Felix Frankfurter

“ If the United States in fact employs counsel to represent its interest in a litigation or otherwise actively aids in its conduct, it is properly enough deemed to be a party and not a stranger to the litigation and bound by its results. ”

“ But to bind the United States when it is not formally a party, it must have a laboring oar in a controversy. This is not to be inferred merely because the Secretary of the Interior enables an incompetent Indian to protect his interests.
This brings us to the merits of the controversy-the validity of the mortgage given by Pitts as security for a loan before the Oklahoma court adjudged him to be his wife's heir. ”

“ But this result would render meaningless the sentence we have quoted from § 7 and disregard the purpose of § 7 as authoritatively stated in the Senate Report proposing the legislation. The object of § 7, according to the Senate Committee, was that 'no land or money inherited shall be subject to any prior indebtedness'. ”