84
Stevens, J., dissenting
tions stated in Cox Broadcasting Corp., and we reject any construction of Ritchie that would contradict this opinion.
This case fits within no exceptional category. It presents the typical situation in which the state courts have resolved some but not all of petitioners' claims. Our jurisdiction therefore founders on the rule that a state-court decision is not final unless and until it has effectively determined the entire litigation. Because the Alabama Supreme Court has not yet rendered a final judgment, we lack jurisdiction to review its decision on the Jeffersons' § 1983 claims.
* * *
For the reasons stated, the writ of certiorari is dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
It is so ordered.
Justice Stevens, dissenting.
In my opinion, the jurisdictional holding in Pennsylvania v. Ritchie, 480 U. S. 39 (1987), represented such a departure from our settled construction of the term "final judgment" in 28 U. S. C. § 1257(a) that it should be promptly overruled, see id., at 72-78 (Stevens, J., dissenting). Unless and until at least four other Members of the Court share that view, however, I believe its holding governs cases such as this.
In Ritchie, the Court held that a judgment of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court resolving a federal question was final even though the federal question could have been relitigated in the state court if the appeals had been dismissed, and even though it could have been raised in a second appeal to this Court after the conclusion of further proceedings in the state courts. The fact that law-of-the-case principles would have made it futile to relitigate the federal issue in the state courts provided a sufficient basis for this Court's decision to accept jurisdiction. Precisely the same situation obtains in
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