but instead interacted with Luber and
Osborn only within the proper bounds of his employment,
Osborn will lose on the merits with no access to a jury of
her peers.15 “This is not a small objection,” for the issue
——————
15 The overlap of certification validity and the merits of the plaintiff’s
claim, evident here, is uncommon. It is unlikely to occur when the
plaintiff alleges negligent conduct. The question whether a federal
driver was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of an
accident, for example, can generally be answered without simultane
ously determining whether the federal employee drove negligently or
carefully. And even when the plaintiff alleges an intentional tort, it
may be possible to resolve the scope-of-employment question without
24 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of the Court

“that goes to the heart of the merits, as well as to the
validity of the certificate,” will likely turn on the credibil
ity of Osborn, Haley, and Luber, and credibility “may be
well suited for jury resolution.” See id., at 1136–1137.16
Under the Westfall Act, however, Congress supplanted
the jury in covered cases. See §2679(d)(1)–(3). Upon
certification, the action is “deemed to be . . . brought
against the United States,” ibid., unless and until the
district court determines that the federal officer originally
named as defendant was acting outside the scope of his
employment. The Seventh Amendment, which preserves
the right to a jury trial in suits at common law, we have
held, does not apply to proceedings against the sovereign.
Lehman v. Nakshian, 453 U. S. 156 (1981). See also §2402
(actions against the United States ordinarily “shall be
tried by the court without a jury”). Thus, at the time the
district court reviews the Attorney General’s certification,
the plaintiff has no right to a jury trial. See Kimbro, 30
F. 3d, at 1509, n. 4.17
——————
deciding the merits of the claim. If a plaintiff charges a federal em
ployee with sexual assault, for example, upon determining that there
was sexual contact, a district court could find that the employee acted
outside the scope of his duties, leaving the question whether the contact
was consensual for jury resolution.
16 But cf. 995 F. 2d, at 1137 (observing that “[i]n the ordinary tort

claim arising when a government driver negligently runs into another
car, jury trial is precisely what is lost to a plaintiff when the govern
ment is substituted for the employee”).
17 We do not address the case in which the Attorney General refuses

certification. In that event, §2679(d)(3) allows the named defendant to
“petition the court to find and certify that [he] was acting within the
scope of his . . . employment.” However, the Westfall Act gives the
named defendant no right to remove an uncertified case. But see 28
U. S. C. §1442(a)(1). That right is accorded to the Attorney General
only. Because the scope determination would be made in such a case
before any substitution of the United States as defendant takes place, it
is arguable that a jury trial of that issue would be required if the case is
before a federal court. If the case was brought in a state court and the
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 25

Opinion of the Court

The Westfall Act’s core purpose also bears on the appro
priate trier of any facts essential to certification. That
purpose is to relieve covered employees from the cost and
effort of defending the lawsuit, and to place those burdens
on the Government’s shoulders. See supra, at 9–10.
Immunity-related issues, the Court has several times
instructed, should be decided at the earliest opportunity.
See, e.g., Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U. S. 224, 228 (1991) (per
curiam) (“Immunity ordinarily should be decided by the
court long before trial.”); Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U. S.
635, 646, n. 6 (1987) (“[I]mmunity questions should be
resolved at the earliest possible stage of litigation.”).18
* * *
For the reasons stated, the judgment of the United
States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is
Affirmed.

——————
Attorney General declines to remove, the Seventh Amendment would
not figure in the case, for it is inapplicable to proceedings in state court.
Minneapolis & St. Louis R. Co. v. Bombolis, 241 U. S. 211, 217 (1916).
18 JUSTICE BREYER suggests that, with respect to immunity defenses,

our “reading of the Westfall Act works a major change in th[e] [ordi
nary] fact/law relationship.” Post, at 5. Nothing in our opinion touches
on that relationship in the typical case in which a defendant official
raises a defense of absolute or qualified immunity. We simply observe
that the Westfall Act grants federal employees a species of immunity,
and that, under our jurisprudence, immunity-related questions should
be resolved at the earliest opportunity. JUSTICE BREYER is right,
however, to this extent. We recognize that judges have a greater
factfinding role in Westfall Act cases than they traditionally have in
other immunity contexts. The Act makes that inevitable. When
Westfall Act immunity is in dispute, a district court is called upon to
decide who the proper defendant is: the named federal employee, or the
United States. That decision cannot be left for jury resolution late in
proceedings without undermining the Westfall Act’s very purpose: to
shift the burden of defending the suit to the United States whenever
the defendant-employee was, at the relevant time, acting within the
scope of his employment.
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 1

Opinion of SOUTER, J.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________

No. 05–593
_________________

PAT OSBORN, PETITIONER v. BARRY HALEY ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

[January 22, 2007]

JUSTICE SOUTER, concurring in part and dissenting in
part.
I join the Court’s opinion except for Parts II–B and II–C.
Title 28 U. S. C. §1447(d) provides, with one exception not
relevant here, that “[a]n order remanding a case to the
State court from which it was removed is not reviewable
on appeal or otherwise.” In sanctioning appellate review
notwithstanding §1447(d), the Court relies on its determi
nation that Congress, through §2679(d)(2), has prohibited
remand in cases like this one, in order to give effect to the
conclusive character of the Attorney General’s certification
on the issue of removal jurisdiction. But as we recently
held, “ ‘review is unavailable no matter how plain the legal
error in ordering the remand.’ ” Kircher v. Putnam Funds
Trust, 547 U. S. ___, ___ (2006) (slip op., at 7) (quoting
Briscoe v. Bell, 432 U. S. 404, 414, n. 13 (1977)). Thus,
rather than allowing §2679(d)(2) to trump §1447(d), I
would reaffirm the rule that a district court’s remand
order is unreviewable even if it is based on an erroneous
understanding of the district court’s jurisdiction.1 But I
would not otherwise limit the Attorney General’s (or the
——————
1 The exception to §1447(d) created in Thermtron Products, Inc. v.

Hermansdorfer, 423 U. S. 336 (1976), for remands not authorized by
§1447(c) does not apply here because the District Court remanded the
case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, a ground enumerated in
§1447(c).
2 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of SOUTER, J.

employee’s) efforts to give the intended effect to the certifi
cation prior to any remand that might be ordered.
I agree with the Court, therefore, that the Court of
Appeals had jurisdiction to review the District Court’s
order resubstituting Haley as defendant. That order was
not “[a]n order remanding a case to the State court from
which it was removed,” so by its own terms §1447(d) does
not apply to review of that decision. Allowing review of a
resubstitution order makes good on the promise of the
Westfall Act: by permitting disaggregation of a remand
order from a substantive determination about substitution
that preceded it (in the manner exemplified by Waco v.
United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 293 U. S. 140
(1934)), it gives an employee-defendant a right to appeal
any denial of the benefit of substituting the Government
as defendant in costly litigation arising out of the em
ployee’s federal service.2 The circumstances in which the
Westfall Act was adopted, responding as it did to a series
of our decisions that Congress saw as having “seriously
eroded the common law tort immunity previously avail
able to Federal employees,” 102 Stat. 4563, note following
28 U. S. C. §2671, point to the importance Congress placed
on giving a federal employee a full opportunity to seek this
protection. Incidentally, of course, my reading of the
statutes can give an appellate court the opportunity to
correct a district court’s erroneous understanding of the
legitimacy of removal before any remand is effected, mak
ing it very unlikely that a mistakenly premised remand
order will be carried out. If a district court resisted edifi
cation, however, the remand order would be conclusive
——————
2 The circumstances of this case make it clear that Waco ought to

endure as an exception to §1447(d), a question left open in Kircher v.
Putnam Funds Trust, 547 U. S. ___, ___ (2006) (slip op., at 11, n. 13). A
contrary rule would preclude appellate review not only of the remand
order itself, but also of the refusal to substitute the Government as
defendant.
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 3

Opinion of SOUTER, J.

against appeal, in accord with §1447(d). See Kircher,
supra, at ___ (slip op., at 7).
In sum, my resolution of this case is a pair of half-
loaves. The policy of avoiding litigation over remands is
tempered by allowing appeals on the important matter of
substitution. The policy behind making the Attorney
General’s certification conclusive is qualified by insulating
a remand order from review, no matter how erroneous its
jurisdictional premise. Neither policy has it all, but each
gets something.
I would remand this case to the Court of Appeals for
proceedings consistent with this understanding.
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 1

Opinion of BREYER, J.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________

No. 05–593
_________________

PAT OSBORN, PETITIONER v. BARRY HALEY ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

[January 22, 2007]

JUSTICE BREYER, concurring in part and dissenting in
part.
I agree with the Court’s jurisdictional analysis and its
disposition of the District Court’s remand order and so join
Parts I and II of the Court’s opinion. But I dissent from
Part III. I continue to believe that the Westfall Act per
mits the Attorney General to certify only when accepting,
at least conditionally, the existence of some kind of “inci
dent.” But where the incident, if it took place at all, must
have fallen outside the scope of employment, the Act does
not permit certification. See Wood v. United States, 995
F. 2d 1122 (CA1 1993) (en banc).
Here, the Attorney General did claim, in the alternative,
that if an incident took place (i.e., if the federal employee
Haley spoke to Osborn’s employer with respect to Osborn’s
employment), any such incident would have fallen within
the scope of Haley’s employment. But, for procedural
reasons, that alternative claim is not before us. Ante, at 7,
n. 6. Hence I must consider this case as if it were quite a
different kind of case, one in which what took place was
either an incident outside the scope of employment or no
incident at all. Consider, for example, an aggravated
sexual assault, a theft of personal property, or an auto
accident on Coney Island where the Government em
ployee, say a Yellowstone Park forest ranger, if present on
Coney Island must have been there on a frolic of his own.
2 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of BREYER, J.

The majority’s approach finds Westfall Act immunity in
cases of this kind. I would not.
For one thing, the Act’s language suggests that it does
not apply in such circumstances. The statute says that
the Attorney General must certify that the employee “was
acting within the scope of his office or employment at the
time of the incident out of which the claim arose.” 28
U. S. C. §2679(d)(2) (emphasis added). The italicized
words, read naturally, assume some kind of incident, the
characterization of which (e.g., as within the scope of
employment) determines whether immunity attaches. By
way of contrast, permitting purely incident-denying certi
fications, as the majority does, can only be squared with
the Act’s text if the Attorney General is required to supply
the reviewing court with proof of what the employee was
doing (and that such activities were within the scope of
employment) “at the time of the incident”—a showing that
would prove quite difficult in a case such as this, where
the plaintiff has alleged that the tort was committed at
some unknown time over a period of days, or weeks, or
even longer.
For another, there is nothing to suggest the Westfall Act
sought to provide immunity for tort claims necessarily
falling outside the scope of federal employment. As its
popular name suggests, the Act focused upon Westfall v.
Erwin, 484 U. S. 292 (1988), an earlier case in which the
Court considered whether, to obtain immunity from state-
law tort suits, a federal official had to show not just that
his conduct was “within the scope of [his] employment,”
but also that it was “discretionary in nature.” Id., at 295
(emphasis added). The Court answered “yes.” It held that
a federal employee was not immune from a state-law tort
suit, even for simple negligence, unless the employee could
also show that his conduct was discretionary.
The Westfall Act basically seeks to overturn this hold
ing. As this Court has said, “[w]hen Congress wrote the
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 3

Opinion of BREYER, J.

Westfall Act . . . , the legislators had one purpose firmly in
mind [namely] to override Westfall v. Erwin.” Gutierrez de
Martinez v. Lamagno, 515 U. S. 417, 425 (1995). The
House Judiciary Committee wrote that the Act’s “func
tional effect . . . is to return Federal employees to the
status they held prior to the Westfall decision.” H. R. Rep.
No. 100–700, p. 4 (1988). And that “status,” many thought,
was an immunity that applied to nondiscretionary, as well
as discretionary, actions that fell “within the scope” of the
employee’s “office or employment.” 28 U. S. C. §2679(b)(1);
H. R. Rep. No. 100–700, at 4.
In a word, the Act seeks to maintain the scope of pre-
Westfall immunity minus Westfall’s “discretionary func
tion” limitation. That purpose does not encompass an
extension of immunity to all-or-nothing conduct, i.e., those
serious assaults or personal “frolics” that, if they took place
at all, could not possibly have fallen within the scope of
the employee’s “office or employment.”
Further, to try to bring the latter type of conduct within
the scope of the Act’s immunity creates a series of anoma
lies. As the Court recognizes, its interpretation may limit
the plaintiff’s ability to obtain jury consideration of factual
matters critical to his or her case. Indeed, any Govern
ment employee defendant, including a defendant whom
the Attorney General does not want to defend, can ask the
judge to issue a certificate. §2679(d)(3). On the Court’s
view of the statute, the issuance of the certificate could
depend upon whether, for example, the aggravated sexual
assault took place at all or whether the defendant was at
Yellowstone or Coney Island at the relevant times. And,
in deciding these questions (as the judge would have to do
to determine whether the certificate should issue), the
judge, not the jury, would decide the main issue in the
case. (The Court declines to address the effect of its
analysis on §2679(d)(3). Ante, at 24, n. 17. But the rele
vant language in this provision is virtually identical to the
4 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of BREYER, J.

language at issue in this case, see §2679(d)(2), so one
cannot seriously suggest that the Act by its own terms
affords employees any narrower a basis for seeking certifi
cation than it affords the Attorney General.)
It is highly unusual to permit special, speedy judge fact-
finding where immunity is at issue. Ordinarily, when a
party asserts an immunity defense, i.e., an “entitlement
not to stand trial under certain circumstances,” Mitchell v.
Forsyth, 472 U. S. 511, 525 (1985) (emphasis added),
special immunity-related procedures focus, not upon fact-
finding, but upon the proper legal characterization of the
facts as given. Where the parties’ immunity-related dis
agreement amounts to a dispute about the law, namely
whether the particular set of facts alleged by the plaintiff
does, or does not, fall within the immunity’s legal scope,
the defendant is entitled to a quick determination of the
legal question by the trial judge and, if necessary, an
immediate interlocutory appeal. Id., at 526, 530. See
Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U. S. 731, 742–743 (1982); see
also Helstoski v. Meanor, 442 U. S. 500, 507–508 (1979).
But where that disagreement amounts to a dispute about
the facts, immunity law does not ordinarily entitle the
defendant to special procedural treatment. Rather, the
defendant must take the facts as the plaintiff asserts
them. Like any other defendant, he can move for sum
mary judgment. Mitchell, supra, at 526; Anderson v.
Creighton, 483 U. S. 635, 646–647, n. 6 (1987). But if the
plaintiff provides sufficient evidence to survive summary
judgment, the defendant must win the case at trial.
Thus ordinarily an immunity defense provides special
procedural treatment only for a defendant’s legal claim
that the facts taken as the plaintiff asserts them (or taken
as the assertions have survived a motion for summary
judgment) fall within the scope of the immunity. It does
not provide special treatment for disputes about the facts.
See, e.g., Johnson v. Jones, 515 U. S. 304, 319–320 (1995)
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 5

Opinion of BREYER, J.

(defendant raising immunity defense “may not appeal a
district court’s summary judgment order insofar as that
order determines whether or not the pretrial record sets
forth a ‘genuine’ issue of fact for trial”). The Court’s read
ing of the Westfall Act works a major change in this
fact/law relationship. Under the Court’s reading, the
defendant will have the right to ask the judge to deter
mine the facts, i.e., to determine whether the events plain
tiff says occurred did in fact happen. And that is so even
where the plaintiff has enough evidence to bring the case to
the jury.
The Court’s reading of the Act proves even more anoma
lous in the case of a federal employee claiming an assault
that violates both (a) state tort law and (b) federal civil
rights law. Suppose that the defendant’s sole defense is
“mistaken identity.” The defendant argues that nothing
took place between him and the plaintiff, that at the rele
vant time he was working peacefully at his desk. Under
the Court’s reading, the defendant is entitled to have the
judge decide the factual question; and, should the judge
decide in his favor (in respect to the state-law tort claim),
collateral estoppel likely means an end of the matter in
respect to the federal civil rights claim, as well. Yet the
Westfall Act explicitly exempts from its scope any claim of
“violation of a federal statute” or the Federal Constitution.
28 U. S. C. §2679(b)(2).
The Court rests much of its analysis on Willingham v.
Morgan, 395 U. S. 402 (1969), but I do not think that case
offers much support. Willingham addressed only a federal
officer’s right to remove a case to federal court (via
§1442(a)(1)). Id., at 403. Once there, the officer could
pursue traditional immunity defenses, i.e., based on the
facts as alleged by the plaintiff or as they survived sum
mary judgment; that is all the Court could have meant
when it said that officers “should have the opportunity to
present their version of the facts to a federal, not a state,
6 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of BREYER, J.

court,” id., at 409. Moreover, in Mesa v. California, 489
U. S. 121, 139 (1989), this Court held that “[f]ederal officer
removal under 28 U. S. C. §1442(a) must be predicated
upon averment of a federal defense.” Because the federal
employee defendants in Mesa “ha[d] not and could not
present an official immunity defense” to the charges
against them, removal was improper under §1442(a)(1).
Id., at 133. The majority reads the Westfall Act much
more broadly than this Court read §1442(a) in Mesa,
permitting removal in cases where there is unquestionably
no official immunity defense available (at least as such
defenses have been understood by this Court until today).
And in so doing, the majority opens wide the door not just
to removal, which was all that was at issue in Willingham
and Mesa, but, much more consequentially, to substituting
a judge’s factfinding for a plaintiff’s jury trial right.
I do not claim that my own reading of the Westfall Act
will totally eliminate the difficulties I have mentioned.
But an interpretation that reads the Act’s language more
literally will minimize them, while also largely mitigating
the problem of clever pleading with which the majority is
rightly concerned, ante, at 20. The Act says the “Attorney
General” must certify that the “employee was acting
within the scope of his office or employment at the time of
the incident out of which the claim arose.” §2679(d)(2)
(emphasis added). As I have said, that language prevents
the Attorney General from denying that any “incident” at
all occurred without at least adding in the alternative that
any incident the plaintiff might be able to show falls
within the employee’s scope of employment regardless.
Thus, if a plaintiff claims an intentional touching (out
side the scope of employment), the Attorney General is
free to claim (a) there was no touching but (b) were the
evidence to show a touching, it was accidental (within the
scope of employment). Yet if the plaintiff accuses the
employee, a Yellowstone Park ranger, of negligent driving
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 7

Opinion of BREYER, J.

on Coney Island, the Attorney General could not make a
similar claim. (Nor could he likely do so in respect to an
employee whom the plaintiff claims committed a serious
sexual assault.) That is because if these latter incidents
did happen, they must have fallen outside the scope of
employment, while if they did not happen, then nothing
involving the employee happened at all. In such cases no
Westfall Act immunity would be available. And that is
just as it should be.
This approach resembles, but differs in important re
spects from that of the First Circuit in Wood. In Wood, the
First Circuit held that a judge reviewing a Westfall Act
certificate could resolve factual conflicts as to “incident
describing and incident-characterizing facts,” but must
leave for the jury (if it came to that) disputes over whether
any incident occurred at all. 995 F. 2d, at 1129. Here, I
offer a compromise between Wood and the majority’s more
extreme approach. I would permit a judge reviewing a
Westfall Act certificate to resolve any factual disputes
relevant to whether the defendant was “acting within the
scope of his office or employment,” including, when neces
sary, determining whether the incident occurred at all.
But I would only permit the judge to fulfill this factfinding
function in those cases where the Attorney General (or the
defendant employee, under §2679(d)(3)) can offer some
plausible explanation of the alleged incident that would
bring the defendant’s actions within the scope of his fed
eral office or employment.
The majority’s approach, absent some undefined con
straint that might be imposed in future cases, ante, at 22,
n. 14, would permit factfinding by a judge (and, where the
Attorney General requests, removal to federal court) in
any state-law tort case involving a federal employee. I
would permit judges to fulfill this rather extraordinary
factfinding function only in those cases where the “injury
or loss of property, or personal injury or death” for which
8 OSBORN v. HALEY

Opinion of BREYER, J.

the plaintiff seeks recovery might have “aris[en] or re
sult[ed] from the negligent or wrongful act or omission of
[the federal employee] while acting within the scope of his
office or employment”—i.e., where there is some chance
the injury (if any) was caused by the kinds of actions for
which the Act expressly grants employees immunity,
under §2679(b)(1). This approach protects the innocent
employee as well as the guilty, ante, at 20, but only in the
class of law suits the Act can plausibly be read to cover.
Because the Court of Appeals interpreted the Act as
does the Court, I would vacate its judgment. I would,
however, permit the Court of Appeals to consider the
Government’s alternative assertion of immunity (including
whether it was properly barred by the trial court), and to
determine whether Westfall Act immunity applies on that
basis.
For these reasons, I dissent from Part III of the Court’s
opinion.
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 1

SCALIA, J., dissenting

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________

No. 05–593
_________________

PAT OSBORN, PETITIONER v. BARRY HALEY ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

[January 22, 2007]

JUSTICE SCALIA, with whom JUSTICE THOMAS joins,
dissenting.
Few statutes read more clearly than 28 U. S. C.
§1447(d): “An order remanding a case to the State court
from which it was removed is not reviewable on appeal or
otherwise . . . .” 1 That bar to appellate review is a vener
able one, dating back to 1887, see Thermtron Products,
Inc. v. Hermansdorfer, 423 U. S. 336, 343 (1976). It is,
moreover, not just hortatory; it is jurisdictional. Things
Remembered, Inc. v. Petrarca, 516 U. S. 124, 127–128
(1995). Yet beginning in 1976, this Court has repeatedly
eroded §1447(d)’s mandate and expanded the Court’s
jurisdiction. Today’s opinion eviscerates what little re
mained of Congress’s Court-limiting command.
I
The first narrowing of §1447(d) occurred in Thermtron
Products, over the dissent of Justice Rehnquist joined by
Chief Justice Burger and Justice Stewart (only eight
Justices sat in the case). Thermtron Products held that
remand orders are reviewable if they are based on any
grounds other than the mandatory ground for remand set
——————
1 The remaining clause of §1447(d) provides an exception that is not
applicable here: “except that an order remanding a case to the State
court from which it was removed pursuant to section 1443 of this title
shall be reviewable by appeal or otherwise.”
2 OSBORN v. HALEY

SCALIA, J., dissenting

forth in §1447(c)—namely, that “ ‘the case was removed
improvidently and without jurisdiction.’ ” 2 423 U. S., at
342. That result followed, the Court said, because subsec
tions (c) and (d) are “in pari materia” and “must be con
strued together.” Id., at 345. Thus, the unlimited phrase
“[a]n order remanding a case” magically became “an order
remanding a case under this section”—changing prior law,
under which the Court had held that the predecessors of
§1447(d) prohibited review of all remand orders. See id.,
at 354–356 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting). Since, in Therm
tron Products, the District Court had remanded solely
because of its crowded docket, we accepted review and
issued a writ of mandamus compelling reconsideration of
the order. See also Quackenbush v. Allstate Ins. Co., 517
U. S. 706, 710–712 (1996) (reviewing a remand order
predicated on abstention under Burford v. Sun Oil Co.,
319 U. S. 315 (1943)).3
The next phase in §1447(d)’s erosion came just last
Term, in Kircher v. Putnam Funds Trust, 547 U. S. ___
(2006). There, as here, the District Court had remanded
to state court “on the ground that [it] lacked subject mat
ter jurisdiction on removal.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 3).
That should have been the end of the matter, but it was
not. The Kircher majority embarked on a searching in
quiry into whether the District Court’s real reason for
remand was lack of jurisdiction. See id., at ___ (slip op., at
7–11). In my concurrence, I warned that “[r]eview of the
sort engaged in . . . threatens to defeat the purpose of
§1447(d),” which was “ ‘to prevent delay in the trial of
——————
2 Section 1447(c) has since been amended, specifying as grounds for

mandatory remand that “the district court lacks subject matter
jurisdiction.”
3 The Thermtron Products limitation upon the §1447(d) bar to appel

late review does not affect this case. As the Court recognizes, ante, at
6, the District Court was perfectly clear that its remand to state court
was based on its lack of jurisdiction.
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 3

SCALIA, J., dissenting

remanded cases by protracted litigation of jurisdictional
issues.’ ” Id., at ___–___ (slip op., at 2–3) (quoting Therm
tron Products, supra, at 351).
“Such delay can be created just as easily by asking
whether the district court correctly characterized the
basis for its order as it can by asking whether that ba
sis was correct . . . . Whether the District Court was
right or wrong—even if it was so badly mistaken that
it misunderstood the true basis for its orders—it pur
ported to remand for lack of jurisdiction, and §1447(d)
bars any further review.” Kircher, 547 U. S., at ___–
___ (slip op., at 2–3).
Today’s opinion goes even further than Kircher.
Whereas that case at least claimed to be applying our
precedents, see, e.g., id., at ___–___ (slip op., at 7–8) (citing
Briscoe v. Bell, 432 U. S. 404, 413–414, n. 13 (1977)),
today’s opinion makes no such pretense. Having recog
nized, as it must, that the District Court in this case in
voked §1447(c) and remanded for lack of subject-matter
jurisdiction, ante, at 6, the Court nevertheless reaches the
amazing conclusion that §1447(d) does not “contro[l]”
whether the remand order is reviewable on appeal. Ante,
at 16.
How can that be? How can a statute explicitly eliminat
ing appellate jurisdiction to review a remand order not
“contro[l]” whether an appellate court has jurisdiction to
review a remand order? The Court says the answer to this
riddle lies in 28 U. S. C. §2679(d)(2). But that section says
only that the Attorney General’s certification is “conclu
siv[e] . . . for purposes of removal” (emphasis added); it
says absolutely nothing about the reviewability of remand
orders. Thus, the most §2679(d)(2) can prove is that the
District Court should not have remanded the case; that its
remand order was erroneous. But our precedents make
abundantly clear that §1447(d)’s appellate-review bar
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SCALIA, J., dissenting

applies with full force to erroneous remand orders. Just
last Term we acknowledged that “a remand premised on
an erroneous conclusion of no jurisdiction is unappeal
able.” Kircher, supra, at ___ (slip op., at 8). See also
Thermtron Products, supra, at 343 (“If a trial judge pur
ports to remand a case on the ground that it was removed
‘improvidently and without jurisdiction,’ his order is not
subject to challenge in the court of appeals by appeal, by
mandamus, or otherwise” (quoting §1447(c) (1975 ed.)
(emphasis added)); Briscoe, supra, at 414, n. 13 (where a
remand order is based on one of the grounds enumerated
in §1447(c), “review is unavailable no matter how plain
the legal error in ordering the remand”). Today’s opinion
repudiates that principle. The only basis for its holding is
that §2679(d)(2) renders the remand erroneous. This
utterly novel proposition, that a remand order can be set
aside when it is contrary to law, leaves nothing remaining
of §1447(d). Determination of an order’s lawfulness can
only be made upon review—and it is precisely review that
§1447(d) forbids.4
Congress knows how to make remand orders reviewable
when it wishes to do so. See, e.g., 12 U. S. C.
§1441a(l)(3)(C) (“The Corporation may appeal any order of
remand entered by a United States district court”);
§1819(b)(2)(C) (same); 25 U. S. C. §487(d) (“[T]he United
States shall have the right to appeal from any order of
remand in the case”). Even §1447(d) itself exempts certain
remand orders from its own appellate-review bar. See
n. 1, supra. “Absent a clear statutory command to the
contrary, we assume that Congress is aware of the univer
——————
4 Like the Court, I need not address whether allowing the case to

remain in federal court after declining to substitute the United States
as defendant would create an Article III problem. Unlike the Court,
however, I choose not to address the point in dicta. See ante, at 16–17
(noting that “the question would only arise if” certain events take place,
yet answering the question anyway).
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 5

SCALIA, J., dissenting

sality of th[e] practice of denying appellate review of re
mand orders when Congress creates a new ground for
removal.” Things Remembered, 516 U. S., at 128 (internal
quotation marks omitted). As the Court recognized in
Kircher, “[t]here is no such ‘clear statutory command’ here,
and that silence tells us we must look to 28 U. S. C.
§1447(d) to determine the reviewability of remand orders
under the Act.” 547 U. S., at ___, n. 8 (slip op., at 7, n. 8).
Were the Court in this case to look to §1447(d), instead of
looking for a way around §1447(d), the answer would be
abundantly clear.
II
Respondents argued that, even if the remand order is
unreviewable on appeal, the District Court’s rejection of
the Attorney General’s certification should be reviewable
as a logically distinct determination, citing Waco v. United
States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 293 U. S. 140 (1934). See
ante, at 1–2 (SOUTER, J., concurring in part and dissenting
in part) (adopting this argument).
The continuing vitality of Waco is dubious in light of
more recent precedents, see Kircher, supra, at ___, n. 13
(slip op., at 11, n. 13). We need not address that question
here, however, since Waco is patently inapposite. There,
removal had been premised on diversity jurisdiction. The
District Court dismissed the party whose citizenship was
alleged to supply the requisite diversity, finding that
party’s joinder improper, and thus remanded the case for
lack of jurisdiction. We found the dismissal order to be
reviewable on appeal, even though the remand order was
not. 293 U. S., at 143. But there is a crucial distinction
between that case and this one: In Waco, reversal of the
dismissal would not have subverted the remand. There
was no question that the suit would proceed in state court
regardless of whether the diverse party was rightfully or
wrongfully dismissed. Nowhere did the Waco Court so
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SCALIA, J., dissenting

much as hint that the District Court might need to reex
amine its remand order; to the contrary, it was clear that
the remand would occur, no matter what: “If the District
Court’s [dismissal] order stands, the cross-action will be no
part of the case which is remanded to the state court. . . . A
reversal cannot affect the order of remand, but it will at
least, if the dismissal of the petitioner’s complaint was
erroneous, remit the entire controversy, with the [diverse
party] still a party, to the state court for such further
proceedings.” Id., at 143–144 (emphasis added). In other
words, the remand order and the dismissal order were
truly “separate orders,” id., at 142; we could review—even
reverse—the dismissal order without affecting the remand
or its impact on the case.
Today’s case far more closely resembles Kircher. There,
the remand order had been predicated upon a finding that
the cause of action was not a “covered” class-action suit as
defined by the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards
Act of 1998 (SLUSA), 112 Stat. 3227, and therefore that
the federal courts lacked jurisdiction. The District Court
remanded so the suit could continue in state court, outside
the confines of SLUSA. If the suit had been “covered,”
SLUSA would have precluded the action from going for
ward in any court, state or federal. 15 U. S. C. §77p(b).
We therefore determined that neither the remand itself
nor the determination of SLUSA inapplicability was re
viewable on appeal: “The District Court’s remand order
here cannot be disaggregated as the Waco orders could,
and if [we were to find the suit to be covered by SLUSA],
there [would be] nothing to remand to state court.” 547
U. S., at ___–___, n. 13 (slip op., at 11–12, n. 13). That is
precisely the situation in this case: The remand here is
predicated upon a finding that the United States should
not be substituted as a defendant under the Westfall Act.
If we were to disagree with the District Court and substi
tute the United States as a defendant, while at the same
 Cite as: 549 U. S. ____ (2007) 7

SCALIA, J., dissenting

time recognizing (as §1447(d) requires) that there is noth
ing we can do about the remand order, the case would go
back to state court as an action under the Federal Tort
Claims Act (FTCA), see ante, at 1, and the remanded case
would be styled Osborn v. United States. But the state
court would have to dismiss such a case at once, since
federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over FTCA suits.
28 U. S. C. §1346(b)(1). Thus, as in Kircher, but unlike
Waco, the District Court’s decision on the preliminary
matter—here, Westfall Act certification; in Kircher,
SLUSA applicability—is inextricably intertwined with the
remand order. Since that is so, there is no jurisdiction to
review either determination.
* * *
In an all-too-rare effort to reduce the high cost of litiga
tion, Congress provided that remand orders are completely
unreviewable “on appeal or otherwise.” Section 1447(d)
effectuated a tradeoff of sorts: Even though Congress
undoubtedly recognized that some remand orders would
be entered in error, it thought that, all in all, justice would
better be served by allowing that small minority of cases
to proceed in state courts than by subjecting every re
manded case to endless rounds of forum disputes. “[B]y
denying any form of review of an order of remand,” “Con
gress . . . established the policy of not permitting inter
rupting of the litigation of the merits of a removed cause
by prolonged litigation of questions of jurisdiction of the
district court to which the cause is removed.” United
States v. Rice, 327 U. S. 742, 751 (1946). Today, in its
uncompromising pursuit of technical perfection at all
costs, this Court has repealed the tradeoff. One might
suggest that Congress should restore it, but it is hard to
imagine new statutory language accomplishing the desired
result any more clearly than §1447(d) already does.
I would vacate the Sixth Circuit’s judgment in its en
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SCALIA, J., dissenting

tirety, since that court, like this one, plainly lacked
jurisdiction.