Cite as: 513 U. S. 18 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
view of which was prevented through happenstance." Id., at 40. Finding that the United States had "slept on its rights," id., at 41, we affirmed.
The parties in the present case agree that vacatur must be decreed for those judgments whose review is, in the words of Munsingwear, " 'prevented through happenstance' "—that is to say, where a controversy presented for review has "become moot due to circumstances unattributable to any of the parties." Karcher v. May, 484 U. S. 72, 82, 83 (1987). They also agree that vacatur must be granted where mootness results from the unilateral action of the party who prevailed in the lower court. The contested question is whether courts should vacate where mootness results from a settlement. The centerpiece of petitioner's argument is that the Munsingwear procedure has already been held to apply in such cases. Munsingwear's description of the "established practice" (the argument runs) drew no distinctions between categories of moot cases; opinions in later cases granting vacatur have reiterated the breadth of the rule, see, e. g., Great Western Sugar Co. v. Nelson, 442 U. S. 92, 93 (1979) (per curiam); and at least some of those cases specifically involved mootness by reason of settlement, see, e. g., Lake Coal Co. v. Roberts & Schaeffer Co., 474 U. S. 120 (1985) (per curiam).
But Munsingwear, and the post-Munsingwear practice, cannot bear the weight of the present case. To begin with, the portion of Justice Douglas' opinion in Munsingwear describing the "established practice" for vacatur was dictum; all that was needful for the decision was (at most) the proposition that vacatur should have been sought, not that it necessarily would have been granted. Moreover, as Munsing-wear itself acknowledged, see 340 U. S., at 40, n. 2, the "established practice" (in addition to being unconsidered) was not entirely uniform, at least three cases having been dismissed for mootness without vacatur within the four Terms preceding Munsingwear. See, e. g., Schenley Distilling Corp. v. Anderson, 333 U. S. 878 (1948) (per curiam).
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