Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43, 37 (1997)

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

Opinion of the Court

Anderson Travel, Inc., 185 Ariz. 546, 548, 917 P. 2d 689, 691 (1996) (citing Ashwander).

Warnings against premature adjudication of constitutional questions bear heightened attention when a federal court is asked to invalidate a State's law, for the federal tribunal risks friction-generating error when it endeavors to construe a novel state Act not yet reviewed by the State's highest court. See Rescue Army, 331 U. S., at 573-574. "Speculation by a federal court about the meaning of a state statute in the absence of prior state court adjudication is particularly gratuitous when . . . the state courts stand willing to address questions of state law on certification from a federal court." Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc., 472 U. S. 491, 510 (1985) (O'Connor, J., concurring).

Blending abstention with certification, the Ninth Circuit found "no unique circumstances in this case militating in favor of certification." 69 F. 3d, at 931. Novel, unsettled questions of state law, however, not "unique circumstances," are necessary before federal courts may avail themselves of state certification procedures.31 Those procedures do not entail the delays, expense, and procedural complexity that generally attend abstention decisions. See supra, at 76. Taking advantage of certification made available by a State may "greatly simplif[y]" an ultimate adjudication in federal court. See Bellotti, 428 U. S., at 151.

The course of Yniguez's case was complex. The complexity might have been avoided had the District Court, more than eight years ago, accepted the certification suggestion made by Arizona's Attorney General. The Arizona Supreme Court was not asked by the District Court or the Court of Appeals to say what Article XXVIII means. But the State's highest court has that very question before it in

31 Arizona itself requires no "unique circumstances." It permits certification to the State's highest court of matters "which may be determinative of the cause," and as to which "no controlling precedent" is apparent to the certifying court. Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 12-1861 (1994).

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