Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43, 35 (1997)

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Cite as: 520 U. S. 43 (1997)

Opinion of the Court

Circuit suggested as a proper price for certification a concession by the Attorney General that Article XXVIII "would be unconstitutional if construed as [plaintiff Yniguez] contended it should be." Id., at 930; see id., at 931, and n. 14. Finally, the Ninth Circuit acknowledged the pendency of a case similar to Yniguez's in the Arizona court system, but found that litigation no cause for a stay of the federal-court proceedings. See id., at 931; supra, at 62-63, and n. 18 (describing the Ruiz litigation).

A more cautious approach was in order. Through certification of novel or unsettled questions of state law for authoritative answers by a State's highest court, a federal court may save "time, energy, and resources and hel[p] build a cooperative judicial federalism." Lehman Brothers v. Schein, 416 U. S. 386, 391 (1974); see also Bellotti v. Baird, 428 U. S. 132, 148 (1976) (to warrant district court certification, "[i]t is sufficient that the statute is susceptible of . . . an interpretation [that] would avoid or substantially modify the federal constitutional challenge to the statute"). It is true, as the Ninth Circuit observed, 69 F. 3d, at 930, that in our decision certifying questions in Virginia v. American Booksellers Assn., Inc., 484 U. S. 383 (1988), we noted the State's concession that the statute there challenged would be unconstitutional if construed as plaintiffs contended it should be, id., at 393-396. But neither in that case nor in any other did we declare such a concession a condition precedent to certification.

The District Court and the Court of Appeals ruled out certification primarily because they believed Article XXVIII was not fairly subject to a limiting construction. See 730 F. Supp., at 316 (citing Houston v. Hill, 482 U. S. 451, 467 (1987)); 69 F. 3d, at 930. The assurance with which the lower courts reached that judgment is all the more puzzling

to conclude that "[a State's] Executive Branch does not understand state law").

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