480
Opinion of the Court
tions" were involved. 136 F. 3d, at 615. The Court of Appeals apparently took the view, shared by a number of courts over the years, that the prohibition on modifying judgments in favor of a nonappealing party is a "rule of practice," subject to exceptions, not an unqualified limit on the power of appellate courts. Petitioners and the Government say the Court of Appeals was mistaken, seeing the rule as an unqualified bound on the jurisdiction of the courts of appeals. We need not decide the theoretical status of such a firmly entrenched rule,2 however, for even if it is not strictly jurisdictional (a point we do not resolve) the "comity considerations" invoked by the Court of Appeals to justify relaxing it are clearly inadequate to defeat the institutional interests in fair notice and repose that the rule advances. Indeed, in more than two centuries of repeatedly endorsing the cross-appeal requirement, not a single one of our holdings has ever recognized an exception to the rule.3
2 The issue has caused much disagreement among the Courts of Appeals and even inconsistency within particular Circuits for more than 50 years. For a survey of many of the cases, see Marts v. Hines, 117 F. 3d 1504, 1507-1511 (CA5 1997) (Garwood, J., dissenting), cert. denied, 522 U. S. 1058 (1998). For recent cases taking opposing positions, compare, e. g., Young Radiator Co. v. Celotex Corp., 881 F. 2d 1408, 1416 (CA7 1989) (jurisdictional), with United States v. Tabor Court Realty Corp., 943 F. 2d 335, 342-344 (CA3 1991) (rule of practice), cert. denied sub nom. Linde v. Carrier Coal Enterprises, Inc., 502 U. S. 1093 (1992). For a discussion of the issue among the members of a distinguished panel of the Second Circuit, though without any reference to Morley Constr. Co. v. Maryland Casualty Co., 300 U. S. 185 (1937), see In re Barnett, 124 F. 2d 1005, 1008-1013 (CA2 1942) (Frank, J., joined by Clark, J.); id., at 1013-1014 (L. Hand, J., dissenting).
3 On three occasions since Morley Constr. Co., we have made statements in dictum that might be taken to suggest the possibility of exceptions to the rule. Only one of those statements concerned the power of the courts of appeals. See Bowen v. Postal Service, 459 U. S. 212, 217-218, n. 7 (1983); id., at 244 (White, J., concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part); id., at 246-247 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting). In Strunk v. United States, 412 U. S. 434, 437 (1973), we suggested in passing that there might be occasions when, in a criminal case, the Court might address a constitu-
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