Cite as: 523 U. S. 726 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
preclusion principles, effectively carry the day. See Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation, 497 U. S. 871, 894 (1990). And, in any event, the Court has not considered this kind of litigation cost saving sufficient by itself to justify review in a case that would otherwise be unripe. The ripeness doctrine reflects a judgment that the disadvantages of a premature review that may prove too abstract or unnecessary ordinarily outweigh the additional costs of—even repetitive— postimplementation litigation. See, e. g., ibid. ("The case-by-case approach . . . is understandably frustrating to an organization such as respondent, which has as its objective across-the-board protection of our Nation's . . . forests . . . . But this is the traditional, and remains the normal, mode of operation of the courts"); FTC v. Standard Oil Co. of Cal., 449 U. S. 232, 244 (1980); Renegotiation Bd. v. Bannercraft Clothing Co., 415 U. S. 1, 24 (1974); Petroleum Exploration, Inc. v. Public Serv. Comm'n, 304 U. S. 209, 222 (1938).
Second, from the agency's perspective, immediate judicial review directed at the lawfulness of logging and clearcutting could hinder agency efforts to refine its policies: (a) through revision of the Plan, e. g., in response to an appropriate proposed site-specific action that is inconsistent with the Plan, see 53 Fed. Reg. 23807, 26836 (1988), or (b) through application of the Plan in practice, e. g., in the form of site-specific proposals, which are subject to review by a court applying purely legal criteria. Cf. Abbott Laboratories, supra, at 149; Pacific Gas & Elec. Co. v. State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Comm'n, 461 U. S. 190, 201 (1983). Cf. Standard Oil Co., supra, at 242 (premature review "denies the agency an opportunity to correct its own mistakes and to apply its expertise"). And, here, the possibility that further consideration will actually occur before the Plan is implemented is not theoretical, but real. See, e. g., 60 Fed. Reg. 18886, 18901 (1995) (forest plans often not fully implemented), id., at 18905-18907 (discussing process for amending forest plans); 58 Fed. Reg. 19369, 19370-19371
735
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007