Page:Wilkins v. United States (2023).pdf/23

8 of limitations as a “central condition of the consent given by the Act.” Id., at 843 (citing Block, 461 U. S., at 283–285). As in Block, this reasoning was a critical and substantial part of the Court’s opinion. The Court ultimately concluded that the plaintiff’s claim was untimely and thus barred under the Act. 476 U. S., at 844. The Court further concluded that no other statute “conferred jurisdiction” on the lower courts to adjudicate her claim. Id., at 841; see also id., 844–851. In deciding the case, the Court noticeably did not engage in a forfeiture analysis, underscoring that it understood the Government’s late-raised statute-of-limitations argument to be jurisdictional and, thus, capable of being raised at any point in the proceedings. See Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp., 546 U. S. 500, 514 (2006) (explaining that jurisdictional arguments cannot be forfeited).

United States v. Beggerly, 524 U. S. 38 (1998), on which the majority relies, see, is not to the contrary. In that case, the Court considered whether the Quiet Title Act’s time bar may be equitably tolled. After noting that the Court of Appeals had considered the statute of limitations jurisdictional, see Beggerly, 524 U. S., at 42, the Court turned to the language of the Act. The Court emphasized that the 12-year statute of limitations began to accrue when the litigants knew or should have known of the claim of the United States, and it observed that the provision’s text “has