By the ruling sustained, however, the District Court and the majority of the Supreme Court lent color of authority to the steel companies’ contention that “There could be no more dangerous principle--nor one more foreign to the Constitution--than a rule that past illegality can through some legerdemain serve as authority to legalize present illegality.”[769] Justice Jackson disposed of the Solicitor General’s contention that although Congress had not provided for seizure of the steel mills, the practice of past Presidents did authorize it, by stating that while it was not surprising that the Government should seek support for nebulous, inherent powers in the customs and unadjudicated claims of preceding administrations, “a judge cannot accept [executive self-assertions of power] ... as authority in answering a constitutional question.... Prudence has counseled that actual reliance on such nebulous claims stop short of provoking a judicial test.”[770] The government went into the Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, seeking an order staying the injunction pending submission of a petition for _certiorari_ to the Supreme Court.[771] The order was granted[772] on May 2, and the following day the Supreme Court granted _certiorari_, staying the District Court order pending final disposition of the cases.[773] Avoiding the bold and indiscreet assertion of undefined inherent powers which had so prejudiced the government’s case in the District Court, Solicitor General Philip B. Perlman on appeal to the Supreme Court submitted a brief devoted to establishing the existence of an emergency of sufficient magnitude to warrant extraordinary action on the part of the executive.[774] As assurance of the President’s willingness to subject himself to the desires of Congress, the brief cited his communication to the Senate of April 21, 1952, offering to adhere to any positive line of action prescribed by Congress.[775] The remainder of the brief enumerates the historical and judicial precedent affording a legal justification of the steel seizure[776] and concludes with an argument to the effect that the proper remedy available to the steel companies was suit for just compensation in the Court of Claims.[777]