Cite as: 520 U. S. 43 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
In advancing cooperation between Yniguez and the Attorney General regarding the request for and agreement to pay nominal damages, the Ninth Circuit did not home in on the federal courts' lack of authority to act in friendly or feigned proceedings. Cf. United States v. Johnson, 319 U. S. 302, 304 (1943) (per curiam) (absent "a genuine adversary issue between . . . parties," federal court "may not safely proceed to judgment"). It should have been clear to the Court of Appeals that a claim for nominal damages, extracted late in the day from Yniguez's general prayer for relief and asserted solely to avoid otherwise certain mootness, bore close inspection. Cf. Fox v. Board of Trustees of State Univ. of N. Y., 42 F. 3d 135, 141-142 (CA2 1994) (rejecting claim for nominal damages proffered to save case from mootness years after litigation began where defendants could have asserted qualified immunity had plaintiffs' complaint specifically requested monetary relief). On such inspection, the Ninth Circuit might have perceived that Yniguez's plea for nominal damages could not genuinely revive the case.26
When a civil case becomes moot pending appellate adjudication, "[t]he established practice . . . in the federal system . . . is to reverse or vacate the judgment below and remand with a direction to dismiss." United States v. Munsing-wear, Inc., 340 U. S. 36, 39 (1950). Vacatur "clears the path for future relitigation" by eliminating a judgment the loser was stopped from opposing on direct review. Id., at 40. Vacatur is in order when mootness occurs through happen-stance—circumstances not attributable to the parties—or,
26 Endeavoring to meet the live case requirement, petitioners AOE and Park posited in this Court several "controversies remaining between the parties." Reply Brief for Petitioners 18-19. Tellingly, none of the asserted controversies involved Yniguez, sole plaintiff and prevailing party in the District Court. See ibid. (describing AOE and Park as adverse to intervenor Arizonans Against Constitution Tampering (AACT), see supra, at 61, AACT as adverse to the State, AOE and Park as adverse to the State).
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