National Park Hospitality Assn. v. Department of Interior, 538 U.S. 803, 9 (2003)

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Cite as: 538 U. S. 803 (2003)

Opinion of the Court

regulation prevents concessioners from following the procedures set forth in the CDA once a dispute over a concession contract actually arises. And it appears that, notwithstanding § 51.3, the IBCA has been quite willing to apply the CDA to certain concession contracts. Watch Hill Concessions, Inc., 01-1 B. C. A., ¶ 31298, pp. 154520-154521 (IBCA 2001) (concluding that concession contract was subject to the CDA despite the contrary language in § 51.3).

Petitioner contends that delaying judicial resolution of this issue will result in real harm because the applicability vel non of the CDA is one of the factors a concessioner takes into account when preparing its bid for NPS concession contracts. See Supplemental Brief for Petitioner 4-6. Petitioner's argument appears to be that mere uncertainty as to the validity of a legal rule constitutes a hardship for purposes of the ripeness analysis. We are not persuaded. If we were to follow petitioner's logic, courts would soon be overwhelmed with requests for what essentially would be advisory opinions because most business transactions could be priced more accurately if even a small portion of existing legal uncertainties were resolved.4 In short, petitioner has failed

4 Petitioner notes that its complaint challenged not only the regulation but also two specific prospectuses issued by NPS in late 2000. Thus, petitioner argues, even if the first challenge is not ripe, the latter two are reviewable under the Tucker Act, 28 U. S. C. § 1491(b)(1). See Supplemental Brief for Petitioner 6-8. Petitioner did not seek certiorari review on these issues; accordingly, we decline to consider them. See this Court's Rule 14.1(a); Yee v. Escondido, 503 U. S. 519, 535-536 (1992).

Similarly, Justice Breyer's reliance on the Tucker Act to show that the hardship requirement of Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U. S. 136 (1967), has been satisfied, see post, at 820-821 (dissenting opinion), is misplaced. The fact that one "congressional statute" authorizes "immediate judicial relief from [certain types of] agency determinations," post, at 820, says nothing about whether "immediate judicial review" is advisable for challenges brought against other types of agency actions based on a different statute.

811

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