ollows that they can be brought only in the manner
prescribed by Congress and subject to the restrictions imposed.[428]
Only Congress can take the necessary steps to waive the immunity of the
United States from liability for claims, and hence officers of the
United States are powerless by their actions either to waive such
immunity or to confer jurisdiction on a federal court.[429] Even when
authorized, suits can be brought only in designated courts.[430] These
rules apply equally to suits by States against the United States.[431]
Although an officer acting as a public instrumentality is liable for his
own torts, Congress may grant or withhold immunity from suit on behalf
of government corporations.[432]

United States _v._ Lee

United States _v._ Lee, a five-to-four decision, qualified earlier
holdings to the effect that where a judgment affected the property of
the United States the suit was in effect against the United States, by
ruling that title to the Arlington estate of the Lee family, then being
used as a national cemetery, was not legally vested in the United States
but was being held illegally by army officers under an unlawful order of
the President. In its examination of the sources and application of the
rule of sovereign immunity, the Court concluded that the rule "if not
absolutely limited to cases in which the United States are made
defendants by name, is not permitted to interfere with the judicial
enforcement of the rights of plaintiffs when the United States is not a
defendant or a necessary party to the suit."[433] Except, nevertheless,
for an occasional case like Kansas _v._ United States,[434] which held
that a State cannot sue the United States, most of the cases involving
sovereign immunity from suit since 1883 have been cases against
officers, agencies, or corporations of the United States where the
United States has not been named as a party defendant. Thus, it has been
held that a suit against the Secretary of the Treasury to review his
decision on the rate of duty to be exacted on imported sugar would
disturb the whole revenue system of the Government and would in effect
be a suit against the United States.[435] Even more significant is
Stanley _v._ Schwalby,[436] which resembles without paralleling United
States _v._ Lee, where it was held that an action of trespass against an
army officer to try title in a parcel of land occupied by the United
States as a military reservation was a suit