Cite as: 508 U. S. 656 (1993)
O'Connor, J., dissenting
mental patients moot after Congress amended statute to eliminate discrimination); Kremens v. Bartley, 431 U. S. 119, 128-130 (1977) (challenge to law permitting parents to commit juveniles under 18 to mental hospital mooted, with respect to those over 13, by new legislation permitting such commitment only of juveniles 13 and under); Board of Pub. Util. Comm'rs v. Compañia General De Tabacos De Filipinas, 249 U. S. 425, 426 (1919) (challenge to statute alleged to constitute unlawful delegation of legislative power to regulatory board dismissed after statutory amendment detailed board's responsibilities); Berry v. Davis, 242 U. S. 468, 470 (1917) (suit to enjoin mandatory vasectomy on plaintiff dismissed after statute requiring operation was replaced by law inapplicable to plaintiff).
A more difficult question is presented when, after we have granted review of a case, the challenged statute is replaced with new legislation that, while not obviously or completely remedying the alleged infirmity in the original act, is more narrowly drawn. The new law ultimately may suffer from the same legal defect as the old. But the statute may be sufficiently altered so as to present a substantially different controversy from the one the district court originally decided. In such cases, this Court typically has exercised caution and treated the case as moot.
In Diffenderfer v. Central Baptist Church of Miami, Inc., 404 U. S. 412 (1972) (per curiam), for example, plaintiffs challenged a Florida statute that exempted from taxation certain church property used in part as a commercial parking lot as violative of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment. After this Court noted probable jurisdiction, the Florida Legislature repealed the statute and replaced it with new legislation exempting from taxation only church property used predominantly for religious purposes. Observing that the church property in question might not be entitled to an exemption under the new law, we concluded that the controversy before us was moot. We reasoned:
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