Yes, it does. But it doesn't give Congress the authority to tell the Federal Courts that they must hear a trial de novo. Very few here objected when they did that given the circumstances, but the court would have been on solid constitutional ground to say that there were no grounds to do so. Which effectively it did, based on the pleadings.
Had the Schindlers actually asked for a de novo trial, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened.
11 posted on 08/11/2005 4:09:32 PM PDT by Dog Gone