334 GRUPO MEXICANO de DESARROLLO, S. A. v.
ALLIANCE BOND FUND, INC. Opinion of Ginsburg, J.
ance would have been unable to collect on the money judgment for which it qualified. See id., at 26a, 32a.1
Had it been possible for the District Judge to set up "a pie-powder court . . . on the instant and on the spot," Parks v. Boston, 32 Mass. 198, 208 (1834) (Shaw, C. J.), the judge could have moved without pause from evidence taking to entry of final judgment for Alliance, including an order prohibiting GMD from transferring assets necessary to satisfy the judgment. Lacking any such device for instant adjudication, the judge employed a preliminary injunction "to preserve the relative positions of the parties until a trial on the merits [could] be held." University of Texas v. Camenisch, 451 U. S. 390, 395 (1981). The order enjoined GMD from distributing assets likely to be necessary to satisfy the judgment in the instant case, but gave Alliance no security interest in GMD's assets, nor any preference relative to GMD's other creditors. Moreover, the injunction expressly reserved to GMD the option of commencing proceedings under the bankruptcy laws of Mexico or the United States. App. to Pet. for Cert. 27a. In addition, the District Judge recorded his readiness to modify the interim order if necessary to keep GMD in business. See id., at 53a. The preliminary injunction thus constrained GMD only to the extent essential to the subsequent entry of an effective judgment.
The Court nevertheless disapproves the provisional relief ordered by the District Court, holding that a preliminary injunction freezing assets is beyond the equitable authority of the federal courts. I would not so disarm the district
1 GMD did not seek Second Circuit review of the District Court's fact findings on irreparable harm or of that court's determination that Alliance almost certainly would prevail on the merits. See Brief for Petitioners 7. Nor does GMD cast any doubt on those matters here. Instead, GMD forthrightly concedes that had the District Court declined to issue the preliminary injunction, GMD would have had no assets available to satisfy the money judgment that Alliance ultimately obtained. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 8-9.
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