140
Opinion of the Court
therefore, was not binding on the States, the court held that § 409 protected only information originally created for § 152 purposes. But, rather than determining whether the documents or data at issue in this case would be protected under its reading of § 409, the court vacated the lower court's judgment and remanded the case for the lower courts to consider the record in the first instance.4
Three justices concurred only in the result. They disagreed with the majority's broad reading of the statute and would have held that § 409 precludes a potential plaintiff only from obtaining information from an agency that collected that information for § 152 purposes.
We granted certiorari to resolve the question of the constitutionality of this federal statute, 535 U. S. 1033 (2002), and now reverse.
II
Before addressing the merits of petitioner's claims, we must first consider whether we have jurisdiction to hear the case. Under 28 U. S. C. § 1257(a), this Court has certiorari jurisdiction to review "[f]inal judgments or decrees rendered by the highest court of a State in which a decision could be had . . . where the validity of a . . . statute of the United States is drawn in question . . . on the ground of its being repugnant to the Constitution . . . of the United States." As a general matter, to be reviewed by this Court, a state-court judgment must be final " 'as an effective determination of the litigation and not of merely interlocutory or intermediate steps therein.' " Jefferson v. City of Tarrant, 522 U. S. 75, 81 (1997) (quoting Market Street R. Co. v. Railroad Comm'n of Cal., 324 U. S. 548, 551 (1945)). We have acknowledged, however, that certain state-court judgments can be treated as final for jurisdictional purposes, even though further
4 The court also ruled that respondents were entitled to attorney's fees in their PDA action. See 144 Wash. 2d, at 745, 31 P. 3d, at 655-656.
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