796
Opinion of the Court
Bedingfield. The Alabama Supreme Court agreed. The majority opinion noted that in Alabama, as in most States, a prior judgment on the merits rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction precludes the relitigation of a claim if there is a "substantial identity of the parties" and if the "same cause of action" is presented in both suits. 662 So. 2d 1127, 1128 (1995). Moreover, the court explained, the prior judgment is generally " 'res judicata not only as to all matters litigated and decided by it, but as to all relevant issues which could have been but were not raised and litigated in the suit.' " Ibid. (quoting Heiser v. Woodruff, 327 U. S. 726, 735 (1946)).
The Alabama Supreme Court concluded that even though the opinion in Bedingfield did not mention any federal issue, the judgment in that case met these requirements. The court gave three reasons for this conclusion: (1) The complaints in the earlier case had alleged that the county tax violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and an equal protection issue had been argued in the appellate briefs, 662 So. 2d, at 1129; (2) the taxpayers in Bedingfield adequately represented petitioners because their respective interests were "essentially identical," 662 So. 2d, at 1130; and (3) in pledging tax revenues and issuing bonds in 1989, the county and the intervenor "could have relied on Bedingfield as authoritatively establishing that the county occupational tax was not unconstitutional for the reasons asserted by the Bedingfield plaintiffs," 662 So. 2d, at 1130.
Justice Maddox dissented. He agreed with the trial judge that no federal constitutional claim had been adjudicated in Bedingfield. 662 So. 2d, at 1130-1131. Moreover, he concluded that the mere fact that the theory advanced by the petitioners in this case could have been asserted in Bedingfield constituted an insufficient reason for barring this action. 662 So. 2d, at 1131-1132.
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