Cite as: 508 U. S. 656 (1993)
O'Connor, J., dissenting
jority avoids this difficulty by characterizing petitioner's complaint in the most general terms possible: "The gravamen of petitioner's complaint is that its members are disadvantaged in their efforts to obtain city contracts." Ibid. We did not undertake such a generalized approach in Diffenderfer or our other cases involving more narrowly drawn statutory changes. There, as here, any challenge to the new law "presents a different case," Allee, 416 U. S., at 818, and the proper course therefore is to decline to render a decision.
That the only issue before us—and the only question decided by the Court of Appeals—concerns petitioner's standing does not compel a different result. Cf. Burke v. Barnes, 479 U. S., at 363 (declining to reach standing question where expiration of law mooted controversy). A determination that petitioner has standing to challenge the repealed law avails it nothing, since that law no longer exists. Petitioner can benefit only from a determination that it has standing to challenge the new ordinance. But even assuming that the standing questions are identical under the old and new ordinances, the Court's decision in this case, in my view, remains inappropriate. Petitioner has not yet attempted to amend its pleadings or to file another complaint to challenge the new ordinance. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 5. Thus, today's ruling on the standing question could prove advisory. For that reason, I believe the wiser course, and the one most consistent with our precedents, would be to follow Diffenderfer. On the authority of that case, I would vacate the Court of Appeals' judgment and remand to that court with instructions to remand the case to the District Court to permit the petitioner to challenge the new ordinance.
II
I also cannot agree with the majority's assertion that City of Mesquite "control[s]" this case. Ante, at 661. I understand City of Mesquite to have created a narrow exception to
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