76
Opinion of the Court
Mississippi, even though its contentions as to the boundary between itself and Louisiana were rejected by the Court of Appeals, urges us to find that the District Court had jurisdiction of the third-party complaint that Louisiana brought against it. Mississippi argues that our refusal to allow Louisiana to file an original complaint to determine the boundary between the two States must, by implication, have indicated that the District Court was a proper forum for the resolution of that question. This is particularly true, Mississippi argues, since its opposition to Louisiana's motion to file its complaint in this Court was premised in part on the contention that the boundary question could be determined in the then-pending action between the private landowners in the District Court. Mississippi asserts that that court had jurisdiction by virtue of 28 U. S. C. § 1331, which confers jurisdiction of all civil actions arising under federal law on the District Court.
If it were not for the existence of 28 U. S. C. § 1251(a), Mississippi's arguments would be quite plausible. We have said more than once that our original jurisdiction should be exercised only "sparingly." See Wyoming v. Oklahoma, 502 U. S. 437, 450 (1992); Maryland v. Louisiana, 451 U. S. 725, 739 (1981); Arizona v. New Mexico, 425 U. S. 794, 796 (1976). Indeed, Chief Justice Fuller wrote nearly a century ago that our original "jurisdiction is of so delicate and grave a character that it was not contemplated that it would be exercised save when the necessity was absolute." Louisiana v. Texas, 176 U. S. 1, 15 (1900). Recognizing the "delicate and grave" character of our original jurisdiction, we have interpreted the Constitution and 28 U. S. C. § 1251(a) as making our original jurisdiction "obligatory only in appropriate cases," Illinois v. City of Milwaukee, 406 U. S. 91, 93 (1972), and as providing us "with substantial discretion to make case-by-case judgments as to the practical necessity of an original forum in this Court," Texas v. New Mexico, 462 U. S. 554, 570 (1983).
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