Cite as: 520 U. S. 43 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
See Brief for Respondents State of Arizona et al. 34 ("It would certainly be a strange doctrine that would permit a plaintiff to obtain a favorable judgment, take voluntary action [that] moot[s] the dispute, and then retain the [benefit of the] judgment."). We agree. The "exceptional circumstances" that abound in this case, see U. S. Bancorp Mortgage Co., 513 U. S., at 29, and the federalism concern we next consider, lead us to conclude that vacatur down the line is the equitable solution.
V
In litigation generally, and in constitutional litigation most prominently, courts in the United States characteristically pause to ask: Is this conflict really necessary? 29 When anticipatory relief is sought in federal court against a state statute, respect for the place of the States in our federal system calls for close consideration of that core question. See, e. g., Poe v. Ullman, 367 U. S. 497, 526 (1961) (Harlan, J., dissenting) ("[N]ormally this Court ought not to consider the Constitutionality of a state statute in the absence of a controlling interpretation of its meaning and effect by the state courts."); Rescue Army v. Municipal Court of Los Angeles, 331 U. S. 549, 573-574 (1947); Shapiro, Jurisdiction and Discretion, 60 N. Y. U. L. Rev. 543, 580-585 (1985).
Arizona's Attorney General, in addition to releasing his own opinion on the meaning of Article XXVIII, see supra, at 52, asked both the District Court and the Court of Appeals to pause before proceeding to judgment; specifically, he asked both federal courts to seek, through the State's certification process, an authoritative construction of the new measure from the Arizona Supreme Court. See supra, at 51, and n. 5, 55, 62-63, and nn. 17, 18.
Certification today covers territory once dominated by a deferral device called "Pullman abstention," after the gen-29 The phrasing is borrowed from Traynor, Is This Conflict Really Necessary?, 37 Texas L. Rev. 657 (1959).
75
Page: Index Previous 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007