922
Opinion of the Court
in Johnson v. Jones, 515 U. S. 304 (1995). In that case, government officials asserting qualified immunity claimed entitlement to an interlocutory appeal of a District Court order denying their motion for summary judgment on the ground that the record showed a genuine issue of material fact whether the officials actually engaged in the conduct that constituted a clear violation of constitutional law. Id., at 307-308. We concluded that this circumstance was different from that presented in Mitchell, 472 U. S., at 528, in which the subject of the interlocutory appeal was whether a given set of facts showed a violation of clearly established law, and held that although § 1291 did allow an interlocutory appeal in the latter circumstance, such an appeal was not allowed in the former.
In so holding, we acknowledged that "whether a district court's denial of summary judgment amounts to (a) a determination about pre-existing 'clearly established' law, or (b) a determination about 'genuine' issues of fact for trial, it still forces public officials to trial." 515 U. S., at 317. But we concluded that the strong "countervailing considerations" surrounding appropriate interpretation of § 1291 were of sufficient importance to outweigh the officials' interest in avoiding the burdens of litigation.
The "countervailing considerations" at issue here are even stronger than those presented in Johnson. When preemption of state law is at issue, we must respect the "principles [that] are fundamental to a system of federalism in which the state courts share responsibility for the application and enforcement of federal law." Howlett, 496 U. S., at 372-373. This respect is at its apex when we confront a claim that federal law requires a State to undertake something as fundamental as restructuring the operation of its courts.13 We therefore cannot agree with petitioners that
13 We have made it quite clear that it is a matter for each State to decide how to structure its judicial system. See, e. g., M. L. B. v. S. L. J., 519 U. S. 102, 111 (1996) (States under no obligation to provide appellate re-
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