Cite as: 504 U. S. 689 (1992)
Blackmun, J., concurring in judgment
Whether the interest of States remains a sufficient justification today for abstention is uncertain in view of the expansion in recent years of federal law in the domestic relations area.8 I am confident, nonetheless, that the unbroken and unchallenged practice of the federal courts since before the War Between the States of declining to hear certain domestic relations cases provides the very rare justification for continuing to do so. It is not without significance, moreover, that, because of this historical practice of the federal courts, the States have developed specialized courts and institutions in family matters, while Congress and the federal courts generally have not done so. Absent a contrary command of Congress, the federal courts properly should abstain, at least from diversity actions traditionally excluded from the federal courts, such as those seeking divorce, alimony, and child custody.
The Court is correct that abstention "rarely should be invoked." Ante, at 705. But rarer still—and by far the greater affront to Congress—should be the occasions when this Court invents statutory exceptions that are simply not there. It is one thing for this Court to defer to more than a century of practice unquestioned by Congress. It is quite
8 See, e. g., Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990, 104 Stat. 4792, 42 U. S. C. § 13001 et seq.; Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, 98 Stat. 1757, 42 U. S. C. § 10401 et seq.; Parental Kidnaping Prevention Act of 1980, 94 Stat. 3568, 28 U. S. C. § 1738A; Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, 94 Stat. 500-521, 42 U. S. C. §§ 620-628, 670-679a; Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Adoption Reform Act of 1978, 92 Stat. 208- 211, 42 U. S. C. §§ 5111-5115; Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, 88 Stat. 4, 42 U. S. C. § 5101 et seq.
Like the diversity statute, the federal-question grant of jurisdiction in Article III of the Constitution limits the judicial power in federal-question cases to "Cases, in Law and Equity." Art. III, § 2. Assuming this limitation applies with equal force in the constitutional context as the Court finds today that it does in the statutory context, the Court's decision today casts grave doubts upon Congress' ability to confer federal-question jurisdiction (as under 28 U. S. C. § 1331) on the federal courts in any matters involving divorces, alimony, and child custody.
715
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