Cite as: 516 U. S. 163 (1996)
Scalia, J., dissenting
(1995); Calamia v. Singletary, 514 U. S. 1124 (1995). We regularly hold cases that involve the same issue as a case on which certiorari has been granted and plenary review is being conducted in order that (if appropriate) they may be "GVR'd" when the case is decided. More recently, we have indulged in the practice of vacating and remanding in light of a decision of ours that preceded the judgment in question, but by so little time that the lower court might have been unaware of it. See, e. g., Grier v. United States, 419 U. S. 989 (1974). These applications of no-fault V&R have nothing to do with federalism, but they are appropriate to preserve the operational premise of a multitiered judicial system (viz., that lower courts will have the first opportunity to apply the governing law to the facts) and to avoid the unseemliness of holding judgments to be in error on the basis of law that did not exist when the judgments were rendered below. They thus serve the interests of efficiency and of concern for the dignity of state and lower federal tribunals.
An entirely separate branch of our no-fault V&R jurisprudence, but again one that originates in the special needs of federalism, pertains to decisions of state supreme courts that are ambiguous as to whether they rest on state-law or federal-law grounds. Rather than run the risk of improperly reversing a judgment based on state law, we adopted the practice of vacating and remanding so that the state court could make the reasons for its judgment clear. See, e. g., Minnesota v. National Tea Co., 309 U. S. 551 (1940); Department of Mental Hygiene of Cal. v. Kirchner, 380 U. S. 194 (1965).2
2 In Michigan v. Long, 463 U. S. 1032 (1983), we largely supplanted this policy with the rule that state-court decisions discussing federal law will be presumed to be based on federal law unless the contrary is clear from the face of the opinion. Id., at 1037-1044; see also Arizona v. Evans, 514 U. S. 1, 6-9 (1995) (reaffirming this approach). But cf. Capital Cities Media, Inc. v. Toole, 466 U. S. 378 (1984) (post-Long decision vacating and remanding for clarification of state supreme court decision rendered without opinion).
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