Cite as: 511 U. S. 863 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
Nor does limiting the focus to whether the interest asserted may be called a "right not to stand trial" offer much protection against the urge to push the § 1291 limits. We have, after all, acknowledged that virtually every right that could be enforced appropriately by pretrial dismissal might loosely be described as conferring a "right not to stand trial," see, e. g., Midland Asphalt, 489 U. S., at 501; Van Cauwenberghe v. Biard, 486 U. S., at 524. Allowing immediate appeals to vindicate every such right would move § 1291 aside for claims that the district court lacks personal jurisdiction, see Van Cauwenberghe, supra, that the statute of limitations has run, see 15B C. Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 3918.5, and n. 65, p. 521 (1992), that the movant has been denied his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial, see MacDonald, supra, that an action is barred on claim preclusion principles, that no material fact is in dispute and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, or merely that the complaint fails to state a claim. Such motions can be made in virtually every case, see generally id., at 862; United States v. Hollywood Motor Car Co., 458 U. S., at 270, and it would be no consolation that a party's meritless summary judgment motion or res judicata claim was rejected on immediate appeal; the damage to the efficient and congressionally mandated allocation of judicial responsibility would be done, and any improper purpose the appellant might have had in saddling its opponent with cost and delay would be accomplished. Cf. Richardson-Merrell, supra, at 434 (appeals from "entirely proper" decisions impose the same costs as do appeals from "injudicious" ones). Thus, precisely because candor forces us to acknowledge that there is no single, "obviously correct way to characterize" an asserted right, Lauro Lines, supra, at 500, we have held that § 1291 requires courts of appeals to view claims of a "right not to be tried" with skepticism, if not a jaundiced eye. Cf. Van Cauwenberghe, supra, at 524-525.
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