Cite as: 521 U. S. 567 (1997)
Scalia, J., dissenting
tion conferring such authority upon the individual legislators before the court; and as to the Senate, at least, there is some evidence no such authority exists. The record contains a letter from State Senator Howard C. Forman to the District Court reading in part as follows:
"This letter is intended to communicate to you in the strongest possible terms that the Florida Senate has not agreed to any proposed settlement. As a constitutionally established collegial body, the Florida Senate can agree to nothing without open debate and action by the entire body. As a duly elected Member of the Florida Senate, I have never waived my constitutional duty and responsibility to participate in all Senate matters. And, under no circumstances does any individual Senator, or group of individual Senators, have the right to agree to anything in my name. . . . "Therefore, I challenge any representation that the Florida Senate has agreed to any proposed settlement in this case." Record 152.
But in fact all these inquiries into authorization to enter private agreements are supererogatory. Even an authorized private agreement cannot serve as the basis for a federal apportionment decree. We have said explicitly, and in unmistakable terms, that "[f]ederal courts are barred from intervening in state apportionment in the absence of a violation of federal law." Voinovich v. Quilter, 507 U. S. 146, 156 (1993) (emphasis added). As Chief Judge Tjoflat's concurrence below correctly stated, "to enter the judgment in question, the court must find that District 21 is unconstitutional." 920 F. Supp., at 1256-1257. I would adhere to that principle.
Finally, I find no merit in the Court's apparent suggestion, ante, at 578-580, that appellant has no standing to complain of this defect. A judicial decree entered without jurisdiction has mooted his suit. Surely that is enough to sustain his appeal.
587
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