Lawrence v. Chater, 516 U.S. 163, 11 (1996) (per curiam)

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Cite as: 516 U. S. 163 (1996)

Per Curiam

under the statute at issue, when the Court of Appeals has had no "opportunity" to consider the new agency interpretation, appears to us to defeat the purpose of GVR'ing. Rather, we think it appropriate to apply our normal "reasonable probability" test, and to defer any special concerns about strategic litigating behavior that are raised by changes in the Government's position to consideration of the equities. Under our approach, neither uncertainty as to whether the Government's change of position, if accepted, would be outcome determinative, nor uncertainty as to the "lega[l] cognizab[ility]" of an administrative interpretation, preclude a GVR if the overall probabilities and equities support the GVR order. Indeed, we issued just such a GVR order last Term, without recorded dissent. See Schmidt v. Espy, 513 U. S. 801 (1994) (GVR on the basis of the Solicitor General's representation that "[a]fter further examination of the regulation and its application in the present case, . . . the Department of Agriculture has determined that petitioners' lease-back/ buyback application should be reconsidered without respect to the good faith requirement," Brief for Respondent in Schmidt v. Espy, O. T. 1994, No. 93-1707, p. 7; see also id., at 10, n. 5 (maintaining that other obstacles to petitioners' application might remain)).

Our differences with Justice Scalia's dissent should not overshadow the substantial level of agreement shared by all Members of this Court. On the one hand, all are agreed that a wide range of intervening developments, including confessions of error, may justify a GVR order. On the other hand, all are agreed that our GVR power should be exercised sparingly. This Court should not just GVR a case "because it finds the opinion, though arguably correct, incomplete and unworkmanlike; or because it observes that there has been a postjudgment change in the personnel of the state supreme court, and wishes to give the new state justices a shot at the case." Post, at 189 (Scalia, J., dissenting); accord, Alva-rado v. United States, 497 U. S. 543, 545 (1990) (Rehnquist,

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