Cite as: 517 U. S. 314 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
Court therefore granted a stay to permit time for consideration of the State's other grounds in its motion to dismiss.
The next day the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated the stay. 58 F. 3d 590 (1995). It pointed out that the District Court had "based its holding exclusively on Rule 9." Id., at 592. It held that "equitable doctrines independent of Rule 9" applied, relying chiefly on this Court's per curiam order in Gomez v. United States Dist. Court for Northern Dist. of Cal., 503 U. S. 653 (1992). 58 F. 3d, at 593. And, setting aside the Rules and traditional habeas doctrines, the court concluded that, in the circumstances of this case, "Lonchar does not merit equitable relief." Ibid.
As mentioned above, we granted certiorari in order to consider whether a federal court may, in such circumstances, dismiss a valid first habeas petition for "equitable reasons" other than reasons listed in federal statutes and Rules, or well established in this Court's precedents.
II
We first discuss a preliminary matter. We have before us a Court of Appeals order that vacates a stay, not an order to dismiss the habeas petition. We believe, however, that this fact makes no difference. That is, the Court of Appeals order vacating the stay is lawful only if dismissal of the petition would have been lawful. By bringing about Lonchar's execution, vacating the stay would prevent the courts from considering the petition's merits, just as would its dismissal.
This Court has previously considered, in a slightly different context, whether a court may allow a first federal habeas petition to be mooted by an execution, even though the court lacked the authority to dispose of the petition on the merits. In Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U. S. 880 (1983), the Court considered the proper standard for granting or denying a stay pending consideration of an appeal from a dismissal of a first federal habeas petition. The Court stated:
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