The German government appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which on 6 March 1917 handed down a decision that a belligerent nation may not bring prizes of war into a neutral port. The Supreme Court held that it would be unneutral for the United States to permit either belligerent to bring prizes into American ports, and that Germany could not claim such right under any of the existing treaties between that country and the United States. In bringing the Appam into an American port, it was held, the German officials were committing a clear breach of American neutrality.