Cite as: 523 U. S. 740 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
declared unconstitutional and to enjoin his licensee from paying accrued royalties to the government. The Court held that the action presented no case or controversy. The validity of the Act would properly arise only in a suit by the patent holder to recover the royalties, which could afford complete and adequate relief. In such a suit, if the licensee were to assert compliance with the Act as a defense to an obligation to pay the amounts due, the patent holder's right of recovery would then depend on a determination of the Act's validity. Id., at 322-323. The Court thus concluded that there was no justiciable question "unless and until [the patent owner] seeks recovery of the royalties, and then only if [the licensee] relies on the Act as a defense." Id., at 324. See also Public Serv. Comm'n of Utah v. Wycoff Co., 344 U. S. 237, 245-246 (1952).
As in Coffman, respondent here seeks a declaratory judgment as to the validity of a defense the State may, or may not, raise in a habeas proceeding. Such a suit does not merely allow the resolution of a "case or controversy" in an alternative format, as in Aetna Life Ins., supra, but rather attempts to gain a litigation advantage by obtaining an advance ruling on an affirmative defense, see Coffman, supra, at 322-324; Wycoff Co., supra, at 245-246. The "case or controversy" actually at stake is the class members' claims in their individual habeas proceedings. Any judgment in this action thus would not resolve the entire case or controversy as to any one of them, but would merely determine a collateral legal issue governing certain aspects of their pending or future suits.
The disruptive effects of an action such as this are peculiarly great when the underlying claim must be adjudicated in a federal habeas proceeding. For we have held that any claim by a prisoner attacking the validity or duration of his confinement must be brought under the habeas sections of Title 28 of the United States Code. Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U. S. 475, 500 (1973). As that opinion pointed out, this means that a state prisoner is required to exhaust state rem-
747
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007