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What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Sotomayor delivered the opinion of the Court. Since 1994, federal law has required States, as a condition for the receipt of certain law enforcement funds, to maintain federally compliant systems for sex-offender registration and community notification. In an effort to make these state schemes more comprehensive, uniform, and effective, Congress in 2006 enacted the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA or Act) as part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, Pub. L. 109-248, Tit. I, 120 Stat. 590. Among its provisions, the Act established a federal criminal offense covering, inter alia, any person who (1) “is required to register under [SORNA],” (2) “travels in interstate or foreign commerce,” and (3) “knowingly fails to register or update a registration.” 18 U. S. C. §2250(a). At issue in this case is whether § 2250 applies to sex offenders whose interstate travel occurred prior to SORNA’s effective date and, if so, whether the statute runs afoul of the Constitution’s prohibition on ex post facto laws. See Art. I, § 9, cl. 3. Liability under §2250, we hold, cannot be predicated on pre-SORNA travel. We therefore do not address the ex post facto question. I In May 2004, petitioner Thomas Carr pleaded guilty in Alabama state court to first-degree sexual abuse. He was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, with all but 2 years suspended. Receiving credit for time previously served, Carr was released on probation on July 3,2004, and he registered as a sex offender as required by Alabama law. In late 2004 or early 2005, prior to SORNA's enactment, Carr relocated from Alabama to Indiana. He did not comply with Indiana’s sex-offender registration requirements. In July 2007, Carr came to the attention of law enforcement in Fort Wayne, Indiana, following his involvement in a fight. On August 22,2007, federal prosecutors filed an indictment in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana charging Carr with failing to register in violation of § 2250. Carr moved to dismiss the indictment, asserting that because he traveled to Indiana prior to SORNA’s effective date, it would violate the Ex Post Facto Clause to prosecute him under §2250. The District Court denied Carr’s motion, and Carr entered a conditional guilty plea, preserving his right to appeal. He received a 30-month prison sentence. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit consolidated Carr’s appeal with that of a similarly situated defendant, who, in addition to raising an ex post facto claim, asserted that § 2250, by its terms, does not apply to persons whose interstate travel preceded SORNA’s enactment. Beginning with the statutory argument, the Court of Appeals held that §2250 “does not require that the defendant’s travel postdate the Act.” United States v. Dixon, 551 F. 3d 578, 582 (2008). The court relied principally on its understanding of SORNA’s underlying purpose: “The evil at which [the Act] is aimed is that convicted sex offenders registered in one state might move to another state, fail to register there, and thus leave the public unprotected. The concern is as acute in a ease in which the offender moved before the Act was passed as in one in which he moved afterward.” Ibid, (citation omitted). The court drew an analogy to 18 U. S. C. § 922(g), which prohibits convicted felons from “possess[ing] in or affecting commerce] any firearm or ammunition.” “The danger posed by such a felon is unaffected by when the gun crossed state lines..., and so it need not have crossed after the statute was passed.” 551 F. 3d, at 582 (citing Scarborough v. United States, 431 U. S. 563 (1977)). According to the court, § 2250(a), like § 922(g), uses movement in interstate commerce as a jurisdictional element “to establish a constitutional predicate for the statute... rather than to create a temporal requirement.” 551 F. 3d, at 583. Reading §2250 to encompass pre-SORNA travel, the Seventh Circuit recognized, created a conflict with the Tenth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Husted, 545 F. 3d 1240 (2008). In holding that § 2250’s coverage “is limited to those individuals who travel in interstate commerce after the Act’s effective date,” the Tenth Circuit emphasized “Congress’s use of the present tense form of the verb ‘to travel’..., which according to ordinary English grammar, does not refer to travel that has already occurred.” Id., at 1243-1244. Rejecting this analysis, the Seventh Circuit characterized Congress’ choice of tenses as “'not very revealing.’” 551 F. 3d, at 583 (quoting Scarborough, 431 U. S., at 571). Having dispensed with the statutory question, the Seventh Circuit considered the claim of Carr and his co-appellant that predicating a § 2250 prosecution on pre-SORNA travel violates the Ex Post Facto Clause. Reliance on a defendant’s pre-SORNA travel, the court concluded, poses no ex post facto problem so long as the defendant had “reasonable time” to register after SORNA took effect but failed to do so. 551 F. 3d, at 585. Noting that Carr remained unregistered five months after SORNA became applicable to him, the Seventh Circuit affirmed his conviction. Id., at 586-587. The court reversed the conviction of Carr’s co-appellant, finding that he had not been given a sufficient grace period to register. In view of the division among the Circuits as to the meaning of § 2250’s “travel” requirement, we granted certiorari, 557 U. S. 965 (2009), to decide the statute’s applicability to pre-SORNA travel and, if necessary, to consider the statute’s compliance with the Ex Post Facto Clause. II As relevant here, § 2250 provides: For a defendant to violate this provision, Carr and the Government agree, the statute’s three elements must “be satisfied in sequence, culminating in a post-SORNA failure to register.” Brief for United States 13; see also Reply Brief for Petitioner 4,7, n. 6. A sequential reading, the parties recognize, helps to ensure a nexus between a defendant’s interstate travel and his failure to register as a sex offender. Persons convicted of sex offenses under state law who fail to register in their State of conviction would otherwise be subject to federal prosecution under § 2250 even if they had not left the State after being convicted — an illogical result given the absence of any obvious federal interest in punishing such state offenders. “(a) In General — Whoever— “(1) is required to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act; “(2)(A) is a sex offender as defined for the purposes of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act by reason of a conviction under Federal law (including the Uniform Code of Military Justice), the law of the District of Columbia, Indian tribal law, or the law of any territory or possession of the United States; or “(B) travels in interstate or foreign commerce, or enters or leaves, or resides in, Indian country; and “(3) knowingly fails to register or update a registration as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act; “shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.” While both parties accept that the elements of §2250 should be read sequentially, they disagree on the event that sets the sequence in motion. In the Government’s view, the statute is triggered by a sex-offense conviction, which must be followed by interstate travel, and then a failure to register under SORNA. Only the last of these events, the Government maintains, must occur after SORNA took effect; the predicate conviction and the travel may both have predated the statute’s enactment. Carr, in contrast, asserts that the statutory sequence begins when a person becomes subject to SORNA’s registration requirements. The person must then travel in interstate commerce and thereafter fail to register. All of these events, Carr avers, necessarily postdate SORNA’s enactment because a sex offender could not have been required to register under SORNA until SORNA became the law. Carr’s interpretation better accords with the statutory text. By its terms, the first element of § 2250(a) can only be satisfied when a person “is required to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.” § 2250(a)(1) (emphásis added). In an attempt to reconcile its preferred construction with the words of the statute, the Government insists that this language is merely “a shorthand way of identifying those persons who have a [sex-offense] conviction in the classes identified by SORNA.” Brief for United States 19-20. To reach this conclusion, the Government observes that another provision of SORNA, 42 U. S. C. § 16913(a), states that the Act’s registration requirements apply to “sex offender[s].” A “sex offender” is elsewhere defined as “an individual who was convicted of a sex offense.” § 16911(1). Thus, as the Government would have it, Congress used 12 words and two implied cross-references to establish that the first element of § 2250(a) is that a person has been convictéd of a sex offense. Such contortions can scarcely be called “shorthand.” It is far more sensible to conclude that Congress meant the first precondition to § 2250 liability to be the one it listed first: a “require[ment] to register under [SORNA].” Once a person becomes subject to SORNA’s registration requirements, which can occur only after the statute’s effective date, that person can be convicted under §2250 if he thereafter travels and then fails to register. That § 2250 sets forth the travel requirement in the present tense (“travels”) rather than in the past or present per-feet (“traveled” or “has traveled”) reinforces the conclusion that preenactment travel falls outside the statute’s compass. Consistent with normal usage, we have frequently looked to Congress’ choice of verb tense to ascertain a statute’s temporal reach. See, e. g., United States v. Wilson, 503 U. S. 329, 333 (1992) (“Congress’ use of a verb tense is significant in construing statutes”); Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd. v. Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Inc., 484 U. S. 49, 57 (1987) (“Congress could have phrased its requirement in language that looked to the past..., but it did not choose this readily available option”); Barrett v. United States, 423 U. S. 212, 216 (1976) (observing that Congress used the present perfect tense to “denot[e] an act that has been completed”). The Dictionary Act also ascribes significance to verb tense. It provides that, “[i]n determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, unless the context indicates otherwisef,]... words used in the present tense include the future as well as the present.” 1 U. S. C. § 1. By implication, then, the Dictionary Act instructs that the present tense generally does not include the past. Accordingly, a statute that regulates a person who “travels” is not readily understood to encompass a person whose only travel occurred before the statute took effect. Indeed, neither the Government nor the dissent identifies any instance in which this Court has construed a present-tense verb in a criminal law to reach preenactment conduct. In this instance, the statutory context strongly supports a forward-looking construction of “travels.” First, the word “travels” is followed in § 2250(a)(2)(B) by a series of other present-tense verbs — “enters or leaves, or resides in, Indian country.” (Emphasis added.) This Court has previously described a statute’s “undeviating use of the present tense” as a “striking indie[ator]” of its “prospective orientation.” Gwaltney, 484 U. S., at 59. The Seventh Circuit thought otherwise, reasoning that it would “mak[e] no sense” for “a sex offender who has resided in Indian country since long before the Act was passed [to be] subject to the Act but not someone who crossed state lines before the Act was passed.” 551 F. 3d, at 583. As a textual matter, however, it is the Seventh Circuit’s approach that makes little sense: If “travels” means “traveled” (i. e., a person “travels” if he crossed state lines before SORNA’s enactment), then the only way to avoid an incongruity among neighboring verbs would be to construe the phrase “resides i[n] Indian country” to encompass persons who once resided in Indian country but who left before SORNA’s enactment and have not since returned — an implausible reading that neither the Seventh Circuit, nor the Government, nor the dissent endorses. Second, the other elements of a §2250 violation are similarly set forth in the present tense. Sections 2250(a)(1) and (a)(3) refer, respectively, to any person who “is required to register under [SORNA]” and who “knowingly fails to register or update a registration as required by [SORNA].” (Emphasis added.) The Government accepts that this last element — a knowing failure to register or update a registration — must postdate SORNA’s enactment. Had Congress intended preenactment conduct to satisfy the first two requirements of § 2250 but not the third, it presumably would have varied the verb tenses to convey this meaning. Indeed, numerous federal statutes use the past-perfect tense to describe one or more elements of a criminal offense when coverage of preenactment events is intended. See, e. g., 18 U. S. C. §249(a)(2)(B)(iii) (2006 ed., Supp. Ill) (proscribing hate crimes in which “the defendant employs a firearm, dangerous weapon, explosive or incendiary device, or other weapon that has traveled in interstate or foreign commerce” (emphasis added)); § 922(g)(9) (2006 ed.) (proscribing firearm possession or transport by any person “who has been convicted” of a felony or a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence (emphasis added)); § 2252(a)(2) (2006 ed., Supp. II) (making it unlawful for any person to receive or distribute a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct that “has been mailed, or has been shipped or transported in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce” (emphasis added)). The absence of similar phrasing here provides powerful evidence that § 2250 targets only posten-actment travel. III Echoing the Seventh Circuit’s assessment that Congress’ use of present-tense verbs in § 2250 is “not very revealing,” Brief for United States 17, the Government offers two principal arguments for construing the statute to cover pre-SORNA travel: First, such a reading avoids an “anomaly” in the statute’s coverage of federal versus state sex offenders; and second, it “better effectuates the statutory purpose,” id., at 22 (capitalization omitted). Neither argument persuades us to adopt the Government’s strained reading of the statutory text. A Section 2250 imposes criminal liability on two categories of persons who fail to adhere to SORNA’s registration requirements: any person who is a sex offender “by reason of a conviction under Federal law..., the law of the District of Columbia, Indian tribal law, or the law of any territory or possession of the United States,” § 2250(a)(2)(A), and any other person required to register under SORNA who “travels in interstate or foreign commerce, or enters or leaves, or resides in, Indian country,” § 2250(a)(2)(B). According to the Government, these categories correspond to “two alternate sources of power to achieve Congress’s aim of broadly registering sex offenders.” Id., at 22. Placing pre-SORNA travelers within the statute's coverage, the Government maintains, “ensures that the jurisdictional reach of Section 2250(a)(2) has a comparable breadth as applied to both federal and state sex offenders.” Id., at 21. The Government’s pronouncement that § 2250 should have an “equally broad sweep” with respect to federal and state offenders, id., at 22, is little more than ipse dixit. Had Congress intended to subject any unregistered state sex offender who has ever traveled in interstate commerce to federal prosecution under §2250, it easily could have adopted language to that effect. That it declined to do so indicates that Congress instead chose to handle federal and state sex offenders differently. There is nothing “anomalous]” about such a choice. To the contrary, it is entirely reasonable for Congress to have assigned the Federal Government a special role in ensuring compliance with SORNA’s registration requirements by federal sex offenders — persons who typically would have spent time under federal criminal supervision. It is similarly reasonable for Congress to have given the States primary responsibility for supervising and ensuring compliance among state sex offenders and to have subjected such offenders to federal criminal liability only when, after SORNA’s enactment, they use the channels of interstate commerce in evading a State’s reach. In this regard, it is notable that the federal sex-offender registration laws have, from their inception, expressly relied on state-level enforcement. Indeed, when it initially set national standards for state sex-offender registration programs in 1994, Congress did not include any federal criminal liability. Congress instead conditioned certain federal funds on States’ adoption of “criminal penalties” on any person “required to register under a State program... who knowingly fails to so register and keep such registration current.” Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, Pub. L. 103-322, Tit. XVII, § 170101(c), 108 Stat. 2041, 42 U. S. C. § 14071(d). Two years later, Congress supplemented state enforcement mechanisms by subjecting to federal prosecution any covered sex offender who “changes address to a State other than the State in which the person resided at the time of the immediately preceding registration” and “knowingly fails to” register as required. Pam Lyehner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-236, §2,110 Stat. 3095, 3096, 42 U. S. C. §§ 14072(g)(3), (i). The prospective orientation of this provision is apparent. No statutory gap necessitated coverage of unregistered offenders who “change[d] address” before the statute’s enactment; the prosecution of such persons remained the province of the States. In enacting SORNA, Congress preserved this basic allocation of enforcement responsibilities. To strengthen state enforcement of registration requirements, Congress established, as a funding condition, that “[e]ach jurisdiction, other than a Federally recognized Indian tribe, shall provide a criminal penalty that includes a maximum term of imprisonment that is greater than 1 year for the failure of a sex offender to comply with the requirements of this subchapter.” § 16913(e). Meanwhile, Congress in § 2250 exposed to federal criminal liability, with penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment, persons required to register under SORNA over whom the Federal Government has a direct supervisory interest or who threaten the efficacy of the statutory scheme by traveling in interstate commerce. Understanding the act of travel as an aspect of the harm Congress sought to punish serves to distinguish § 2250 from the felon-in-possession statute to which the Seventh Circuit analogized. See 551 F. 3d, at 582-583. In Scarborough, this Court held that a prior version of the statute, which imposed criminal liability on any convicted felon who “ ‘possesses... in commerce or affecting commerce... any firearm/” 481 U.S., at 564 (quoting 18 U. S. C. App. § 1202(a) (1970 ed.)), did not require the Government to prove posten-actment movement of the firearm across state lines. According to the Court, Congress had given “no indication of any concern with either the movement of the gun or the possessor or with the time of acquisition.” 431 U. S., at 572. Its aim was simply “to keep guns out of the hands of” convicted felons, ibid., and, by using the phrase “in commerce or affecting commerce,” it invoked the full breadth of its Commerce Clause authority to achieve that end. No one in Scarborough disputed, however, that the act of possession had to occur postenactment; a felon who “possess[ed]” a firearm only preenactment was plainly outside the statute’s sweep. In this case, the proper analogy is not, as the Seventh Circuit suggested, between the travel of a sex offender and the movement of a firearm; it is between the sex offender who “travels” and the convicted felon who “possesses.” The act of travel by a convicted sex offender may serve as a jurisdictional predicate for §2250, but it is also, like the act of possession, the very conduct at which Congress took aim. B In a final effort to justify its position, the Government invokes one of SORNA’s underlying purposes: to locate sex offenders who had failed to abide by their registration obligations. SORNA, the Government observes, was motivated at least in part by Congress’ concern about these “missing” sex offenders — a problem the House Committee on the Judiciary expressly linked to interstate travel: “The most significant enforcement issue in the sex offender program is that over 100,000 sex offenders, or nearly one-fifth in the Nation[,] are ‘missing/ meaning they have not complied with sex offender registration requirements. This typically occurs when the sex offender moves from one State to another.” H. R. Rep. No. 109-218, pt. 1, p. 26 (2005). The goal of tracking down missing sex offenders, the Government maintains, “is surely better served by making Section 2250 applicable to them in their new States of residence immediately than by waiting for them to travel in interstate commerce and fail to register yet again.” Brief for United States 23-24. The Court of Appeals expressed a similar view. See 551 F. 3d, at 582. The Government’s argument confuses a general goal of SORNA with the specific purpose of §2250. Section 2250 is not a stand-alone response to the problem of missing sex offenders; it is embedded in a broader statutory scheme enacted to address the deficiencies in prior law that had enabled sex offenders to slip through the cracks. See 42 U. S. C. § 16901 (“Congress in this chapter establishes a comprehensive national system for the registration of [sex] offenders”). Among its many provisions, SORNA instructs States to maintain sex-offender registries that compile an array of information about sex offenders, §16914; to make this information publicly available online, §16918; to share the information with other jurisdictions and with the Attorney General for inclusion in a comprehensive national sex-offender registry, §§16919-16921; and to “provide a criminal penalty that includes a maximum term of imprisonment that is greater than 1 year for the failure of a sex offender to comply with the requirements of this subchapter,” § 16913(e). Sex offenders, in turn, are required to “register, and keep the registration current, in each jurisdiction where the offender resides, where the offender is an employee, and where the offender is a student,” § 16913(a), and to appear in person periodically to “allow the jurisdiction to take a current photograph, and verify the information in each registry in which that offender is required to be registered,” § 16916. By facilitating the collection of sex-offender information and its dissemination among jurisdictions, these provisions, not §2250, stand at the center of Congress’ effort to account for missing sex offenders. Knowing that Congress aimed to reduce the number of noncompliant sex offenders thus tells us little about the specific policy choice Congress made in enacting §2250. While subjecting pre-SORNA travelers to punishment under § 2250 may well be consistent with the aim of finding missing sex offenders, a contrary construction in no way frustrates that broad goal. Taking account of SORNA’s overall structure, we have little reason to doubt that Congress intended §2250 to do exactly what it says: to subject to federal prosecution sex offenders who elude SORNA’s registration requirements by traveling in interstate commerce. Cf. Mertens v. Hewitt Associates, 508 U. S. 248, 261 (1993) (“[Vjague notions of a statute’s ‘basic purpose’ are... inadequate to overcome the words of its text regarding the specific issue under consideration”). C None of the legislative materials the Government cites as evidence of SORNA’s purpose calls this reading into question. To the contrary, the Report of the House Judiciary Committee suggests not only that a prohibition on postenactment travel is consonant with Congress’ goals, but also that it is the rule Congress in fact chose to adopt. As the Government acknowledges, the bill under consideration by the Committee contained a version of §2250 that “would not have reached pre-enactment interstate travel.” Brief for United States 24, n. 9. This earlier version imposed federal criminal penalties on any person who “receives a notice from an official that such person is required to register under [SORNA] and... thereafter travels in interstate or foreign commerce, or enters or leaves Indian country.” H. R. Rep. No. 109-218, pt. 1, at 9; see also id., at 26 (“[S]ex offenders will now face Federal prosecution... if they cross a State line and fail to comply with the sex offender registration and notification requirements contained in the legislation”). Yet this did not stop the Committee from describing its legislation as a solution to the problem of missing sex offenders. See id., at 28-24, 26, 45-46. The Government identifies nothing in the legislative record to suggest that, in modifying this language during the course of the legislative process, Congress intended to alter the statute’s temporal sweep. At the very least, the close correspondence between the Committee’s discussion of missing sex offenders and its recognition of the travel element’s prospective application would seem to confirm that reading § 2250 to reach only post-enactment travel does not contravene SORNA’s underlying purposes, let alone result in an absurdity that would compel us to disregard the statutory text. Cf. Arlington Central School Dist. Bd. of Ed. v. Murphy, 548 U. S. 291, 296 (2006) (“We have stated time and again that courts must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there. When the statutory language is plain, the sole function of the courts — at least where the disposition required by the text is not absurd — is to enforce it according to its terms” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). * * * Having concluded that § 2250 does not extend to preenactment travel, we need not consider whether such a construction would present difficulties under the Constitution’s Ex Post Facto Clause. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. While the Seventh and Tenth Circuits have confronted the question directly, other Circuits have also touched on it. Aligning itself with the Seventh Circuit, the Eleventh Circuit has analogized 18 U. S. C. 12250(a) to the felon-in-possession statute, § 922(g), and applied it to a sex offender who traveled before SORNA became applicable to him. United States v. Dumont, 555 F. 3d 1288, 1291-1292 (2009) (per curiam). In contrast, the Eighth Circuit has stated in dictum that § 2250(a) “punishes convicted sex offenders who travel in interstate commerce after the enactment of SORNA” United States v. May, 535 F. 3d 912, 920 (2008) (emphasis added). There is a separate conflict among the Courts of Appeals as to when SORNA’s registration requirements became applicable to persons convicted of sex offenses prior to the statute’s enactment. Several Circuits, including the Seventh, have taken the position that the Act did not apply to such sex offenders until the Attorney General provided for their inclusion by issuing an interim regulation, 72 Fed. Reg. 8897, on February 28, 2007 (codified at 28 CFR § 72.3). See, e. g., United States v. Hatcher, 560 F. 3d 222, 226-229 (CA4 2009); United States v. Cain, 583 F. 3d 408, 414-419 (CA6 2009); United States v. Dixon, 551 F. 3d 578, 582 (CA7 2008) (case below); United States v. Madera, 528 F. 3d 852, 857-859 (CA11 2008) (per curiam). Other Circuits have held that persons with pre-SORNA sex-offense convictions became subject to the Act’s registration requirements upon the statute’s enactment in July 2006. See, e. g., May, 535 F. 3d, at 915-919; United States v. Hinckley, 550 F. 3d 926, 929-935 (CA10 2008). Because Carr traveled from Alabama to Indiana before both the enactment of SORNA and the Attorney General’s regulation, we have no occasion to consider whether a pre-SORNA sex offender whose travel and failure to register occurred between July 2006 and February 2007 is subject to liability under §2250, and we express no view on that question. We similarly express no view as to whether § 72.3 was properly promulgated — a question that has also divided the Circuits. Compare Cain, 583 F. 3d, at 419-424 (holding that the Attorney General lacked good cause for issuing the interim regulation without adhering to the notice-and-comment and publication requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)), with United States v. Dean, 604 F. 3d 1275, 1278-1282 (CA11 2010) (finding no APA violation); United States v. Gould, 568 F. 3d 459, 469-470 (CA4 2009) (same). For persons convicted of sex offenses under federal or Indian tribal law, interstate travel is not a prerequisite to § 2250 liability. See § 2250(a)(2)(A). Offering a variation on the Government’s argument, the dissent contends that, “[i]n accordance with current drafting conventions, § 2250(a) speaks, not as of the time when the law went into effect, but as of the time when the first act necessary for conviction is committed.” Post, at 464-465 (opinion of Auto, J.). This occurs, the dissent maintains, “when an individual is convicted of a qualifying sex offense, for it is that act that triggers the requirement to register under SORNA.” Post, at 465. The dissent’s account cannot be squared with the statutory text. “[T]he first act necessary for conviction” under § 2250(a) is not a predicate sex-offense conviction. It is a requirement “to register under [SORNA].” § 2250(a)(1). Thus, even if the dissent is correct that legislative drafters do not invariably use the moment of enactment to mark the dividing line between covered and uncovered acts, they have clearly done so here. The Court of Appeals quoted a Ninth Circuit decision for the proposition that “‘the present tense is commonly used to refer to past, present, and future all at the same time.’ ” 551 F. 3d, at 583 (quoting Coalition for Clean Air v. Southern Cal. Edison Co., 971 F. 2d 219, 225 (1992)). Neither court offered examples of such usage. Perhaps, as the Dictionary Act itself recognizes, there may be instances in which “context” supports this sort of omnitemporality, but it is not the typical understanding of the present tense in either normal discourse or statutory construction. Taken in context, the word “travels” as it appears in §2250 is indistinguishable from the present-tense verbs that appear in myriad other criminal statutes to proscribe conduct on a prospective basis. Examining a criminal law with a travel element similar to the one at issue here, the Ninth Circuit itself recently agreed that “the present tense verb ‘travels,’ most sensibly read, does not refer to travel that occurred in the past— that is, before the enactment of the statute.” United States v. Jackson, 480 F. 3d 1014, 1019 (2007) (interpreting 18 U. S. C. § 2423(c), which imposes criminal penalties on “[a]ny United States citizen... who travels in foreign commerce, and engages in any illicit sexual conduct with another person”). The dissent identifies several “SORNA provisions that plainly use the present tense to refer to events that... may have occurred before SORNA took effect.” Post, at 467. All of these examples appear in 42 U. S. C. § 16911, a definitional section that merely elucidates the meaning of certain statutory terms and proscribes no conduct. All but two of the provisions, moreover, rely on the term “sex offender,” which §16911(1) defines to mean “an individual who was convicted of a sex offense.” (Emphasis added.) The remaining provisions are § 16911(7), which simply uses “involves” rather than “involved” to define whether a prior conviction qualifies as a “specified offense against a minor,” and § 16911(8), which makes plain that its present-tense reference to an offender’s age refers to age “at the time of the offense.” These examples thus provide scant support for the proposition that §2250 uses “travels” to refer to pre-SORNA travel. Given the well-established presumption against retroactivity and, in the criminal context, the constitutional bar on ex post facto laws, it cannot be the ease that a statutory prohibition set forth in the present tense applies by default to acts completed before the statute's enactment. See Johnson v. United States, 529 U. S. 694, 701 (2000) (“Absent a clear statement of that intent, we do not give retroactive effect to statutes burdening private interests”). Pre-S0RNA law also exposed to federal criminal liability any person whose State “ha[d] not established a minimally sufficient sexual offender registration program” and who was thus required to register with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). See 42 U. S. C. §§ 14072(c), (g)(2), (i). SORNA does not include a similar FBI registration requirement, presumably because, by the time of the statute’s enactment, “every State... had enacted some” type of registration system. Smith v Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court, except as to Parts II-B-2 and II-C-2. The question in this case turns on whether a patent can be issued for a claimed invention designed for the business world. The patent application claims a procedure for instructing buyers and sellers how to protect against the risk of price fluctuations in a discrete section of the economy. Three arguments are advanced for the proposition that the claimed invention is outside the scope of patent law: (1) It is not tied to a machine and does not transform an article; (2) it involves a method of conducting business; and (3) it is merely an abstract idea. The Court of Appeals ruled that the first mentioned of these, the so-called machine-or-transformation test, was the sole test to be used for determining the patent-ability of a “process” under the Patent Act, 35 U. S. C. § 101. I Petitioners’ application seeks patent protection for a claimed invention that explains how buyers and sellers of commodities in the energy market can protect, or hedge, against the risk of price changes. The key claims are claims 1 and 4. Claim 1 describes a series of steps instructing how to hedge risk. Claim 4 puts the concept articulated in claim 1 into a simple mathematical formula. Claim 1 consists of the following steps: “(a) initiating a series of transactions between said commodity provider and consumers of said commodity wherein said consumers purchase said commodity at a fixed rate based upon historical averages, said fixed rate corresponding to a risk position of said consumers; “(b) identifying market participants for said commodity having a counter-risk position to said consumers; and “(c) initiating a series of transactions between said commodity provider and said market participants at a second fixed rate such that said series of market participant transactions balances the risk position of said series of consumer transactions.” App. 19-20. The remaining claims explain how claims 1 and 4 can be applied to allow energy suppliers and consumers to minimize the risks resulting from fluctuations in market demand for energy. For example, claim 2 claims “[t]he method of claim 1 wherein said commodity is energy and said market participants are transmission distributors.” Id., at 20. Some of these claims also suggest familiar statistical approaches to determine the inputs to use in claim 4’s equation. For example, claim 7 advises using well-known random analysis techniques to determine how much a seller will gain “from each transaction under each historical weather pattern.” Id., at 21. The patent examiner rejected petitioners’ application, explaining that it “ ‘is not implemented on a specific apparatus and merely manipulates [an] abstract idea and solves a purely mathematical problem without any limitation to a practical application, therefore, the invention is not directed to the technological arts.’” App. to Pet. for Cert. 148a. The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences affirmed, concluding that the application involved only mental steps that do not transform physical matter and was directed to an abstract idea. Id., at 181a-186a. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard the case en banc and affirmed. The case produced five different opinions. Students of patent law would be well advised to study these scholarly opinions. Chief Judge Michel wrote the opinion of the court. The court rejected its prior test for determining whether a claimed invention was a patentable “process” under § 101— whether it produces a “'useful, concrete and tangible result’” — as articulated in State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, Inc., 149 F. 3d 1368, 1373 (1998), and AT&T Corp. v. Excel Communications, Inc., 172 F. 3d 1352, 1357 (1999). See In re Bilski, 545 F. 3d 943, 959-960, and n. 19 (CA Fed. 2008) (en banc). The court held that “[a] claimed process is surely patent-eligible under § 101 if: (1) it is tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or (2) it transforms a particular article into a different state or thing.” Id., at 954. The court concluded this “machine-or-transformation test” is “the sole test governing § 101 analyses,” id., at 955, and thus the “test for determining patent eligibility of a process under §101,” id., at 956. Applying the machine-or-transformation test, the court held that petitioners’ application was not patent eligible. Id., at 963-966. Judge Dyk wrote a separate concurring opinion, providing historical support for the court’s approach. Id., at 966-976. Three judges wrote dissenting opinions. Judge Mayer argued that petitioners’ application was “not eligible for patent protection because it is directed to a method of conducting business.” Id., at 998. He urged the adoption of a “technological standard for patentability.” Id., at 1010. Judge Rader would have found petitioners’ claims were an unpatentable abstract idea. Id., at 1011. Only Judge Newman disagreed with the court’s conclusion that petitioners’ application was outside of the reach of § 101. She did not say that the application should have been granted but only that the issue should be remanded for farther proceedings to determine whether the application qualified as patentable under other provisions. Id., at 997. This Court granted certiorari. 556 U. S. 1268 (2009). II A Section 101 defines the subject matter that may be patented under the Patent Act: “Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.” Section 101 thus specifies four independent categories of inventions or discoveries that are eligible for protection: processes, machines, manufactures, and compositions of matter. “In choosing such expansive terms .. . modified by the comprehensive ‘any,’ Congress plainly contemplated that the patent laws would be given wide scope.” Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U. S. 303, 308 (1980). Congress took this permissive approach to patent eligibility to ensure that “ ‘ingenuity should receive a liberal encouragement.’” Id., at 308-309 (quoting 5 Writings of Thomas Jefferson 75-76 (H. Washington ed. 1871)). The Court’s precedents provide three specific exceptions to § 101’s broad patent-eligibility principles: “laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas.” Chakrabarty, supra, at 309. While these exceptions are not required by the statutory text, they are consistent with the notion that a patentable process must be “new and useful.” And, in any case, these exceptions have defined the reach of the statute as a matter of statutory stare *decisis going back 150 years. See Le Roy v. Tatham, 14 How. 156, 174-175 (1853). The concepts covered by these exceptions are “part of the storehouse of knowledge of all men . . . free to all men and reserved exclusively to none.” Funk Brothers Seed Co. v. Kalo Inoculant Co., 333 U. S. 127, 130 (1948). The § 101 patent-eligibility inquiry is only a threshold test. Even if an invention qualifies as a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, in order to receive the Patent Act’s protection the claimed invention must also satisfy “the conditions and requirements of this title.” §101. Those requirements include that the invention be novel, see §102, nonobvious, see § 103, and fully and particularly described, see § 112. The present case involves an invention that is claimed to be a “process” under §101. Section 100(b) defines “process” as: “process, art or method, and includes a new use of a known process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or material.” The Court first considers two proposed categorical limitations on “process” patents under § 101 that would, if adopted, bar petitioners’ application in the present case: the machine- or-transformation test and the categorical exclusion of business method patents. B 1 Under the Court of Appeals’ formulation, an invention is a “process” only if: “(1) it is tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or (2) it transforms a particular article into a different state or thing.” 545 F. 3d, at 954. This Court has “more than once cautioned that courts 'should not read into the patent laws limitations and conditions which the legislature has not expressed.’ ” Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U. S. 175, 182 (1981) (quoting Chakrabarty, supra, at 308; some internal quotation marks omitted). In patent law, as in all statutory-construction, “[ujnless otherwise defined, ‘words will be interpreted as taking their ordinary, contemporary common meaning.’” Diehr, supra, at 182 (quoting Perrin v. United States, 444 U. S. 37, 42 (1979)). The Court has read the § 101 term “manufacture” in accordance with dictionary definitions, see Chakrabarty, supra, at 308 (citing American Fruit Growers, Inc. v. Brogdex Co., 283 U. S. 1, 11 (1931)), and approved a construction of the term “composition of matter” consistent with common usage, see Chakrabarty, supra, at 308 (citing Shell Development Co. v. Watson, 149 F. Supp. 279, 280 (DC 1957)). Any suggestion in this Court’s case law that the Patent Act’s terms deviate from their ordinary meaning has only been an explanation for the exceptions for laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas. See Parker v. Flook, 437 U. S. 584, 588-589 (1978). This Court has not indicated that the existence of these well-established exceptions gives the Judiciary carte blanche to impose other limitations that are inconsistent with the text and the statute’s purpose and design. Concerns about attempts to call any form of human activity a “process” can be met by making sure the claim meets the requirements of § 101. Adopting the machine-or-transformation test as the sole test for what constitutes a “process” (as opposed to just an important and useful clue) violates these statutory interpretation principles. Section 100(b) provides that “[t]he term ‘process’ means process, art or method, and includes a new use of a known process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or material.” The Court is unaware of any “ ‘ordinary, contemporary, common meaning,’” Diehr, supra, at 182, of the definitional terms “process, art or method” that would require these terms to be tied to a machine or to transform an article. Respondent urges the Court to look to the other patentable categories in § 101 — machines, manufactures, and compositions of matter — to confine the meaning of “process” to a machine or transformation, under the doctrine of noscitur a sociis. - Under this canon, “an ambiguous term may be given more precise content by the neighboring words with which it is associated.” United States v. Stevens, 559 U. S. 460, 474 (2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). This canon is inapplicable here, for § 100(b) already explicitly defines the term “process.” See Burgess v. United States, 553 U. S. 124, 130 (2008) (“When a statute includes an explicit definition, we must follow that definition” (internal quotation marks omitted)). The Court of Appeals incorrectly concluded that this Court has endorsed the'machine-or-transformation test as the exclusive test. It is true that Cochrane v. Deener, 94 U. S. 780, 788 (1877), explained that a “process” is “an act, or a series of acts, performed upon the subject-matter to be transformed and reduced to a different state or thing.” More recent cases, however, have rejected the broad implications of this dictum; and, in all events, later authority shows that it was not intended to be an exhaustive or exclusive test. Gottschalk v. Benson, 409 U. S. 63, 70 (1972), noted that “[transformation and reduction of an article 'to a different state or thing’ is the clue to the patentability of a process claim that does not include particular machines.” At the same time, it explicitly declined to “hold that no process patent could ever qualify if it did not meet [machine-or-transformation] requirements.” Id., at 71. Flook took a similar approach, “assum[ing] that a valid process patent may issue even if it does not meet [the machine-or-transformation test].” 437 U. S., at 588, n. 9. This Court’s precedents establish that the machine-or-transformation test is a useful and important clue, an investigative tool, for determining whether some claimed inventions are processes under § 101. The machine-or-transformation test is not the sole test for deciding whether an invention is a patent-eligible “process.” 2 It is true that patents for inventions that did not satisfy the machine-or-transformation test were rarely granted in earlier eras, especially in the Industrial Age, as explained by Judge Dyk’s thoughtful historical review. See 545 F. 3d, at 966-976 (concurring opinion). But times change. Technology and other innovations progress in unexpected ways. For example, it was once forcefully argued that until recent times, “well-established principles of patent law probably would have prevented the issuance of a valid patent on almost any conceivable computer program.” Diehr, 450 U. S., at 195 (Stevens, J., dissenting). But this fact does not mean that unforeseen innovations such as computer programs are always unpatentable. See id., at 192-193 (majority opinion) (holding a procedure for molding rubber that included a computer program is within patentable subject matter). Section 101 is a “dynamic provision designed to encompass new and unforeseen inventions.” J. E. M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred Int'l, Inc., 534 U. S. 124, 135 (2001). A categorical rule denying patent protection for “inventions in areas not contemplated by Congress . . . would frustrate the purposes of the patent law.” Chakrabarty, 447 U. S., at 315. The machine-or-transformation test may well provide a sufficient basis for evaluating processes similar to those in the Industrial Age — for example, inventions grounded in a physical or other tangible form. But there are reasons to doubt whether the test should be the sole criterion for determining the patentability of inventions in the Information Age. As numerous amicus briefs argue, the machine-or-transformation test would create uncertainty as to the patentability of software, advanced diagnostic medicine techniques, and inventions based on linear programming, data compression, and the manipulation of digital signals. See, e. g., Brief for Business Software Alliance 24-25; Brief for Biotechnology Industry Organization et al. 14-27; Brief for Boston Patent Law Association 8-15; Brief for Houston Intellectual Property Law Association 17-22; Brief for Dolby Laboratories, Inc., et al. 9-10. In the course of applying the machine-or-transformation test to emerging technologies, courts may pose questions of such intricacy and refinement that they risk obscuring the larger object of securing patents for valuable inventions without transgressing the public domain. The dissent by Judge Rader refers to some of these difficulties. 545 F. 3d, at 1015. As a result, in deciding whether previously unforeseen inventions qualify as patentable “process[es],” it may not make sense to require courts to confine themselves to asking the questions posed by the machine-or-transformation test. Section 101’s terms suggest that new technologies may call for new inquiries. See Benson, supra, at 71 (to “freeze process patents to old technologies, leaving no room for the revelations of the new, onrushing technology [,]... is not our purpose”). It is important to emphasize that the Court today is not commenting on the patentability of any particular invention, let alone holding that any of the above-mentioned technologies from the Information Age should or should not receive patent protection. This Age puts the possibility of innovation in the hands of more people and raises new difficulties for the patent law. With ever more people trying to innovate and thus seeking patent protections for their inventions, the patent law faces a great challenge in striking the balance between protecting inventors and not granting monopolies over procedures that others would discover by independent, creative application of general principles. Nothing in this opinion should be read to take a position on where that balance ought to be struck. C 1 Section 101 similarly precludes the broad contention that the term “process” categorically excludes business methods. The term “method,” which is within § 100(b)’s definition of “process,” at least as a textual matter and before consulting other limitations in the Patent Act and this Court’s precedents, may include at least some methods of doing business. See, e. g., Webster’s New International Dictionary 1548 (2d ed. 1954) (defining “method” as “[a]n orderly procedure or process ... regular way or manner of doing anything; hence, a set form of procedure adopted in investigation or instruction”). The Court is unaware of any argument that the “ 'ordinary, contemporary, common meaning,’ ” Diehr, supra, at 182, of “method” excludes business methods. Nor is it clear how far a prohibition on business method patents would reach, and whether it would exclude technologies for conducting a business more efficiently. See, e. g., Hall, Business and Financial Method Patents, Innovation, and Policy, 56 Scottish J. Pol. Econ. 443, 445 (2009) (“There is no precise definition of . . . business method patents”). The argument that business methods are categorically outside of §101’s scope is further undermined by the fact that federal law explicitly contemplates the existence of at least some business method patents. Under 35 U. S. C. § 273(b)(1), if a patent holder claims infringement based on “a method in [a] patent,” the alleged infringer can assert a defense of prior use. For purposes of this defense alone, “method” is defined as “a method of doing or conducting business.” § 273(a)(3). In other words, by allowing this defense the statute itself acknowledges that there may be business method patents. Section 273’s definition of “method,” to be sure, cannot change the meaning of a prior-enacted statute. But what §273 does is clarify the understanding that a business method is simply one kind of “method” that is, at least in some circumstances, eligible for patenting under § 101. A conclusion that business methods are not patentable in any circumstances would render §273 meaningless. This would violate the canon against interpreting any statutory provision in a manner that would render another provision superfluous. See Corley v. United States, 556 U. S. 303, 314 (2009). This principle, of course, applies to interpreting any two provisions in the U. S. Code, even when Congress enacted the provisions at different times. See, e. g., Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization, 307 U. S. 496, 529-530 (1939) (opinion of Stone, J.). This established rule of statutory interpretation cannot be overcome by judicial speculation as to the subjective intent of various legislators in enacting the subsequent provision. Finally, while §273 appears to leave open the possibility of some business method patents, it does not suggest broad patentability of such claimed inventions. 2 Interpreting § 101 to exclude all business methods simply because business method patents were rarely issued until modern times revives many of the previously discussed difficulties. See supra, at, 605-606. At the same time, some business method patents raise special problems in terms of vagueness and suspect validity. See eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L. L. C., 547 U. S. 388, 397 (2006) (Kennedy, J., concurring). The Information Age empowers people with new capacities to perform statistical analyses and mathematical calculations with a speed and sophistication that enable the design of protocols for more efficient performance of a vast number of business tasks. If a high enough bar is not set when considering patent applications of this sort, patent examiners and courts could be flooded with claims that would put a chill on creative endeavor and dynamic change. In searching for a limiting principle, this Court’s precedents on the unpatentability of abstract ideas provide useful tools. See infra, at 609-612. Indeed, if the Court of Appeals were to succeed in defining a narrower category or class of patent applications that claim to instruct how business should be conducted, and then rule that the category is unpatentable because, for instance, it represents an attempt to patent abstract ideas, this conclusion might well be in accord with controlling precedent. See ibid. But beyond this or some other limitation consistent with the statutory text, the Patent Act leaves open the possibility that there are at least some processes that can be fairly described as business methods that are within patentable subject matter under §101. Finally, even if a particular business method fits into the statutory definition of a “process,” that does not mean that the application claiming that method should be granted. In order to receive patent protection, any claimed invention must be novel, § 102, nonobvious, § 103, and fully and particularly described, § 112. These limitations serve a critical role in adjusting the tension, ever present in patent law, between stimulating innovation by protecting inventors and impeding progress by granting patents when not justified by the statutory design. Ill Even though petitioners’ application is not categorically outside of § 101 under the two broad and atextual approaches the Court rejects today, that does not mean it is a “process” under § 101. Petitioners seek to patent both the concept of hedging risk and the application of that concept to energy markets. App. 19-20. Rather than adopting categorical rules that might have wide-ranging and unforeseen impacts, the Court resolves this case narrowly on the basis of this Court’s decisions in Benson, Flook, and Diehr, which show that petitioners’ claims are not patentable processes because they are attempts to patent abstract ideas. Indeed, all Members of the Court agree that the patent application at issue here falls outside of §101 because it claims an abstract idea. In Benson, the Court considered whether a patent application for an algorithm to convert binary-coded decimal numerals into pure binary code was a “process” under § 101. 409 U. S., at 64-67. The Court first explained that “‘[a] principie, in the abstract, is a fundamental truth; an original cause; a motive; these cannot be patented, as no one can claim in either of them an exclusive right.’” Id., at 67 (quoting Le Roy, 14 How., at 175). The Court then held the application at issue was not a “process,” but an unpatentable abstract idea. “It is conceded that one may not patent an idea. But in practical effect that would be the result if the formula for converting . . . numerals to pure binary numerals were patented in this case.” 409 U. S., at 71. A contrary holding “would wholly pre-empt the mathematical formula and in practical effect would be a patent on the algorithm itself.” Id., at 72.' In Flook, the Court considered the next logical step after Benson. The applicant there attempted to patent a procedure for monitoring the conditions during the catalytic conversion process in the petrochemical and oil-refining industries. The application’s only innovation was reliance on a mathematical algorithm. 437 U. S., at 585-586. Flook held the invention was not a patentable “process.” The Court conceded the invention at issue, unlike the algorithm in Benson, had been limited so that it could still be freely used outside the petrochemical and oil-refining industries. 437 U. S., at 589-590. Nevertheless, Flook rejected “[t]he notion that post-solution activity, no matter how conventional or obvious in itself, can transform an unpatentable principle into a patentable process.” Id., at 590. The Court concluded that the process at issue there was “unpatentable under § 101, not because it contained] a mathematical algorithm as one component, but because once that algorithm [wa]s assumed to be within the prior art, the application, considered as a whole, contained] no patentable invention.” Id., at 594. As the Court later explained, Flook stands for the proposition that the prohibition against patenting abstract ideas “cannot be circumvented by attempting to limit the use of the formula to a particular technological environment” or adding “insignificant postsolution activity.” Diehr, 450 U. S., at 191-192. Finally, in Diehr, the Court established a limitation on the principles articulated in Benson and Flook. The application in Diehr claimed a previously unknown method for “molding raw, uncured synthetic rubber into cured precision products,” using a mathematical formula to complete some of its several steps by way of a computer. 450 U. S., at 177. Diehr explained that while an abstract idea, law of nature, or mathematical formula could not be patented, “an application of a law of nature or mathematical formula to a known structure or process may well be deserving of patent protection.” Id., at 187. Diehr emphasized the need to consider the invention as a whole, rather than “dissecting] the claims into old and new elements and then . . . ignoring] the presence of the old elements in the analysis.” Id., at 188. Finally, the Court concluded that because the claim was not “an attempt to patent a mathematical formula, but rather [was] an industrial process for the molding of rubber products,” it fell within § 101’s patentable subject matter. Id., at 192-193. In light of these precedents, it is clear that petitioners’ application is not a patentable “process.” Claims 1 and 4 in petitioners’ application explain the basic concept of hedging, or protecting against risk: “Hedging is a fundamental economic practice long prevalent in our system of commerce and taught in any introductory finance class.” 545 F. 3d, at 1013 (Rader, J., dissenting); see, e. g., D. Chorafas, Introduction to Derivative Financial Instruments 75-94 (2008); C. Stickney, R. Weil, K. Schipper, & J. Francis, Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods, and Uses 581-582 (13th ed. 2010); S. Ross, R. Westerfield, & B. Jordan, Fundamentals of Corporate Finance 743-744 (8th ed. 2008). The concept of hedging, described in claim 1 and reduced to a mathematical formula in claim 4, is an unpatentable abstract idea, just like the algorithms at issue in Benson and Flook. Allowing petitioners to patent risk hedging would pre-empt use of this approach in all fields, and would effectively grant a monopoly over an abstract idea. Petitioners’ remaining claims are broad examples of how hedging can be used in commodities and energy markets. Flook established that limiting an abstract idea to one field of use or adding token postsolution components did not make the concept patentable. That is exactly what the remaining claims in petitioners’ application do. These claims attempt to patent the use of the abstract idea of hedging risk in the energy market and then instruct the use of well-known random analysis techniques to help establish some of the inputs into the equation. Indeed, these claims add even less to the underlying abstract principle than the invention in Flook did, for the Flook invention was at least directed to the narrower domain of signaling dangers in operating a catalytic converter. * * * Today, the Court once again declines to impose limitations on the Patent Act that are inconsistent with the Act’s text. The patent application here can be rejected under our precedents on the unpatentability of abstract ideas. The Court, therefore, need not define further what constitutes a patentable “process,” beyond pointing to the definition of that term provided in § 100(b) and looking to the guideposts in Benson, Flook, and Diehr. And nothing in today’s opinion should be read as endorsing interpretations of §101 that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has used in the past. See, e. g., State Street, 149 F. 3d, at 1373; AT&T Corp., 172 F. 3d, at 1357. It may be that the Court of Appeals thought it needed to make the machine-or-transformation test exclusive precisely because its case law had not adequately identified less extreme means of restricting business method patents, including (but not limited to) application of our opinions in Benson, Flook, and Diehr. In disapproving an exclusive machine- or-transformation test, we by no means foreclose the Federal Circuit’s development of other limiting criteria that further the purposes of the Patent Act and are not inconsistent with its text. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. It is so ordered. Justice Scalia does not join Parts II-B-2 and II-C-2. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. In an earlier phase of this patent infringement suit a patent owned by respondent Kammerer was held valid and infringed by the petitioner. An accounting for profits and damages was ordered. 39 F. Supp. 213. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. 138 F. 2d 482. We granted certiorari to consider whether a license agreement between respondents Kammerer and Baash-Ross contained restrictions which were contrary to public policy and unlawful so as to bar recovery against petitioner. On oral argument of the case here it developed that no findings of fact had been made by the District Court on this issue, nor had the question been presented to or passed on by the Circuit Court of Appeals. We therefore dismissed the writ of certiorari. 323 U. S. 327. On remand, the Circuit Court of Appeals did not disturb its original affirmance of the District Court’s holding that the patent was valid and infringed. But on motion of the petitioner, the court amended its judgment of affirmance so as to authorize the District Court to “entertain a motion or motions ... to modify or set aside its order or orders for . . . damages and accountings thereof, and take such action thereon as it may determine” concerning petitioner’s contention that respondents’ unlawful use of the patent should bar all recovery for infringement. 148 F. 2d 525, 526. Thereafter the petitioner presented a motion to the District Court in which he alleged respondents had, contrary to the public interest, used the patent to restrain trade, fix prices, and suppress competition. Relying on these allegations, petitioner asked the Court to stay the accounting and to render a final judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that respondents had illegally misused the patent. Without introducing further evidence both parties submitted the motion to the District Court on facts already in the record. After an argument, the Court made extensive findings of fact against petitioner, concluded that his defense had not been established, and entered an order denying his motion to stay the accounting and to enter a final judgment dismissing the complaint. The Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed petitioner’s appeal from the District Court’s disposition of his motion on the ground that the District Court’s order was “not a decree, final or otherwise.” 156 F. 2d 343, 345. We hold that the appeal was erroneously dismissed. The Act of February 28, 1927, 44 Stat. 1261, 28 U. S. C. § 227a, provides that “when in any suit in equity for the infringement of letters patent for inventions, a decree is rendered which is final except for the ordering of an accounting, an appeal may be taken from such decree to the circuit court of appeals . . . .” The object of this 1927 amendment to § 129 of the Judicial Code was to make sure that parties could take appeals in patent equity infringement suits without being compelled to await a final accounting. The reports of the Congressional committees on the measure called attention to the large expenses frequently involved in such accountings and the losses incurred where recoveries were ultimately denied by reversal of decrees on the merits. And see Brick v. A. I. Namm & Sons, Inc., 21 F. 2d 179. It was for this reason that Congress authorized departure in this type of case from the usual practice under which appeals are not allowed until rendition of a final judgment which disposes of all phases of a controversy. See Catlin v. United States, 324 U. S. 229, 233. Nor do the unusual circumstances under which this order was rendered make it any the less appealable. Whether or not the District Court would have had authority on its own motion to reopen the proceedings to consider the alleged misuse of the patent, see Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. v. United States, 320 U. S. 1, 47-48, it was proper for it to do so after the Circuit Court of Appeals amended its judgment as it did. After reopening the case, the District Court gave full consideration to the question presented by the motion and decided it upon the merits. See Bowman v. Loperena, 311 U. S. 262. There was then nothing that remained to be done except to conduct an accounting. Therefore, the resulting order falls squarely within § 129 as amended. The fact that the Court designated its action as an “order” rather than a “decree” is not of crucial significance. See Rule 54, Rules of Civil Procedure. For though called an “order,” its binding effect in disposing of the question before it is the same as though it had been entitled a “decree.” Nor is the order rendered non-appealable because one appeal had already been taken, any more than it would have been had the first decree been reversed in toto and this order entered after the reversal. Since the order denying petitioner’s motion for a judgment of dismissal of respondents’ claim is, within the meaning of § 129, “final except for the ordering of an accounting,” it is appealable. Reversed. The House Committee on Patents expressed the belief that the legislation “is needed to prevent a great burden of expense to litigants in actions to determine the validity of patents, where an accounting is involved. Under present procedure appeals may be taken from the interlocutory decree upholding the patent but not until a full accounting has been made to the court. Under this bill such appeal can be taken from such interlocutory decree . . . so as to obviate the cost of an accounting in the event the case is reversed on appeal.” H. R. Rep. No. 1890, 69th Cong., 2d Sess. 1 (1927). The Senate Committee emphasized the same expense incident to conducting an accounting before the merits had been determined on appeal. It apparently went on the assumption that § 129 already authorized appeals prior to accounting from an injunction against infringement. It wanted to permit an appeal prior to accounting whether there was an effective injunction outstanding or not, even though a patent had expired making inappropriate an injunction against its continued violation. Sen. Rep. No. 1319, 69th Cong., 2d Sess. 1 (1927). This case presents the precise situation which the Senate Committee thought the Act was designed to avoid in that it happens here that the patent has expired. But both reports indicate that the purpose of the Act was to permit appeals whenever everything but an accounting had been accomplished. “ ‘Judgment’ as used in these rules includes a decree and any order from which an appeal lies.” Rule 54, F. R. C. P. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. This case for sale of a vessel and partition of the proceeds pursuant to a California statute began in the Superior Court of San Diego, the home port of the vessel. The plaintiffs were eight individuals including Edward, Anthony, and Joseph Madruga. The defendant was Manuel Madruga on whom personal service was had by summons. The defendant owned a 15% interest and the eight plaintiffs owned undivided interests aggregating 85% in a ship certificated under the maritime laws of the United States. The defendant 15% owner challenged the jurisdiction of the San Diego court on the ground that only the United States district court sitting in admiralty could take jurisdiction to consider such a case. The San Diego court decided it had jurisdiction and was upheld by the State Supreme Court which declined to issue a writ of prohibition. 40 Cal. 2d 65, 251 P. 2d 1. Certiorari was granted to consider the state court’s jurisdiction. 345 U. S. 963. First. Article III, § 2, of the Constitution extends the judicial power to “all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction. . . .” And since the first Judiciary Act, United States district courts have had jurisdiction of all civil cases of “admiralty or maritime jurisdiction . . . .” 28 U. S. C. § 1333. Whether this grants United States district courts power to sell ships for partition of the proceeds has never been squarely decided by this Court. The partition power of admiralty was discussed but left in doubt by Mr. Justice Story in The Steamboat Orleans v. Phoebus, 11 Pet. 175, 183 (1837). Some cases in lower federal courts appear to support the jurisdiction of district admiralty courts to order sales for partition, at least where there is a dispute as to use of the ship between part owners having equal interests and shares. Other cases indicate that admiralty should not exercise jurisdiction to order partition of ships at the instance either of minority or majority interests. The reasoning in all the cases appears to have been that majority control of the ship’s operations was in the public interest and admiralty should interfere only to protect minority interests by such special indemnities or bonds as the court might require of the controlling majority. Other cases have indicated that either a majority or a minority could obtain partition from admiralty on a proper showing. Some state courts have sold ships for partition, and even at the behest of minority interests; others have refused to do so. However the diverse holdings in the cases may be viewed, there can be no doubt today that United States district courts have broad power over ships that ply navigable waters and are required to be registered or enrolled under a series of Acts of Congress that have been in effect since the first one was passed September 1, 1789. 1 Stat. 55. This Court has said that admiralty’s broad power can under some circumstances be extended to protect the rights and title of persons dealing in such ships. White’s Bank v. Smith, 7 Wall. 646, 656. On the other hand, the Court has held that admiralty cannot exercise jurisdiction over a variety of actions which may change or otherwise affect possession of or title to vessels. The Steamer Eclipse, 135 U. S. 599, 608. We think, however, that the power of admiralty, as Congress and the courts have developed it over the years, is broad enough for United States district courts to order vessels sold for partition. This brings us to the contention that this federal admiralty power is exclusive. Second. Had Congress simply granted district courts “admiralty or maritime jurisdiction exclusive of the states” California might not have power to order partition of a ship. But Congress did not stop there. It went on in the first Judiciary Act to say “saving to suitors, in all cases, the right of a common law remedy, where the common law is competent to give it.” 1 Stat. 73, 77. Viewed superficially the clause giving United States district courts exclusive admiralty or maritime jurisdiction appears inconsistent with the clause which permits persons to sue on maritime claims in common law courts. But former decisions of this Court have clarified this seeming conflict. Admiralty’s jurisdiction is “exclusive” only as to those maritime causes of action begun and carried on as proceedings in rem, that is, where a vessel or thing is itself treated as the offender and made the defendant by name or description in order to enforce a lien. See, e. g., The Moses Taylor, 4 Wall. 411, 427; The Resolute, 168 U. S. 437, 440-441. It is this kind of in rem proceeding which state courts cannot entertain. But the jurisdictional act does leave state courts “competent” to adjudicate maritime causes of action in proceedings “in personam,” that is, where the defendant is a person, not a ship or some other instrument of navigation. Rounds v. Cloverport Foundry & Machine Co., 237 U. S. 303, 306-309. Aside from its inability to provide a remedy in rem for a maritime cause of action, this Court has said that a state, “having concurrent jurisdiction, is free to adopt such remedies, and to attach to them such incidents, as it sees fit” so long as it does not attempt to make changes in the “substantive maritime law.” Red Cross Line v. Atlantic Fruit Co., 264 U. S. 109, 124. The proceedings in this California partition case were not in rem in the admiralty sense. The plaintiffs’ quarrel was with their co-owner, not with the ship. Manuel Madruga, not the ship, was made defendant. Thus the state court in this proceeding acts only upon the interests of the parties over whom it has jurisdiction in personam, and it does not affect the interests of others in the world at large, as it would if this were a proceeding in rem to enforce a lien. The California court is “competent” to give this partition remedy and it therefore has jurisdiction of the cause of action. Third. Petitioner contends that for the California court to entertain this partition suit at the instance of the majority shipowners would run counter to an admiralty rule which is said to permit sales for partition only as between equal interests. Such a national admiralty rule would bind the California court here, even though it has concurrent jurisdiction to grant partition. See Garrett v. Moore-McCormack Co., 317 U. S. 239; Butler v. Boston S. S. Co., 130 U. S. 527, 557-558. Congress has passed detailed laws regulating the shipping industry with respect to ownership, sales, mortgages and transfers of vessels. It has even prescribed special rules for ship registration after their judicial sale. But Congress has never seen fit to bar states from making such sales, or to adopt a national partition rule. Nor has any such rule been established by decisions of this Court. And as pointed out above, decisions of lower federal courts and of state courts show varying ideas as to what kind of partition rule should be adopted if any. We do not think the circumstances call on us to add to congressional regulation by attempting establishment of a national judicial rule controlling partition of ships. See Kelly v. Washington, 302 U. S. 1, 9-14. Cf. Cooley v. Board of Wardens, 12 How. 299. The scarcity of reported cases involving such partition since the Constitution was adopted indicates that establishment of a national partition rule is not of major importance to the shipping world. We can foresee at this time no possible injury to commerce or navigation if states continue to be free to follow their own customary partition procedures. Easily accessible local courts are well equipped to handle these essentially local disputes. Ordering the sale of property for partition is part of their everyday work. Long experience has enabled states to develop simple legislative and judicial partition procedures with which local judges and counsel are familiar. Federal courts have rarely been called on to try such disputes and have established no settled rules for partition. In some parts of the country the inaccessibility of federal courts as compared with state courts would cause needless expense and inconvenience to parties. We have no reason to believe federal procedure if applied to partition cases would be simpler, speedier, less expensive or fairer than the procedures of state courts. Nor are we convinced that any theoretical benefits to shipping would justify us in restricting the partition jurisdiction of state courts by fashioning an exclusive national rule to govern quarreling shipowners. Cf. Halcyon Lines v. Haenn Ship Ceiling Corp., 342 U. S. 282, 285-287. State laws making partition easily available, like state pilotage laws, see Cooley v. Board of Wardens, 12 How. 299, may well help fill the needs of a vigorous commerce and navigation. Since the absence of such a national rule has produced few difficulties over the years, it appears to us that it would be better to let well enough alone. Affirmed. Mr. Justice Reed concurs in the judgment of the Court. The State Supreme Court’s judgment finally disposing of the writ of prohibition is a final judgment reviewable here under 28 U. S. C. § 1257. “The jurisdiction of courts of admiralty in cases of part owners, having unequal interests and shares, is not, and never has been applied to direct a sale, upon any dispute between them as to the trade and navigation of a ship engaged in maritime voyages, properly so called. The majority of the owners have a right to employ the ship in such voyages as they may please; giving a stipulation to the dissenting owners for the safe return of the ship; if the latter, upon a proper libel filed in the admiralty, require it. And the minority of the owners may employ the ship in the like manner, if the majority decline to employ her at all. So the law is laid down in Lord Tenterden’s excellent Treatise on Shipping. Abbot on Ship, part 1, chap. 3, sec. 4 to sec. 7. If, therefore, this were a vessel engaged in maritime navigation, the libel for a sale could not be maintained.” Some have thought that Mr. Justice Story here rejected the idea of admiralty jurisdiction to sell ships for partition. But, however that may be, he made it clear in his book on partnership that he believed admiralty courts did have such jurisdiction. Story, Partnership (1st ed. 1841), §439, n. 1. E. g., The Seneca, Fed. Cas. No. 12,670 (C. C. E. D. Pa. 1829); The Emma B., 140 F. 771 (D. C. D. N. J. 1906). Compare discussion in Davis v. The Seneca, Fed. Cas. No. 3,650 (D. C. E. D. Pa. 1828) rev’d, The Seneca, supra. E. g., Lewis v. Kinney, Fed. Cas. No. 8,325 (C. C. E. D. Mo. 1879); The Red Wing, 10 F. 2d 389 (D. C. S. D. Cal. 1925); see Coyne v. Caples, 8 F. 638, 639-640 (D. C. D. Ore. 1881); Fischer v. Carey, 173 Cal. 185, 189-192, 159 P. 577, 578-580 (1916). Tunno v. The Betsina, Fed. Cas. No. 14,236 (D. C. D. S. C. 1857). E. g., Andrews v. Betts, 8 Hun (N. Y.) 322 (1876); Francis v. Lavine, 26 La. Ann. 311 (1874). Swain v. Knapp, 32 Minn. 429, 21 N. W. 414 (1884); Reynolds v. Nielson, 116 Wis. 483, 93 N. W. 455 (1903). E. g., Fischer v. Carey, 173 Cal. 185, 159 P. 577 (1916); Cline v. Price, 39 Wash. 2d 816, 239 P. 2d 322 (1951). Citations to eases with these varied holdings are collected in Note 302, 28 U. S. C. A. § 1333, 90 Am. St. Rep. 378-380 and in L. R. A. 1917A, 1114-1116. In England King’s Bench prohibited Admiralty’s exercise of partition jurisdiction in Ouston v. Hebden, 1 Wils. K. B. 101, 95 Eng. Rep. 515 (1745). However, jurisdiction, which extended even to minority share owners, was later given to admiralty by statute. The Admiralty Court Act, 1861, 24 Vict., c. 10, § 8. For applications of this decision, see, e. g., The Guayaquil, 29 F. Supp. 578 (D. C. E. D. N. Y. 1939); Hirsch v. The San Pablo, 81 F. Supp. 292 (D. C. S. D. Fla. 1948). The 1948 and 1949 revisions of 28 U. S. C. § 1333 amended the above clause. It now reads: “. . . saving to suitors in all cases all other remedies to which they are otherwise entitled.” We take it that this change in no way narrowed the jurisdiction of the state courts under the original 1789 Act. Title 46 U. S. C. In particular see: § 11, limiting United States ship registration to ships owned by United States citizens or United States corporations having only citizens as officers (from Act of Dec. 31, 1792, c. 1, § 2, 1 Stat. 288); § 25, prescribing a form for registration which requires detailed information as to the ship’s description, its builders, and the identity and proportion of ownership of all its owners (from Act of Dec. 31, 1792, c. 1, § 9, 1 Stat. 291); § 39, requiring new registration upon any sale or alteration of a ship (from Act of Dec. 31, 1792, c. 1, § 14, 1 Stat. 294); § 808, placing restrictions on the sale to aliens of vessels owned by a United States citizen or corporation (from Act of Sept. 7, 1916, c. 451, § 9, 39 Stat. 730, as amended by Act of July 15, 1918, c. 152, § 3, 40 Stat. 900); § 921, providing that no sale, conveyance or mortgage of a vessel of the United States shall be valid against one other than the grantor or mortgagor, his heirs or persons with notice, until recorded (from Act of June 5,1920, c. 250, §30, 41 Stat. 1000). 46 U. S. C. § 34 provides for registration of vessels sold under process of law where the former owner retains the ship’s registration, upon the new owner’s meeting the legal requirements for registry (from Act of Mar. 2, 1797, c. 7, 1 Stat. 498). It is noteworthy that Congress has explicitly placed partition actions under federal jurisdiction only where the United States is a tenant, 28 U. S. C. §§ 1347, 2409. Partition of real estate belonging to Oklahoma Indians has been made subject to state laws, 25 U. S. C. § 355. “The rule of the civil as of the common law, that no one should be compelled to hold property in common with another, grew out of a purpose to prevent strife and disagreement: Story’s Eq. sec. 648; and additional reasons are found in the more modern policy of facilitating the transmission of titles and in the inconvenience of joint holding.” Caldwell v. Snyder, 178 Pa. 420, 422, 35 A. 996. “. . . [Partition is a right much favored, upon the ground that it not only secures peace, but promotes industry and enterprise, that each -should have his own.” Cannon v. Lomax, 29 S. C. 369, 371, 7 S. E. 529, 530. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. Pro se petitioner George Sassower requests leave to proceed in forma pauperis under Rule 39 of this Court. We deny this request pursuant to Rule 39.8. Sassower is allowed until November 2,1993, within which to pay the docketing fees required by Rule 38 and to submit his petitions in compliance with this Court’s Rule 33. For the reasons explained below, we also direct the Clerk not to accept any further petitions for certiorari nor any petitions for extraordinary writs from Sassower in noncriminal matters unless he pays the docketing fee required by Rule 38 and submits his petition in compliance with Rule 33. Prior to this Term, Sassower had filed 11 petitions in this Court over the last three years. Although Sassower was granted in forma pauperis status to file these petitions, all were denied without recorded dissent. During the last four months, Sassower has suddenly increased his filings. He currently has 10 petitions pending before this Court — all of them patently frivolous. Although we have not previously denied Sassower in forma pauperis status pursuant to Rule 39.8, we think it appropriate to enter an order pursuant to Martin v. District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 506 U. S. 1 (1992). In both In re Sindram, 498 U. S. 177 (1991) (per curiam), and In re McDonald, 489 U. S. 180 (1989) (per curiam), we entered orders similar to this one without having previously denied petitioners’ motions to proceed in forma pauperis under Rule 39.8. For the important reasons discussed in Martin, Sindram, and McDonald, we feel compelled to enter the order today barring prospective filings from Sassower. Sassower’s abuse of the writ of certiorari and of the extraordinary writs has been in noncriminal cases, and so we limit our sanction accordingly. The order therefore will not prevent Sassower from petitioning to challenge criminal sanctions which might be imposed on him. The order, however, will allow this Court to devote its limited resources to the claims of petitioners who have not abused our process. It is so ordered. Justice Thomas and Justice Ginsburg took no part in the consideration or decision of the motion in No. 93-5252. See Sassower v. New York, 499 U. S. 966 (1991) (certiorari); In re Sassower, 499 U. S. 935 (1991) (mandamus/prohibition); In re Sassower, 499 U. S. 935 (1991) (mandamus/prohibition); Sassower v. Mahoney, 498 U. S. 1108 (1991); In re Sassower, 499 U. S. 904 (1991) (mandamus/prohibition); In re Sassower, 498 U. S. 1081 (1991) (habeas corpus); In re Sassower, 498 U. S. 1081 (1991) (mandamus/prohibition); Sassower v. United States Court of Appeals for D. C. Cir., 498 U. S. 1094 (1991) (certiorari); Sassower v. Brieant, 498 U. S. 1094 (1991) (certiorari); Sassower v. Thornburgh, 498 U. S. 1036 (1991) (certiorari); Sassower v. Dillon, 493 U. S. 979 (1989) (certiorari). Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Me. Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. Three prisoners have alleged that a postsentencing change in the policies of the United States Parole Commission has prolonged their actual imprisonment beyond the period intended by the sentencing judge. The question presented is whether this type of allegation will support a collateral attack on the original sentence under 28 U. S. C. § 2255. We hold that it will not. I With respect to the legal issue presented, the claims before us are identical. To bring this issue into sharp focus, we accept for purposes of decision Addonizio’s view of the facts and the relevant aspects of the Parole Commission’s practices. After his conviction in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, on September 22, 1970, Addonizio was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $25,000. Factors which led the-District Judge to impose that sentence included the serious character of Addonizio’s offenses, and the judge’s expectation that exemplary institutional behavior would lead to Addonizio’s release when he became eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence. The judge did not contemplate that the Parole Corn-mission might rely on the seriousness of the offense as a reason for refusing a parole which Addonizio would otherwise receive. In 1973, the Parole Commission markedly changed its policies. Under its new practices the gravity of the offense became a significant factor in determining whether a prisoner should be granted parole. Addonizio became eligible for parole on July 3, 1975. After hearings, the Parole Commission twice refused to release him, expressly basing its refusal on the serious character of his crimes. Thereafter, Addonizio invoked the District Court’s jurisdiction under 28 U. S. C. § 2255 and moved for resentencing. Following the Third Circuit’s decision in United States v. Salerno, 538 F. 2d 1005, 1007 (1976), the District Court accepted jurisdiction, found that the Parole Commission had not given Addonizio the kind of “meaningful parole hearing” that the judge had anticipated when sentence was imposed, and reduced his sentence to the time already served. The judge stated that he had “anticipated — assuming an appropriate institutional adjustment and good behavior while confined — that [Addonizio] would be actually confined for a period of approximately three and one-half to four years of the ten-year sentence.” This “sentencing expectation” was frustrated by the Parole Commission’s subsequent adoption of new standards and procedures. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 573 F. 2d 147. Because of a conflict with the decision of the Ninth Circuit holding that § 2255 does not give district courts this type of resentenc-ing authority, we granted the Government’s petition for cer-tiorari in Addonizio’s case and in the consolidated case of two other prisoners in which similar relief was granted. 439 U. S. 1045. II We decide only the jurisdictional issue. We do not consider the Government’s alternative argument that the significance of the changes in the Parole Commission’s procedures has been exaggerated because it always attached some weight to the character of the offense in processing parole applications. Nor do we have any occasion to consider whether the new guidelines are consistent with the Parole Commission and Reorganization Act of 1976, 90 Stat. 219; or whether their enforcement may violate the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution. III When Congress enacted § 2255 in 1948, it simplified the procedure for making a collateral attack on a final judgment entered in a federal criminal case, but it did not purport to modify the basic distinction between direct review and collateral review. It has, of course, long been settled law that an error that may justify reversal on direct appeal will not necessarily support a collateral attack on a final judgment. The reasons for narrowly limiting the grounds for collateral attack on final judgments are well known and basic to our adversary system of justice. The question in this case is whether an error has occurred that is sufficiently fundamental to come within those narrow limits. Under § 2255, the sentencing court is authorized to discharge or resentence a defendant if it concludes that it “was without jurisdiction to impose such sentence, or that the sentence was in excess of the maximum authorized by law, or is otherwise subject to collateral attack.” This statute was intended to alleviate the burden of habeas corpus petitions filed by federal prisoners in the district of confinement, by providing an equally broad remedy in the more convenient jurisdiction of the sentencing court. United States v. Hayman, 342 U. S. 205, 216-217. While the remedy is in this sense comprehensive, it does not encompass all claimed errors in conviction and sentencing. Habeas corpus has long been available to attack convictions and sentences entered by a court without jurisdiction. See, e. g., Ex parte Watkins, 3 Pet. 193, 202-203 (Marshall, C. J.). In later years, the availability of the writ was expanded to encompass claims of constitutional error as well. See Waley v. Johnston, 316 U. S. 101, 104—105; Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443. But unless the claim alleges a lack of jurisdiction or constitutional error, the scope of collateral attack has remained far more limited. Stone v. Powell, 428 U. S. 465, 477 n. 10. The Court has held that an error of law does not provide a basis for collateral attack unless the claimed error constituted “a fundamental defect which inherently results in a complete miscarriage of justice.” Hill v. United States, 368 U. S. 424, 428. Similar limitations apply with respect to claimed errors of fact. The justification for raising such errors in a § 2255 proceeding, as amicus here points out, is that traditionally they could have been raised by a petition for a writ of coram nobis, and thus fall within § 2255’s provision for vacating sentences that are “otherwise subject to collateral attack.” But coram nobis jurisdiction has never encompassed all errors of fact; instead, it was of a limited scope, existing “in those cases where the errors were of the most fundamental character, that is, such as rendered the proceeding itself irregular and invalid.” United States v. Mayer, 235 U. S. 55, 69. Thus, the writ of coram nobis was “available to bring before the court that pronounced the judgment errors in matters of fact which had not been put in issue or passed upon and were material to the validity and regularity of the legal proceeding itself; as where the defendant, being under age, appeared by attorney, or the plaintiff or defendant was a married woman at the time of commencing the suit, or died before verdict or interlocutory judgment.” Id., at 68. The claimed error here — that the judge was incorrect in his assumptions about the future course of parole proceedings — does not meet any of the established standards of collateral attack. There is no claim of a constitutional violation; the sentence imposed was within the statutory limits; and the proceeding was not infected with any error of fact or law of the “fundamental” character that renders the entire proceeding irregular and invalid. The absence of any error of this nature or magnitude distinguishes Addonizio’s claim from those in prior cases, upon which he relies, in which collateral attacks were permitted. Davis v. United States, 417 U. S. 333, for example, like this case, involved a claim that a judgment that was lawful when it was entered should be set aside because of a later development. The subsequent development in that case, however, was a change in the substantive law that established that the conduct for which petitioner had been convicted and. sentenced was lawful. To have refused to vacate his sentence would surely have been a “complete miscarriage of justice,” since the conviction and sentence were no longer lawful. The change in Parole Commission policies involved in this case is not of the same character: this change affected the way in which the court’s judgment and sentence would be performed but it did not affect the lawfulness of the judgment itself— then or now. Nor is United States v. Tucker, 404 U. S. 443, analogous to the present case. In that case, the Court ordered resentencing of a defendant whose original sentence had been imposed at least in part upon the basis of convictions secured without the assistance of counsel. But the error underlying the sentence in Tucker, as the Court emphasized, was “misinformation of constitutional magnitude.” Id., at 447. We have held that the constitutional right to the assistance of counsel is itself violated when uncounseled convictions serve as the basis for enhanced punishment. Burgett v. Texas, 389 U. S. 109, 115. Whether or not the Parole Commission action in this case was constitutional, a question not presented here, there is no claim that the action taken by the sentencing judge was unconstitutional, or was based on “misinformation of constitutional magnitude.” Our prior decisions, then, provide no support for Addonizio’s claim that he is entitled to relief under § 2255. According to all of the objective criteria — federal jurisdiction, the Constitution, and federal law — the sentence was and is a lawful one. And in our judgment, there is no basis for enlarging the grounds for collateral attack to include claims based not on any objectively ascertainable error but on the frustration of the subjective intent of the sentencing judge. As a practical matter, the subjective intent of the sentencing judge would provide a questionable basis for testing the validity of his j udgment. The record made when Judge Barlow pronounced sentence against Addonizio, for example, is entirely consistent with the view that the judge then thought that this was an exceptional case in which the severity of Addonizio’s offense should and would be considered carefully by the Parole Commission when Addonizio became eligible for parole. If the record is ambiguous, and if a § 2255 motion is not filed until years later, it will often be difficult to reconstruct with any certainty the subjective intent of the judge at the time of sentencing. Regular attempts to do so may well increase the risk of inconsistent treatment of defendants; on the other hand, the implementation of the Parole Commission’s policies may reduce that risk. Nothing in the statutory scheme directs sentencing courts to engage in this task on collateral attack; quite to the contrary, the proposed system of sentencing review would be inconsistent with that established by Congress. The decision as to when a lawfully sentenced defendant shall actually be released has been committed by Congress, with certain limitations, to the discretion of the Parole Commission. Whether wisely or not, Congress has decided that the Commission is in the best position to determine when release is appropriate, and in doing so, to moderate the disparities in the sentencing practices of individual judges. The authority of sentencing judges to select precise release dates is, by contrast, narrowly limited: the judge may select an early parole eligibility date, but that guarantees only that the defendant will be considered at that time by the Parole Commission. And once a sentence has been imposed, the trial judge’s authority to modify it is also circumscribed. Federal Rule Crim. Proc. 35 now authorizes district courts to reduce a sentence within 120 days after it is imposed or after it has been affirmed on appeal. The time period, however, is jurisdictional and may not be extended. The import of this statutory scheme is clear: the judge has no enforceable expectations with respect to the actual release of a sentenced defendant short of his statutory term. The judge may well have expectations as to when release is likely. But the actual decision is not his to make, either at the time of sentencing or later if his expectations are not met. To require the Parole Commission to act in accordance with judicial expectations, and to use collateral attack as a mechanism for ensuring that these expectations are carried out, would substantially undermine the congressional decision to entrust release determinations to the Commission and not the courts. Nothing in § 2255 supports — let alone mandates — such a frustration of congressional intent. Accordingly, without reaching any question as to the validity of the Parole Commission’s actions, either in promulgating its new guidelines or in denying Addonizio’s applications for parole, we hold that subsequent actions taken by the Parole Commission — whether or not such actions accord with a trial judge’s expectations at the time of sentencing — do not retroactively affect the validity of the final judgment itself. The facts alleged by the prisoners in these cases do not provide a basis for a collateral attack on their respective sentences pursuant to § 2255. The judgments of the Court of Appeals are therefore reversed. It is so ordered. Me. Justice Brennan took no part in the decision of this case. Mr. Justice Powell took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. Title 28 U. S. C. §2255 provides: “A prisoner in custody under sentence of a court established by Act of Congress claiming the right to be released upon the ground that the sentence was imposed in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States, or that the court was without jurisdiction to impose such sentence, or that the sentence was in excess of the maximum authorized by law, or ís otherwise subject to collateral attack, may move the court which imposed the sentence to vacate, set aside or correct the sentence. “If the court finds that the judgment was rendered without jurisdiction, or that the sentence imposed was not authorized by law or otherwise open to collateral attack, or that there has been such a denial or infringement of the constitutional rights of the prisoner as to render the judgment vulnerable to collateral attack, the court shall vacate and set the judgment aside and shall discharge the prisoner or resentence him or grant a new trial or correct the sentence as may appear appropriate.” At the time he imposed sentence, Judge Barlow stated: “Weighed against these virtues, [Mr. Addonizio’s record of public service] ... is his conviction by a jury in this court of crimes of monumental proportion, the enormity of which can scarcely be exaggerated and the commission of which create the gravest implications for our form of government. “Mr. Addonizio, and the other defendants here, have been convicted of one count of conspiring to extort and 63 substantive counts of extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from persons doing business with the City of Newark. An intricate conspiracy of this magnitude, I suggest to you, Mr. Hellring [defense counsel], could have never succeeded without the then-Mayor Addonizio’s approval and participation. “These were no ordinary criminal acts. . . . These crimes for which Mr. Addonizio and the other defendants have been convicted represent a pattern of continuous, highly-organized, systematic criminal extortion over a period of many years, claiming many victims and touching many more lives. “Instances of corruption on the part of elected and appointed governmental officials are certainly not novel to the law, but the corruption disclosed here, it seems to the Court, is compounded by the frightening alliance of criminal elements and public officials, and it is this very kind of totally destructive conspiracy that was conceived, organized and executed by these defendants. “. . . It is impossible to estimate the impact upon — and the cost of — these criminal acts to the decent citizens of Newark, and, indeed, to the citizens of the State of New Jersey, in terms of their frustration, despair and disillusionment. “Their crimes, in the judgment of this Court, tear at the very heart of our civilized form of government and of our society. The people will not tolerate such conduct at any level of government, and those who use their public office to betray the public trust in this manner can expect from the courts only the gravest consequences. “It is, accordingly, the sentence of this Court that the defendant Hugh J. Addonizio shall be committed to the custody of the Attorney General of the United States for a term of ten years, and that, additionally, the defendant Hugh J. Addonizio shall pay a fine of $25,000. That is all.” 573 F. 2d 147, 154. In his opinion granting Addonizio relief under §2255 in 1977, Judge Barlow stated: “At the time sentence was imposed, this Court expected that petitioner would receive a meaningful parole hearing — that is, a determination based on his institutional record and the likelihood of recidivism — upon the completion of one-third (%) of his sentence. The Court anticipated — assuming an appropriate institutional adjustment and good behavior while confined — that petitioner would be actually confined for a period of approximately three and one-half to four years of'the ten-year sentence, in view of the fact that he was a first-offender and that there appeared to be little probability of recidivism, given the circumstances of the case and his personal and social history. This sentencing expectation was based on the Court’s understanding — which was consistent with generally-held notions — of the operation of the parole system in 1970.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 28a-29a (footnotes omitted). The Commission commenced using guidelines on a trial basis in 1972 and started to apply them throughout the Nation in November 1973. See 38 Fed. Reg. 31942 (1973). The Commission’s present guidelines are codified at 28 CFR §2.20 (1978). The use of guidelines is now required by statute. See 18II. S. C. §§ 4203 (a) (1) and 4206 (a). As Judge Aldisert noted in his opinion for the Third Circuit, the comments made by the Parole Commission on January 13, 1977, explaining its denial of parole are remarkably similar to the reasons given by the trial judge at the time sentence was imposed. The Commission stated: “Your offense behavior has been rated as very high severity. Your salient factor score is 11. You have been in custody a total of 57 months at time of hearing. Guidelines established by the Commission for adult cases which consider the above factors suggest a range of 26-36 months to be served before release for cases with good institutional adjustment. After careful consideration of all relevant factors and information presented, a decision above the guidelines appears warranted because your offense was part of an ongoing criminal conspiracy lasting from 1965 to 1968, which consisted of many separate offenses committed by you and approximately 14 other co-conspirators. As the highest elected official in the City of Newark, you were convicted of an extortion conspiracy in which, under color of your official authority, you and your co-conspirators conspired to delay, impede, obstruct, and otherwise thwart construction in the City of Newark in order to obtain a percentage of contracts for the privilege of working on city construction projects. “Because of the magnitude of this crime (money extorted totalling approximately $241,000) its economic effect on innocent citizens of Newark, and because the offense involved a serious breach of public trust over a substantial period of time, a decision above the guidelines is warranted. Parole at this time would depreciate the seriousness of the offense and promote disrespect for the law.” 573 F. 2d, at 153-154. Bonanno v. United States, 571 F. 2d 588 (CA9 1978), cert. dismissed, 439 U. S. 1136. United States v. Whelan & Flaherty. In that case, two federal prisoners filed motions under 28 U. S. C. §§ 2241 and 2255 challenging their confinement. The § 2241 motion was denied by the District Court; the Court of Appeals affirmed, 573 F. 2d 147, and the prisoners did not seek further review. In the § 2255 motion, which is at issue here, these respondents claimed that the Parole Commission’s action frustrated the intent of Judge Shaw, who had originally sentenced them and who had since died. The case was assigned to Judge Biunno, who took the position that “the real issue is whether the Parole Commission’s denial of parole was arbitrary and capricious,” 427 F. Supp. 379, 381, and concluded that it was not. The Court of Appeals vacated that decision and directed Judge Biunno to reconsider the case to determine whether Judge Shaw’s sentencing intent had been frustrated. Proceedings on remand have resulted in the release of both respondents. See Geraghty v. United States Parole Comm’n, 579 F. 2d 238 (CA3 1978), cert. granted, 440 U. S. 945 (1979). See Rodriguez v. United States Parole Comm’n, 594 F. 2d 170 (CA7 1979). See Adams v. United States ex rel. McCann, 317 U. S. 269, 274 (“Of course the writ of habeas corpus should not do service for an appeal. . . . This rule must be strictly observed if orderly appellate procedure is to be maintained”); Sunal v. Large, 332 U. S. 174, 181-182; Hill v. United States, 368 U. S. 424. Inroads on the concept of finality tend to undermine confidence in the integrity of our procedures. See, e. g., F. James, Civil Procedure 517— 518 (1965). Moreover, increased volume of judicial work associated with the processing of collateral attacks inevitably impairs and delays the orderly administration of justice. Because there is no limit on the time when a collateral attack may be made, evidentiary hearings are often inconclusive and retrials may be impossible if the attack is successful. See Stone v. Powell, 428 U. S. 465, 491 n. 31; Henderson v. Kibbe, 431 U. S. 145, 154 n. 13. See Brief for Lewisburg Prison Project as Amicus Curiae 10-12. A federal prisoner is entitled to release at the expiration of his maximum sentence less “good time” computed according to 18 U. S. C. §4161. In addition, any prisoner sentenced to more than 5 years’ imprisonment is entitled to be released on parole after serving two-thirds of each consecutive term or 30 years, whichever is first, unless the Commission determines that the prisoner “has seriously or frequently violated institution rules” or that there is a reasonable probability that he would commit further crimes. 18 U. S. C. §4206 (d). The Commission has substantial discretion to determine whether a prisoner should be released on parole, once he is eligible, prior to the point where release is mandated by statute. Title 18 U. S. C. § 4203 (1970 ed.), in effect when Addonizio was sentenced, provided: “If it appears to the Board . . . that there is a reasonable probability that such prisoner wifi live and remain at liberty without violating the laws, and if in the opinion of the Board such release is not incompatible with the welfare of society, the Board may in its discretion authorize the release of such prisoner on parole.” Under the statute now in effect, 18 U. S. C. § 4206, the Commission is to consider the risk of recidivism and whether “release would . . . depreciate the seriousness of [the] offense or promote disrespect for the law.” See generally S. Conf. Rep. No. 94^648, p. 19 (1976). The trial court may set a defendant’s eligibility for parole at any point up to one-third of the maximum sentence imposed, see 18 U. S. C. §§4205 (a), (b); 18 U. S. C. §§4202, 4208 (1970 ed.). Whether the defendant will actually be paroled at that time is the decision of the Parole Commission. See United States v. Grayson, 438 U. S. 41, 47 (“[T]he extent of a federal prisoner’s confinement is initially determined by the sentencing judge, who selects a term within an often broad, congressionally prescribed range; release on parole is then available on review by the United States Parole Commission, which, as a general rule, may conditionally release a prisoner any time after he serves one-third of the judicially-fixed term”). The trial judge is precluded from effectively usurping that function by splitting a lengthy sentence between a stated period of probation and imprisonment: probation may not be combined with a sentence entailing incarceration of more than six months. 18 U. S. C. §3651. Prior to the adoption of Rule 35, the trial courts had no such authority. “The beginning of the service of the sentence in a criminal case ends the power of the court even in the same term to change it.” United States v. Murray, 275 U. S. 347, 358. This rule was applied even though the change related only to the second of a pair of consecutive sentences which itself was not being served at the time. Affronti v. United States, 350 U. S. 79. See Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 45 (b); United States v. Robinson, 361 U. S. 220. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. Respondent is in custody pursuant to several felony convictions that were affirmed by the Third District Court of Appeal of Florida. Torna v. State, 358 So. 2d 1109 (1978). The Florida Supreme Court dismissed an application for a writ of certiorari, on the ground that the application was not filed timely. 362 So. 2d 1057 (1978). A petition for rehearing and clarification was later denied. App. to Pet. for Cert. A-15. Respondent thereafter filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, contending that he had been denied his right to the effective assistance of counsel by the failure of his retained counsel to file the application for certiorari timely. The District Court denied the petition on the ground that the failure to file a timely application for certiorari did not render counsel’s actions “so grossly deficient as to render the proceedings fundamentally unfair.” Id., at A-22. In reaching this conclusion, the District Court noted that review by the Florida Supreme Court was discretionary; “[fjailure of counsel to .timely petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court, therefore, only prevented [respondent] from applying for further discretionary review.” Id., at A-28. The Court of Appeals reversed. 649 F. 2d 290 (CA5 1981). In Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U. S. 600 (1974), this Court held that a criminal defendant does not have a constitutional right to counsel to pursue discretionary state appeals or applications for review in this Court. Respondent does not contest the finding of the District Court that he had no absolute right to appeal his convictions to the Florida Supreme Court. Since respondent had no constitutional right to counsel, he could not be deprived of the effective assistance of counsel by his retained counsel’s failure to file the application timely. The District Court was correct in dismissing the petition. The motion of respondent for leave to proceed informa pauperis is granted. The petition for writ of certiorari is granted, and the judgment of the Court of Appeals is therefore reversed. It is so ordered. Justice Brennan would set the case for oral argument. “It appearing to the Court that the notice was not timely filed, it is ordered that the cause is hereby dismissed sua sponte, subject to reinstatement if timeliness is established on proper motion filed within fifteen days from the date of this order. See Fla. R. App. P. 9.120.” App. to Pet. for Cert. A-13. Citing its decision in Pressley v. Wainwright, 540 F. 2d 818 (1976), cert. denied, 430 U. S. 987 (1977), the court first noted that “the failure of court-appointed counsel to file a timely notice of certiorari in the Florida Supreme Court has been held to constitute ineffective assistance.” 649 F. 2d, at 291. On the basis of the recent decision in Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U. S. 335 (1980), the court then stated that “there is no distinction between court-appointed and privately retained counsel in the evaluation of a claim of ineffective assistance.” 649 F. 2d, at 292. Finally, the court quoted its recent decision in Perez v. Wainwright, 640 F. 2d 596, 598 (1981), for the proposition that “‘when a lawyer . . . does not perform his promise to his client that an appeal will be taken, fairness requires that the deceived defendant be granted an out-of-time appeal.’ ” 649 F. 2d, at 292. On the basis of these statements, the court reversed “the district court’s denial of the writ of habeas corpus,” ibid., and remanded the case to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with its opinion. Like this Court, the Florida Supreme Court has a limited mandatory appellate jurisdiction. See Fla. Const., Art. V, §3. Respondent has never contended, however, that he had a right of review under that jurisdiction. Thus, we need not determine the extent of the right to counsel in such a case. Respondent was not denied due process of law by the fact that counsel deprived him of his right to petition the Florida Supreme Court for review. Such deprivation — even if implicating a due process interest — was caused by his counsel, and not by the State. Certainly, the actions of the Florida Supreme Court in dismissing an application for review that was not filed timely did not deprive respondent of due process of law. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The writ of certiorari is dismissed as improvidently granted. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns the proper timing of an application for attorney’s fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) in a Social Security case. Under 42 U. S. C. § 405(g), a claimant has the right to seek judicial review of a final decision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services denying Social Security benefits. One possible outcome of such a suit is that the district court, pursuant to sentence four of § 405(g), will enter “a judgment . . . reversing the decision of the Secretary . . . [and] remanding the cause for a rehearing.” The issue here is whether the 30-day period for filing an application for EAJA fees begins immediately upon expiration of the time for appeal of such a “sentence-four remand order,” or sometime after the administrative proceedings on remand are complete. I In 1986, respondent Richard Schaefer filed an application for disability benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act, 49 Stat. 622, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 401 et seq. (1988 ed. and Supp. III). He was denied benefits at the administrative level, and sought judicial review by filing suit against the Secretary as authorized by § 405(g). Schaefer and the Secretary filed cross-motions for summary judgment. On April 4,1989, the District Court held that the Secretary had committed three errors in ruling on Schaefer’s case and entered an order stating that “the Secretary’s decision denying disability insurance benefits to [Schaefer] is reversed, that the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment are denied, and that the case is remanded to the Secretary for further consideration in light of this Order.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 27a. In accordance with this order, Schaefer’s application for benefits was reconsidered at the administrative level, and was granted. On July 18, 1990, Schaefer returned to the District Court and filed an application for attorney’s fees pursuant to EAJA. In response, the Secretary noted that Schaefer was required to file any application for EAJA fees “within thirty days of final judgment in the action,” 28 U. S. C. § 2412(d)(1)(B), and argued that the relevant “final judgment” in the case was the administrative decision on remand, which had become final on April 2,1990. The District Court stayed action on Schaefer’s EAJA application pending this Court’s imminent ruling in Melkonyan v. Sullivan, 501 U. S. 89 (1991). Melkonyan was announced shortly thereafter, holding that a final administrative decision could not constitute a “final judgment” for purposes of § 2412(d)(1)(B). Id., at 96. In light of Melkonyan, the Secretary changed positions to argue that EAJA’s 30-day clock began running when the District Court’s April 4, 1989 order (not the administrative ruling on remand) became final, which would have occurred at the end of the 60 days for appeal provided under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a). Thus, the Secretary concluded, Schaefer’s time to file his EAJA application expired on July 3,1989, over a year before the application was filed. The District Court, however, found Schaefer’s EAJA application timely under the controlling Circuit precedent of Welter v. Sullivan, 941 F. 2d 674 (CA8 1991), which held that a sentence-four remand order is not a final judgment where “the district court retain[s] jurisdiction . . . and plan[s] to enter dispositive sentence four judgmen[t]” after the administrative proceedings on remand are complete. Id., at 675. The District Court went on to rule that Schaefer was entitled to $1,372.50 in attorney’s fees. The Secretary fared no better on appeal. The Eighth Circuit declined the Secretary’s suggestion for en banc reconsideration of Welter, and affirmed the District Court in an unpublished per curiam opinion. Judgt. order reported at 960 F. 2d 1053 (1992). The Secretary filed a petition for certiorari, urging us to reverse the Court of Appeals summarily. We granted certiorari, 506 U. S. 997 (1992), and set the case for oral argument. II The first sentence of 28 U. S. C. § 2412(d)(1)(B) provides: “A party seeking an award of fees and other expenses shall, within thirty days of final judgment in the action, submit to the court an application for fees and other expenses which shows that the party is a prevailing party and is eligible to receive an award under this subsection, and the amount sought, including an itemized statement from any attorney or expert witness representing or appearing in behalf of the party stating the actual time expended and the rate at which fees and other expenses were computed.” (Emphasis added.) In Melkonyan v. Sullivan, we held that the term “final judgment” in the highlighted phrase above “refers to judgments entered by a court of law, and does not encompass decisions rendered by an administrative agency.” See 501 U. S., at 96. Thus, the only order in this case that could have resulted in the starting of EAJA’s 30-day clock was the District Court’s April 4, 1989, order, which reversed the Secretary’s decision denying disability benefits and remanded the case to the Secretary for further proceedings. In cases reviewing final agency decisions on Social Security benefits, the exclusive methods by which district courts may remand to the Secretary are set forth in sentence four and sentence six of § 405(g), which are set forth in the margin. See Melkonyan, supra, at 99-100. Schaefer correctly concedes that the District Court’s remand order in this case was entered pursuant to sentence four. He argues, however, that a district court proceeding under that provision need not enter a judgment at the time of remand, but may postpone it and retain jurisdiction pending completion of the administrative proceedings. That argument, however, is inconsistent with the plain language of sentence four, which authorizes a district court to enter a judgment “with or without” a remand order, not a remand order “with or without” a judgment. See Sullivan v. Finkelstein, 496 U. S. 617, 629 (1990). Immediate entry of judgment (as opposed to entry of judgment after postremand agency proceedings have been completed and their results filed with the court) is in fact the principal feature that distinguishes a sentence-four remand from a sentence-six remand. See Melkonyan, supra, at 101-102. Nor is it possible to argue that the judgment authorized by sentence four, if it includes a remand, does not become a “final judgment” — as required by § 2412(d) — upon expiration of the time for appeal. If that were true, there would never be any final judgment in cases reversed and remanded for further agency proceedings (including those which suffer that fate after the Secretary has filed the results of a sentence-six remand). Sentence eight of § 405(g) states that “tt]he judgment of the court” — which must be a reference to a sentence-four judgment, since that is the only judgment authorized by § 405(g) — “shall be final except that it shall be subject to review in the same manner as a judgment in other civil actions.” Thus, when the time for seeking appellate review has run, the sentence-four judgment fits squarely within the term “final judgment” as used in § 2412(d), which is defined to mean “a judgment that is final and not appeal-able.” 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(2)(G). We described the law with complete accuracy in Melkonyan, when we said: “In sentence four cases, the filing period begins after the final judgment (‘affirming, modifying, or reversing’) is entered by the court and the appeal period has run, so that the judgment is no longer appealable. ... In sentence six cases, the filing period does not begin until after the postremand proceedings are completed, the Secretary returns to court, the court enters a final judgment, and the appeal period runs.” 501 U. S., at 102. Schaefer raises two arguments that merit further discussion. The first is based on our decision in Sullivan v. Hudson, 490 U. S. 877, 892 (1989), which held that fees incurred during administrative proceedings held pursuant to a district court’s remand order could be recovered under EAJA. In order “to effectuate Hudson,” Schaefer contends, a district court entering a sentence-four remand order may properly hold its judgment in abeyance (and thereby delay the start of EAJA’s 30-day clock) until postremand administrative proceedings are complete; otherwise, as far as fees incurred during the yet-to-be-held administrative proceedings are concerned, the claimant would be unable to comply with the requirement of § 2412(d)(1)(B) that the fee application include “the amount sought” and “an itemized statement... [of] the actual time expended” by attorneys and experts. In response, the Secretary argues that Hudson applies only to cases remanded pursuant to sentence six of § 405(g), where there is no final judgment and the clock does not begin to rim. The difficulty with that, Schaefer contends, is that Hudson itself clearly involved a sentence-four remand. On the last point, Schaefer is right. Given the facts recited by the Court in Hudson, the remand order there could have been authorized only under sentence four. See 490 U. S., at 880-881; cf. n. 2, supra. However, the facts in Hudson also show that the District Court had not terminated the case, but had retained jurisdiction during the remand. And that was a central element in our decision, as the penultimate sentence of the opinion shows: “We conclude that where a court orders a remand to the Secretary in a benefits litigation and retains continuing jurisdiction over the case pending a decision from the Secretary which will determine the claimant’s entitlement to benefits, the proceedings on remand are an integral part of the ‘civil action’ for judicial review, and thus attorney’s fees for representation on remand are available subject to the other limitations in the EAJA.” 490 U. S., at 892 (emphasis added). We have since made clear, in Finkelstein, that that retention of jurisdiction, that failure to terminate the case, was error: Under § 405(g), “each final decision of the Secretary [is] reviewable by a separate piece of litigation,” and a sentence-four remand order “terminate[s] the civil action” seeking judicial review of the Secretary’s final decision. 496 U. S., at 624-625 (emphases added). What we adjudicated in Hudson, in other words, was a hybrid: a sentence-four remand that the District Court had improperly (but without objection) treated like a sentence-six remand. We specifically noted in Melkonyan that Hudson was limited to a “narrow class of qualifying administrative proceedings” where “the district court retains jurisdiction of the civil action” pending the completion of the administrative proceedings. 501 U. S., at 97. We therefore do not consider the holding of Hudson binding as to sentence-four remands that are ordered (as they should be) without retention of jurisdiction, or that are ordered with retention of jurisdiction that is challenged. Schaefer’s second argument is that a sentence-four remand order cannot be considered a “final judgment” for purposes of § 2412(d)(1)(B) because that provision requires the party seeking fees to submit an application “show[ing] that [he] is a prevailing party.” That showing, Schaefer contends, cannot be made until the proceedings on remand are complete, since a Social Security claimant does not “prevail” until he is awarded Social Security benefits. The premise of this argument is wrong. No holding of this Court has ever denied prevailing-party status (under § 2412(d)(1)(B)) to a plaintiff who won a remand order pursuant to sentence four of § 405(g). Dicta in Hudson stated that “a Social Security claimant would not, as a general matter, be a prevailing party within the meaning of the EAJA merely because a court had remanded the action to the agency for further proceedings.” 490 U. S., at 887. But that statement (like the holding of the case) simply failed to recognize the distinction between a sentence-four remand, which terminates the litigation with victory for the plaintiff, and a sentence-six remand, which does not. The sharp distinction between the two types of remand had not been made in the lower court opinions in Hudson, see Hudson v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, 839 F. 2d 1453 (CA11 1988); App. to Pet. for Cert. in Sullivan v. Hudson, O. T. 1988, No. 616, pp. 17a-20a (setting forth unpublished District Court opinion), was not included in the question presented for decision, and was mentioned for the first time in the closing pages of the Secretary’s reply brief, see Reply Brief for Petitioner in Sullivan v. Hudson, O. T. 1988, No. 616, pp. 14-17. It is only decisions after Hudson — specifically Finkelstein and Melkonyan— which establish that the sentence-four, sentence-six distinction is crucial to the structure of judicial review established under § 405(g). See Finkelstein, 496 U. S., at 626; Melkonyan, 501 U. S., at 97-98. Hudson’s dicta that remand does not generally confer prevailing-party status relied on three cases, none of which supports that proposition as applied to sentence-four remands. Hanrahan v. Hampton, 446 U. S. 754, 758-759 (1980), rejected an assertion of prevailing-party status, not by virtue of having secured a remand, but by virtue of having obtained a favorable procedural ruling (the reversal on appeal of a directed verdict) during the course of the judicial proceedings. Hewitt v. Helms, 482 U. S. 755 (1987), held that a plaintiff does not become a prevailing party merely by obtaining “a favorable judicial statement of law in the course of litigation that results injjudgment against the plaintiff” id., at 763 (emphasis added). (A sentence-four remand, of course, is a judgment for the plaintiff.) And the third case cited in Hudson, Texas State Teachers Assn. v. Garland Independent School Dist., 489 U. S. 782 (1989), affirmatively supports the proposition that a party who wins a sentence-four remand order is a prevailing party. Garland held that status to have been obtained “[i]f the plaintiff has succeeded on any significant issue in litigation which achieve[d] some of the benefit. . . sought in bringing suit.” Id., at 791-792 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Obtaining a sentence-four judgment reversing the Secretary’s denial of benefits certainly meets this description. See also Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U. S. 103 (1992). Ill Finally, Schaefer argues that, even if the District Court should have entered judgment in connection with its April 4, 1989 order remanding the case to the Secretary, the fact remains that it did not. And since no judgment was entered, he contends, the 30-day time period for filing an application for EAJA fees cannot have run. We agree. An EAJA application may be filed until 30 days after a judgment becomes “not appealable” — i. e., 30 days after the time for appeal has ended. See §§ 2412(d)(1)(B), (d)(2)(G); see also Melkonyan, 501 U. S., at 102. Rule 4(a) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure establishes that, in a civil case to which a federal officer is a party, the time for appeal does not end until 60 days after “entry of judgment,” and that a judgment is considered entered for purposes of the Rule only if it has been “entered in compliance with Rul[e] 58 ... of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.” Fed. Rules App. Proc. 4(a)(1), (7). Rule 58, in turn, requires a district court to set forth every judgment “on a separate document” and provides that “[a] judgment is effective only when so set forth.” See United States v. Indrelunas, 411 U. S. 216, 220 (1973) (per curiam). Since the District Court’s April 4 remand order was a final judgment, see supra, at 299, a “separate document” of judgment should have been entered. It is clear from the record that this was not done. The Secretary does not dispute that, but argues that a formal “separate document” of judgment is not needed for an order of a district court to become appealable. That is quite true, see 28 U. S. C. § 1291; Bankers Trust Co. v. Mallis, 435 U. S. 381 (1978) (per curiam); Finkelstein, supra, at 628, n. 7, but also quite irrelevant. EAJA’s 30-day time limit runs from the end of the period for appeal, not the beginning. Absent a formal judgment, the District Court’s April 4 order remained “appealable” at the time that Schaefer filed his application for EAJA fees, and thus the application was timely under § 2412(d)(1). He * * For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is Affirmed. Sentences four and six of 42 U. S. C. § 405(g) provide: “[4] The [district] court shall have power to enter, upon the pleadings and transcript of the record, a judgment affirming, modifying, or reversing the decision of the Secretary, with or without remanding the cause for a rehearing. ... [6] The court may, on motion of the Secretary made for good cause shown before he files his answer, remand the case to the Secretary for further action by the Secretary, and it may at any time order additional evidence to be taken before the Secretary, but only upon a showing that there is new evidence which is material and that there is good cause for the failure to incorporate such evidence into the record in a prior proceeding; and the Secretary shall, after the case is remanded, and after hearing such additional evidence if so ordered, modify or affirm his findings of fact or his decision, or both, and shall file with the court any such additional and modified findings of fact and decision, and a transcript of the additiohal record and testimony upon which his action in modifying or affirming was based.” Sentence-six remands may be ordered in only two situations: where the Secretary requests a remand before answering the complaint, or where new, material evidence is adduced that was for good cause not presented before the agency. See § 405(g) (sentence six); Melkonyan v. Sullivan, 501 U. S. 89, 99-100, and n. 2 (1991); cf. Sullivan v. Finkelstein, 496 U. S. 617, 626 (1990). The District Court’s April 4, 1989, remand order clearly does not fit withih either situation. The Secretary not only failed to object to the District Court’s retention of jurisdiction, but affirmatively endorsed the practice as a means of accommodating the lower court cases holding that a § 405(g) plaintiff does not become a prevailing party until Social Security benefits are actually awarded. Reply Brief for Petitioner in Sullivan v. Hudson, O. T. 1988, No. 616, pp. 12-13. Those precedents were highly favorable to the Government, of course, because they relieved the Secretary of liability for EAJA fees in all cases where Social Security benefits were ultimately denied. But they were also at war with the view — expressed later in the Secretary's Hudson reply brief — that a sentence-four remand order is a “final judgment” in the civil action. Id., at 16. Essentially, the Secretary in Hudson wanted it both ways: He wanted us to regard retention of jurisdiction as proper for purposes of determining prevailing-party status, but as improper for purposes of awarding fees on remand. Justice Stevens says that our holding “overrul[es]” Sullivan v. Hudson, 490 U. S. 877 (1989). Post, at 304, 311. We do not think that is an accurate characterization. Hudson remains good law as applied to remands ordered pursuant to sentence six. And since the distinction between sentence-four and sentence-six remands was neither properly presented nor considered in Hudson, see supra, at 299, and n. 3, and infra this page and 301, limiting Hudson to sentence-six cases does not “overrule” the decision even in part. See Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U. S. 619, 631 (1993). We agree with Justice Stevens that until today there has been some contradiction in our case law on this subject. In resolving it, however, we have not simply chosen Melkonyan’s dicta over Hudson, but have grounded our decision in the text and structure of the relevant statutes, particularly § 405. As formulated in the Secretary’s petition, the question on which the Court granted certiorari in H-udson was: “Whether Social Security administrative proceedings conducted after a remand from the courts are ‘adversary adjudications’ for which attorney fees are available under the [EAJA].” Pet. for Cert. in Sullivan v. Hudson, O. T. 1988, No. 616, p. I. We disagree with Justice Stevens’ assertion that “the respondent has prevailed precisely because the District Court in this case did enter a remand order without entering a judgment.” Post, at 305, n. 2 (emphasis in original). By entering a sentence-four remand order, the District Court did enter a judgment; it just failed to comply with the formalities of Rule 58 in doing so. That was error but, as detailed in the text, the relevant rules and statutes impose the burden of that error on the party seeking to assert an untimeliness defense, here the Secretary. Thus, contrary to Justice Stevens’ suggestion, see ibid,., our ruling in favor of respondent is not at all inconsistent with the proposition that sentence four and sentence six provide the exclusive methods by which district courts may remand a § 405 case to the Secretary. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
F
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Stewart delivered the opinion of the Court. I The Mineral King Valley is an area of great natural beauty nestled in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Tulare County, California, adjacent to Sequoia National Park. It has been part of the Sequoia National Forest since 1926, and is designated as a national game refuge by special Act of Congress. Though once the site of extensive mining activity, Mineral King is now used almost exclusively for recreational purposes. Its relative inaccessibility and lack of development have limited the number of visitors each year, and at the same time have preserved the valley’s quality as a quasi-wilderness area largely uncluttered by the products of civilization. The United States Forest Service, which is entrusted with the maintenance and administration of national forests, began in the late 1940’s to give consideration to Mineral King as a potential site for recreational development. Prodded by a rapidly increasing demand for skiing facilities, the Forest Service published a prospectus in 1965, inviting bids from private developers for the construction and operation of a ski resort that would also serve as a summer recreation area. The proposal of Walt Disney Enterprises, Inc., was chosen from those of six bidders, and Disney received a three-year permit to conduct surveys and explorations in the valley in connection with its preparation of a complete master plan for the resort. The final Disney plan, approved by the Forest Service in January 1969, outlines a $35 million complex of motels, restaurants, swimming pools, parking lots, and other structures designed to accommodate 14,000 visitors daily. This complex is to be constructed on 80 acres of the valley floor under a 30-year use permit from the Forest Service. Other facilities, including ski lifts, ski trails, a cog-assisted railway, and utility installations, are to be constructed on the mountain slopes and in other parts of the valley under a revocable special-use permit. To provide access to the resort, the State of California proposes to construct a highway 20 miles in length. A section of this road would traverse Sequoia National Park, as would a proposed high-voltage power line needed to provide electricity for the resort. Both the highway and the power line require the approval of the Department of the Interior, which is entrusted with the preservation and maintenance of the national parks. Representatives of the Sierra Club, who favor maintaining Mineral King largely in its present state, followed the progress of recreational planning for the valley with close attention and increasing dismay. They unsuccessfully sought a public hearing on the proposed development in 1965, and in subsequent correspondence with officials of the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior, they expressed the Club’s objections to Disney’s plan as a whole and to particular features included in it. In June 1969 the Club filed the present suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking a declaratory judgment that various aspects of the proposed development contravene federal laws and regulations governing the preservation of national parks, forests, and game refuges, and also seeking preliminary and permanent injunctions restraining the federal officials involved from granting their approval or issuing permits in connection with the Mineral King project. The petitioner Sierra Club sued as a membership corporation with “a special interest in the conservation and the sound maintenance of the national parks, game refuges and forests of the country,” and invoked the judicial-review provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U. S. C. § 701 et seq. After two days of hearings, the District Court granted the requested preliminary injunction. It rejected the respondents’ challenge to the Sierra Club’s standing to sue, and determined that the hearing had raised questions “concerning possible excess of statutory authority, sufficiently substantial and serious to justify a preliminary injunction . . . The respondents appealed, and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed. 433 F. 2d 24. With respect to the petitioner’s standing, the court noted that there was “no allegation in the complaint that members of the Sierra Club would be affected by the actions of [the respondents] other than the fact that the actions are personally displeasing or distasteful to them,” id., at 33, and concluded: “We do not believe such club concern without a showing of more direct interest can constitute standing in the legal sense sufficient to challenge the exercise of responsibilities on behalf of all the citizens by two cabinet level officials of the government acting under Congressional and Constitutional authority.” Id., at 30. Alternatively, the Court of Appeals held that the Sierra Club had not made an adequate showing of irreparable injury and likelihood of success on the merits to justify issuance of a preliminary injunction. The court thus vacated the injunction. The Sierra Club filed a petition for a writ of certiorari which we granted, 401 U. S. 907, to review the questions of federal law presented. II The. first question presented is whether the Sierra Club has alleged facts that entitle it to obtain judicial review of the challenged action. Whether a party has a sufficient stake in an otherwise justiciable controversy to obtain judicial resolution of that controversy is what has traditionally been referred to as the question of standing to sue. Where the party does not rely on any specific statute authorizing invocation of the judicial process, the question of standing depends upon whether' the party has alleged such a “personal stake in the outcome of the controversy,” Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186, 204, as to ensure that “the dispute sought to be adjudicated will be presented in an adversary context and in a form historically viewed as capable of judicial resolution.” Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S. 83, 101. Where, however, Congress has authorized public officials to perform certain functions according to law, and has provided by statute for judicial review of those actions under certain circumstances, the inquiry as to standing must begin with a determination of whether the statute in question authorizes review at the behest of the plaintiff. The Sierra Club relies upon § 10 of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U. S. C. § 702, which provides: “A person suffering legal wrong because of agency action, or adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action within the meaning of a relevant statute, is entitled to judicial review thereof.” Early decisions under this statute interpreted the language as adopting the various formulations of “legal interest” and “legal wrong” then prevailing as constitutional requirements of standing. But, in Data Processing Service v. Camp, 397 U. S. 150, and Barlow v. Collins, 397 U. S. 159, decided the same day, we held more broadly that persons had standing to obtain judicial review of federal agency action under § 10 of the APA where they had-alleged that the challenged action had caused them “injury in fact,” and where the alleged injury was to an interest “arguably within the zone of interests to be protected or regulated” by the statutes that the agencies were claimed to have violated. In Data Processing, the injury claimed by the petitioners consisted of harm to their competitive position in the computer-servicing market through a ruling by the Comptroller of the Currency that national banks might perform data-processing services for their customers. In Barlow, the petitioners were tenant farmers who claimed that certain regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture adversely affected their economic position vis-a-vis their landlords. These palpable economic injuries have long been recognized as sufficient to lay the basis for standing, with or without a specific statutory provision for judicial review. Thus, neither Data Processing nor Barlow addressed itself to the question, which has arisen with increasing frequency in federal courts in recent years, as to what must be alleged by persons who claim injury of a noneconomic nature to interests that are widely shared. That question is presented in this case. Ill The injury alleged by the Sierra Club will be incurred entirely by reason of the change in the uses to which Mineral King will be put, and the attendant change in the aesthetics and ecology of the area. Thus, in referring to the road to be built through Sequoia National Park, the complaint alleged that the development “would destroy or otherwise adversely affect the scenery, natural and historic objects and wildlife of the park and would impair the enjoyment of the park for future generations.” We do not question that this type of harm may amount to an “injury in fact” sufficient to lay the basis for standing under § 10 of the APA. Aesthetic and environmental well-being, like economic well-being, are important ingredients of the quality of life in our society, and the fact that particular environmental interests are shared by the many rather than the few does not make them less deserving of legal protection through the judicial process. But the “injury in fact” test requires more than an injury to a cognizable interest. It requires that the party seeking review be himself among the injured. The impact of the proposed changes in the environment of Mineral King will not fall indiscriminately upon every citizen. The alleged injury will be felt directly only by those who use Mineral King and Sequoia National Park, and for whom the aesthetic and recreational values of the area will be lessened by the highway and ski resort. The Sierra Club failed to allege that it or its members would be affected in any of their activities or pastimes by the Disney development. Nowhere in the pleadings or affidavits did the Club state that its members use Mineral King for any purpose, much less that they use it in any way that would be significantly affected by the proposed actions of the respondents. The Club apparently regarded any allegations of individualized injury as superfluous, on the theory that this was a “public” action involving questions as to the use of natural resources, and that the Club’s longstanding concern with and expertise in such matters were sufficient to give it standing as a “representative of the public.” This theory reflects a misunderstanding of our cases involving so-called “public actions” in the area of administrative law. The origin of the theory advanced by the Sierra Club may be traced to a dictum in Scripps-Howard Radio v. FCC, 316 U. S. 4, in which the licensee of a radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio, sought a stay of an order of the FCC allowing another radio station in a nearby city to change its frequency and increase its range. In discussing its power to grant a stay, the Court noted that “these private litigants have standing only as representatives of the public interest.” Id., at 14. But that observation did not describe the basis upon which the appellant was allowed to obtain judicial review as a “person aggrieved” within the meaning of the statute involved in that case, since Scripps-Howard was clearly “aggrieved” by reason of the economic injury that it would suffer as a result of the Commission’s action. The Court’s statement was, rather, directed to the theory upon which Congress had authorized judicial review of the Commission’s actions. That theory had been described earlier in FCC v. Sanders Bros. Radio Station, 309 U. S. 470, 477, as follows: “Congress had some purpose in enacting § 402 (b)(2). It may have been of opinion that one likely to be financially injured by the issue of a license would be the only person having a sufficient interest to bring to the attention of the appellate court errors of law in the action of the Commission in granting the license. It is within the power of Congress to confer such standing to prosecute an appeal.” Taken together, Sanders and Scripps-Howard thus established a dual proposition: the fact of economic injury is what gives a person standing to seek judicial review under the statute, but once review is properly invoked, that person may argue the public interest in support of his claim that the agency has failed to comply with its statutory mandate. It was in the latter sense that the “standing” of the appellant in Scripps-Howard existed only as a “representative of the public interest.” It is in a similar sense that we have used the phrase “private attorney general” to describe the function performed by persons upon whom Congress has conferred the right to seek judicial review of agency action. See Data Processing, supra, at 154. The trend of cases arising under the APA and other statutes authorizing judicial review of federal agency action has been toward recognizing that injuries other than economic harm are sufficient to bring a person within the meaning of the statutory language, and toward discarding the notion that an injury that is widely shared is ipsó facto not an injury sufficient to provide the basis for judicial review. We noted this development with approval in Data Processing, 397 U. S., at 154, in saying that the interest alleged to have been injured “may reflect 'aesthetic, conservational, and recreational’ as well as economic values.” But broadening the categories of injury that may be alleged in support of standing is a different matter from abandoning the requirement that the party seeking review must himself have suffered an injury. Some courts have indicated a willingness to take this latter step by conferring standing upon organizations that have demonstrated “an organizational interest in the problem” of environmental or consumer protection. Environmental Defense Fund v. Hardin, 138 U. S. App. D. C. 391, 395, 428 F. 2d 1093, 1097. It is clear that an organization whose members are injured may represent those members in a proceeding for judicial review. See, e. g., NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415, 428. But a mere “interest in a problem,” no matter how longstanding the interest and no matter how qualified the organization is in evaluating the problem, is not sufficient by itself to render the organization “adversely affected” or “aggrieved” within the meaning of the APA. The Sierra Club is a large and long-established organization, with a historic commitment to the cause of protecting our Nation’s natural heritage from man’s depredations. But if a “special interest” in this subject were enough to entitle the Sierra Club to commence this litigation, there would appear to be no objective basis upon which to disallow a suit by any other bona fide “special interest” organization, however small or short-lived. And if any group with a bona fide “special interest” could initiate such litigation, it is difficult to perceive why any individual citizen with the same bona fide special interest would not also be entitled to do so. The requirement that a party seeking review must allege facts showing that he is himself adversely affected does not insulate executive action from judicial review, nor does it prevent any public interests from being protected through the judicial process. It does serve as at least a rough attempt to put the decision as to whether review will be sought in the hands of those who have a direct stake in the outcome. That goal would be undermined were we to construe the APA to authorize judicial review at the behest of organizations or individuals who seek to do no more than vindicate their own value preferences through the judicial process. The principle that the Sierra Club would have us establish in this case would do just that. As we conclude that the Court of Appeals was correct in its holding that the Sierra Club lacked standing to maintain this action, we do not reach any other questions presented in the petition, and we intimate no view on the merits of the complaint. The judgment is Affirmed. Mr. Justice Powell and Mr. Justice Rehnquist took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. Act of July 3, 1926, § 6, 44 Stat. 821, 16 U. S. C. § 688. As analyzed by the District Court, the complaint alleged violations of law falling into four categories. First, it claimed that the special-use permit for construction of the resort exceeded the maximum-acreage limitation placed upon such permits by 16 U. S. C. § 497, and that issuance of a “revocable” use permit was beyond the authority of the Forest Service. Second, it challenged the proposed permit for the highway through Sequoia National Park on the grounds that the highway would not serve any of the purposes of the park, in alleged violation of 16 U. S. C. § 1, and that it would destroy timber and other natural resources protected by 16 U. S. C. §§ 41 and 43. Third, it claimed that the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior had violated their own regulations by failing to hold adequate public hearings on the proposed project. Finally, the complaint asserted that 16 U. S. C. § 45c requires specific congressional authorization of a permit for construction of a power transmission line within the limits of a national park. Congress may not confer jurisdiction on Art. Ill federal courts to render advisory opinions, Muskrat v. United States, 219 U. S. 346, or to entertain “friendly” suits, United States v. Johnson, 319 U. S. 302, or to resolve “political questions,” Luther v. Borden, 7 How. 1, because suits of this character are inconsistent with the judicial function under Art. III. But where a dispute is otherwise justiciable, the question whether the litigant is a “proper party to request an adjudication of a particular issue,” Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S. 83, 100, is one within the power of Congress to determine. Cf. FCC v. Sanders Bros. Radio Station, 309 U. S. 470, 477; Flast v. Cohen, supra, at 120 (Harlan, J., dissenting); Associated Industries v. Ickes, 134 F. 2d 694, 704. See generally Berger, Standing to Sue in Public Actions: Is it a Constitutional Requirement?, 78 Yale L. J. 816, 837 et seq. (1969); Jaffe, The Citizen as Litigant in Public Actions: The Non-Hohfeldian or Ideological Plaintiff, 116 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1033 (1968). See, e. g., Kansas City Power & Light Co. v. McKay, 96 U. S. App. D. C. 273, 281, 225 F. 2d 924, 932; Ove Gustavsson Contracting Co. v. Floete, 278 F. 2d 912, 914; Duba v. Schuetzle, 303 F. 2d 570, 574. The theory of a “legal interest” is expressed in its extreme form in Alabama Power Co. v. Ickes, 302 U. S. 464, 479-481. See also Tennessee Electric Power Co. v. TV A, 306 U. S. 118, 137-139. In deciding this case we do not reach any questions concerning the meaning of the “zone of interests” test or its possible application to the facts here presented. See, e. g., Hardin v. Kentucky Utilities Co., 390 U. S. 1, 7; Chicago v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 357 U. S. 77, 83; FCC v. Sanders Bros. Radio Station, supra, at 477. No question of standing was raised in Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, 401 U. S. 402. The complaint in that case alleged that the organizational plaintiff represented, members who were “residents of Memphis, Tennessee who use Overton Park as a park land and recreation area and who have been active since 1964 in efforts to preserve and protect Overton Park as a park land and recreation area.” The only reference in the pleadings to the Sierra Club’s interest in the dispute is contained in paragraph 3 of the complaint, which reads in its entirety as follows: “Plaintiff Sierra Club is a non-profit corporation organized and operating under the laws of the State of California, with its principal place of business in San Francisco, California since 1892. Membership of the club is approximately 78,000 nationally, with approximately 27,000 members residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. For many years the Sierra Club by its activities and conduct has exhibited a special interest in the conservation and the sound mainfenance of the national parks, game refuges and forests of the country, regularly serving as a responsible representative of persons similarly interested. One of the principal purposes of the Sierra Club is to protect and conserve the national resources of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Its interests would be vitally affected by the acts hereinafter described and would be aggrieved by those acts of the defendants as hereinafter more fully appears.” In an amici curiae brief filed in this Court by the Wilderness Society and others, it is asserted that the Sierra Club has conducted regular camping trips into the Mineral King area, and that various members of the Club have used and continue to use the area for recreational purposes. These allegations were not contained in the pleadings, nor were they brought to the attention of the Court of Appeals. Moreover, the Sierra Club in its reply brief specifically declines to rely on its individualized interest, as a basis for standing. See n. 15, infra. Our decision does not, of course, bar the Sierra Club from seeking in the District Court to amend its complaint by a motion under Rule 15, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This approach to the question of standing was adopted by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Citizens Committee for the Hudson Valley v. Volpe, 425 F. 2d 97, 105: “We hold, therefore, that the public interest in environmental resources — an interest created by statutes affecting the issuance of this permit — is a legally protected interest affording these plaintiffs, as responsible representatives of the public, standing to obtain judicial review of agency action alleged to be in contravention of that public interest.” The statute involved was § 402 (b) (2) of the Communications Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 1093. This much is clear from the Scripps-Howard Court’s citation of FCC v. Sanders Bros. Radio Station, 309 U. S. 470, in which the basis for standing was the competitive injury that the appellee would have suffered by the licensing of another radio station in its listening area. The distinction between standing to initiate a review proceeding, and standing to assert the rights of the public or of third persons once the proceeding is properly initiated, is discussed in 3 K. Davis, Adminstrative Law Treatise §§22.05-22.07 (1958). See, e. g., Environmental Defense Fund v. Hardin, 138 U. S. App. D. C. 391, 395, 428 F. 2d 1093, 1097 (interest in health affected by decision of Secretary of Agriculture refusing to suspend registration of certain pesticides containing DDT); Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ v. FCC, 123 U. S. App. D. C. 328, 339, 359 F. 2d 994, 1005 (interest of television viewers in the programing of a local station licensed by the FCC); Scenic Hudson Preservation Conf. v. FPC, 354 F. 2d 608, 615-616 (interests in aesthetics, recreation, and orderly community planning affected by FPC licensing of a hydroelectric project); Reade v. Ewing, 205 F. 2d 630, 631-632 (interest of consumers of oleomargarine in fair labeling of product regulated by Federal Security Administration)"; Crowther v. Seaborg, 312 F. Supp. 1205, 1212 (interest in health and safety of persons residing near the site of a proposed atomic blast). See Citizens Committee for the Hudson Valley v. Volpe, n. 9, supra; Environmental Defense Fund, Inc. v. Corps of Engineers, 325 F. Supp. 728, 734-736; Izaak Walton League v. St. Clair, 313 F. Supp. 1312, 1317. See also Scenic Hudson Preservation Conf. v. FPC, supra, at 616: “In order to insure that the Federal Power Commission will adequately protect the public interest in the aesthetic, conservational, and recreational aspects of power development, those who by their activities and conduct have exhibited a special interest in such areas, must be held to be included in the class of ‘aggrieved’ parties under §313 (b) [of the Federal Power Act].” In most, if not all, of these cases, at least one party to the proceeding did assert an individualized injury either to himself or, in the case of an organization, to its members. In its reply brief, after noting the fact that it might have chosen to assert individualized injury to itself or to its members as a basis for standing, the Sierra Club states: “The Government seeks to create a 'heads I win, tails you lose’ situation in which either the courthouse door is barred for lack of assertion of a private, unique injury or a preliminary injunction is denied on the ground that the litigant has advanced private injury which does not warrant an injunction adverse to a competing public interest. Counsel have shaped their case to avoid this trap.” The short answer to this contention is that the “trap” does not exist. The test of injury in fact goes only to the question of standing to obtain judicial review. Once this standing is established, the party may assert the interests of the general public in support of his claims for equitable relief. See n. 12 and accompanying text, supra. Every schoolboy may be familiar with Alexis de Tocqueville’s famous observation, written in the 1830’s, that “[sjcarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.” 1 Democracy in America 280 (1945). Less familiar, however, is De Tocqueville’s further observation that judicial review is effective largely because it is not available simply at the behest of a partisan faction, but is exercised only to remedy a particular, concrete injury. “It will be seen, also, that by leaving it to private interest to censure the law, and by intimately uniting the trial of the law with the trial of an individual, legislation is protected from wanton assaults and from the daily aggressions of party spirit. The errors of the legislator are exposed only to meet a real want; and it is always a positive and appreciable fact that must serve as the basis of a prosecution.” Id., at 102. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. This case, an original action brought by the States of Oklahoma and Texas against the State of New Mexico, arises out of a dispute over the interpretation of various provisions of the Canadian River Compact (Compact), which was ratified by New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas in 1951 and consented to by Congress by the Act of May 17, 1952, 66 Stat. 74. Each State has filed exceptions to a report submitted by the Special Master (Report) appointed by this Court. 1 — I The Canadian River is an interstate river which rises along the boundary between southeastern Colorado and northeastern New Mexico, in the vicinity of Raton, New Mexico. From its headwaters, the Canadian River flows south to the Conchas Dam in New Mexico, then generally east for 65 river miles to the Ute Reservoir in New Mexico, and then into the Texas Panhandle. After traversing the panhandle, the river flows into Oklahoma where it eventually empties into the Arkansas River, a tributary of the Mississippi. In the late 1930's, Congress authorized, Engineers completed, the construction of Conchas Dam on the mainstream of the Canadian River, approximately 30 miles northwest of Tucumcari, New Mexico. Congress also authorized the Tucumcari project, a federal reclamation project designed to irrigate over 42,000 acres of land and serve the municipal and industrial needs of Tucumcari, New Mexico. The project lands are situated southeast of Conchas Dam and are served by the Conchas Canal, which diverts water from Conchas Reservoir. The project was completed in 1950. In 1949, the Texas congressional delegation proposed Congress authorize a massive Canadian River reclamation project, known as the Sanford project because of its proximity to Sanford, Texas, for the purpose of serving the municipal and industrial requirements of 11 Texas cities in the Texas Panhandle region. Legislation to authorize the Sanford project was introduced in the House of Representatives, along with a bill authorizing New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas to negotiate an interstate compact to equitably apportion the waters of the Canadian River. The legislation authorizing the States to enter into an interstate compact was passed by Congress, and the Canadian River Compact Commission was created. The Compact Commission consisted of one commissioner from each State and one federal representative. Each commissioner and the federal representative had the assistance of engineering advisers, a group collectively known as the Engineering Advisory Committee. This committee submitted several proposals to the Compact Commission. The final draft of the Canadian River Compact was presented on December 6, 1950, and was signed on that day by the members of the Compact Commission. Congress enacted legislation authorizing the Sanford project on December 29, 1950, but as a result of an amendment proposed by the New Mexico delegation, the bill specifically provided that actual construction of the project could not commence until Congress consented to the Compact. See 64 Stat. 1124, 43 U. S. C. § 600c(b). That consent was granted on May 17, 1952, 66 Stat. 74, and the Sanford Dam, creating Lake Meredith Reservoir with a capacity of over 1.4 million acre-feet of water, was completed in 1964. Lake Meredith is approximately 165 river miles east of Ute Reservoir and is located north of Amarillo, Texas. During the 1950’s, New Mexico selected a site on the Canadian River mainstream approximately 1 mile west of Logan, New Mexico, and about 45 miles downstream from Conchas Dam for the construction of Ute Dam and Reservoir. Construction of Ute Dam was completed in 1963, with an initial storage capacity of 109,600 acre-feet. In 1982, New Mexico began construction to enlarge the reservoir, and, in 1984, the enlargement was completed, giving Ute Reservoir a capacity of 272,800 acre-feet. In 1984, the reservoir’s actual capacity to store water was 246,617 acre-feet, the remaining capacity being occupied by silt. The Special Master estimated that because of additional silting, reservoir storage capacity was reduced to 241,700 acre-feet in 1987 and currently is about 237,900 acre-feet. Report of Special Master 16-17. As early as 1982, Oklahoma and Texas expressed concern that the enlargement of Ute Reservoir would violate the 200,000 acre-feet limitation in Article IV(b) of the. Compact. See n. 2, supra. All attempts by the Commission to resolve this budding dispute were unsuccessful, in large part because any Commission action requires a unanimous vote and New Mexico would not agree to the interpretation of the Compact proposed by Oklahoma and Texas. This litigation followed, with Oklahoma and Texas contending that Article IV(b) of the Compact imposes a 200,000 acre-feet limit on New Mexico’s constructed reservoir capacity available for conservation storage downstream from Conchas Dam, and that capacity for the so-called “desilting pool” portion of Ute Reservoir was not exempt from the Article IV(b) limitation because it was not allocated solely to “sediment control.” In the spring of 1987, while the case was pending, the portion of the Canadian River above Conchas Dam flooded, and a sizeable quantity of water, approximately 250,000 acre-feet, spilled over Conchas Dam. This was the first major spill over Conchas Dam since 1941-1942, a spill which predated the Compact. New Mexico caught approximately 60 percent of the spill in Ute Reservoir, which filled the reservoir to its capacity, and the remaining 40 percent flowed on down the river. As of June 23, 1988, Ute Reservoir contained approximately 232,000 acre-feet of stored water, of which some 180,900 acre-feet was alleged by New Mexico to be flood water spilled from Conchas Dam earlier in 1987. Report of Special Master 47. After New Mexico refused to count the spill waters stored in Ute Reservoir for purposes of the 200,000 acre-feet limitation in Article IV(b), Texas and Oklahoma filed a supplemental complaint in this case, claiming that if the 200,000 acre-feet limitation applies to actual stored water, then water spilling over Conchas Dam or seeping back from the Tucum-cari project constitutes “waters which originate... below Conchas Dam” within the meaning of Article IV(b). New Mexico disputed all of these contentions and argued that water which first enters the river above Conchas Dam is not subject to the Article IV(b) limitation even if it is stored in Ute Reservoir, or anywhere else in New Mexico below Con-chas Dam. We referred Texas’ and Oklahoma’s complaint and supplemental complaint in this original case to a Special Master. 484 U. S. 1023 (1988); 488 U. S. 989 (1988). After considering voluminous evidence, the written submissions of the States, twice hearing extended oral argument on the issues, and circulating a draft report to the States for their comments, the Master filed a Report on October 15, 1990, making the following recommendations relevant to our decision in this case: (1) Article IV(b) imposes a limitation on stored water, not physical reservoir capacity. (2) Waters originating in the Canadian River Basin above Conchas Dam, but reaching the mainstream of the Canadian River below Conchas Dam as a result of spills or releases from Conchas Dam or seepage and return flow from the Tu-cumcari project, are subject to the Article IV(b) limitation. (3) The issue whether, and to what extent, the water in the “desilting pool” in Ute Reservoir should be exempt from the Article IV(b) limitation should be referred to the Canadian River Compact Commission for good-faith negotiations and possible resolution. The referral would be without prejudice to later invoke the Court’s jurisdiction if the issue cannot be resolved within one year. (4) If the foregoing recommendations are approved, New Mexico will have been in violation of Article IV(b) of the Compact since 1987, and the case should be returned to the Special Master for determination of any injury to Oklahoma and Texas and recommendations for appropriate relief. Report, at 24-25. The Master also recommended that the Court use this case to articulate various jurisdictional prerequisites and procedural guidelines for application in future interstate compact litigation. Id., at 26-34. We ordered the Master’s Report to be filed and set a briefing schedule, 498 U. S. 956 (1990), and heard oral argument on the States’ exceptions to the Master’s Report. We now address those exceptions in turn. ) — i Oklahoma has filed an exception to the Master’s recommendation in Part VI of his Report that the Article IV(b) limitation on “conservation storage” be interpreted to apply only to the quantity of water New Mexico actually stores at Ute Reservoir for conservation purposes. As of 1984, Ute Reservoir had a storage capacity of approximately 272,800 acre-feet, although it is conceded that not all of that capacity is chargeable as existing for “conservation storage.” Some of the capacity is for purposes excluded from the Compact definition of “conservation storage,” such as for sediment control. Oklahoma contends that the term “conservation storage” should be interpreted to apply to the physical capacity of reservoirs located below Conchas Dam, a view which, if adopted, would result in a finding that New Mexico has been in violation of Article IV(b) since at least 1984, when the enlargement of Ute Reservoir was completed. The Special Master conceded, as do we, that Oklahoma’s suggested interpretation of Article IV(b)’s conservation storage limitation finds some support in the plain language of the Compact definition of “conservation storage” and in the language of Article IV(b) itself. The Compact defines “conservation storage” in pertinent part as “that portion of the capacity of reservoirs available for the storage of water” for various purposes and “excludes any portion of the capacity of reservoirs” allocated to other purposes. Art. 11(d) (emphasis added). Likewise, Article IV(b) refers to “the amount of conservation storage in New Mexico available for impounding these waters.” (Emphasis added.) However, other provisions in the Compact appear to focus on stored water, not reservoir capacity. For example, Article V sets forth an elaborate formula for determining the amount of water Texas may actually impound at any one time; Article VII provides that the “Commission may permit New Mexico to impound more water than the amount set forth in Article IV” (emphasis added); and Article VIII requires each State to “furnish to the Commission at intervals designated by the Commission accurate records of the quantities of water stored in reservoirs pertinent to the administration of this Compact.” (Emphasis added.) We agree with the Special Master that nothing on the face of the Compact indicates a clear intention to treat the New Mexico “conservation storage” limitation differently from the Texas stored water limitation, and we see no compelling justification for doing so. In fact, several early drafts of the Compact uniformly referred to stored water, and only in the final draft did the “conservation storage” language appear in Article IV(b). There is nothing in the contemporaneous memoranda and statements of the Compact Commissioners and their staffs to explain exactly why this change was made; nor is there anything which indicates an intent to draw a distinction between the limitations placed on New Mexico and those placed on Texas. Rather, as the Master pointed out, it is most probable that the terms “stored water,” “storage,” and “conservation storage capacity” were being used loosely and interchangeably by the drafters and their staffs. See Report, at 42-43. There is no obvious reason why Texas and Oklahoma would have wanted to restrict New Mexico’s ability to increase reservoir capacity below Conchas Dam, particularly in light of the fact that larger reservoirs actually promote one of the purposes stated in Article I of the Compact, which is to capture and conserve as much of the Canadian River’s flood flows as possible, flows which might otherwise be dissipated and therefore wasted. Furthermore, as New Mexico points out, sedimentation alone would constantly reduce New Mexico’s storage capacity below the 200,000 acre-feet limit, forcing New Mexico to repeatedly either build new reservoir capacity or enlarge existing reservoirs. Either of those options would be extremely expensive, and Oklahoma points to no persuasive evidence that the drafters of the Compact intended that New Mexico should bear such a burden. We overrule Oklahoma’s exception to Part VI of the Master’s Report. Ill New Mexico has excepted to Part VII of the Master’s Report, in which the Master recommended that water spilling or released from Conchas Dam, as well as return flow and seepage from the Tucumcari project, be subject to Article IV(b)’s 200,000 acre-feet limitation on conservation storage, if the water is impounded in Ute Dam or other.downstream dams in New Mexico. New Mexico argues that the Compact does not impose any restriction on New Mexico’s impoundment of these waters because they originate above Conchas Dam, and Article IV(a) gives New Mexico the “free and unrestricted use of all waters originating in the drainage basin of Canadian River above Conchas Dam.” (Emphasis added.) Texas and Oklahoma counter that the word “originating,” as used in Article IV of the Compact, simply means “entering.” See Tr. of Oral Arg. 29. In Texas’ and Oklahoma’s view, all the conservation storage waters which end up in Ute Reservoir, whether they spill over or are released through Conchas Dam, or seep back from the Tucumcari project, are subject to the 200,000 acre-feet conservation storage limitation of Article IV(b) because they “originate” below Conchas Dam. The Special Master recommended that such waters be subject to the Article IV(b) limitation because he concluded that the intent of the Compact drafters was to give New Mexico free and unrestricted use of waters originating in the Canadian River drainage basin above Conchas Dam only if the waters were “stored, used or diverted for use at or above Conchas Dam.” Report, at 59. New Mexico asserts that the word “originating” as used in Article IV has a plain, unambiguous meaning and that the waters “originating” below Conchas Dam referred to in Article IV(b) do not include any waters “originating” above Con-chas. But we do not agree that the meaning of the word is as plain as New Mexico suggests. As the Special Master pointed out, a literal reading of the language of Article IV(a) could not have been intended since such a reading would include all of the waters originating in the drainage basin of the Canadian River above Conchas Dam, including all of the waters in tributaries that arise in Colorado, such as the Vermejo-River, and would purport to foreclose any claim that Colorado had in the waters arising in that State. This would be an extremely implausible reading in light of the fact that Colorado was not a party to the Compact. New Mexico’s answer is that the language of Article IV(a), giving it the right to all Canadian River waters originating above Conchas, does not mean what it says and should be interpreted to include only those waters in the drainage basin “originating” in New Mexico, a limitation that appeared in earlier drafts of the Compact and that was reflected in the legislative history of the Act approving the Compact. S. Rep. No. 1192, 82d Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1952). But as Texas points out, New Mexico nevertheless claims the right to use and store all of the water in the Canadian River that is found in New Mexico above Conchas Dam, even though some of it admittedly has its source in Colorado, not in New Mexico, a result unsupported by New Mexico’s present interpretation of the language in Article IV(a). Likewise, if literally read, Article IV(a) would retain New Mexico’s right to water having a source above Conchas even if the water escaped its grasp and flowed into Texas; but New Mexico concedes that the Article does not go so far, if for no other reason than the fact that Article V gives Texas the right to all of the water found in the Canadian River in Texas, subject to a storage limitation. In light of the above ambiguity, which the dissent refuses to recognize, it is fairly arguable that if, by virtue of its right to water originating in the drainage basin in New Mexico above Conchas Dam, New Mexico also has the right to use and store water in the Canadian River in New Mexico that originated in Colorado, Article IV(b) should be construed in the same way: Any water found in the river below Conchas, including spills, seepage, and return flow from Tucumcari, must be deemed to have originated below Conchas and be subject to the 200,000 acre-feet storage limitation. In effect, this was the conclusion the Special Master came to after examining in detail the purpose and negotiating history of the Compact. The Master reviewed considerable evidence regarding the drafters’ intent as to the meaning of Article IV and concluded that New Mexico’s suggested interpretation was not consistent with the available evidence. Although the question is not free from doubt, we agree with the Master. Contrary to New Mexico’s assertions, there is substantial evidence that, in drafting the Compact, Texas and Oklahoma agreed that storage limitations were not necessary for waters above Conchas Dam because the waters in that basin had been fully developed. “[T]he negotiators recognized that full development had already been made of all waters of Canadian River originating above Conchas Dam and that accordingly there would be no purpose in placing a limitation upon any increase in the amount of storage of such waters.” Joint Statement of Agreed Material Facts D.34. The evidence strongly suggests that the negotiators believed that any future water development along the Canadian River in New Mexico would necessarily occur below Conchas Dam, and that 200,000 acre-feet of storage rights would be ample for New Mexico’s purposes below Conchas Dam. Indeed, in a letter to the Governor, New Mexico’s Compact Commissioner, John Bliss, specifically stated that “storage capacity for all projects which may be feasible below Conchas will probably not equal the 200,000 acre foot storage limit.” Plaintiffs’ Exh. 30, p. 1. The central purpose of the Compact was to settle the respective rights of the States to Canadian River water; and the Compact and its negotiating history plainly show that the parties agreed that no more than 200,000 acre-feet of storage rights would satisfy all of New Mexico’s future needs for water below Conchas Dam. Had they thought more was needed, the limit would have been higher. Under these circumstances, we see no persuasive reason why Texas and Oklahoma would have agreed to let New Mexico impound substantially more than 200,000 acre-feet of water for conservation storage purposes below Conchas Dam simply because some of the water first entered the river above Con-chas Dam. Nor do we believe that the evidence supports the conclusion that New Mexico’s negotiator intended that result either. In our view, the Compact’s ambiguous use of the term “originating” can only be harmonized with the apparent intent of the Compact drafters if it is interpreted so that waters which spill over or are released from Conchas Dam, or which return from the Tucumcari project, are considered waters originating below Conchas Dam. This view is strengthened by the fact that both the Bureau of Reclamation in studying the Sanford project, and the engineers advising the Compact commissioners during negotiations, included outflows and spills irom Conchas Dam in their estimates of the water supply available to Texas. See Joint Statement of Agreed Material Facts C.7, D.16. New Mexico points out that the States and the Master agree that nothing in Article IV would prevent New Mexico from simply enlarging Conchas Reservoir to capture all of the waters flowing into the river above Conchas Dam. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 6. That reading of the Compact is correct, but we fail to see how it refutes Texas’ and Oklahoma’s interpretation of the Compact. New Mexico apparently has never attempted to enlarge Conchas Reservoir because doing so is economically infeasible, and there is nothing in the evidence to suggest that the drafters contemplated that New Mexico would seek to enlarge Conchas Reservoir in the future. Instead, as noted above, the Compact drafters were operating on the assumption that New Mexico had fully developed its uses of water above Conchas Dam and would not need additional water for above Conchas uses. It does not necessarily follow that New Mexico’s entitlement under Article IV(a) to all of the Canadian River water it can use from Conchas Reservoir gives New Mexico the unrestricted right to store that water at any point downstream from Conchas Dam. Any right New Mexico has to water spilling over Conchas Dam arises by virtue of Article IV(b), under which New Mexico may store for its use 200,000 acre-feet of water originating below Conchas Dam. It is worth noting the Special Master’s observation that New Mexico’s construction of Article IV, if accepted, would have a deleterious impact on the water supply to the Sanford project and hence would “run counter to the Congressional intention in conditioning funding of the Sanford Project on execution of the Compact and in subsequently approving the Compact.” Report, at 57. Congress had been informed that the project would rely in part on water arriving in Texas in the mainstream of the Canadian. Yet New Mexico’s version of the Compact would, as a practical matter, permit it to prevent any and all water entering the river above Conchas from ever reaching Texas, whether by enlarging Ute Reservoir or building additional facilities, and at the same time to impound at Ute Dam most if not all of the principal tributary inflow below Conchas. All of New Mexico’s needs for water above Conchas and for the Tucumcari project are fully satisfied. No one suggests otherwise. It is also plain that it was agreed in the Compact that 200,000 acre-feet of water storage would be adequate to satisfy New Mexico’s needs for water below Conchas. That allocation was indeed generous. Since the signing of the Compact, there have been no developments in the area below Conchas which require substantial amounts of water for consumptive uses. According to the Special Master, slightly over 1,000 acre-feet for such purposes has been sold from Ute Dam since 1963. Id., at 68. New Mexico is entitled to 200,000 acre-feet of conservation storage below Conchas Dam, which the Compact anticipated would take care of any future developments in the area below Conchas Dam. As we construe the Compact, if New Mexico has at any time stored more than that amount, it was not entitled to do so. Any water stored in excess of that amount should have been allowed to flow through the Ute Dam, to be put to use by the downstream States, rather than impounded in New Mexico. Accordingly, we overrule New Mexico’s exceptions to Part VII of the Report. IV In Part VIII of his Report, the Master recommended that this Court remand to the Canadian River Commission the question whether certain water stored in Ute Reservoir, water which New Mexico has designated a “desilting pool,” is exempt from the Article IV(b) limitation on New Mexico’s conservation storage because it allegedly serves a “sediment control” purpose within the meaning of Article 11(d). Oklahoma and Texas except to this recommendation, arguing that there is sufficient evidence in the record to make a final determination on this issue, that the water in the desilting pool should be counted towards the Article IV(b) limitation, and that it is neither appropriate nor practical to refer the matter to the Commission. The Master acknowledged that the record developed in this case probably was sufficient to permit him to decide this issue, Report, at 99-100, but he declined to address it until after the States had first made some attempt, via the Canadian River Commission, to negotiate a settlement. We sustain Texas’ and Oklahoma’s exception to Part VIII of the Master’s Report insofar as those States argue that the matter should not be referred to the Commission. “Where the States themselves are before this Court for the determination of a controversy between them, neither can determine their rights inter sese, and this Court must pass upon every question essential to such a determination....” Kentucky v. Indiana, 281 U. S. 163, 176-177 (1930). It is true that the Court has “often expressed [a] preference that, where possible, States settle their controversies by ‘mutual accommodation and agreement,”’ Arizona v. California, 373 U. S. 546, 564 (1963) (quoting Colorado v. Kansas, 320 U. S. 383, 392 (1943), and Nebraska v. Wyoming, 325 U. S. 589, 616 (1945)), but the Court “does have a serious responsibility to adjudicate cases where there are actual, existing controversies” between the States over the waters in interstate streams. 373 U. S., at 564. There is no doubt that such a dispute exists in this case, Oklahoma and Texas have properly invoked this Court’s jurisdiction, and there is no claim that the “desilting pool” issue has not been properly presented. Thus, we see no legal basis for the Master refusing to decide the question and instead sending it to the Commission. Thus, we remand the “desilting pool” question to the Master for such further proceedings as may be necessary and a recommendation on the merits. V The States’ exceptions to the Special Master’s Report are overruled except for Oklahoma’s and Texas’ challenge to the Master’s recommendation that the “desilting pool” issue be referred to the Canadian River Commission, which is sustained in part. The case is remanded to the Master for such further proceedings and recommendations as may be necessary. So ordered. At least one source suggests that the Canadian River was so named “by early French traders and hunters from Canada who followed it west into Spanish territory. The Fort Smith and Santa Fe pioneer trails went through the Canadian River Valley.” 2 Encyclopaedia Britannica 789 (15th ed. 1985). The Compact provides in pertinent part as follows: “Article I “The major purposes of this Compact are to promote interstate comity; to remove causes of present and future controversy; to make secure and protect present developments within the States; and to provide for the construction of additional works for the conservation of the waters of Canadian River. “Article II “As used in this Compact: “(a) the term ‘Canadian River’ means the tributary of Arkansas River which rises in northeastern New Mexico and flows in an easterly direction through New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma and includes North Canadian River and all other tributaries of said Canadian River. “(d) The term ‘conservation storage’ means that portion of the capacity of reservoirs available for the storage of water for subsequent release for domestic, municipal, irrigation and industrial uses, or any of them, and it excludes any portion of the capacity of reservoirs allocated solely to flood control, power production and sediment control, or any of them. “Article IV “(a) New Mexico shall have free and unrestricted use of all waters originating in the drainage basin of Canadian River above Conchas Dam. “(b) New Mexico shall have free and unrestricted use of all waters originating in the drainage basin of Canadian River in New Mexico below Con-chas Dam, provided that the amount of conservation storage in New Mexico available for impounding these waters which originate in the drainage basin of Canadian River below Conchas Dam shall be limited to an aggregate of two hundred thousand (200,000) acre-feet. “Article VII “The Commission may permit New Mexico to impound more water than the amount set forth in Article IV and may permit Texas to impound more water than the amount set forth in Article V.... “Article VIII “Each State shall furnish to the Commission at intervals designated by the Commission accurate records of the quantities of water stored in reservoirs pertinent to the administration of this Compact.” For example, the Master recommended that state attorneys general seeking to invoke the Court’s jurisdiction, or responding to such a request, certify that their States had negotiated in good faith in an attempt to resolve the dispute without resort to the Court. Report, at 32-33. In anticipation of congressional authorization to enter into a compact, the three States each appointed a compact commissioner in the fall of 1949. The Compact Commission met for the first time in February 1950 to lay the groundwork for future deliberations. At that meeting, the Commissioners agreed that no specific proposals would be considered until the relevant technical data was collected and studied. On April 29, 1950, Congress authorized the States to negotiate a compact and, approximately one month later, Berkeley Johnson was appointed to the Compact Commission as the federal representative and chairman of the Commission. Johnson then selected Raymond Hill as his engineering adviser. The first official meeting of the Compact Commission was an organizational meeting held on June 30, 1950. Hill was named chairman of the Engineering Advising Committee, made up of three engineer advisers serving their respective Commissioners. Over the next several months, the engineer advisers conducted studies and collected data. In early October, the Compact Commission convened for its second formal meeting and received a report from Hill regarding his committee’s proposals regarding a compact. The Compact Commission approved in principle the formulas developed by the engineers and directed their legal advisers to prepare a draft compact. Hill then prepared a memorandum to the legal advisers in which he recommended that New Mexico be given “free and unrestricted use of all waters in the drainage basin of Canadian River in New Mexico” subject only to a 50,000 acre-feet conservation storage limitation in the drainage basin “above Conchas Reservoir,” Defendant’s Exh. 30, Exh. B, pp. 3-4. By early November, the Texas commissioner had expressed a strong desire to have a final compact draft by December 6, 1950, so that Congress could authorize the Sanford project during a month-long legislative session which was to begin in late November. The legal advisers, working with Raymond Hill and the engineers, submitted a partial draft compact dated November 14. This draft adopted Hill’s suggested language with regard to New Mexico’s rights to Canadian River water; but because the legal advisers had not been able “to satisfactorily word” the compact article dealing with storage limitations, they were left to be defined later. Id., Exh. C, p. 3. The Compact Commission held its third official meeting December 4-6, 1950. On December 5, the draft compact was substantially revised by Raymond Hill and the legal advisers to reflect changes in the engineers’ storage limitation formulas. This draft provided that New Mexico should have the “free and unrestricted use of all waters of the Canadian River in New Mexico, subject to” a 200,000 acre-feet storage limitation on waters “which originate in the drainage basin of the Canadian River below Con-chas Dami.” Id., Exh. F, p. 2. The draft was again revised either later on December 5 or during the morning of December 6. The final draft included for the first time the “originating... above Conchas Dam” language which is now a focal point of the States’ dispute in this case. No contemporaneous explanation was provided for this last-minute revision. The final draft was presented to the Compact Commission on December 6 at 11:15 a.m., and, after making some minor revisions, the Commissioners signed the draft at 1:00 p.m., prompting Chairman Johnson to comment that the speed with which the “compact reached the signing stage... certainly constituted a record.” Plaintiffs’ Exh. 110, p. 1. The Master viewed the process somewhat less charitably, observing that “the record of the Compact negotiations and the issues raised in this litigation vividly demonstrate that, as Benjamin Franklin observed, ‘haste makes waste.’” Report, at 54. After the Compact had been signed, Chairman Johnson asked Hill to prepare, as an interpretive tool, a memorandum providing a detailed explanation of the various articles of the Compact. See Plaintiffs’ Exh. 140. As evidence of the need for such a document, Johnson described a recent discussion involving New Mexico’s Compact Commissioner and representatives of the Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Engineers in which three different positions were taken on the interpretation of the Compact’s allotment of water to Texas. Hill then prepared a memorandum entitled “Development of Final Wording of Compact,” dated January 29, 1951 (the “Hill Memorandum”), see Plaintiffs’ Exh. 38, and the Compact Commission approved the Hill Memorandum at its fourth and final official meeting on January 31, 1951. We agree with the Master that it is appropriate to look to extrinsic evidence of the negotiation history of the Compact in order to interpret Article IV. We previously have pointed out that a eongressionally approved compact is both a contract and a statute, Texas v. New Mexico, 482 U. S. 124, 128 (1987), and we repeatedly have looked to legislative history and other extrinsic material when required to interpret a statute which is ambiguous, Green v. Bock Laundry Machine Co., 490 U. S. 504, 511 (1989); Pierce v. Underwood, 487 U. S. 552, 564-565 (1988); Blum v. Stenson, 465 U. S. 886 (1984). Furthermore, we have on occasion looked to evidence regarding the negotiating history of other interstate compacts. See, e. g., Texas v. New Mexico, 462 U. S. 554, 568, n. 14 (1983); Arizona v. California, 292 U. S. 341, 359-360 (1934). Thus, resort to extrinsic evidence of the compact negotiations in this case is entirely appropriate. New Mexico agrees that it is proper to use “negotiating history to determine whether the words of this Compact can be interpreted reasonably in accordance with their context,” Brief for New Mexico 8, n. 1, but contends that the Master used the negotiating history to “delete Compact language,” ibid., rather than to “interpret” the language. Essentially, New Mexico simply disagrees with the Master that the term “originating” as used in Article IV is ambiguous. Because we agree with the Master, evidence regarding the negotiating history of the Compact may be considered in interpreting Article IV even under New Mexico’s view of the relevant legal principles. New Mexico attempts to rely on the fact that in a letter written to Senator Anderson of New Mexico, Bliss indicated that the only restriction on New Mexico’s use of Canadian River water was that “the total storage capacity for conservation purposes of the waters rising below the dam (not including spills) shall not exceed 200,000 acre feet.” Plaintiffs’ Exh. 28 (emphasis added). New Mexico argues that this letter proves that Bliss did not construe the Compact as placing any limitation on New Mexico’s right to store and use waters which flooded over Conchas Dam. But, like the Master, we fail to see that this single letter proves nearly so much. First, it is not at all clear that an the conclusion for which New Mexico argues. At least as plausible as New Mexico’s reading is the interpretation that Bliss did not understand the Compact as giving New Mexico any rights to store or use such spill waters. This reading is consistent with the plain language of the letter and extrinsic evidence such as the fact noted in the text, infra, at 237-238, that the engineers advising the Compact Commission included spills from Conchas Dam in their estimates of the water supply available to Texas. Second, there is no ever New Mexico now claims he held to the other commissioners or the relevant New Mexico state officials such as the Governor and state legislature. In fact, in his letter to Governor Mabry, Bliss never mentions the issue of spills and instead indicates that the 200,000 acre-feet storage limitation imposed “little or no restriction” on any water development projects in the State. Plaintiffs’ Exh. 30, p. 1. Bliss’ subsequent letter to Governor Mechem was very similar. See Plaintiffs’ Exh Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
K
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. OPINION OF THE COURT [564 U.S. 382] Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the court. Among other rights essential to freedom, the First Amendment protects “the right of the people... to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” U. S. Const., Amdt. 1. This case concerns the extent of the protection, if any, that the Petition Clause grants public employees in routine disputes with government employers. Petitions are a form of expression, and employees who invoke the Petition Clause in most cases could invoke as well the Speech Clause of the First Amendment. To show that an employer interfered with rights under the Speech Clause, the employee, as a general rule, must show that his speech was on a matter [564 U.S. 383] of public concern, as that term is defined in the precedents of this and other courts. Here the issue is whether that test applies when the employee invokes the Petition Clause. Alone among the Courts of Appeals to have addressed the issue, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has held that the public concern test does not limit Petition Clause claims by public employees. For the reasons stated below, this conclusion is incorrect. I Charles Guarnieri filed a union grievance challenging his termination as chief of police for the borough of Duryea, a town of about 4,600 persons in northeastern Pennsylvania. His grievance proceeded to arbitration pursuant to the police union collective-bargaining agreement. The arbitrator found that the borough council, Duryea’s legislative body and the entity responsible for Guarnieri’s termination, committed procedural errors in connection with the termination; and the arbitrator also found that Guarnieri engaged in misconduct, including “attempting to intimidate Council members.” App. 37, 38. The arbitrator ordered Guarnieri reinstated after a disciplinary suspension. Id., at 38. Upon Guarnieri’s return to the job, the council issued 11 directives instructing Guarnieri in the performance of his duties. The council’s attorney explained that the council “wanted to be sure that the chief understood what was going to be expected of him upon his return.” Tr. 19:12-14 (Apr. 16, 2008). One directive prohibited Guarnieri from working overtime without the council’s “express permission.” App. 59, ¶ 1. Another indicated that “ [t]he police car is to be used for official business only.” Id., at 60, ¶ 9. A third stated that the “Duryea municipal building is a smoke free building” and that the “police department is not exempt.” Id., at 61, ¶ 10. Guarnieri testified that, because of these and other directives, his “coming back wasn’t a warm welcoming feeling.” Tr. 65:7-8 (Apr. 15, 2008). Guarnieri filed a second union grievance challenging the directives. The arbitrator [564 U.S. 384] instructed the council to modify or withdraw some of the directives on the grounds that they were vague, interfered with the authority of the mayor, or were contrary to the collective-bargaining agreement. Guarnieri filed this lawsuit against the borough, the borough council, and individual members of the council under Rev. Stat. § 1979, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Guarnieri claimed that his first union grievance was a petition protected by the Petition Clause of the First Amendment, and he alleged that the directives issued upon his reinstatement were retaliation for that protected activity. After this suit was filed, the council denied a request by Guarnieri for $338 in overtime. The United States Department of Labor investigated and concluded that Guarnieri was entitled to be paid. The council offered Guarnieri a check for the amount, but Guarnieri refused to accept it. Instead, Guarnieri amended his complaint to encompass the denial of overtime. Guarnieri alleged that his § 1983 lawsuit was a petition and that the denial of overtime constituted retaliation for his having filed the lawsuit. Under the law of the Circuit, the defendants could not obtain judgment as a matter of law on the basis that the lawsuit and grievances were not on a matter of public concern. The case proceeded to a jury. Guarnieri’s attorney argued that the council was “sending a message to” Guarnieri through the directives and the denial of overtime: “You might have won your arbitration, but we control you.” Tr. 53:24-25 (Apr. 17, 2008). The District Court instructed the jury that the lawsuit and union grievances were “protected activity... under the constitution,” and that the jury could find defendants liable if it found an adequate connection between the protected activity and the alleged retaliation. Id., at 61:17-20; 62. The jury found in favor of Guarnieri. The jury awarded $45,000 in compensatory damages and $24,000 in punitive damages for the directives, as well as $358 in compensatory damages and $28,000 in punitive damages for [564 U.S. 385] the denial of overtime. The District Court awarded $45,000 in attorney’s fees and denied defendants’ renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law. Defendants appealed on the ground that Guarnieri’s grievances and lawsuit did not address matters of public concern. Courts outside the Third Circuit have held that allegedly retaliatory actions by government employers against government employees may not give rise to liability under the Petition Clause unless the employee’s petition related to a matter of public concern. See, e.g., Kirby v. Elizabeth City, 388 F.3d 440, 448-449 (CA4 2004); Tang v. Rhode Island, Dept. of Elderly Affairs, 163 F.3d 7, 11-12 (CA1 1998); White Plains Towing Corp. v. Patterson, 991 F.2d 1049, 1059 (CA2 1993). These courts rely on a substantial overlap between the rights of speech and petition to justify the application of Speech Clause precedents to Petition Clause claims. They reason that, whether the grievance is considered under the Speech Clause or the Petition Clause, the government employer is entitled to take adverse action against the employee unless the dispute involves a matter of public concern. Rejecting that view, the Court of Appeals here affirmed the award of compensatory damages, although it found insufficient evidence to sustain the award of punitive damages. The Court of Appeals concluded that “ ‘a public employee who has petitioned the government through a formal mechanism such as the filing of a lawsuit or grievance is protected under the Petition Clause from retaliation for that activity, even if the petition concerns a matter of solely private concern.’ ” 364 Fed. Appx. 749, 753 (CA3 2010) (quoting Foraker v. Chaffinch, 501 F.3d 231, 236 (CA3 2007)). The decision of the Court of Appeals was consistent with the rule adopted and explained by that court in San Filippo v. Bongiovanni, 30 F.3d 424, 442 (1994). This Court granted certiorari to resolve the conflict in the Courts of Appeals. 562 U.S. 960, 131 S. Ct. 456, 178 L. Ed. 2d 285 (2010). [564 U.S. 386] II When a public employee sues a government employer under the First Amendment’s Speech Clause, the employee must show that he or she spoke as a citizen on a matter of public concern. Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 147, 103 S. Ct. 1684, 75 L. Ed. 2d 708 (1983). If an employee does not speak as a citizen, or does not address a matter of public concern, “a federal court is not the appropriate forum in which to review the wisdom of a personnel decision taken by a public agency allegedly in reaction to the employee’s behavior.” Ibid. Even if an employee does speak as a citizen on a matter of public concern, the employee’s speech is not automatically privileged. Courts balance the First Amendment interest of the employee against “the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.” Pickering v. Board of Ed. of Township High School Dist. 205, Will Cty., 391 U.S. 563, 568, 88 S. Ct. 1731, 20 L. Ed. 2d 811 (1968). This framework “reconcile [s] the employee’s right to engage in speech and the government employer’s right to protect its own legitimate interests in performing its mission.” San Diego v. Roe, 543 U.S. 77, 82, 125 S. Ct. 521, 160 L. Ed. 2d 410 (2004) (per curiam). There are some rights and freedoms so fundamental to liberty that they cannot be bargained away in a contract for public employment. “Our responsibility is to ensure that citizens are not deprived of [these] fundamental rights by virtue of working for the government.” Connick, supra, at 147, 103 S. Ct. 1684, 75 L. Ed. 2d 708; see also Keyishian v. Board of Regents of Univ. of State of N. Y., 385 U.S. 589, 605-606, 87 S. Ct. 675, 17 L. Ed. 2d 629 (1967). Nevertheless, a citizen who accepts public employment “must accept certain limitations on his or her freedom.” Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410, 418, 126 S. Ct. 1951, 164 L. Ed. 2d 689 (2006). The government has a substantial interest in ensuring that all of its operations are efficient and effective. That interest may require broad authority to supervise the conduct of public employees. “When someone who is paid a salary so that she will contribute to an agency’s effective operation begins to do or say things that detract [564 U.S. 387] from the agency’s effective operation, the government employer must have some power to restrain her.” Waters v. Churchill, 511 U.S. 661, 675, 114 S. Ct. 1878, 128 L. Ed. 2d 686 (1994) (plurality opinion). Restraints are justified by the consensual nature of the employment relationship and by the unique nature of the government’s interest. This case arises under the Petition Clause, not the Speech Clause. The parties litigated the case on the premise that Guarnieri’s grievances and lawsuit are petitions protected by the Petition Clause. This Court’s precedents confirm that the Petition Clause protects the right of individuals to appeal to courts and other forums established by the government for resolution of legal disputes. “[T]he right of access to courts for redress of wrongs is an aspect of the First Amendment right to petition the government.” Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. 883, 896-897, 104 S. Ct. 2803, 81 L. Ed. 2d 732 (1984); see also BE&K Constr. Co. v. NLRB, 536 U.S. 516, 525, 122 S. Ct. 2390, 153 L. Ed. 2d 499 (2002); Bill Johnson’s Restaurants, Inc. v. NLRB, 461 U.S. 731, 741, 103 S. Ct. 2161, 76 L. Ed. 2d 277 (1983); California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited, 404 U.S. 508, 513, 92 S. Ct. 609, 30 L. Ed. 2d 642 (1972). Although retaliation by a government employer for a public employee’s exercise of the right of access to the courts may implicate the protections of the Petition Clause, this case provides no necessity to consider the correct application of the Petition Clause beyond that context. Although this case proceeds under the Petition Clause, Guarnieri just as easily could have alleged that his employer retaliated against him for the speech contained within his grievances and lawsuit. That claim would have been subject to the public concern test already described. Because Guarnieri chose to proceed under the Petition Clause, however, the Court of Appeals applied a more generous rule. Following the decision of the Court of Appeals in San Filippo, supra, at 443, Guarnieri was deemed entitled to protection from retaliation so long as his petition was not a “sham.” Under that rule, defendants and other public employers might be liable under the Petition Clause even if the same [564 U.S. 388] conduct would not give rise to liability under the Speech Clause. The question presented by this case is whether the history and purpose of the Petition Clause justify the imposition of broader liability when an employee invokes its protection instead of the protection afforded by the Speech Clause. It is not necessary to say that the two Clauses are identical in their mandate or their purpose and effect to acknowledge that the rights of speech and petition share substantial common ground. This Court has said that the right to speak and the right to petition are “cognate rights.” Thomas v. Collins, 323 U.S. 516, 530, 65 S. Ct. 315, 89 L. Ed. 430 (1945); see also Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598, 610, n. 11, 105 S. Ct. 1524, 84 L. Ed. 2d 547 (1985). “It was not by accident or coincidence that the rights to freedom in speech and press were coupled in a single guaranty with the rights of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition for redress of grievances.” Thomas, 323 U.S., at 530, 65 S. Ct. 315, 89 L. Ed. 430. Both speech and petition are integral to the democratic process, although not necessarily in the same way. The right to petition allows citizens to express their ideas, hopes, and concerns to their government and their elected representatives, whereas the right to speak fosters the public exchange of ideas that is integral to deliberative democracy as well as to the whole realm of ideas and human affairs. Beyond the political sphere, both speech and petition advance personal expression, although the right to petition is generally concerned with expression directed to the government seeking redress of a grievance. Courts should not presume there is always an essential equivalence in the two Clauses or that Speech Clause precedents necessarily and in every case resolve Petition Clause claims. See ibid, (rights of speech and petition are “not identical”). Interpretation of the Petition Clause must be guided by the objectives and aspirations that underlie the right. A petition conveys the special concerns of its author to the government and, in its usual form, requests action by [564 U.S. 389] the government to address those concerns. See Sure-Tan, Inc., supra, at 896-897, 104 S. Ct. 2803, 81 L. Ed. 2d 732. This Court’s opinion in McDonald v. Smith, 412 U.S. 479, 105 S. Ct. 2787, 86 L. Ed. 2d 384 (1985), has sometimes been interpreted to mean that the right to petition can extend no further than the right to speak; but McDonald held only that speech contained within a petition is subject to the same standards for defamation and libel as speech outside a petition. In those circumstances the Court found “no sound basis for granting greater constitutional protection to statements made in a petition... than other First Amendment expressions.” Id., at 485, 105 S. Ct. 2787, 86 L. Ed. 2d 384. There may arise cases where the special concerns of the Petition Clause would provide a sound basis for a distinct analysis; and if that is so, the rules and principles that define the two rights might differ in emphasis and formulation. As other Courts of Appeals have recognized, however, claims of retaliation by public employees do not call for this divergence. See supra, at 385, 180 L. Ed. 2d, at 419. The close connection between these rights has led Courts of Appeals other than the Third Circuit to apply the public concern test developed in Speech Clause cases to Petition Clause claims by public employees. As will be explained further, this approach is justified by the extensive common ground in the definition and delineation of these rights. The considerations that shape the application of the Speech Clause to public employees apply with equal force to claims by those employees under the Petition Clause. The substantial government interests that justify a cautious and restrained approach to the protection of speech by public employees are just as relevant when public employees proceed under the Petition Clause. Petitions, no less than speech, can interfere with the efficient and effective operation of government. A petition may seek to achieve results that “contravene governmental policies or impair the proper performance of governmental functions.” Garcetti, 547 U.S., at 419, 126 S. Ct. 1951, 164 L. Ed. 2d 689. Government must have authority, in appropriate [564 U.S. 390] circumstances, to restrain employees who use petitions to frustrate progress toward the ends they have been hired to achieve. A petition, like other forms of speech, can bring the “mission of the employer and the professionalism of its officers into serious disrepute.” Roe, 543 U.S., at 81, 125 S. Ct. 521, 160 L. Ed. 2d 410. A public employee might, for instance, use the courts to pursue personal vendettas or to harass members of the general public. That behavior could cause a serious breakdown in public confidence in the government and its employees. And if speech or petition were directed at or concerned other public employees, it could have a serious and detrimental effect on morale. When a petition takes the form of a lawsuit against the government employer, it may be particularly disruptive. Unlike speech of other sorts, a lawsuit demands a response. Mounting a defense to even frivolous claims may consume the time and resources of the government employer. Outside the context of public employment, this Court has recognized that the Petition Clause does not protect “objectively baseless” litigation that seeks to “ ‘interfere directly with the business relationships of a competitor.’ ” Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc. v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., 508 U.S. 49, 60-61, 113 S. Ct. 1920, 123 L. Ed. 2d 611 (1993) (quoting Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc., 365 U.S. 127, 144, 81 S. Ct. 523, 5 L. Ed. 2d 464 (1961)). In recognition of the substantial costs imposed by litigation, Congress has also required civil rights plaintiffs whose suits are “frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation” to pay attorney’s fees incurred by defendants. Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U.S. 412, 421, 98 S. Ct. 694, 54 L. Ed. 2d 648 (1978); see also Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 11 (providing sanctions for claims that are “presented for [an] improper purpose,” frivolous, or lacking evidentiary support). The government likewise has a significant interest in disciplining public employees who abuse the judicial process. Unrestrained application of the Petition Clause in the context of government employment would subject a wide [564 U.S. 391] range of government operations to invasive judicial superintendence. Employees may file grievances on a variety of employment matters, including working conditions, pay, discipline, promotions, leave, vacations, and terminations. See Brief for National School Boards Association as Amicus Curiae 5. Every government action in response could present a potential federal constitutional issue. Judges and juries, asked to determine whether the government’s actions were in fact retaliatory, would be required to give scrutiny to both the government’s response to the grievance and the government’s justification for its actions. This would occasion review of a host of collateral matters typically left to the discretion of public officials. Budget priorities, personnel decisions, and substantive policies might all be laid before the jury. This would raise serious federalism and separation-of-powers concerns. It would also consume the time and attention of public officials, burden the exercise of legitimate authority, and blur the lines of accountability between officials and the public. This case illustrates these risks and costs. Guarnieri’s attorney invited the jury to review myriad details of government decisionmaking. She questioned the council’s decision to issue directives in writing, rather than orally, Tr. 66 (Apr. 14, 2008); the council’s failure to consult the mayor before issuing the directives, id., at 105 (Apr. 15, 2008); the amount of money spent to employ “Philadelphia lawyers” to defend Guarnieri’s legal challenges, id., at 191 to 193:7-10 (Apr. 14, 2008), 152-153 (Apr. 16, 2008); and the wisdom of the council’s decision to spend money to install Global Positioning System devices on police cars, id., at 161-162 (same). Finally, the attorney invited the jury to evaluate the council’s decisions in light of an emotional appeal on behalf of Guarnieri’s “little dog Hercules, little white fluffy dog and half Shitsu.” Id., at 49:13-14 (Apr. 14, 2008). It is precisely to avoid this intrusion into internal governmental affairs that this Court has held that, “while the First Amendment invests public [564 U.S. 392] employees with certain rights, it does not empower them to ‘constitutionalize the employee grievance.’ ” Garcetti, 547 U.S., at 420, 126 S. Ct. 1951, 164 L. Ed. 2d 689 (quoting Connick, 461 U.S., at 154, 103 S. Ct. 1684, 75 L. Ed. 2d 708). If the Petition Clause were to apply even where matters of public concern are not involved, that would be unnecessary, or even disruptive, when there is already protection for the rights of public employees to file grievances and to litigate. The government can and often does adopt statutory and regulatory mechanisms to protect the rights of employees against improper retaliation or discipline, while preserving important government interests. Cf. Garcetti, supra, at 425, 126 S. Ct. 1951, 164 L. Ed. 2d 689 (noting a “powerful network of legislative enactments”). Employees who sue under federal and state employment laws often benefit from generous and quite detailed antiretaliation provisions. See, e.g., Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 43, § 1101.1201(a)(4) (Purdon 2009); § 1101.1302. These statutory protections are subject to legislative revision and can be designed for the unique needs of State, local, or Federal Governments, as well as the special circumstances of particular governmental offices and agencies. The Petition Clause is not an instrument for public employees to circumvent these legislative enactments when pursuing claims based on ordinary workplace grievances. In light of the government’s interests in the public employment context, it would be surprising if Petition Clause claims by public employees were not limited as necessary to protect the employer’s functions and responsibilities. Even beyond the Speech Clause, this Court has explained that “government has significantly greater leeway in its dealings with citizen employees than it does when it brings its sovereign power to bear on citizens at large.” Engquist v. Oregon Dept. of Agriculture, 553 U.S. 591, 599, 128 S. Ct. 2146, 170 L. Ed. 2d 975 (2008); see also NASA v. Nelson, 562 U.S. 134, 148-149, 131 S. Ct. 746, 178 L. Ed. 2d 667 (2011). The government’s interest in managing its internal affairs requires proper restraints on the invocation of rights by employees when the workplace or the government employer’s responsibilities [564 U.S. 393] may be affected. There is no reason to think the Petition Clause should be an exception. The public concern test was developed to protect these substantial government interests. Adoption of a different rule for Petition Clause claims would provide a ready means for public employees to circumvent the test’s protections. Consider Sheila Myers, who was the original plaintiff in Con-nick. She circulated “a questionnaire soliciting the views of her fellow staff members” on various office matters. 461 U.S., at 141, 103 S. Ct. 1684, 75 L. Ed. 2d 708. The Court held that Myers’ claim for retaliation failed the public concern test because the questionnaire was “most accurately characterized as an employee grievance concerning internal office policy.” Id., at 154, 103 S. Ct. 1684, 75 L. Ed. 2d 708. It would undermine that principle if a different result would have obtained had Myers raised those same claims using a formal grievance procedure. Myers’ employer “reasonably believed [Myers’ complaints] would disrupt the office, undermine his authority, and destroy close working relationships.” Ibid. These concerns would be no less significant in the context of a formal grievance. Employees should not be able to evade the rule articulated in the Con-nick case by wrapping their speech in the mantle of the Petition Clause. Articulation of a separate test for the Petition Clause would aggravate potential harm to the government’s interests by compounding the costs of compliance with the Constitution. A different rule for each First Amendment claim would require employers to separate petitions from other speech in order to afford them different treatment; and that, in turn, would add to the complexity and expense of compliance with the Constitution. Identifying petitions might be easy when employees employ formal grievance procedures, but the right to petition is not limited to petitions lodged under formal procedures. See, e.g., Brown v. Louisiana, 383 U.S. 131, 86 S. Ct. 719, 15 L. Ed. 2d 637 (1966). Indeed, the employee in Connick could have made a colorable argument that her questionnaire ought to be viewed as a petition for redress of grievances. [564 U.S. 394] Guarnieri claims application of the public concern test to the Petition Clause would be inappropriate in light of the private nature of many petitions for redress of grievances. The Petition Clause undoubtedly does have force and application in the context of a personal grievance addressed to the government. See, e.g., Trainmen v. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar, 377 U.S. 1, 84 S. Ct. 1113, 12 L. Ed. 2d 89 (1964); Thomas, 323 U.S., at 530-531, 65 S. Ct. 315, 89 L. Ed. 2d 430. At the founding, citizens petitioned on a wide range of subjects, including matters of both private and public concern. Petitions to the colonial legislatures concerned topics as diverse as debt actions, estate distributions, divorce proceedings, and requests for modification of a criminal sentence. Higginson, A Short History of the Right To Petition Government for the Redress of Grievances, 96 Yale L. J. 142, 146 (1986). Although some claims will be of interest only to the individual making the appeal, for that individual the need for a legal remedy may be a vital imperative. See, e.g., M. L. B. v. S. L. J., 519 U.S. 102, 117 S. Ct. 555, 136 L. Ed. 2d 473 (1996); Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371, 91 S. Ct. 780, 28 L. Ed. 2d 113 (1971). Outside the public employment context, constitutional protection for petitions does not necessarily turn on whether those petitions relate to a matter of public concern. There is, however, no merit to the suggestion that the public concern test cannot apply under the Petition Clause because the majority of petitions to colonial legislatures addressed matters of purely private concern. In analogous cases under the Speech Clause, this Court has noted the “Constitution’s special concern with threats to the right of citizens to participate in political affairs,” Connick, supra, at 145, 103 S. Ct. 1684, 75 L. Ed. 2d 708, even though it is likely that, in this and any other age, most speech concerns purely private matters. The proper scope and application of the Petition Clause likewise cannot be determined merely by tallying up petitions to the colonial legislatures. Some effort must be made to identify the historic and fundamental principles that led to the enumeration of the right to petition in the First Amendment, among other rights fundamental to liberty. [564 U.S. 395] Petitions to the government assume an added dimension when they seek to advance political, social, or other ideas of interest to the community as a whole. Petition, as a word, a concept, and an essential safeguard of freedom, is of ancient significance in the English law and the Anglo-American legal tradition. See, e.g., 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *143. The right to petition applied to petitions from nobles to the King, from Parliament to the King, and from the people to the Parliament, and it concerned both discrete, personal injuries and great matters of state. The right to petition traces its origins to Magna Carta, which confirmed the right of barons to petition the King. W. McKechnie, Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John 467 (rev. 2d ed. 1958). The Magna Carta itself was King John’s answer to a petition from the barons. Id., at 30-38. Later, the Petition of Right of 1628 drew upon centuries of tradition and Magna Carta as a model for the Parliament to issue a plea, or even a demand, that the Crown refrain from certain actions. 3 Car. 1, ch. 1 (1627), 5 Statutes of the Realm 23. The Petition of Right stated four principal grievances: taxation without consent of Parliament; arbitrary imprisonment; quartering or billeting of soldiers; and the imposition of martial law. After its passage by both Houses of Parliament, the Petition received the King’s assent and became part of the law of England. See S. Gardiner, The First Two Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution, 1603-1660, pp. 60-61 (1886). The Petition of Right occupies a place in English constitutional history superseded in importance, perhaps, only by Magna Carta itself and the Declaration of Right of 1689. The following years saw use of mass petitions to address matters of public concern. See 8 D. Hume, History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688, p. 122 (1763) (“Tumultuous petitioning... was an admirable expedient... for spreading discontent, and for uniting the nation in any popular clamour”). In 1680, for instance, more than 15,000 persons signed a petition regarding the [564 U.S. 396] summoning and dissolution of Parliament, “one of the major political issues agitating the nation.” Knights, London’s ‘Monster’ Petition, 36 Historical Journal 39, 40-43 (1993). Nine years later, the Declaration of Right listed the illegal acts of the sovereign and set forth certain rights of the King’s subjects, one of which was the right to petition the sovereign. It stated that “it is the Right of the Subjects to petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are Illegall.” 1 W. & M., ch. 2, 6 Statutes of the Realm 143; see also L. Schwoerer, The Declaration of Rights, 1689, pp. 69-71 (1981). The Declaration of Independence of 1776 arose in the same tradition. After listing other specific grievances and wrongs, it complained, “In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.” The Declaration of Independence ¶ 30. After independence, petitions on matters of public concern continued to be an essential part of contemporary debates in this country’s early history. Two years before the adoption of the Constitution, James Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, an important document in the history of the Establishment Clause, was presented to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia as a petition. See 1 D. Laycock, Religious Liberty: Overviews and History 90 (2010); Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, 563 U.S. 125, 140-141, 131 S. Ct. 1436, 179 L. Ed. 2d 523 (2011). It attracted over 1,000 signatures. Laycock, supra, at 90, n. 153. During the ratification debates, Antifederalists circulated petitions urging delegates not to adopt the Constitution absent modification by a bill of rights. Boyd, Antifederalists and the Acceptance of the Constitution: Pennsylvania, 1787-1792, 9 Publius, No. 2, pp. 123, 128-133 (Spring 1979). Petitions to the National Legislature also played a central part in the legislative debate on the subject of slavery in the years before the Civil War. See W. Miller, Arguing [564 U.S. 397] About Slavery (1995). Petitions allowed participation in democratic governance even by groups excluded from the franchise. See Mark, The Vestigial Constitution: The History and Significance of the Right to Petition, 66 Ford. L. Rev. 2153, 2182 (1998). For instance, petitions by women seeking the vote had a role in the early woman’s suffrage movement. See Cogan & Ginzberg, 1846 Petition for Woman’s Suffrage, New York State Constitutional Convention, 22 Signs 427, 437-438 (1997). The right to petition is in some sense the source of other fundamental rights, for petitions have provided a vital means for citizens to request recognition of new rights and to assert existing rights against the sovereign. Petitions to the courts and similar bodies can likewise address matters of great public import. In the context of the civil rights movement, litigation provided a means for “the distinctive contribution of a minority group to the ideas and beliefs of our society.” NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 431, 83 S. Ct. 328, 9 L. Ed. 2d 405 (1963). Individuals may also “engag[e] in litigation as a vehicle for effective political expression and association, as well as a means of communicating useful information to the public.” In re Primus Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
C
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. We initially noted probable jurisdiction of an appeal and a cross-appeal in this matter. 488 U. S. 815 (1988). Appellee filed suit in District Court to bar enforcement of 18 U. S. C. § 1302, based on the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The suit sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the Postmaster General, among others. Section 1302 prohibits the mailing of any “publication of any kind containing any advertisement of any lottery, gift enterprise, or scheme of any kind offering prizes dependent in whole or in part upon lot or chance, or containing any list of the prizes drawn or awarded by means of any such lottery, gift enterprise, or scheme.” The District Court found § 1302 valid as applied to advertisements, but unconstitutional as applied to prize lists, because the statute could prevent the publication of prize lists in news reports. The District Court granted an injunction limited to the latter issue. Minnesota Newspaper Assn., Inc. v. Postmaster General, 677 F. Supp. 1400 (Minn. 1987). Appellants sought review of the ruling on prize lists, and appellee cross-appealed from the ruling on advertisements. After the Court had noted probable jurisdiction of both appeals, Congress passed two laws affecting the coverage of § 1302. Charity Games Advertising Clarification Act of 1988, §2(a), Pub. L. 100-625, 102 Stat. 3205 (Nov. 7, 1988); Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, §21, Pub. L. 100-497, 102 Stat. 2486 (Oct. 17, 1988). Although the first statute does not take effect until May 7, 1990, the parties agreed to dismiss the cross-appeal under this Court’s Rule 53. Minnesota Newspaper Assn., Inc. v. Postmaster General, 488 U. S. 998 (1989). In this Court, appellants now take the position that the statute does not apply to the noncommercial publishing of prize lists. Brief for Appellants 12, 14-30. In light of this concession, appellee, the original plaintiff in the case, states its willingness to forgo any further claim to the declaratory and equitable relief sought in its complaint. In these circumstances, we conclude that there is no longer any live controversy on the issue whether the statute is constitutional as it applies to prize lists, and that this appeal is moot. There is no justification for our retaining jurisdiction of a civil case where no real controversy is before us. Deakins v. Monaghan, 484 U. S. 193, 200-201 (1988). We therefore vacate the judgment below and remand for the District Court to dismiss the portions of the complaint remaining at issue on this appeal. See id., at 200; United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U. S. 36, 39-40 (1950). It is so ordered. Justice White and Justice Marshall dissent. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. This was a suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in which the petitioner claimed damages under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act and the Boiler Inspection Act for the death of her husband while in the respondent’s employ as a brakeman. In response to specific interrogatories, the jury absolved the respondent of liability under the Boiler Inspection Act, but found that there had been such negligence as to create liability under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. It returned a verdict for petitioner. Judgment was entered upon the verdict. The respondent moved the Court to set aside the verdict and the judgment entered thereon in accordance with its motion for directed verdict under Rule 50 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The judgment was vacated; the verdict set aside, and judgment entered in favor of the respondent. The District Court was of the opinion that there was no evidence upon which a finding of negligence could be predicated, and that, in any event, there was no evidence of a causal relation between the claimed negligence and the accident. 71 F. Supp. 764. Upon appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the judgment was affirmed. A rehearing was granted, and there was an affirmance with one judge dissenting. 164 F. 2d 996. There is a single question presented to us: Was there any evidence in the record upon which the jury could have found negligence on the part of the respondent which contributed, in whole or in part, to Eckenrode’s death? Upon consideration of the record, the Court is of the opinion that there is no evidence, nor any inference which reasonably may be drawn from the evidence, when viewed in a light most favorable to the petitioner, which can sustain a recovery for her. Accordingly, the judgment is Affirmed. Mr. Justice Black, Mr. Justice Douglas, Mr. Justice Murphy and Mr. Justice Rutledge dissent. 35 Stat. 65, 53 Stat. 1404, 45 U. S. C. § 51. 36 Stat. 913, as amended, 45 U. S. C. § 23. 45 U. S. C. § 51. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit here rejected an arbitrator’s factual findings and then resolved the merits of the parties’ dispute instead of remanding the case for further arbitration proceedings. Because the court’s determination conflicts with our cases limiting review of an arbitrator’s award entered pursuant to an agreement between an employer and a labor organization and prescribing the appropriate remedy where vacation of the award is warranted, we grant the petition for a writ of certiorari and reverse. The motions for leave to file briefs amicus curiae of the National Academy of Arbitrators and the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball are granted. In the late 1980’s, petitioner Major League Baseball Players Association (Association) filed grievances against the Major League Baseball Clubs (Clubs), claiming the Clubs had colluded in the market for free-agent services after the 1985, 1986, and 1987 baseball seasons, in violation of the industry’s collective-bargaining agreement. A free agent is a player who may contract with any Club, rather than one whose right to contract is restricted to a particular Club. In a series of decisions, arbitrators found collusion by the Clubs and damage to the players. The Association and Clubs subsequently entered into a Global Settlement Agreement (Agreement), pursuant to which the Clubs established a $280 million fund to be distributed to injured players. The Association also designed a “Framework” to evaluate the individual player’s claims, and, applying that Framework, recommended distribution plans for claims relating to a particular season or seasons. The Framework provided that players could seek an arbitrator’s review of the distribution plan. The arbitrator would determine “‘only whether the approved Framework and the criteria set forth therein have been properly applied in the proposed Distribution Plan.’ ” Garvey v. Roberts, 203 F. 3d 580, 583 (CA9 2000) (Garvey I). The Framework set forth factors to be considered in evaluating players’ claims, as well as specific requirements for lost contract-extension claims. Such claims were cognizable “‘only in those cases where evidence exists that a specific offer of an extension was made by a club prior to collusion only to thereafter be withdrawn when the collusion scheme was initiated.’ ” Id., at 584. Respondent Steve Garvey, a retired, highly regarded first baseman, submitted a claim for damages of approximately $3 million. He alleged that his contract with the San Diego Padres was not extended to the 1988 and 1989 seasons due to collusion. The Association rejected Garvey’s claim in February 1996, because he presented no evidence that the Padres actually offered to extend his contract. Garvey objected, and an arbitration hearing was held. He testified that the Padres offered to extend his contract for the 1988 and 1989 seasons and then withdrew the offer after they began colluding with other teams. He presented a June 1996 letter from Ballard Smith, Padres’ President and GEO from 1979 to 1987, stating that, before the end of the 1985 season, Smith offered to extend Garvey’s contract through the 1989 season, hut that the Padres refused to negotiate with Garvey thereafter due to collusion. The arbitrator denied Garvey’s claim, after seeking additional documentation from the parties. In his award, he explained that “ ‘[t]here exists . .. substantial doubt as to the credibility of the statements in the Smith letter.’” Id., at 586. He noted the “stark contradictions” between the 1996 letter and Smith’s testimony in the earlier arbitration proceedings regarding collusion, where Smith, like other owners, denied collusion and stated that the Padres simply were not interested in extending Garvey’s contract. Ibid. The arbitrator determined that, due to these contradictions, he “‘must reject [Smith’s] more recent assertion that Garvey did not receive [a contract] extension’ ” due to collusion, and found that Garvey had not shown a specific offer of extension. Ibid. He concluded: “‘The shadow cast over the credibility of the Smith testimony coupled with the absence of any other corroboration of the claim submitted by Garvey compels a finding that the Padres declined to extend his contract not because of the constraints of the collusion effort of the clubs but rather as a baseball judgment founded upon [Garvey’s] age and recent injury history.’ ” Ibid. Garvey moved in Federal District Court to vacate the arbitrator’s award, alleging that the arbitrator violated the Framework by denying his claim. The District Court denied the motion. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed by a divided vote. The court acknowledged that judicial review of an arbitrator’s decision in a labor dispute is extremely limited. But it held that review of the merits of the arbitrator’s award was warranted in this case, because the arbitrator “‘dispensed his own brand of industrial justice.’ ” Id., at 589. The court recognized that Smith’s prior testimony with respect to collusion conflicted with the statements in his 1996 letter. But in the court’s view, the arbitrator’s refusal to credit Smith’s letter was “inexplicable” and “border[ed] on the irrational,” because a panel of arbitrators, chaired by the arbitrator involved here, had previously concluded that the owners’ prior testimony was false. Id., at 590. The court rejected the arbitrator’s reliance on the absence of other corroborating evidence, attributing that fact to Smith and Garvey’s direct negotiations. The court also found that the record provided “strong support” for the truthfulness of Smith’s 1996 letter. Id., at 591-592. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded with directions to vacate the award. The District Court then remanded the ease to the arbitration panel for further hearings, and Garvey appealed. The Court of Appeals, again by a divided vote, explained that Garvey I established that “the conclusion that Smith made Garvey an offer and subsequently withdrew it because of the collusion scheme was the only conclusion that the arbitrator could draw from the record in the proceedings.” No. 00-56080, 2000 WL 1801383, *1 (CA9, Dec. 7, 2000) (unpublished), judgt. order reported at 243 F. 3d 547 (Garvey II). Noting that its prior instructions might have been unclear, the court clarified that Garvey I “left only one possible result — the result our holding contemplated — an award in Garvey’s favor.” 2000 WL 1801383, at *1. The Court of Appeals reversed the District Court and directed that it remand the case to the arbitration panel with instructions to enter an award for Garvey in the amount he claimed. The parties do not dispute that this case arises under § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 61 Stat. 156, 29 U. S. C. § 185(a), as the controversy involves an assertion of rights under an agreement between an employer and a labor organization. Although Garvey’s specific allegation is that the arbitrator violated the Framework for resolving players’ claims for damages, that Framework was designed to facilitate payments to remedy the Clubs’ breach of the collective-bargaining agreement. Garvey’s right to be made whole is founded on that agreement. Judicial review of a labor-arbitration decision pursuant to such an agreement is very limited. Courts are not authorized to review the arbitrator’s decision on the merits despite allegations that the decision rests on factual errors or misinterprets the parties’ agreement. Paperworkers v. Misco, Inc., 484 U.S. 29, 36 (1987). We recently reiterated that if an “ ‘arbitrator is even arguably construing or applying the contract and acting within the scope of his authority,’ the fact that ‘a court is convinced he committed serious error does not suffice to overturn his decision.’ ” Eastern Associated Coal Corp. v. Mine Workers, 531 U.S. 57, 62 (2000) (quoting Misco, supra, at 38). It is only when the arbitrator strays from interpretation and application of the agreement and effectively "dispense[s] his own brand of industrial justice” that his decision may be unenforceable. Steelworkers v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 597 (1960). When an arbitrator resolves disputes regarding the application of a contract, and no dishonesty is alleged, the arbitrator’s "improvident, even silly, factfinding” does not provide a basis for a reviewing court to refuse to enforce the award. Misco, 484 U.S., at 39. In discussing the courts’ limited role in reviewing the merits of arbitration awards, we have stated that ‘“courts . . . have no business weighing the merits of the grievance [or] considering whether there is equity in a particular claim.’” Id., at 37 (quoting Steelworkers v. American Mfg. Co., 368 U. S. 564, 568 (1960)). When the judiciary does so, “it usurps a function which... is entrusted to the arbitration tribunal.” Id., at 569; see also Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., supra, at 599 (“It is the arbitrator’s construction [of the agreement] which was bargained for...”). Consistent with this limited role, we said in Misco that “[e]ven in the very rare instances when an arbitrator’s procedural aberrations rise to the level of affirmative misconduct, as a rule the court must not foreclose further proceedings by settling the merits according to its own judgment of the appropriate result.” 484 U.S., at 40-41, n. 10. That step, we explained, “would improperly substitute a judicial determination for the arbitrator’s decision that the parties bargained for” in their agreement. Ibid. Instead, the court should “simply vacate the award, thus leaving open the possibility of further proceedings if they are permitted under the terms of the agreement.” Ibid. To be sure, the Court of Appeals here recited these principles, but its application of them is nothing short of baffling. The substance of the court’s discussion reveals that it overturned the arbitrator’s decision because it disagreed with the arbitrator’s factual findings, particularly those with respect to credibility. The Court of Appeals, it appears, would have credited Smith’s 1996 letter, and found the arbitrator’s refusal to do so at worst “irrational” and at best “bizarre.” Garvey I, 203 P. 3d, at 590-591. But even “serious error” on the arbitrator’s part does not justify overturning his decision, where, as here, he is construing a contract and acting within the scope of his authority. Misco, supra, at 38. In Garvey II, the court clarified that Garvey I both rejected the arbitrator’s findings and went further, resolving the merits of the parties’ dispute based on the court’s assessment of the record before the arbitrator. For that reason, the court found further arbitration proceedings inappropriate. But again, established law ordinarily precludes a court from resolving the merits of the parties’ dispute on the basis of its own factual determinations, no matter how erroneous the arbitrator’s decision. Misco, supra, at 40, n. 10; see also American Mfg. Co., supra, at 568. Even when the arbitrator’s award may properly be vacated, the appropriate remedy is to remand the case for further arbitration proceedings. Misco, supra, at 40, n. 10. The dissent suggests that the remedy described in Misco is limited to cases where the arbitrator’s errors are procedural. Post, at 512 (opinion of Stevens, J.). Misco did involve procedural issues, but our discussion regarding the appropriate remedy was not so limited. If a remand is appropriate even when the arbitrator’s award has been set aside for “procedural aberrations” that constitute “affirmative misconduct,” it follows that a remand ordinarily will be appropriate when the arbitrator simply made factual findings that the reviewing court perceives as “irrational.” The Court of Appeals usurped the arbitrator’s role by resolving the dispute and barring further proceedings, a result at odds with this governing law. For the foregoing reasons, the Court of Appeals erred in reversing the order of the District Court denying the motion to vacate the arbitrator’s award, and it erred further in directing that judgment be entered in Garvey’s favor. The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Garvey contends that, because the Association’s petition was filed more than 90 days after Garvey I, we cannot consider a challenge raising issues resolved in that decision. But there is no question that the Association’s petition was filed in sufficient time for us to review Garvey II, and we have authority to consider questions determined in earlier stages of the litigation where certiorari is sought from the most recent of the judgments of the Court of Appeals. Mercer v. Theriot, 377 U.S. 152 (1964) (per curiam); Hamilton-Brown Shoe Co. v. Wolf Brothers & Co., 240 U.S. 251, 258 (1916). In any event, no serious error on the arbitrator's part is apparent in this ease. The faet that an earlier panel of arbitrators rejected the owners’ testimony as a whole does not compel the conclusion that the panel found Smith’s spedfie statements with respect to Garvey to be false. The arbitrator’s explanation for his decision indicates that he simply found Smith an unreliable witness and that, in the absence of corroborating evidence, he could only condude that Garvey failed to show that the Padres had offered to extend his contract. The arbitrator’s analysis may have been unpersuasive to the Court of Appeals, but his dedsion hardly qualifies as serious error, let alone irrational or inexplicable error. And, as we have said, any such error would not justify the actions taken by the court. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
G
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Scalia announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which The Chief Justice joins, and in all but footnote 6 of which Justice O’Connor and Justice Kennedy join. Under California law, a child born to a married woman living with her husband is presumed to be a child of the marriage. Cal. Evid. Code Ann. § 621 (West Supp. 1989). The presumption of legitimacy may be rebutted only by the husband or wife, and then only in limited circumstances. Ibid. The instant appeal presents the claim that this presumption infringes upon the due process rights of a man who wishes to establish his paternity of a child born to the wife of another man, and the claim that it infringes upon the constitutional right of the child to maintain a relationship with her natural father. I The facts of this case are, we must hope, extraordinary. On May 9, 1976, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Carole D., an international model, and Gerald D., a top executive in a French oil company, were married. The couple established a home in Playa del Rey, California, in which they resided as husband and wife when one or the other was not out of the country on business. In the summer of 1978, Carole became involved in an adulterous affair with a neighbor, Michael H. In September 1980, she conceived a child, Victoria D., who was born on May 11, 1981. Gerald was listed as father on the birth certificate and has always held Victoria out to the world as his daughter. Soon after delivery of the child, however, Carole informed Michael that she believed he might be the father. In the first three years of her life, Victoria remained always with Carole, but found herself within a variety of quasi-family units. In October 1981, Gerald moved to New York City to pursue his business interests, but Carole chose to remain in California. At the end of that month, Carole and Michael had blood tests of themselves and Victoria, which showed a 98.07% probability that Michael was Victoria’s father. In January 1982, Carole visited Michael in St. Thomas, where his primary business interests were based. There Michael held Victoria out as his child. In March, however, Carole left Michael and returned to California, where she took up residence with yet another man, Scott K. Later that spring, and again in the summer, Carole and Victoria spent time with Gerald in New York City, as well as on vacation in Europe. In the fall, they returned to Scott in California. In November 1982, rebuffed in his attempts to visit Victoria, Michael filed a filiation action in California Superior Court to establish his paternity and right to visitation. In March 1983, the court appointed an attorney and guardian ad litem to represent Victoria’s interests. Victoria then filed a cross-complaint asserting that if she had more than one psychological or defacto father, she was entitled to maintain her filial relationship, with all of the attendant rights, duties, and obligations, with both. In May 1983, Carole filed a motion for summary judgment. During this period, from March through July 1983, Carole was again living with Gerald in New York. In August, however, she returned to California, became involved once again with Michael, and instructed her attorneys to remove the summary judgment motion from the calendar. For the ensuing eight months, when Michael was not in St. Thomas he lived with Carole and Victoria in Carole’s apartment in Los Angeles and held Victoria out as his daughter. In April 1984, Carole and Michael signed a stipulation that Michael was Victoria’s natural father. Carole left Michael the next month, however, and instructed her attorneys not to file the stipulation. In June 1984, Carole reconciled with Gerald and joined him in New York, where they now live with Victoria and two other children since born into the marriage. In May 1984, Michael and Victoria, through her guardian ad litem, sought visitation rights for Michael pendente lite. To assist in determining whether visitation would be in Victoria’s best interests, the Superior Court appointed a psychologist to evaluate Victoria, Gerald, Michael, and Carole. The psychologist recommended that Carole retain sole custody, but that Michael be allowed continued contact with Victoria pursuant to a restricted visitation schedule. The court concurred and ordered that Michael be provided with limited visitation privileges pendente lite. On October 19, 1984, Gerald, who had intervened in the action, moved for summary judgment on the ground that under Cal. Evid. Code § 621 there were no triable issues of fact as to Victoria’s paternity. This law provides that “the issue of a wife cohabiting with her husband, who is not impotent or sterile, is conclusively presumed to be a child of the marriage.” Cal. Evid. Code Ann. § 621(a) (West Supp. 1989). The presumption may be rebutted by blood tests, but only if a motion for such tests is made, within two years from the date of the child’s birth, either by the husband or, if the natural father has filed an affidavit acknowledging paternity, by the wife. §§ 621(c) and (d). On January 28, 1985, having found that affidavits submitted by Carole and Gerald sufficed to demonstrate that the two were cohabiting at conception and birth and that Gerald was neither sterile nor impotent, the Superior Court granted Gerald’s motion for summary judgment, rejecting Michael’s and Victoria’s challenges to the constitutionality of §621. The court also denied their motions for continued visitation pending the appeal under Cal. Civ. Code §4601, which provides that a court may, in its discretion, grant “reasonable visitation rights... to any... person having an interest in the welfare of the child.” Cal. Civ. Code Ann. §4601 (West Supp. 1989). It found that allowing such visitation would “violat[e] the intention of the Legislature by impugning the integrity of the family unit.” Supp. App. to Juris. Statement A-91. On appeal, Michael asserted, inter alia, that the Superior Court’s application of §621 had violated his procedural and substantive due process rights. Victoria also raised a due process challenge to the statute, seeking to preserve her de facto relationship with Michael as well as with Gerald. She contended, in addition, that as § 621 allows the husband and, at least to a limited extent, the mother, but not the child, to rebut the presumption of legitimacy, it violates the child’s right to equal protection. Finally, she asserted a right to continued visitation with Michael under §4601. After submission of briefs and a hearing, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment of the Superior Court and upheld the constitutionality of the statute. 191 Cal. App. 3d 995, 236 Cal. Rptr. 810 (1987). It interpreted that judgment, moreover, as having denied permanent visitation rights under §4601, regarding that as the implication of the Superior Court’s reliance upon § 621 and upon an earlier California case, Vincent B. v. Joan R., 126 Cal. App. 3d 619, 179 Cal. Rptr. 9 (1981), appeal dism’d, 459 U. S. 807 (1982), which had held that once an assertion of biological paternity is “determined to be legally impossible” under § 621, visitation against the wishes of the mother should be denied under § 4601. 126 Cal. App. 3d, at 627-628, 179 Cal. Rptr., at 13. The Court of Appeal denied Michael’s and Victoria’s petitions for rehearing, and, on July 30, 1987, the California Supreme Court denied discretionary review. On February 29, 1988, we noted probable jurisdiction of the present appeal. 485 U. S. 903. Before us, Michael and Victoria both raise equal protection and due process challenges. We do not reach Michael’s equal protection claim, however, as it was neither raised nor passed upon below. See Bankers Life & Casualty Co. v. Crenshaw, 486 U. S. 71 (1988). ( — I I — I The California statute that is the subject of this litigation is, in substance, more than a century old. California Code of Civ. Proc. § 1962(5), enacted in 1872, provided that “[t]he issue of a wife cohabiting with her husband, who is not impotent, is indisputably presumed to be legitimate.” In 1955, the legislature amended the statute by adding the preface: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law.” 1955 Cal. Stats., ch. 948, p. 1835, §3. In 1965, when California’s Evidence Code was adopted, the statute was codified as § 621, with no substantive change except replacement of the word “indisputably” with “conclusively,” 1965 Cal. Stats., ch. 299, §2, pp. 1297, 1308. When California adopted the Uniform Parentage Act, 1975 Cal. Stats., ch. 1244, §11, pp. 3196-3201, codified at Cal. Civ. Code Ann. §7000 et seq. (West 1983), it amended §621 by replacing the word “legitimate” with the phrase “a child of the marriage” and by adding nonsterility to nonimpotence and cohabitation as a predicate for the presumption. 1975 Cal. Stats., ch. 1244, §13, p. 3202. In 1980, the legislature again amended the statute to provide the husband an opportunity to introduce blood-test evidence in rebuttal of the presumption, 1980 Cal. Stats., ch. 1310, p. 4433; and in 1981 amended it to provide the mother such an opportunity, 1981 Cal. Stats., ch. 1180, p. 4761. In their present form, the substantive provisions of the statute are as follows: “§ 621. Child of the marriage; notice of motion for blood tests “(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), the issue of a wife cohabiting with her husband, who is not impotent or sterile, is conclusively presumed to be a child of the marriage. “(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (a), if the court finds that the conclusions of all the experts, as disclosed by the evidence based upon blood tests performed pursuant to Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 890) of Division 7 are that the husband is not the father of the child, the question of paternity of the husband shall be resolved accordingly. “(c) The notice of motion for blood tests under subdivision (b) may be raised by the husband not later than two years from the child’s date of birth. “(d) The notice of motion for blood tests under subdivision (b) may be raised by the mother of the child not later than two years from the child’s date of birth if the child’s biological father has filed an affidavit with the court acknowledging paternity of the child. “(e) The provisions of subdivision (b) shall not apply to any case coming within the provisions of Section 7005 of the Civil Code [dealing with artificial insemination] or to any case in which the wife, with the consent of the husband, conceived by means of a surgical procedure.” Ill We address first the claims of Michael. At the outset, it is necessary to clarify what he sought and what he was denied. California law, like nature itself, makes no provision for dual fatherhood. Michael was seeking to be declared the father of Victoria. The immediate benefit he evidently sought to obtain from that status was visitation rights. See Cal. Civ. Code Ann. §4601 (West 1983) (parent has statutory right to visitation “unless it is shown that such visitation would be detrimental to the best interests of the child”). But if Michael were successful in being declared the father, other rights would follow — most importantly, the right to be considered as the parent who should have custody, Cal. Civ. Code Ann. § 4600 (West 1983), a status which “embrace[s] the sum of parental rights with respect to the rearing of a child, including the child’s care; the right to the child’s services and earnings; the right to direct the child’s activities; the right to make decisions regarding the control, education, and health of the child; and the right, as well as the duty, to prepare the child for additional obligations, which includes the teaching of moral standards, religious beliefs, and elements of good citizenship.” 4 California Family Law §60.02[l][b] (C. Markey ed. 1987) (footnotes omitted). All parental rights, including visitation, were automatically denied by denying Michael status as the father. While Cal. Civ. Code Ann. § 4601 places it within the discretionary power of a court to award visitation rights to a nonparent, the Superior Court here, affirmed by the Court of Appeal, held that California law denies visitation, against the wishes of the mother, to a putative father who has been prevented by § 621 from establishing his paternity. See 191 Cal. App. 3d, at 1013, 236 Cal. Rptr., at 821, citing Vincent B. v. Joan R., 126 Cal. App. 3d, at 627-628 179 Cal. Rptr., at 13. Michael raises two related challenges to the constitutionality of §621. First, he asserts that requirements of procedural due process prevent the State from terminating his liberty interest in his relationship with his child without affording him an opportunity to demonstrate his paternity in an evidentiary hearing. We believe this claim derives from a fundamental misconception of the nature of the California statute. While § 621 is phrased in terms of a presumption, that rule of evidence is the implementation of a substantive rule of law. California declares it to be, except in limited circumstances, irrelevant for paternity purposes whether a child conceived during, and born into, an existing marriage was begotten by someone other than the husband and had a prior relationship with him. As the Court of Appeal phrased it: “ ‘The conclusive presumption is actually a substantive rule of law based upon a determination by the Legislature as a matter of overriding social policy, that given a certain relationship between the husband and wife, the husband is to be held responsible for the child, and that the integrity of the family unit should not be impugned.’” 191 Cal. App. 3d, at 1005, 236 Cal. Rptr., at 816, quoting Vincent B. v. Joan R., supra, at 623, 179 Cal. Rptr., at 10. Of course the conclusive presumption not only expresses the State’s substantive policy but also furthers it, excluding inquiries into the child’s paternity that would be destructive of family integrity and privacy. This Court has struck down as illegitimate certain “irrebut-table presumptions.” See, e. g., Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U. S. 645 (1972); Vlandis v. Kline, 412 U. S. 441 (1973); Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur, 414 U. S. 632 (1974). Those holdings did not, however, rest upon procedural due process. A conclusive presumption does, of course, foreclose the person against whom it is invoked from demonstrating, in a particularized proceeding, that applying the presumption to him will in fact not further the lawful governmental policy the presumption is designed to effectuate. But the same can be said of any legal rule that establishes general classifications, whether framed in terms of a presumption or not. In this respect there is no difference between a rule which says that the marital husband shall be irrebuttably presumed to be the father, and a rule which says that the adulterous natural father shall not be recognized as the legal father. Both rules deny someone in Michael’s situation a hearing on whether, in the particular circumstances of his case, California’s policies would best be served by giving him parental rights. Thus, as many commentators have observed, see, e. g., Bezanson, Some Thoughts on the Emerging Irrebuttable Presumption Doctrine, 7 Ind. L. Rev. 644 (1974); Nowak, Realigning the Standards of Review Under the Equal Protection Guarantee-Prohibited, Neutral, and Permissive Classifications, 62 Geo. L. J. 1071, 1102-1106 (1974); Note, Irrebuttable Presumptions: An Illusory Analysis, 27 Stan. L. Rev. 449 (1975); Note, The Irrebuttable Presumption Doctrine in the Supreme Court, 87 Harv. L. Rev. 1534 (1974), our “irre-buttable presumption” cases must ultimately be analyzed as calling into question not the adequacy of procedures but— like our cases involving classifications framed in other terms, see, e. g., Craig v. Boren, 429 U. S. 190 (1976); Carrington v. Rash, 380 U. S. 89 (1965) — the adequacy of the “fit” between the classification and the policy that the classification serves. See LaFleur, supra, at 652 (Powell, J., concurring in result); Vlandis, supra, at 456-459 (White, J., concurring), 466-469 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting); Weinberger v. Salfi, 422 U. S. 749 (1975). We therefore reject Michael’s procedural due process challenge and proceed to his substantive claim. Michael contends as a matter of substantive due process that, because he has established a parental relationship with Victoria, protection of Gerald’s and Carole’s marital union is an insufficient state interest to support termination of that relationship. This argument is, of course, predicated on the assertion that Michael has a constitutionally protected liberty interest in his relationship with Victoria. It is an established part of our constitutional jurisprudence that the term “liberty” in the Due Process Clause extends beyond freedom from physical restraint. See, e. g., Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U. S. 510 (1925); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U. S. 390 (1923). Without that core textual meaning as a limitation, defining the scope of the Due Process Clause “has at times been a treacherous field for this Court,” giving “reason for concern lest the only limits to... judicial intervention become the predilections of those who happen at the time to be Members of this Court.” Moore v. East Cleveland, 431 U. S. 494, 502 (1977). The need for restraint has been cogently expressed by Justice White: “That the Court has ample precedent for the creation of new constitutional rights should not lead it to repeat the process at will. The Judiciary, including this Court, is the most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or even the design of the Constitution. Realizing that the present construction of the Due Process Clause represents a major judicial gloss on its terms, as well as on the anticipation of the Framers..., the Court should be extremely reluctant to breathe still further substantive content into the Due Process Clause so as to strike down legislation adopted by a State or city to promote its welfare. Whenever the Judiciary does so, it unavoidably pre-empts for itself another part of the governance of the country without express constitutional authority.” Moore, supra, at 544 (dissenting opinion). In an attempt to limit and guide interpretation of the Clause, we have insisted not merely that the interest denominated as a “liberty” be “fundamental” (a concept that, in isolation, is hard to objectify), but also that it be an interest traditionally protected by our society. As we have put it, the Due Process Clause affords only those protections “so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental.” Snyder v. Massachusetts, 291 U. S. 97, 105 (1934) (Cardozo, J.). Our cases reflect “continual insistence upon respect for the teachings of history [and] solid recognition of the basic values that underlie our society....” Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U. S. 479, 501 (1965) (Harlan, J., concurring in judgment). This insistence that the asserted liberty interest be rooted in history and tradition is evident, as elsewhere, in our cases according constitutional protection to certain parental rights. Michael reads the landmark case of Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U. S. 645 (1972), and the subsequent cases of Quilloin v. Walcott, 434 U. S. 246 (1978), Caban v. Mohammed, 441 U. S. 380 (1979), and Lehr v. Robertson, 463 U. S. 248 (1983), as establishing that a liberty interest is created by biological fatherhood plus an established parental relationship-factors that exist in the present case as well. We think that distorts the rationale of those cases. As we view them, they rest not upon such isolated factors but upon the historic respect — indeed, sanctity would not be too strong a term — traditionally accorded to the relationships that develop within the unitary family. See Stanley, supra, at 651; Quilloin, supra, at 254-255; Caban, supra, at 389; Lehr, supra, at 261. In Stanley, for example, we forbade the destruction of such a family when, upon the death of the mother, the State had sought to remove children from the custody of a father who had lived with and supported them and their mother for 18 years. As Justice Powell stated for the plurality in Moore v. East Cleveland, supra, at 503: “Our decisions establish that the Constitution protects the sanctity of the family precisely because the institution of the family is deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.” Thus, the legal issue in the present case reduces to whether the relationship between persons in the situation of Michael and Victoria has been treated as a protected family unit under the historic practices of our society, or whether on any other basis it has been accorded special protection. We think it impossible to find that it has. In fact, quite to the contrary, our traditions have protected the marital family (Gerald, Carole, and the child they acknowledge to be theirs) against the sort of claim Michael asserts. The presumption of legitimacy was a fundamental principle of the common law. H. Nicholas, Adulturine Bastardy 1 (1836). Traditionally, that presumption could be rebutted only by proof that a husband was incapable of procreation or had had no access to his wife during the relevant period. Id., at 9-10 (citing Bracton, De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, bk. i, ch. 9, p. 6; bk. ii, ch. 29, p. 63, ch. 32, p. 70 (1569)). As explained by Blackstone, nonaccess could only be proved “if the husband be out of the kingdom of England (or, as the law somewhat loosely phrases it, extra quatuor maria [beyond the four seas]) for above nine months....” 1 Blackstone’s Commentaries 456 (J. Chitty ed. 1826). And, under the common law both in England and here, “neither husband nor wife [could] be a witness to prove access or nonaccess.” J. Schouler, Law of the Domestic Relations §225, p. 306 (3d ed. 1882); R. Graveson & F. Crane, A Century of Family Law: 1857-1957, p. 158 (1957). The primary policy rationale underlying the common law’s severe restrictions on rebuttal of the presumption appears to have been an aversion to declaring children illegitimate, see Schouler, supra, §225, at 306-307; M. Grossberg, Governing the Hearth 201 (1985), thereby depriving them of rights of inheritance and succession, 2 J. Kent, Commentaries on American Law *175, and likely making them wards of the state. A secondary policy concern was the interest in promoting the “peace and tranquillity of States and families,” Schouler, supra, §225, at 304, quoting Boullenois, Traité des Status, bk. 1, p. 62, a goal that is obviously impaired by facilitating suits against husband and wife asserting that their children are illegitimate. Even though, as bastardy laws became less harsh, “[j]udges in both [England and the United States] gradually widened the acceptable range of evidence that could be offered by spouses, and placed restraints on the 'four seas rule’...[,] the law retained a strong bias against ruling the children of married women illegitimate.” Grossberg, supra, at 202. We have found nothing in the older sources, nor in the older cases, addressing specifically the power of the natural father to assert parental rights over a child born into a woman’s existing marriage with another man. Since it is Michael’s burden to establish that such a power (at least where the natural father has established a relationship with the child) is so deeply embedded within our traditions as to be a fundamental right, the lack of evidence alone might defeat his case. But the evidence shows that even in modern times — when, as we have noted, the rigid protection of the marital family has in other respects been relaxed — the ability of a person in Michael’s position to claim paternity has not been generally acknowledged. For example, a 1957 annotation on the subject: “Who may dispute presumption of legitimacy of child conceived or born during wedlock,” 53 A. L. R. 2d 572, shows three States (including California) with statutes limiting standing to the husband or wife and their descendants, one State (Louisiana) with a statute limiting it to the husband, two States (Florida and Texas) with judicial decisions limiting standing to the husband, and two States (Illinois and New York) with judicial decisions denying standing even to the mother. Not a single decision is set forth specifically according standing to the natural father, and “express indications of the nonexistence of any... limitation” upon standing were found only “in a few jurisdictions.” Id., at 579. Moreover, even if it were clear that one in Michael’s position generally possesses, and has generally always possessed, standing to challenge the marital child’s legitimacy, that would still not establish Michael’s case. As noted earlier, what is at issue here is not entitlement to a state pronouncement that Victoria was begotten by Michael. It is no conceivable denial of constitutional right for a State to decline to declare facts unless some legal consequence hinges upon the requested declaration. What Michael asserts here is a right to have himself declared the natural father and thereby to obtain parental prerogatives What he must establish, therefore, is not that our society has traditionally allowed a natural father in his circumstances to establish paternity, but that it has traditionally accorded such a father parental rights, or at least has not traditionally denied them. Even if the law in all States had always been that the entire world could challenge the marital presumption and obtain a declaration as to who was the natural father, that would not advance Michael’s claim. Thus, it is ultimately irrelevant, even for purposes of determining carretil: social attitudes towards the alleged substantive right Michael asserts, that the present law in a number of States appears to allow the natural father — including the natural father who has not established a relationship with the child — the theoretical power to rebut the marital presumption, see Note, Rebutting the Marital Presumption: A Developed Relationship Test, SS Colum. L. Rev. 369, 373 (19SS). What counts is whether the States in fact award substantive parental rights to the natural father of a child conceived within, and born into, an extant marital union that wishes to embrace the child. We are not aware of a single case, old or new, that has done so. This is not the stuff of which fundamental rights qualifying as liberty interests are made. In Lehr v. Robertson, a case involving a natural father’s attempt to block his child’s adoption by the unwed mother’s new husband, we observed that “[t]he significance of the biological connection is that it offers the natural fathér an opportunity that no other male possesses to develop a relationship with his offspring,” 463 U. S., at 262, and we assumed that the Constitution might require some protection of that opportunity, id., at 262-265. Where, however, the child is born into an extant marital family, the natural father’s unique opportunity conflicts with the similarly unique opportunity of the husband of the marriage; and it is not unconstitutional for the State to give categorical preference to the latter. In Lehr we quoted approvingly from Justice Stewart’s dissent in Caban v. Mohammed, 441 U. S., at 397, to the effect that although “‘[i]n some circumstances the actual relationship between father and child may suffice to create in the unwed father parental interests comparable to those of the married father,”’ “‘the absence of a legal tie with the mother may in such circumstances appropriately place a limit on whatever substantive constitutional claims might otherwise exist.’” 463 U. S., at 260, n. 16. In accord with our traditions, a limit is also imposed by the circumstance that the mother is, at the time of the child’s conception and birth, married to, and cohabitating with, another man, both of whom wish to raise the child as the offspring of their union. It is a question of legislative policy and not constitutional law whether California will allow the presumed parenthood of a couple desiring to retain a child conceived within and born into their marriage to be rebutted. We do not accept Justice Brennan’s criticism that this result “squashes” the liberty that consists of “the freedom not to conform.” Post, at 141. It seems to us that reflects the erroneous view that there is only one side to this controversy — that one disposition can expand a “liberty” of sorts without contracting an equivalent “liberty” on the other side. Such a happy choice is rarely available. Here, to provide protection to an adulterous natural father is to deny protection to a marital father, and vice versa. If Michael has a “freedom not to conform” (whatever that means), Gerald must equivalently have a “freedom to conform.” One of them will pay a price for asserting that “freedom” — Michael by being unable to act as father of the child he has adulter-ously begotten, or Gerald by being unable to preserve the integrity of the traditional family unit he and Victoria have established. Our disposition does not choose between these two “freedoms,” but leaves that to the people of California. Justice Brennan’s approach chooses one of them as the constitutional imperative, on no apparent basis except that the unconventional is to be preferred. > t — ( We have never had occasion to decide whether a child has a liberty interest, symmetrical with that of her parent, in maintaining her filial relationship. We need not do so here because, even assuming that such a right exists, Victoria’s claim must fail. Victoria’s due process challenge is, if anything, weaker than Michael’s. Her basic claim is not that California has erred in preventing her from establishing that Michael, not Gerald, should stand as her legal father. Rather, she claims a due process right to maintain filial relationships with both Michael and Gerald. This assertion merits little discussion, for, whatever the merits of the guardian ad litem’s belief that such an arrangement can be of great psychological benefit to a child, the claim that a State must recognize multiple fatherhood has no support in the history or traditions of this country. Moreover, even if we were to construe Victoria’s argument as forwarding the lesser proposition that, whatever her status vis-a-vis Gerald, she has a liberty interest in maintaining a filial relationship with her natural father, Michael, we find that, at best, her claim is the obverse of Michael’s and fails for the same reasons. Victoria claims in addition that her equal protection rights have been violated because, unlike her mother and presumed father, she had no opportunity to rebut the presumption of her legitimacy. We find this argument wholly without merit. We reject, at the outset, Victoria’s suggestion that her equal protection challenge must be assessed under a standard of strict scrutiny because, in denying her the right to maintain a filial relationship with Michael, the State is discriminating against her on the basis of her illegitimacy. See Gomez v. Perez, 409 U. S. 535, 538 (1973). Illegitimacy is a legal construct, not a natural trait. Under California law, Victoria is not illegitimate, and she is treated in the same manner as all other legitimate children: she is entitled to maintain a filial relationship with her legal parents. We apply, therefore, the ordinary “rational relationship” test to Victoria’s equal protection challenge. The primary rationale underlying §621’s limitation on those who may rebut the presumption of legitimacy is a concern that allowing person's other than the husband or wife to do so may undermine the integrity of the marital union. When the husband or wife contests the legitimacy of their child, the stability of the marriage has already been shaken. In contrast, allowing a claim of illegitimacy to be pressed by the child — or, more accurately, by a court-appointed guardian ad litem — may well disrupt an otherwise peaceful union. Since it pursues a legitimate end by rational means, California’s de-cisión to treat Victoria differently from her parents is not a denial of equal protection. The judgment of the California Court of Appeal is Affirmed. In those circumstances in which California allows a natural father to rebut the presumption of legitimacy of a child born to a married woman, e. g., where the husband is impotent or sterile, or where the husband and wife have not been cohabiting, it is more likely that the husband already knows the child is not his, and thus less likely that the paternity hearing will disrupt an otherwise harmonious and apparently exclusive marital relationship. We do not understand what Justice Brennan has in mind by an interest “that society traditionally has thought important... without protecting it.” Post, at 140. The protection need not take the form of an explicit constitutional provision or statutory guarantee, but it must at least exclude (all that is necessary to decide the present case) a societal tradition of enacting laws denying the interest. Nor do we understand why our practice of limiting the Due Process Clause to traditionally protected interests turns the Clause “into a redundancy,” post, at 141. Its purpose is to prevent future generations from lightly casting aside important traditional values — not to enable this Court to invent new ones. Justice Brennan asserts that only a “pinched conception of ‘the family’ ” would exclude Michael, Carole, and Victoria from protection. Post, at 145. We disagree. The family unit accorded traditional respect in our society, which we have referred to as the “unitary family,” is typified, of course, by the marital family, but also includes the household of unmarried parents and their children. Perhaps the concept can be expanded even beyond this, but it will bear no resemblance to traditionally respected relationships — and will thus cease to have any constitutional significance — if it is stretched so far as to include the relationship established between a married woman, her lover, and their child, during a 3-month sojourn in St. Thomas Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
D
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. Appellee Howard Levy, a physician, was a captain in the Army stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He had entered the Army under the so-called “Berry Plan,” under which he agreed to serve for two years in the Armed Forces if permitted first to complete his medical training. From the time he entered on active duty in July 1965 until his trial by court-martial, he was assigned as Chief of the Dermatological Service of the United States Army Hospital at Fort Jackson. On June 2, 1967, appellee was convicted by a general court-martial of violations of Arts. 90, 133, and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and sentenced to dismissal from the service, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for three years at hard labor. The facts upon which his conviction rests are virtually undisputed. The evidence admitted at his court-martial trial showed that one of the functions of the hospital to which appellee was assigned was that of training Special Forces aide men. As Chief of the Dermatological Service, appellee was to conduct a clinic for those aide men. In the late summer of 1966, it came to the attention of the hospital commander that the dermatology training of the students was unsatisfactory. After investigating the program and determining that appellee had totally neglected his duties, the commander called appellee to his office and personally handed him a written order to conduct the training. Appellee read the order, said that he understood it, but declared that he would not obey it because of his medical ethics. Appellee persisted in his refusal to obey the order, and later reviews of the program established that the training was still not being carried out. During the same period of time, appellee made several public statements to enlisted personnel at the post, of which the following is representative: “The United States is wrong in being involved in the Viet Nam War. I would refuse to go to Viet Nam if ordered to do so. I don’t see why any colored soldier would go to Viet Nam: they should refuse to go to Viet Nam and if sent should refuse to fight because they are discriminated against and denied their freedom in the United States, and they are sacrificed and discriminated against in Viet Nam by being given all the hazardous duty and they are suffering the majority of casualties. If I were a colored soldier I would refuse to go to Viet Nam and if I were a colored soldier and were sent I would refuse to fight. Special Forces personnel are liars and thieves and killers of peasants and murderers of women and children.” Appellee’s military superiors originally contemplated non judicial proceedings against him under Art. 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U. S. C. § 815, but later determined that court-martial proceedings were appropriate. The specification under Art. 90 alleged that appellee willfully disobeyed the hospital commandant’s order to establish the training program, in violation of that article, which punishes anyone subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice who “willfully disobeys a lawful command of his superior commissioned officer.” Statements to enlisted personnel were listed as specifications under the charges of violating Arts. 133 and 134 of the Code. Article 133 provides for the punishment of “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman,” while Art. 134 proscribes, inter alia, “all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces.” The specification under Art. 134 alleged that appellee “did, at Fort Jackson, South Carolina,... with design to promote disloyalty and disaffection among the troops, publicly utter [certain] statements to divers enlisted personnel at divers times....” The specification under Art. 133 alleged that appellee did “while in the performance of his duties at the United States Army Hospital... wrongfully and dishonorably” make statements variously described as intemperate, defamatory, provoking, disloyal, contemptuous, and disrespectful to Special Forces personnel and to enlisted personnel who were patients or under his supervision. Appellee was convicted by the court-martial, and his conviction was sustained on his appeals within the military. After he had exhausted this avenue of relief, he sought federal habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, challenging his court-martial conviction on a number of grounds. The District Court, on the basis of the voluminous record of the military proceedings and the argument of counsel, denied relief. It held that the “various articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice are not unconstitutional for vagueness,” citing several decisions of the United States Court of Military Appeals. The court rejected the balance of appellee’s claims without addressing them individually, noting that the military tribunals had given fair consideration to them and that the role of the federal courts in reviewing court-martial proceedings was a limited one. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding in a lengthy opinion that Arts. 133 and 134 are void for vagueness. 478 F. 2d 772 (CA3 1973). The court found little difficulty in concluding that “as measured by contemporary standards of vagueness applicable to statutes and ordinances governing civilians,” the general articles “do not pass constitutional muster.” It relied on such cases as Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U. S. 104 (1972); Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville, 405 U. S. 156 (1972); Giaccio v. Pennsylvania, 382 U. S. 399 (1966); Coates v. City of Cincinnati, 402 U. S. 611 (1971), and Gelling v. Texas, 343 U. S. 960 (1952).. The Court of Appeals did not rule that appellee was punished for doing things he could not reasonably have known constituted conduct proscribed by Art. 133 or 134. Indeed, it recognized that his conduct fell within one of the examples of Art. 134 violations contained in the Manual for Courts-Martial, promulgated by the President by Executive Order. Nonetheless, relying chiefly on Gooding v. Wilson, 405 U. S. 518 (1972), the Court found the possibility that Arts. 133 and 134 would be applied to future conduct of others as to which there was insufficient warning, or which was within the area of protected First Amendment expression, was enough to give appellee standing to challenge both articles on their face. While it acknowledged that different standards might in some circumstances be applicable in considering vagueness challenges to provisions which govern the conduct of members of the Armed Forces, the Court saw in the case of Arts. 133 and 134 no “countervailing military-considerations which justify the twisting of established standards of due process in order to hold inviolate these articles, so clearly repugnant under current constitutional values.” Turning finally to appellee’s conviction under Art. 90, the Court held that the joint consideration of Art. 90 charges with the charges under Arts. 133 and 134 gave rise to a “reasonable possibility” that appellee’s right to a fair trial was prejudiced, so that a new trial was required. Appellants appealed to this Court pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 1252. We set the case for oral argument, and postponed consideration of the question of our jurisdiction to the hearing on the merits. 414 U. S. 973 (1973). I This Court has long recognized that the military is, by necessity, a specialized society separate from civilian society. We have also recognized that the military has, again by necessity, developed laws and traditions of its own during its long history. The differences between the military and civilian communities result from the fact that “it is the primary business of armies and navies to fight or be ready to fight wars should the occasion arise.” United States ex rel. Toth v. Quarles, 350 U. S. 11, 17 (1955). In In re Grimley, 137 U. S. 147, 153 (1890), the Court observed: “An army is not a deliberative body. It is the executive arm. Its law is that of obedience. No question can be left open as to the right to command in the officer, or the duty of obedience in the soldier.” More recently we noted that “[t]he military constitutes a specialized community governed by a separate discipline from that of the civilian,” Orloff v. Willoughby, 345 U. S. 83, 94 (1953), and that “the rights of men in the armed forces must perforce be conditioned to meet certain overriding demands of- discipline and duty....” Burns v. Wilson, 346 U. S. 137, 140 (1953) (plurality opinion). We have also recognized that a military officer holds a particular position of responsibility and command in the Armed Forces: “The President’s commission... recites that'reposing special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valor, fidelity and abilities’ of the appointee he is named to the specified rank during the pleasure of the President.” Orloff v. Willoughby, supra, at 91. Just as military society has been a society apart from civilian society, so “[mjilitary law... is a jurisprudence which exists separate and apart from the law which governs in our federal judicial establishment.” Burns v. Wilson, supra, at 140. And to maintain the discipline essential to perform its mission effectively, the military has developed what “may not unfitly be called the customary military law” or “general usage of the military service.” Martin v. Mott, 12 Wheat. 19, 35 (1827). As the opinion in Martin v. Mott demonstrates, the Court has approved the enforcement of those military customs and usages by courts-martial from the early days of this Nation: “... Courts Martial, when duly organized, are bound to execute their duties, and regulate their modes of proceeding, in the absence of positive enactments. Upon any other principle, Courts Martial would be left without any adequate means to exercise the authority confided to them: for there could scarcely be framed a positive code to provide for the infinite variety of incidents applicable to them.” Id., at 35-36. An examination of the British antecedents of our military law shows that the military law of Britain had long contained the forebears of Arts. 133 and 134 in remarkably similar language. The Articles of the Earl of Essex (1642) provided that “[a] 11 other faults, disorders and offenses, not mentioned in these Articles, shall be punished according to the general customs and laws of war.” One of the British Articles of War of 1765 made punishable “all Disorders or Neglects... to the Prejudice of good Order and Military Discipline...” that were not mentioned in the other articles. Another of those articles provided: “Whatsoever Commissioned Officer shall be convicted before a General Court-martial, of behaving in a scandalous infamous Manner, such as is unbecoming the Character of an Officer and a Gentleman, shall be discharged from Our Service.” In 1775 the Continental Congress adopted this last article, along with 68 others for the governance of its army. The following year it was resolved by the Congress that “the committee on spies be directed to revise the rules and articles of war; this being a committee of five, consisting of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Rutledge, James Wilson and R. R. Livingston... The article was included in the new set of articles prepared by the Committee, which Congress adopted on September 20, 1776. After being once more re-enacted without change in text in 1786, it was revised and expanded in 1806, omitting the terms “scandalous” and “infamous,” so as to read: “Any commissioned officer convicted before a general court-martial of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, shall be dismissed [from] the service.” From 1806, it remained basically unchanged through numerous congressional re-enactments until it was enacted as Art. 133 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 1951. The British article punishing “all Disorders and Neglects...” was also adopted by the Continental Congress in 1775 and re-enacted in 1776. Except for a revision in 1916, which added the clause punishing “all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the military service,” substantially the same language was preserved throughout the various re-enactments of this article too, until in 1951 it was enacted as Art. 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Decisions of this Court during the last century have recognized that the longstanding customs and usages of the services impart accepted meaning to the seemingly imprecise standards of Arts. 133 and 134. In Dynes v. Hoover, 20 How. 65 (1857), this Court upheld the Navy’s general article, which provided that “[a] 11 crimes committed by persons belonging to the navy, which are not specified in the foregoing articles, shall be punished according to the laws and customs in such cases at sea.” The Court reasoned: “[W]hen offences and crimes are not given in terms or by definition, the want of it may be supplied by a comprehensive enactment, such as the 32d article of the rules for the government of the navy, which means that courts martial have jurisdiction of such crimes as are not specified, but which have been rec-ognised to be crimes and offences by the usages in the navy of all nations, and that they shall be punished according to the laws and customs of the sea. Notwithstanding the apparent indeterminateness of such a provision, it is not liable to abuse; for what those crimes are, and how they are to be punished, is well known by practical men in the navy and army, and by those who have studied the law of courts martial, and the offences of which the different courts martial have cognizance.” Id., at 82. In Smith v. Whitney, 116 U. S. 167 (1886), this Court refused to issue a writ of prohibition against Smith’s court-martial trial on charges of “ [s] candalous conduct tending to the destruction of good morals” and “ [c] ulpable inefficiency in the performance of duty.” The Court again recognized the role of “the usages and customs of war” and “old practice in the army” in the interpretation of military law by military tribunals. Id., at 178-179. In United States v. Fletcher, 148 U. S. 84 (1893), the Court considered a court-martial conviction under what is now Art. 133, rejecting Captain Fletcher's claim that the court-martial could not properly have held that his refusal to pay a just debt was “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” The Court of Claims decision which the Court affirmed in Fletcher stressed the military’s “higher code termed honor, which holds its society to stricter accountability” and with which those trained only in civilian law are unfamiliar. In Swaim v. United States, 165 U. S. 553 (1897), the Court affirmed another Court of Claims decision, this time refusing to disturb a court-martial conviction for conduct “to the prejudice of good order and military discipline” in violation of the Articles of War. The Court recognized the role of “unwritten law or usage” in giving meaning to the language of what is now Art. 134. In rejecting Swaim’s argument that the evidence failed to establish an offense under the article, the Court said: “[T]his is the very matter that falls within the province of courts-martial, and in respect to which their conclusions cannot be controlled or reviewed by the civil courts. As was said in Smith v. Whitney, 116 U. S. 178, of questions not depending upon the construction of the statutes, but upon unwritten military law or usage, within the jurisdiction of courts-martial, military or naval officers, from their training and experience in the service, are more competent judges than the courts of common law.' ” 165 U. S., at 562. The Court of Claims had observed that cases involving “conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline,” as opposed to conduct unbecoming an officer, “are still further beyond the bounds of ordinary judicial judgment, for they are not measurable by our innate sense of right and wrong, of honor and dishonor, but must be gauged by an actual knowledge and experience of military life, its usages and duties.” II The differences noted by this settled line of authority, first between the military community and the civilian community, and second between military law and civilian law, continue in the present day under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That Code cannot be equated to a civilian criminal code. It, and the various versions of the Articles of War which have preceded it, regulate aspects of the conduct of members of the military which in the civilian sphere are left unregulated. While a civilian criminal code carves out a relatively small segment of potential conduct and declares it criminal, the Uniform Code of Military Justice essays more varied regulation of a much larger segment of the activities of the more tightly knit military community. In civilian life there is no legal sanction — civil or criminal — for failure to behave as an officer and a gentleman; in the military world, Art. 133 imposes such a sanction on a commissioned officer. The Code likewise imposes other sanctions for conduct that in civilian life is not subject to criminal penalties: disrespect toward superior commissioned officers, Art. 89, 10 U. S. C. § 889; cruelty toward, or oppression or maltreatment of subordinates, Art. 93, 10 U. S. C. § 893; negligent damaging, destruction, or wrongful disposition of military property of the United States, Art. 108, 10 U. S. C. §908; improper hazarding of a vessel, Art. 110, 10 U. S. C. § 910; drunkenness on duty, Art. 112, 10 U. S. C. §912; and malingering, Art. 115, 10 U. S. C. § 915. But the other side of the coin is that the penalties provided in the Code vary from death and substantial penal confinement at one extreme to forms of administrative discipline which are below the threshold of what would normally be considered a criminal sanction at the other. Though all of the offenses described in the Code are punishable “as a court-martial may direct,” and the accused may demand a trial by court-martial, Art. 15 of the Code also provides for the imposition of nonjudicial “disciplinary punishments” for minor offenses without the intervention of a court-martial. 10 U. S. C. § 815. The punishments imposable under that article are of a limited nature. With respect to officers, punishment may encompass suspension of duty, arrest in quarters for not more than 30 days, restriction for not more than 60 days, and forfeiture of pay for a limited period of time. In the case of enlisted men, such punishment may additionally include, among other things, reduction to the next inferior pay grade, extra fatigue duty, and correctional custody for not more than seven consecutive days. Thus, while legal proceedings actually brought before a court-martial are prosecuted in the name of the Government, and the accused has the right to demand that he be proceeded against in this manner before any sanctions may be imposed upon him, a range of minor sanctions for lesser infractions are often imposed administratively. Forfeiture of pay, reduction in rank, and even dismissal from the service bring to mind the law of labor-management relations as much as the civilian criminal law. In short, the Uniform Code of Military Justice regulates a far broader range of the conduct of military personnel than a typical state criminal code regulates of the conduct of civilians; but at the same time the enforcement of that Code in the area of minor offenses is often by sanctions which are more akin to administrative or civil sanctions than to civilian criminal ones. The availability of these lesser sanctions is not surprising in view of the different relationship of the Government to members of the military. It is not only that of lawgiver to citizen, but also that of employer to employee. Indeed, unlike the civilian situation, the Government is often employer, landlord, provisioner, and lawgiver rolled into one. That relationship also reflects the different purposes of the two communities. As we observed in In re Grimley, 137 U. S., at 153, the military “is the executive arm” whose “law is that of obedience.” While members of the military community enjoy many of the same rights and bear many of the same burdens as do members of the civilian community, within the military community there is simply not the same autonomy as there is in the larger civilian community. The military establishment is subject to the control of the civilian Commander in Chief and the civilian departmental heads under him, and its function is to carry out the policies made by those civilian superiors. Perhaps because of the broader sweep of the Uniform Code, the military makes an effort to advise its personnel of the contents of the Uniform Code, rather than depending on the ancient doctrine that everyone is presumed to know the law. Article 137 of the Uniform Code, 10 U. S. C. § 937, requires that the provisions of the Code be “carefully explained to each enlisted member at the time of his entrance on active duty, or within six days thereafter” and that they be “explained again after he has completed six months of active duty....” Thus the numerically largest component of the services, the enlisted personnel, who might be expected to be a good deal less familiar with the Uniform Code than commissioned officers, are required by its terms to receive instructions in its provisions. Article 137 further provides that a complete text of the Code and of the regulations prescribed by the President “shall be made available to any person on active duty, upon his request, for his personal examination.” With these very significant differences between military law and civilian law and between the military community and the civilian community in mind, we turn to appellee’s challenges to the constitutionality of Arts. 133 and 134. Ill Appellee urges that both Art. 133 and Art. 134 (the general article) are “void for vagueness” under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and overbroad in violation of the First Amendment. We have recently said of the vagueness doctrine: “The doctrine incorporates notions of fair notice or warning. Moreover, it requires legislatures to set reasonably clear guidelines for law enforcement officials and triers of fact in order to prevent 'arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.’ Where a statute’s literal scope, unaided by a narrowing state court interpretation, is capable of reaching expression sheltered by the First Amendment, the doctrine demands a greater degree of specificity than in other contexts.” Smith v. Goguen, 415 U. S. 566, 572-573 (1974). Each of these articles has been construed by the United States Court of Military Appeals or by other military authorities in such a manner as to at least partially narrow its otherwise broad scope. The United States Court of Military Appeals has stated that Art. 134 must be judged “not in vacuo, but in the context in which the years have placed it,” United States v. Frantz, 2 U. S. C. M. A. 161, 163, 7 C. M. R. 37, 39 (1953). Article 134 does not make “every irregular, mischievous, or improper act a court-martial offense,” United States v. Sadinsky, 14 U. S. C. M. A. 563, 565, 34 C. M. R. 343, 345 (1964), but its reach is limited to conduct' that is “ ‘directly and palpably — as distinguished from indirectly and remotely — prejudicial to good order and discipline. ” Ibid.; United States v. Holiday, 4 U. S. C. M. A. 454, 456, 16 C. M. R. 28, 30 (1954). It applies only to calls for active opposition to the military policy of the United States, United States v. Priest, 21 U. S. C. M. A. 564, 45 C. M. R. 338 (1972), and does not reach all “ [disagreement with, or objection to, a policy of the Government.” United States v. Harvey, 19 U. S. C. M. A. 539, 544, 42 C. M. R. 141, 146 (1971). The Manual for Courts-Martial restates these limitations on the scope of Art. 134. It goes on to say that “ [c] ertain disloyal statements by military personnel” may be punishable under Art. 134. “Examples are utterances designed to promote disloyalty or disaffection among troops, as praising the enemy, attacking the war aims of the United States, or denouncing our form of government.” Extensive additional interpretative materials are contained in the portions of the Manual devoted to Art. 134, which describe more than sixty illustrative offenses. The Court of Military Appeals has likewise limited the scope of Art. 133. Quoting from W. Winthrop, Military Law and Precedents 711-712 (2d ed. 1920), that court has stated: “ ‘“... To constitute therefore the conduct here denounced, the act which forms the basis of the charge must have a double significance and effect. Though it need not amount to a crime, it must offend so seriously against law, justice, morality or decorum as to expose to disgrace, socially or as a man, the offender, and at the same time must be of such a nature or committed under such circumstances as to bring dishonor or disrepute upon the military profession which he represents.” ’ ” United States v. Howe, 17 U. S. C. M. A. 165, 177-178, 37 C. M. R. 429,441-442 (1967). The effect of these constructions of Arts. 133 and 134 by the Court of Military Appeals and by other military authorities has been twofold: It has narrowed the very broad reach of the literal language of the articles, and at the same time has supplied considerable specificity by way of examples of the conduct which they cover. It would be idle to pretend that there are not areas within the general confines of the articles’ language which have been left vague despite these narrowing constructions. But even though sizable areas of uncertainty as to the coverage of the articles may remain after their official interpretation by authoritative military sources, further content may be supplied even in these areas by less formalized custom and usage. Dynes v. Hoover, 20 How. 65 (1857). And there also cannot be the slightest doubt under the military precedents that there is a substantial range of conduct to which both articles clearly apply without vagueness or imprecision. It is within that range that appellee’s conduct squarely falls, as the Court of Appeals recognized: “Neither are we unmindful that the Manual for Courts-Martial offers as an example of an offense under Article 134, ‘praising the enemy, attacking the war aims of the United States, or denouncing our form of government.’ With the possible exception of the statement that ‘Special Forces personnel are liars and thieves and killers of peasants and murderers of women and children/ it would appear that each statement for which [Levy] was court-martialed could fall within the example given in the Manual.” 478 F. 2d, at 794. The Court of Appeals went on to hold, however, that even though Levy’s own conduct was clearly prohibited, the void-for-vagueness doctrine conferred standing upon him to challenge the imprecision of the language of the articles as they might be applied to hypothetical situations outside the considerable area within which their applicability was similarly clear. We disagree with the Court of Appeals both in its approach to this question and in its resolution of it. This Court has on more than one occasion invalidated statutes under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendment because they contained no standard whatever by which criminality could be ascertained, and the doctrine of these cases has subsequently acquired the shorthand description of “void for vagueness.” Lanzetta v. New Jersey, 306 U. S. 451 (1939); Winters v. New York, 333 U. S. 507 (1948). In these cases, the criminal provision is vague “not in the sense that it requires a person to conform his conduct to an imprecise but comprehensible normative standard, but rather in the sense that no standard of conduct is specified at all.” Coates v. City of Cincinnati, 402 U. S. 611, 614 (1971). But the Court of Appeals found in this case, and we agree, that Arts. 133 and 134 are subject to no such sweeping condemnation. Levy had fair notice from the language of each article that the particular conduct which he engaged in was punishable. This is a case, then, of the type adverted to in Smith v. Goguen, in which the statutes “by their terms or as authoritatively construed apply without question to certain activities, but whose application to other behavior is uncertain.” 415 U. S., at 578. The result of the Court of Appeals’ conclusion that Levy had standing to challenge the vagueness of these articles as they might be hypothetically applied to the conduct of others, even though he was squarely within their prohibitions, may stem from a blending of the doctrine of vagueness with the doctrine of overbreadth, but we do not believe it is supported by prior decisions of this Court. We have noted in Smith v. Goguen, id., at 573, that more precision in drafting may be required because of the vagueness doctrine in the case of regulation of expression. For the reasons which differentiate military society from civilian society, we think Congress is permitted to legislate both with greater breadth and with greater flexibility when prescribing the rules by which the former shall be governed than it is when prescribing rules for the latter. But each of these differentiations relates to how strict a test of vagueness shall be applied in judging a particular criminal statute. None of them suggests that one who has received fair warning of the criminality of his own conduct from the statute in question is nonetheless entitled to attack it because the language would not give similar fair warning with respect to other conduct which might be within its broad and literal ambit. One to whose conduct a statute clearly applies may not successfully challenge it for vagueness. Because of the factors differentiating military society from civilian society, we hold that the proper standard of review for a vagueness challenge to the articles of the Code is the standard which applies to criminal statutes regulating economic affairs. Clearly, that standard is met here, for as the Court stated in United States v. National Dairy Corp., 372 U. S. 29, 32-33 (1963): “The strong presumptive validity that attaches to an Act of Congress has led this Court to hold many times that statutes are not automatically invalidated as vague simply because difficulty is found in determining whether certain marginal offenses fall within their language. E. g., Jordan v. De George, 341 U. S. 223, 231 (1951), and United States v. Petrillo, 332 U. S. 1, 7 (1947). Indeed, we have consistently sought an interpretation which supports the constitutionality of legislation. E. g., United States v. Rumely, 345 U. S. 41, 47 (1953); Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22, 62 (1932); see Screws v. United States, 325 U. S. 91 (1945). “Void for vagueness simply means that criminal responsibility should not attach where one could not reasonably understand that his contemplated conduct is proscribed. United States v. Harriss, 347 U. S. 612, 617 (1954). In determining the sufficiency of the notice a statute must of necessity be examined in the light of the conduct with which a defendant is charged. Robinson v. United States, 324 U. S. 282 (1945).” Since appellee could have had no reasonable doubt that his public statements urging Negro enlisted men not to go to Vietnam if ordered to do so were both “unbecoming an officer and a gentleman,” and “to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces,” in violation of the provisions of Arts. 133 and 134, respectively, his challenge to them as unconstitutionally vague under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment must fail. We likewise reject appellee’s contention that Arts. 133 and 134 are facially invalid because of their “over-breadth.” In Gooding v. Wilson, 405 U. S., at 520-521, the Court said: “It matters not that the words appellee used might have been constitutionally prohibited under a narrowly and precisely drawn statute. At least when statutes regulate or proscribe speech and when 'no readily apparent construction suggests itself as a vehicle for rehabilitating the statutes in a single prosecution,’ Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U. S. 479, 491 (1965), the transcendent value to all society of constitutionally protected expression is deemed to justify allowing ‘attacks on overly broad statutes with no requirement that the person making the attack demonstrate that his own conduct could not be regulated by a statute drawn with the requisite narrow specificity’....” While the members of the military are not excluded from the protection granted by the First Amendment, the different character of the military community and of the military mission requires a different application of those protections. The fundamental necessity for obedience, and the consequent necessity for imposition of discipline, may render permissible within the military that which would be constitutionally impermissible outside it. Doctrines of First Amendment overbreadth asserted in support of challenges to imprecise language like that contained in Arts. 133 and 134 are not exempt from the operation of these principles. The United States Court of Military Appeals has sensibly expounded the reason for this different application of First Amendment doctrines in its opinion in United States v. Priest, 21 U. S. C. M. A., at 570, 45 C. M. R., at 344: “In the armed forces some restrictions exist for reasons that have no counterpart in the civilian community. Disrespectful and contemptuous speech, even advocacy of violent change, is tolerable in the civilian community, for it does not directly affect the capacity of the Government to discharge its responsibilities unless it both is directed to inciting imminent lawless action and is likely to produce such action. Brandenburg v. Ohio, [395 U. S. 444 (1969)]. In military life, however, other considerations must be weighed. The armed forces depend on a command structure that at times must commit men to combat, not only hazarding their lives but ultimately involving the security of the Nation itself. Speech that is protected in the civil population may nonetheless undermine the effectiveness of response to command. If it does, it is constitutionally unprotected. United States v. Gray, [20 U. S. C. M. A. 63, 42 C. M. R. 255 (1970)].” In Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U. S. 601, 610 (1973), we said that “[e]mbedded in the traditional rules governing constitutional adjudication is the principle that a person to whom a statute may constitutionally be applied will not be heard to challenge that statute on the ground that it may conceivably be applied unconstitutionally to others, in other situations not before the Court.” We further commented in that case that “[i]n the past Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Ju.sti.ce Stewart delivered the opinion of the Court. The petitioners were tried and found guilty in the District Court for the District of Columbia upon three counts of an indictment charging gambling offenses under the District of Columbia Code. At the trial police officers were permitted to describe incriminating conversations engaged in by the petitioners at their alleged gambling establishment, conversations which the officers had overheard by means of an electronic listening device. The convictions were affirmed by the Court of Appeals, 107 U. S. App. D. C. 144, 275 F. 2d 173, and we granted cer-tiorari to consider the contention that the officers’ testimony as to what they had heard through the electronic instrument should not have been admitted into evidence. 363 U. S. 801. The record shows that in the spring of 1958 the District of Columbia police had reason to suspect that the premises at 408 21st Street, N. W., in Washington, were being used as the headquarters of a gambling operation. They gained permission from the owner of the vacant adjoining row house to use it as an observation post. From this vantage point for a period of at least three consecutive days in April 1958, the officers employed a so-called “spike mike” to listen to what was going on within the four walls of the house next door. The instrument in question was a microphone with a spike about a foot long attached to it, together with an amplifier, a power pack, and earphones. The officers inserted the spike under a baseboard in a second-floor room of the vacant house and into a crevice extending several inches into the party wall, until the spike hit something solid “that acted as a very good sounding board.” The record clearly indicates that the spike made contact with a heating duct serving the house occupied by the petitioners, thus converting their entire heating system into a conductor of sound. Conversations taking place on both floors of the house were audible to the officers through the earphones, and their testimony regarding these conversations, admitted at the trial over timely objection, played a substantial part in the petitioners’ convictions. Affirming the convictions, the Court of Appeals held that the trial court had not erred in admitting the officers’ testimony. The court was of the view that the officers’ use of the spike mike had violated neither the Communications Act of 1934, 47 U. S. C. § 605, cf. Nardone v. United States, 302 U. S. 379, nor the petitioners’ rights under the Fourth Amendment, cf. Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383. In reaching these conclusions the court relied primarily upon our decisions in Goldman v. United States, 316 U. S. 129, and On Lee v. United States, 343 U. S. 747. Judge Washington dissented, believing that, even if the petitioners’ Fourth Amendment rights had not been abridged, the officers’ conduct had transgressed the standards of due process guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. Cf. Irvine v. California, 347 U. S. 128. As to the inapplicability of § 605 of the Communications Act of 1934, we agree with the Court of Appeals. That section provides that “. . . no person not being authorized by the sender shall intercept-any communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such intercepted communication to any person While it is true that much of what the officers heard consisted of the petitioners’ share of telephone conversations, we cannot say that the officers intercepted these conversations within the meaning of the statute. Similar contentions have been rejected here at least twice before. In Irvine v. California, 347 U. S. 128, 131, the Court said: “Here the apparatus of the officers was not in any way connected with the telephone facilities, there was no interference with the communications system, there was no interception of any message. All that was heard through the microphone was what an eavesdropper, hidden in the hall, the bedroom, or the closet, might have heard. We do not suppose it is illegal to testify to what another person is heard to say merely because he is saying it into a telephone.” In Goldman v. United States, 316 U. S. 129, 134, it was said that “The listening in the next room to the words of [the petitioner] as he talked into the telephone receiver was no more the interception of a wire communication, within the meaning of the Act, than would have been the overhearing of the conversation by one sitting in the same room.” In presenting here the petitioners’ Fourth Amendment claim, counsel has painted with a broad brush. We are asked to reconsider bur decisions in Goldman v. United States, supra, and On Lee v. United States, supra. We are told that re-examination of the rationale of those cases, and of Olmstead v. United States, 277 U. S. 438, from which they stemmed, is now essential in the light of recent and projected developments in the science of electronics. We are. favoured with a description of “a device known as the parabolic microphone which can pick up a conversation three hundred yards away.” We are told of a “still experimental technique whereby a room is flooded with a certain type of sonic wave,” which, when perfected, “will make it possible to overhear everything said in a room without ever entering it or even going near it.” We are informed of an instrument “which can pick up a conversation through an open office window on the opposite side of a busy street.” The facts of the present case, however, do not require us to consider the large questions which have been argued. We need not here contemplate the Fourth Amendment implications of these and other frightening paraphernalia which the vaunted marvels of an electronic age may visit upon human society. ■ Nor do the circumstances here make necessary a re-examination of the Court’s previous decisions in this area. For a fair reading of the record in this case shows that the eavesdropping was accomplished by means of an unauthorized physical penetra^ tion into the premises occupied by the petitioners. As Judge Washington pointed out without contradiction in the Court of Appeals: “Every inference, and what little direct evidence there was, pointed to the fact that the spike made contact- with the heating duct, as the police admittedly hoped it would. Once the spike touched the heating duct, the duct became in effect a giant microphone, running through the entire house occupied by appellants.” 107 U. S. App. D. C., at 150, 275 F. 2d, at 179. Eavesdropping accomplished by means of such a physical intrusion is beyond the pale of even those decisions in which a closely divided Court has held that eavesdropping accomplished by other electronic means did not amount to an invasion of Fourth Amendment rights.- In Goldman v. United States, supra, the Court held that placing a detectaphone against an office wall in order to listen to conversations taking place in the office next door did not violate the Amendment. In On Lee v. United States, supra, a federal agent, who was acquainted with the petitioner, entered the petitioner’s laundry and engaged him in an incriminating conversation. The agent had a microphone concealed upon his person. Another agent, stationed outside with a radio receiving set, was tuned in on the conversation, and at the petitioner’s subsequent trial related what he had heard. These circumstances were held not to constitute a violation of the petitioner’s Fourth Amendment rights. But in both Goldman and On Lee the Court took pains explicitly to point out that the eavesdropping had not been accomplished by means of an unauthorized physical encroachment within a constitutionally protected area. In Goldman there had in fact been a prior physical entry into the petitioner’s office for the purpose of installing a different listening apparatus, which had turned out to be ineffective. The Court emphasized that this earlier physical trespass had been of no relevant assistance in the later use of the detectaphone in the adjoining office. 316 U. S., at 134-135. And in On Lee, as the Court said, “. . . no trespass was committed.” The agent went into the petitioner’s place of business “with the consent, if not by the implied invitation, of the petitioner.” 343 U. S., at 751-752. The absence of a physical invasion of the petitioner’s premises was also a vital factor in the Court’s decision in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U. S. 438. In holding that the wiretapping there did not violate the Fourth Amendment, the Court noted that “[t]he insertions were made without trespass upon any property of the defendants. They were made in the basement of the large office building. The taps from house lines were made in the streets near the houses.” 277 U. S., at 457. “There was no entry of the houses or offices of the defendants.” 277 U. S., at 464. Relying upon these circumstances, the Court reasoned that “[t]he intervening wires are not part of [the defendant’s] house or office any more than are the highways along which they are stretched.” 277 U. S., at 465. Here, by contrast, the officers overheard the petitioners’ conversations only by usurping part of the petitioners’ house or office — a heating system which was an integral part of the premises occupied by the petitioners, a usurpation that was effected without their knowledge and without their consent. In these circumstances we need not pause to consider whether or not there was a technical trespass under the local property law relating to party walls. Inherent Fourth Amendment rights are not inevitably measurable in terms of ancient niceties of tort or real property law. See Jones v. United States, 362 U. S. 257, 266; On Lee v. United States, supra, at 752; Hester v. United States, 265 U. S. 57; United States v. Jeffers, 342 U. S. 48, 51; McDonald v. United States, 335 U. S. 451, 454. The Fourth Amendment, and the personal rights which it secures, have a long history. At the very core stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion. Entick v. Carrington, 19 Howell’s State Trials 1029, 1066; Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616, 626-630. This Court has never held that a federal officer may without warrant and without consent physically entrench into a man's office or home, there secretly observe or listen, and relate at the man’s subsequent criminal trial what was seen or heard. A distinction between the detectaphone employed in Goldman and the spike mike utilized here seemed to the Court of Appeals too fine a one to draw. The court was “unwilling to believe that the respective rights are to be measured in fractions of inches.” But decision here does not turn upon the technicality of a trespass upon a party wall as a matter of local law. It is based upon the reality of an actual intrusion into a constitutionally protected' area. What the Court said long ago bears repeating now: “It may be that it is the obnoxious thing in its mildest and least repulsive form; but illegitimate and unconstitutional practices get their first footing in that way, namely, by silent approaches and slight deviations from legal modes of procedure.” Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616, 635. We find no occasion to re-examine Goldman here, but we decline to go beyond it, by even a fraction of an inch. Reversed. Alleging that the conversations thus overheard had been the basis for a search warrant under which other incriminating evidence was discovered at 408 21st Street, N. W., the petitioners sought unsuccessfully to suppress the evidence obtained upon execution of the warrant. It is the Government’s position that there were ample grounds to support the search warrant, even without what was overheard by means of the spike mike. We deal here only with the admissibility at the trial of the officers’ testimony as to what they heard by means of the listening device, leaving a determination of the warrant’s validity to abide the event of a new trial. See Hearings before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 85th Cong., 2d Sess., on Wiretapping, -Eavesdropping, and the Bill of Rights; Hearings before Subcommittee No. 5 of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, 84th Cong., 1st Sess., on Wiretapping ; Dash, Schwartz and Knowlton, The Eavesdroppers (Rutgers University Press, 1959), pp. 346-358. See Fowler v. Koehler, 43 App. D. C. 349. William Pitt's eloquent description of this right has been often quoted. .The late Judge Jerome Frank made the point in more contemporary language: “A man can still control a small part of his environment, his house; he can retreat thence from outsiders, secure in the knowledge that they cannot get at him without disobeying the Constitution. That is still a sizable hunk of liberty- — worth protecting from encroachment. A sane, decent, civilized society must provide some such oasis, some shelter from public scrutiny, some insulated enclosure, some enclave, some inviolate place which is a man’s castle.” United States v. On Lee, 193 F. 2d 306, 315-316 (dissenting opinion). Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The State of Utah seeks review of a ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit which declared invalid a provision of Utah law regulating abortions “[a]fter 20 weeks gestational age.” Utah Code Ann. §76-7-302(3) (1995). The court made that declaration, not on the ground that the provision violates federal law, but rather on the ground that the provision was not severable from another provision of the same statute, purporting to regulate abortions up to 20 weeks’ gestational age, which had been struck down as unconstitutional. The court’s severability ruling was based on its view that the Utah Legislature would not have wanted to regulate the later-term abortions unless it could regulate the earlier-term abortions as well. Whatever the validity of such speculation as a general matter, in the present case it is flatly contradicted by a provision in the very part of the Utah Code at issue, explicitly stating that each statutory provision was to be regarded as having been enacted independently of the others. Because we regard the Court of Appeals’ determination as to the Utah Legislature’s intent to be irreconcilable with that body’s own statement on the subject, we grant the petition for certiorari as to this aspect of the judgment of the Court of Appeals, and summarily reverse. Utah law, as amended by legislation enacted in 1991, establishes two regimes of 'regulation for abortion, based on the term of the pregnancy. With respect to pregnancies 20 weeks old or less, § 302(2) permits abortions only under five enumerated circumstances, Utah Code Ann. §76-7-302(2) (1995). With respect to pregnancies of more than 20 weeks, §302(3) permits abortions under only three of the five circumstances specified in §302(2). § 76-7-302(3). In the present suit for declaratory and injunctive relief, the District Court for the District of Utah held § 302(2) to be unconstitutional, but § 302(3) to be both constitutional and severable— i. e., enforceable despite the invalidation of the other provision. Jane L. v. Bangerter, 809 F. Supp. 865, 870 (1992). Upon appeal by the plaintiffs with regard to the latter provision, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that it could not be enforced, regardless of its constitutionality, because it was not severable from the invalidated portion of the law. Jane L. v. Bangerter, 61 F. 3d 1493, 1499 (1995). The State argues that that conclusion is simply unsustainable in light of the Utah Legislature’s express indication to the contrary, and we agree. Severability is of course a matter of state law. In Utah, as the Court of Appeals acknowledged, the matter “is determined first and foremost by answering the following question: Would the legislature have passed the statute without the unconstitutional section?” Id., at 1497 (citing Stewart v. Utah Public Service Comm’n, 885 P. 2d 759, 779 (Utah 1994)). A provision of the abortion part of the Utah Code, to which these two sections were added, answers that question. Section 317 provides: “If any one or more provision, section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or word of this part or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is found to be unconstitutional, the same is hereby declared to be severable and the balance of this part shall remain effective notwithstanding such unconstitutionality. The legislature hereby declares that it would have passed this part, and each provision, section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or word thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more provision, section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or word be declared unconstitutional.” Utah Code Ann. §76-7-317 (1995) (emphasis added). In the face of this statement by the Utah Legislature of its own intent in enacting regulations of abortion, the Court of Appeals nonetheless concluded that §§302(2) and 302(3) were not severable because the Utah Legislature did not intend them to be so. The Court of Appeals' opinion not only did not regard the explicit language of §317 as determinative — it did not even use it as the point of departure for addressing the severability question. It understood Utah law as instructing courts to “subordinate severability clauses, which evince the legislature’s intent regarding the structure of the statute, to the legislature’s overarching substantive intentions.” 61 F. 3d, at 1499 (emphasis added). The court divined in the 1991 amendments a “substantive intent” to prohibit virtually all abortions, see id., at 1497-1498, and went on to conclude that since, in its view, severing § 302(2) from § 302(3) would frustrate this overarching purpose, both provisions had to stand or fall together, see id., at 1499. We believe that the Court of Appeals erred at both steps of this progression. The dichotomy between “structural” and “substantive” intents is nowhere to be found in the Utah cases cited as authority by the Court of Appeals. Indeed, none of those cases even speaks in terms of “conflicts among legislative intentions,” id., at 1498. The cases do support the proposition that, “even where a savings clause exist[s], where the provisions of the statute are interrelated, it is not within the scope of th[e] court’s function to select the valid portions of the act and conjecture that they should stand independently of the portions which are invalid.” State v. Salt Lake City, 445 P. 2d 691, 696 (Utah 1968). See also Salt Lake City v. International Assn. of Firefighters, 563 P. 2d 786, 791 (Utah 1977); Carter v. Beaver County Service Area No. One, 399 P. 2d 440, 441 (Utah 1965). But those concerns are absent from this case, for two reasons. First, because there is no need to resort to “conjecture”: The legislature’s abortion laws include not merely the standard “saving” clause, but a provision that could not be clearer in its message that the legislature “would have passed [every aspect of the law] irrespective of the fact that any one or more provision ... be declared unconstitutional.” §76-7-317. And second, because the two sections at issue here are not “interrelated” in any relevant sense — i. e., in the sense of being so interdependent that the remainder of the statute cannot function effectively without the invalidated provision, or in the sense that the invalidated provision could be regarded as part of a legislative compromise, extracted in exchange for the inclusion of other provisions of the statute. Nothing like that appears here. The Court of Appeals described §302(3) as “modiftying]” §302(2), and concluded that, “[w]ith the nullification of the abortion ban in section 302(2), the statute was gutted, and section 302(3) was left purposeless without an abortion ban to modify.” 61 F. 34d, at 1498. But as examination of the provisions makes apparent, see n. 1, supra, §302(3) cannot possibly be said to “modify” §302(2) in the sense of being an adjunct to it, as an adjective “modifies” a noun. Rather, it can be said to “modify” § 302(2) only in the sense of altering its disposition — permitting, for post-20week abortions, some but not all of the justifications allowed (for earlier-term abortions) by § 302(2). It is impossible to see how this could lead to the conclusion that § 302(3) is left “purposeless” when §302(2) is declared inoperative. Of course §302(3) does incorporate by reference permissible justifications for abortion set forth in § 302(2), instead of repeating them verbatim, but this drafting device can hardly be thought to establish such “interdependence” that § 302(3) becomes “purposeless” when §302(2) is unenforceable. To the contrary, §302(3) sets out in straightforward and self-operative fashion the circumstances under which an abortion may be performed “[a]fter 20 weeks gestational age.” But even if the Court of Appeals were correct in treating § 317 like an ordinary saving clause; even if it were right in believing that there existed the “interrelationship” between §§302(2) and 302(3) that would permit an ordinary saving clause to be disregarded; and even if it had not invented the notion of “structural-substantive” dichotomy; the reasoning by which it concluded that the “substantive” intent of the Utah Legislature was to forgo all regulation of abortion unless it could obtain total regulation is flawed. The court reasoned that, because the intent of the 1991 amendments was “to prohibit all abortions, regardless of when they occur during the pregnancy, except in the few specified circumstances,” 61 F. 3d, at 1497, and because §§ 302(2) and 302(3) “operated as a unified expression of [that] intent,” ibid., for the court to separate §302(2) from §302(3) based on the unconstitutionality of the former would “clearly undermin[e] the legislative purpose to ban most abortions,” id,., at 1498. This mode of analysis, if carried out in every case, would operate to defeat every claim of severability. Every legislature that adopts, in a single enactment, provision A plus provision B intends (A+B); and that enactment, which reads (A+B), is invariably a “unified expression of that intent,” so that taking away A from (A+B), leaving only B, will invariably “clearly undermine the legislative purpose” to enact (A+B). But the fallacy in applying this reasoning to the sev-erability question is that it is not the severing that will take away A from (A+B) and thus foil the legislature’s intent; it is the invalidation of A (in this case, because of its unconstitutionality) which does so — an invalidation that occurs whether or not the two provisions are severed. The relevant question, in other words, is not whether the legislature would prefer (A+B) to B, because by reason of the invalidation of A that choice is no longer available. The relevant question is whether the legislature would prefer not to have B if it could not have A as well. Here, the Court of Appeals in effect said yes. It determined that a legislature bent on banning almost all abortions would prefer, if it could not have that desire, to ban no abortions at all rather than merely some. This notion is, at the very least, questionable when considered in isolation. But when it is put forward in the face of a statutory text that explicitly states the opposite, it is plainly error. * * * We have summarily set aside unsupportable judgments in cases involving only individual claims, see, e. g., Board of Ed. of Rogers v. McCluskey, 458 U. S. 966, 969-971 (1982); National Bank of North America v. Associates of Obstetrics & Female Surgery, Inc., 425 U. S. 460, 460-461 (1976). Much more is that appropriate when what is at issue is the total invalidation of a statewide law, see, e. g., Idaho Dept. of Employment v. Smith, 434 U. S. 100, 100-102 (1977). To be sure, we do not normally grant petitions for certiorari solely to review what purports to be an application of state law; but we have done so, see Steele v. General Mills, Inc., 329 U. S. 433, 438, 440-441 (1947); Wichita Royalty Co. v. City Nat. Bank of Wichita Falls, 306 U. S. 103, 107 (1939), and undoubtedly should do so where the alternative is allowing blatant federal-court nullification of state law. The dissent argues that “[t]he doctrine of judicial restraint” weighs against review, post, at 146, but it is an odd notion of judicial restraint that would compel us to cast a blind eye on overreaching by lower federal courts. The fact observed by the dissent, that the “underlying substantive issue in this case” is a controversial one, generating “a kind of ‘hydraulic pressure’ that motivates ad hoc decisionmaking,” ibid., provides a greater, not a lesser, justification for reversing state-law determinations that seem plainly wrong. In our view, these considerations combine to make this an “extraordinary cas[e]” worth our effort of summary review, post, at 147. Finally, the dissent’s appeal to the supposed greater expertise of courts of appeals regarding state law is particularly weak (if not indeed counterindicative) where a Court of Appeals panel consisting of judges from Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas has reversed the District Court of Utah on a point of Utah law. If, as we have said, the courts of appeals owe no deference to district court adjudications of state law, see Salve Regina College v. Russell, 499 U. S. 225, 239-240 (1991), surely there is no basis for regarding panels of circuit judges as “better qualified” than we to pass on such questions, see post, at 146. Our general presumption that courts of appeals correctly decide questions of state law reflects a judgment as to the utility of reviewing them in most cases, see Salve Regina College, supra, at 235, n. 3, not a belief that the courts of appeals have some natural advantage in this domain, cf. Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc., 472 U. S. 491, 500 (1985) (“[W]e surely have the authority to differ with the lower federal courts as to the meaning of a state statute”); Cole v. Richardson, 405 U. S. 676, 683-685 (1972). That general presumption is obviously inapplicable where the court of appeals’ state-law ruling is plainly wrong, a conclusion that the dissent does not even contest in this case. The opinion of the Tenth Circuit in this case is not sustainable. Accordingly, we grant the petition as to the severability question, summarily reverse the judgment, and remand the case to the Court of Appeals for further proceedings. It is so ordered. The two subsections state: “(2) An abortion may be performed in this state only under the following circumstances: “(a) in the professional judgment of the pregnant woman’s attending physician, the abortion is necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life; “(b) the pregnancy is the result of rape or rape of a child . . . that was reported to a law enforcement agency prior to the abortion; “(e) the pregnancy is the result of incest... and the incident was reported to a law enforcement agency prior to the abortion; “(d) in the professional judgment of the pregnant woman’s attending physician, to prevent grave damage to the pregnant woman’s medical health; or “(e) in the professional judgment of the pregnant woman’s attending physician, to prevent the birth of a child that would be born with grave defects. “(3) After 20 weeks gestational age, measured from the date of conception, an abortion may be performed only for those purposes and circumstances described in Subsections (2)(a), (d), and (e).” Utah Code Ann. §76-7-302 (1995). In none of the Utah eases relied upon by the Court of Appeals was there a legislative statement of this sort. In both Salt Lake City v. International Assn. of Firefighters, 563 P. 2d 786 (1977), and Carter v. Beaver County Service Area No. One, 399 P. 2d 440 (1965), the saving clauses at issue simply declared: “If any provision of this act, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of this act shall not be affected thereby.” See 1975 Utah Laws, ch. 102, §10; 1961 Utah Laws, ch. 34, §3. And in State v. Salt Lake City, 445 P. 2d 691, 696 (1968), the court treated the saving clause in the municipal ordinance under review as no different from the one discussed in Carter, upon which the court relied. Compare International Assn. of Firefighters, supra, at 791 (“The [invalidated] provisions . .. are an integral part of the act. . . . The concept of binding arbitration is wholly interdependent with the other provisions of the act”); Carter, supra, at 441-442 (“[T]he separability clause ... is ineffective, because of the dependency of the remaining sections upon the provisions declared inoperative”) (emphases added). The Court of Appeals also adverted to Utah Code Ann. § 76-7-317.2 (1995), which it interpreted as “making an exception to the general sever-ability clause specifically for section 302.” Jane L. v. Bangerter, 61 F. 3d, at 1499. Section 317.2 does nothing of the sort. It provides, simply, that “[i]f Section 76-7-302 as amended by Senate Bill 23,1991 Annual General Session, is ever held to be unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court, Section 76-7-302, as enacted by Chapter 33, Laws of Utah 1974, is reenacted and immediately effective.” This provision does not speak to severability, but to the consequence of invalidation, presumably total invalidation. (For if the invalidation of § 302(2) alone triggered § 317.2, then all of § 302 would be replaced by the pre-existing, 1974 version. But the Court of Appeals did not decree § 302(1) as inoperative, nor did respondents seek that result.) Respondents make no effort to defend the ruling below on the basis of § 317.2. The dissent says that our review in Wichita Royalty Co. “was plainly motivated by a concern to give effect to [the] new mandate” of Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U. S. 64 (1938), that federal courts apply state substantive law in diversity eases. Post, at 147, It remains the case, however, that “the only question for our decision” was whether the Court of Appeals was correct in its interpretation of state law. 306 U. S., at 107 (emphasis added). As for Steele v. General Mills, Inc., 329 U. S. 433 (1947), there our review was prompted by concern that the judgment below “undermine[d] the transportation policy of Texas,” id., at 438. But unless we were wrong in Steele to regard this as “a question of such importance” as to justify review, ibid., the Tenth Circuit’s “undermin[ing] [of] the [abortion] policy of [Utah]” presents an issue equally worth our attention. If the dissent is correct that Steele was our last case of this sort, it indicates only that we have not since been faced with a federal court’s equivalently clear misinterpretation of a state law of equivalent significance. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
E
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. We again consider a long-running water dispute between Colorado and Kansas. The water is that of the Arkansas River, once proudly called the “Nile of America.” The river originates high in the Rocky Mountains. It runs eastward' through Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, before joining the Mississippi near the town of Arkansas Post. For decades, Kansas and Colorado disagreed about the division of its upper waters. See Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U. S. 46 (1907); Colorado v. Kansas, 320 U. S. 383 (1943). In 1949, they entered into an interstate compact. See Arkansas River Compact (Compact), 63 Stat. 145 (agreeing to “[equitably divide and apportion” the waters (internal quotation marks omitted)). But the disagreements have persisted. Present proceedings began in 1985, when Kansas charged that Colorado had violated the Compact. Kansas pointed out that Compact Art. IV-D says: “This Compact is not intended to impede or prevent future beneficial development of the Arkansas River basin in Colorado and Kansas by Federal or State agencies, by private enterprise, or by combinations thereof, which may involve construction of dams, reservoir, and other works for the purposes of water utilization and control, as well as the improved or prolonged functioning of existing works: Provided, that the waters of the Arkansas River, as defined in Article III, shall not be materially depleted in usable quantity or availability for use to the water users in Colorado and Kansas under this Compact by such future development or construction.” Id., at 147 (emphasis added and internal quotation marks omitted). Kansas submitted that Colorado “development,” in particular increases in ground water consumption through new and existing irrigation wells, had “materially depleted” the water otherwise available “for use” by Kansas’ “water users.” Our appointed Special Master agreed, recommending that we find that Colorado had unlawfully depleted the river in violation of Art. IV-D. 2 First Report of Special Master 336 (hereinafter Report). We accepted the Special Master’s recommendations and remanded the case for remedies. Kansas v. Colorado, 514 U. S. 673, 694 (1995) (Kansas I). The Special Master set forth proposed remedies in his Second and Third Reports. He said that Colorado had over-depleted more than 400,000 acre-feet of usable river flow from 1950 through 1994. Second Report 112. He recommended that Colorado pay Kansas monetary damages to make up for the depletions. Third Report 119. He divided losses into six categories, calculating damages somewhat differently in each category. See id., at 120. And he recommended that Kansas be awarded prejudgment interest on damages reflecting losses incurred from 1969 through 1994. Id., at 107. We subsequently adopted the Special Master’s recommendations with one exception; we held prejudgment interest would run from 1985 (not 1969). Kansas v. Colo rado, 533 U. S. 1, 15-16 (2001) (Kansas III). See infra, at 95-97. And we remanded the case. 533 U. S., at 20. The Master has now filed a Fourth Report setting forth his resolution of certain remaining issues. Kansas takes exception to several of the Fourth Report’s recommendations. We overrule Kansas’ exceptions and adopt all of the Special Master’s recommendations. I Kansas, asked the Special Master to recommend that we appoint a River Master with authority to decide (within clear error limits) various technical disputes related to decree enforcement. See Texas v. New Mexico, 482 U. S. 124, 134 (1987) (appointing a River Master to-“make the calculations provided for in [a] decree” concerning the Pecos River). The Special Master rejected Kansas’ request, recommending instead that “the Court retain continuing jurisdiction in this case for a limited period of time” to permit the Special Master himself to resolve any lingering issues (subject, of course, to this Court’s review). Fourth Report 135. Kansas here renews its request for appointment of a River Master. We recognize that this Court has previously appointed a River Master to help resolve water-related disputes among States. Texas v. New Mexico, supra, at 134-135; New Jersey v. New York, 347 U. S. 995, 1002-1004 (1954). But it has done so only twice before, each time on recommendation of the Special Master, always as a discretionary matter, and only because it was convinced that such an appointment would significantly aid resolution of further disputes. See Vermont v. New York, 417 U. S. 270, 275 (1974) (per curiam) (“[I]t is a rare case” where we will install a River Master). We are not convinced that such an appointment is appropriate here. For one thing, further disputes in this case, while technical, may well require discretionary, policy-oriented decision-making directly and importantly related to the underlying legal issues. In this respect, potential disputes in this case differ at least in degree from those that we have asked River Masters to resolve. Implementation of the Pecos River Decree, for example, involved application of a largely noncontroversial mathematical curve. The curve correlates inflows at various New Mexico River locations with expected outflows so that engineers can estimate, for any given inflow, the amount of water that is required to be available for Texas’ use. See Texas v. New Mexico, 462 U. S. 554, 572-573 (1983); see also Texas v. New Mexico, 446 U. S. 540 (1980) (per curiam). Lingering disputes between Texas and New Mexico, we thought, would involve not the curve’s shape but whether officials had properly measured the flows. 482 U. S., at 134-135. Although these disputes might call for a “degree of judgment,” they would often prove capable of mechanical resolution and would usually involve marginal calculation adjustments. Id., at 134; see id., at 135-136; Fourth Report 128 (The Pecos River Master “does not adjudicate the kinds of disputes” potentially at issue here). Administration of the decree in this case, by contrast, will involve not a simple curve but a highly complex computer model, the Hydrologic-Institutional Model (H-I Model or Model). The H-I Model seeks to determine just what the precise water flows into Kansas would have been had Colorado not allowed increased consumption of ground water after 1949. See 2 First Report 231. Modeling disputes— and there have been many — involve not just measurement inputs, but basic assumptions underlying the Model. See, e. g., Kansas I, supra, at 685-687; 2 First Report 237-240; Fourth Report 123-124. Their resolution may well call for highly judgmental decisionmaking about matters that (compared to the Pecos) are more importantly related to the parties’ basic legal claims. See id., at 128. Moreover, the need for a River Master is diminished by the fact that the parties may find it possible to resolve future technical disputes through arbitration. The interstate compact itself creates an Arkansas River Compact Administration (Administration) empowered to resolve differences arising under the Compact. Art. VIII, 63 Stat. 149. The Administration consists of three representatives from each State and a representative of the United States acting as chair. Art. VIII-C. Each State has one vote; the United States has no vote. Art. VIII-D. In ease of an equally divided vote, the Administration (with the consent of both States) may refer a matter for resolution to the “Representative of the United States or other arbitrator or arbitrators.” Ibid, (internal quotation marks omitted). The arbitrator’s determinations are binding. Ibid. At oral argument, counsel for Kansas suggested a willingness to use arbitration, noting that “in the one case [he was] aware of, Kansas’ suggestion of doing an arbitration was rejected by Colorado.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 17. Colorado’s counsel responded that Colorado had proposed “that binding arbitration be used and has committed itself to participate in that.” Id., at 26; see also Reply Brief for Colorado Opposing Exceptions 15. These comments suggest that neither party opposes arbitration, and indeed that Colorado would accept it. Nor have the parties expressed any opposition to the use of other less formal means to resolve disputes, such as joint consultation with experts, negotiation, and informal mediation. See, e. g., Kansas v. Nebraska, 538 U. S. 720 (2003) (Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska resolved Republican River dispute by settlement and stipulation); Fourth Report 134 (discussing ongoing “joint efforts” and “cooperation” among the States to resolve lingering disputes over the waters of the Republican River). The Special Master recommended both binding arbitration and these other less formal methods as alternatives, while opposing appointment of a River Master and observing that such an appointment would “simply” make it “easier to continue this litigation.” Id., at 136. For all of these reasons, we deny Kansas’ River Master request. II Kansas takes exception to the Special Master’s prejudgment interest calculation. The calculation and the objection grow- out of the special history of this litigation. After we initially remanded this case for remedial determinations, see Kansas I, 514 U. S. 673, the Special Master found that Colorado’s unlawful water depletion had harmed Kansas beginning in 1950 and that Colorado must pay monetary damages reflecting that harm. Kansas asked the Special Master to award prejudgment interest on those damages incurred through 1994. Colorado replied that the Compact — like the common law — did not foresee interest payments in respect to unliquidated claims, particularly where, as here, damages were highly speculative. And even with the best of good will, said Colorado, it still could not have known prior to the filing of the complaint (in 1985) how much it owed Kansas. See Third Report 92-94; Kansas III, 533 U. S., at 11-13; Brief for Defendant in Kansas III, O. T. 2000, No. 105, Orig., pp. 28-32. The Special Master resolved the argument by deciding to calculate pre judgment interest on the basis of what he called ‘“considerations of fairness.’” Third Report 97 (quoting Board of Comm’rs of Jackson Cty. v. United States, 308 U. S. 343, 352 (1939)). In a kind of Solomonic compromise, he divided the prejudgment period into three temporal subcategories: (1) an Early Period, the period from 1950, when Colorado’s unlawful water depletion began, through 1968, when Colorado should first have known about it; (2) a Middle Period, the period from 1969 through 1984; and (3) a Late Period, the period from 1985, when Kansas filed its complaint, through 1994, the last year for which evidence was available at the time of the trial on damages. He adjusted damages from all three periods (Early, Middle, and Late) for inflation. But he awarded additional prejudgment interest, reflecting Kansas’ loss of use of the money, “only from 1969 to the date of judgment.” Third Report 107. Both Kansas and Colorado interpreted his order as awarding interest only on Middle and Late Damages (1969-1994), not on Early Damages (1950-1968). Kansas III, Exception and Brief for Plaintiff Kansas 9; App. to Fourth Report 12-13. The resulting total damages award, including prejudgment interest, came to $38 million. Ibid. On appeal to this Court, Colorado attacked the award of any prejudgment interest, while Kansas called for full prejudgment interest. We accepted the Special Master’s equitable approach. We were unable to conclude that Colorado should have known that prejudgment interest would “automatically” be imposed “in order to achieve full compensation.” 533 U. S., at 14. But, we added, Colorado did believe (or should have believed) that we would assess “ ‘considerations of fairness’ ” in order to achieve a just and equitable remedy. Ibid. Hence “the Special Master acted properly ... in only awarding as much pre judgment interest as was required by a balancing of the equities.” Ibid. The Special Master, we found, properly refused to “award prejudgment interest for any years before either party was aware of the excessive pumping in Colorado.” Id., at 15. We then applied our own “considerations of fairness” and concluded that “prejudgment interest should begin to accrue,” not as of 1969 (the Special Master’s date), but as of 1985. Id., at 14-15. We wrote in an accompanying footnote: “Justice O’Connor, Justice Scalia, and Justice Thomas would not allow any pre judgment interest.. .. Justice Kennedy and The Chief Justice are of the opinion that prejudgment interest should run from the date of the filing of the complaint [1985]. Justice Squ-ter, Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, and [Justice Stevens] ... agree with the Special Master’s view that interest should run from the time when Colorado knew or should have known that it was violating the Compact [1969]. In order to produce a majority for a judgment, the four Justices who agree with the Special Master have voted to endorse the position expressed in the text.” Id., at 15, n. 5. On remand, the Special Master, seeking to remain faithful to our determination, calculated prejudgment interest from 1985 onward, and calculated that interest on (post-1984) Late Damages alone, i. e., completely exempting both Early Damages and Middle Damages from prejudgment interest. Kansas now objects to this last-mentioned limitation; it challenges the sum upon which post-1984 interest runs. Kansas says the Special Master should have calculated prejudgment interest (from 1985) on all damages, i. e., on Early Damages, Middle Damages, and Late Damages alike. After all, says Kansas, “[p]rejudgment interest serves to compensate for the loss of use of money due as damages ... thereby achieving full compensation for the injury those damages are intended to redress,” West Virginia v. United States, 479 U. S. 305, 310-311, n. 2 (1987) (citing Comment, Prejudgment Interest: Survey and Suggestion, 77 Nw. U. L. Rev. 192 (1982)). See Exceptions and Brief for Plaintiff 29. Kansas lost the “use of” all the “money due as damages,” i. e., Early and Middle Damages as well (which were “due” at least by 1985). Why then, asks Kansas, calculate post-1984 interest on only some of the damages then due? Kansas’ argument would make good sense in an ordinary case. But the question here is not about the ordinary case, but rather what the Kansas III paragraph we quoted above means in context. And the Kansas III context is a special one. For one thing, , like the Special Master, we did not seek to provide compensation for all lost investment opportunities; rather, we sought to weigh the equities. For another, it was apparent that the Special Master’s earlier determination involved both a decision about when to begin .to calculate interest (1969) and what to calculate that interest upon (Middle Damages and Late Damages only). Brief for Plaintiff in Kansas v. Colorado, O. T. 2000, No. 105, Orig., pp. 9, 25, n. 8. All damages incurred before his selected date were totally exempt from interest. Kansas contested the when by arguing that we should award interest for the entire period. Kansas also contested the what by arguing that, even accepting the Special Master’s preferred date, interest should run on Early Damages as well as Middle and Late Damages. See id., at 25, n. 8 (“Even if a defendant’s good-faith ignorance of its breach were a valid reason to deny prejudgment interest, it would not justify the Special Master’s recommendation to deny Kansas compensation for its loss of use of money [reflecting Early Damages] after 1968”). In overruling Kansas’ exception and sustaining Colorado’s exception, we said nothing about the Special Master’s total exemption of Early Damages. 533 U. S., at 14. Thus, we changed the when (from 1969 to 1985) in Kansas III, but (despite Kansas’ argument) we did not change the methodology for calculating the what. In context, our silence fairly implies acceptance, not rejection, of the Special Master’s underlying methodology. Moving the date forward thus meant moving the exemption period forward as well. And that methodology now yields a post-1985 interest calculation based upon Late Damages only. This view of our prior opinion is reinforced by the resulting numbers. The Special Master’s original 1969 date (and methodology) produced a total damages award to Kansas, including prejudgment interest, of about $38 million (in 1998 dollars). Were we to accept Kansas’ argument (and calculate post-1984 interest on all damages), the final damages award would be roughly $53 million (in 2002 dollars). App. to Fourth Report 12. We cannot reconcile that numerical result with our acceptance in Kansas III of the Special Master’s equitable approach and with our own equitable determination. That determination implied a modest adjustment of the $38 million award in Colorado’s favor, not, as Kansas now seeks, an adjustment of the award in its own favor. App. to Fourth Report 12. Consequently, we overrule Kansas’ objection. l-H Eansas and Colorado have agreed to use a computer model, the H-I Model, to measure Colorado’s future Compact compliance. This highly complex set of computer programs determines whether Colorado’s post-1949 wells deplete the river of usable water that the Compact makes available for Kansas. It does so by trying to account for almost every Arkansas-River-connected drop of water that arrives in, stays in, or leaves Colorado, whether by way of rain, snow, high mountain streams, well pumping of underground water, evaporation, canal seepage, transmountain imports, reservoir storage, or otherwise. 2 First Report 233-235. With all “switches” turned on, the Model predicts how much river water will leave Colorado for Kansas during a given month. Id., at 234-235. To obtain a figure representing an unlawful depletion (or lawful accretion) under the Compact, the Model subtracts from this figure (the actual flow) a number representing a hypothetical prediction of how much water would have flowed into Kansas had Colorado not dug and operated post-1949 wells. The Model obtains this prediction through a computer rerun with the Model’s “post-1949 well” switch turned off. Ibid. The final figure is then adjusted to reflect depletions to usable, as opposed to total, flow. App. to Second Report 37. Not surprisingly, the Model’s ability to calculate depletions has proved highly controversial, leading to many Model modifications during this litigation. See, e.g., 2 First Report 236-240 (describing Colorado’s objections to the original Model). The Special Master has recommended use of the Model together with a 10-year measurement period to determine the amounts of any future depletions. Fourth Report 139. That is to say, a determination of whether Colorado owes Kansas water in Year 11 will be made by taking the Model’s total result for Years 1-10, for year 12 by the Model’s total result for Years 2-11, and so forth. Id., at 117; App. to Fourth Report 86, Exh. 14. Kansas takes exception to the 10-year measurement period. Kansas seeks a measurement period of one year. In support, Kansas points to Compact Art. V-E(5), 63 Stat. 148, which says that there “shall be no allowance or accumulation of credits or debits for or against either State.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Kansas argues that a 10-year period averages out oversupply and undersupply during the interim years, with the likely effect of awarding Colorado a “credit” in dry years for oversupply in wet years. Kansas adds that Art. IV-D, 63 Stat. 147, forbids Colorado to deplete the river water’s “availability for use.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Kansas says that the 10-year measurement period in effect frees Colorado from the obligation to compensate Kansas for years (within the 10-year period) when overpumping may have made water “unavailable” for Kansas’ use. (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Kansas also notes that the parties and the Special Master have used a 1-year measuring period in this litigation for purposes of calculating past damages. See Exceptions and Brief for Plaintiff 37-40, 43-44. Like the Special Master, we are not persuaded by Kansas’ arguments. The literal words of the Compact are not determinative. The Compact’s language essentially forbids offsetting debits with “credits,” but it does not define the length of time over which a “credit” is measured. Any period of measurement inevitably averages interim period flows just as it overlooks interim period lack of water “availability.” Thus annual measurement offsets and overlooks seasonal differences; seasonal measurement, monthly differences; monthly measurement, weekly differences, and so forth. At the same time, practical considerations favor the Special Master’s measurement approach. Model results over measurement periods of less than 10 years are highly inaccurate. The Special Master found, for example, that the current iteration of the Model, if used to project river diversions (including well pumping) during a single year, produces figures that overpredict actual diversions in some years and underpredict them in others by as much as 22%. Fourth Report 111. Similar inaccuracies plague the Model’s projection of actual river flows. Id., at 112. If projected diversions and flows deviate substantially in this way from actual measured diversions and flows, 1-year estimates of final depletions to usable flow — the figure that determines Kansas’ damages — cannot be accurate. Id., at 115 (“I find that the H-I model is not sufficiently accurate on a short-term basis to be used to determine compact compliance on a monthly or annual basis”). But measured over long periods of time, say, the full 540 months between 1950 and 1994, the Model’s predicted and observed diversions “matched almost perfectly.” Id., at 114. For this, reason, the Master concluded that “[o]nly by using longer term averages do the model simulations more closely match historic data.” Id., at 115. Thus, the 10-year measurement period is needed to ensure Model accuracy. Nor is Kansas likely to suffer serious harm through use of a 10-year measuring period. That is because Colorado has developed a water replacement program designed to minimize depletions. See Amended Rules and Regulations Governing the Diversion and Use of Tributary Ground Water in the Arkansas River Basin (Use Rules), App. to Fourth Report 36, Exh. 6; Fourth Report 8-13. The program protects both Kansas water users and senior Colorado users by insisting that Colorado users with junior rights (and in particular those who obtain water from post-1949 wells) replace the river water that they use. They must either (1) buy replacement water, say, from the Rockies’ western slope or (2) buy land irrigated under pre-1949 water rights and remove it from cultivation. Id., at 10-13. In practice, junior users belong to one of three associations that conduct these transactions, reporting the details monthly to the Colorado State Engineer’s Office, and receiving replacement “credits,” which they divide among their members. Id., at 13. Were the replacement program and the H-I Model both to work perfectly, the Model’s net depletion figure, whether determined each month, each year, or each decade, would be zero (that is, there would be no difference between actual flow and what the flow would have been under precompact conditions). Of course, perfection is impossible; and Kansas claims certain defects in the Use Rules. See id., at 27. But operation of the Rules should help to diminish the real amount of any depletion, thereby limiting any negative effect that a 10-year measurement period might have upon Kansas. See id., at 119-120; see also id., at 32. The 1997-1999 results, showing essentially no aggregate depletion, suggest the water replacement program will have this effect. Ibid. Kansas argues that the Compact’s framers expected annual measurement. And they quote a Colorado Commissioner as recognizing that there would be “‘no carry-over from year to year,’ ” see Exceptions and Brief for Plaintiff 39 (quoting Joint Exhibit 3, pp. 14-84). Assuming, argu-endo, that the framers opposed such carryover, they were likely unaware of the modern difficulties of complex computer modeling. And we believe that those framers, in any event, would have preferred accurate measurement. After all, a “credit” for surplus water that rests upon maccurate measurement is not really a credit at all. Kansas also points out that earlier in this litigation both parties agreed to the use of annual measurement for purposes of calculating past damages. The parties made that stipulation, however, before the Special Master fully examined the Model’s accuracy. In any event, their previous agreements do not govern this determination. We overrule Kansas’ exception. > HH As we just mentioned, measuring the depletion caused by Colorado’s post-1949 wells involves taking account of Colorado’s water replacement program, which credits Colorado with non-Arkansas water pumped into the Arkansas and with Arkansas water not used because farmers have removed from cultivation lands previously irrigated under pre-1949 water rights. The Special Master has recommended that “the final amounts of Replacement Plan credits to be applied toward Colorado’s Compact obligations shall be the amounts determined by the Colorado Water Court, and any appeals therefrom.” Fourth Report 138, ¶ 9. Kansas takes exception to this recommendation. Kansas points out that the Colorado Water Court is a state court. It says that a “'State cannot be its own ultimate judge in a controversy with a sister State,’ ” Exceptions and Brief for Plaintiff 45-46 (quoting West Virginia ex rel. Dyer v. Sims, 341 U. S. 22, 28 (1951)), and that this Court must “ 'pass upon every question essential’ ” to resolving the dispute, Exceptions and Brief for Plaintiff 46 (quoting Oklahoma v. New Mexico, 501 U. S. 221, 241 (1991), in turn quoting Kentucky v. Indiana, 281 U. S. 163, 176-177 (1930)). Kansas believes that the Special Master’s recommendation violates these well-established principles. Kansas’ objection founders, however, upon additional language in the Master’s full recommendation. The recommendation adds: “This is not to say, however, that the Colorado Water Courts are empowered to make a final determination on any matter essential to compact compliance at the State-line, or that Colorado’s reliance on such Water Court actions will necessarily satisfy its compact obligations.... All replacement credits, no matter how determined, are subject to the right of Kansas to seek relief under the Court’s original jurisdiction [as set forth in] Section VIII.” Fourth Report 138-139, ¶ 9. In the cross-referenced Section VIII, the Special Master makes clear that Colorado’s replacement plan rules affect the rights, not only of Kansas water users, but also of Colorado senior water users; that both groups of water users have similar litigation incentives; and that permitting the Colorado Water Court initially to consider challenges to credit allocations will help prevent inconsistent determinations. Id., at 93-95. In our view, the Special Master’s full recommendation will help to avoid the potential conflict he mentioned. It also adequately preserves Kansas’ rights to contest any adverse Water Court determination. We overrule Kansas’ exception. V The Special Master found that Colorado complied with the Compact for. the period 1997-1999. Kansas takes exception on the ground that the Special Master used a measurement period “greater than one year.” Exceptions and Brief for Plaintiff 47. Kansas concedes that its objection rests upon its claim that the Special Master cannot use “an accounting period longer than one year.” Ibid. Having found against Kansas on that matter, supra, at 100-103, we must overrule this exception. VI At the end of its brief, Kansas lists 15 disputed issues that the Special Master has not yet decided. It groups them into three categories: 1. “Disputed H-I Model Calibration Issues” (“[cjalibration procedures, parameters and criteria,” “[cjanal capacities,” “altered diversion records,” “statistical outliers,” “Sisson-Stubbs water right” representation); 2. “Disputed 1997-1999 Accounting Issues” (“[d]ry-up acreage,” “Sisson-Stubbs credit,” “winter water book-overs” credit); 3. “Disputed Future Compliance Issues” (“[d]ry-up acreage monitoring,” “[d]ry-up credits” and external source “return flow obligations,” credit beyond “precom-pact uses,” “[s]pecial waters monitoring,” winter water release credit timing, “[o]ffset [a]ccount” accounting procedures, “consumptive use credit and return flow obligations”). Exceptions and Brief for Plaintiff 48-49. Kansas takes exception to the Special Master’s refusal to make recommendations on these issues now. It points out that we cannot leave unanswered important questions “ ‘essential’” to our “‘determination of a controversy’” between the States. Id., at 49 (quoting Oklahoma v. New Mexico, supra, at 241). And Kansas asks us to require the Special Master to decide them. As the Special Master found, however, there are good reasons not to decide these issues immediately. There is no need to resolve most of the issues in the second category. They involve challenges to the accuracy of the figures used to determine whether Colorado depleted the river between 1997 and 1999. The Special Master concluded that Colorado was in compliance during 1997-1999, in the process relying upon Kansas’ own figures. Fourth Report 30-31. As far as we can tell from the briefs, these issues are mostly moot. The passage of time will produce more accurate resolution of disputes in the first and third categories (and any of those in the second that arise again in the future). The parties will learn more about matters relevant to their resolution, namely, the H-I Model’s strengths, weaknesses, and methods of monitoring and measurement. That is why the Special Master recommendéd that we retain jurisdiction over this case and permit him to take up lingering issues at a future date. Id., at 135-136,139. We accept that recommendation and overrule Kansas’ objection. The Special Master also recommended that experts for the two parties confer, e. g., id., at 91-92, and he expressed the hope that expert discussion, negotiation, and, if necessary, binding arbitration would lead to resolution of any remaining disputes. Id., at 135-136. We express that hope as well. VII For these reasons, we overrule all Kansas’ exceptions. We accept the Special Master’s recommendations and recommit the ease to the Special Master for preparation of a decree consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
K
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. This controversy involves the interests of all five Gulf States — Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — in the submerged lands off their shores. The Court heard the claims together, but treats them in two opinions. This opinion deals solely with Florida’s claims. The result as to the other States is discussed in one opinion, •ante, p. 1. All the claims arise and are decided under the Submerged Lands Act of 1953. The Act granted to all coastal States the lands and resources under navigable waters extending three geographical miles seaward from their coastlines. In addition to the three miles, the five Gulf States were granted the submerged lands as far out as each State’s boundary-line either “as it existed at the time such State became a member of the Union,” or as previously “approved by Congress,” even though that boundary extended further than three geographical miles seaward. But in no event was any State to have “more than three marine leagues into the Gulf of Mexico.” This suit was first brought against Louisiana by the United States, United States v. Louisiana, 350 U. S. 990, invoking our original jurisdiction under Art. 111, § 2, cl. 2, of the Constitution, to determine whether Louisiana’s boundary when it became a member of the Union extended three leagues or more into the Gulf, as Louisiana claimed, so as to entitle it to the maximum three-league grant of the Submerged Lands Act. After argument on the Government’s motion for judgment against Louisiana, we suggested that the interests of all the Gulf States under the Act were so related, “that the just, orderly, and effective determination” of the issues required that all those States be before the Court. United States v. Louisiana, 354 U. S. 515, 516. All are now defendants, each has claimed a three-league boundary and grant, which the United States denies, and the issues have been extensively briefed and argued by the parties. As stated, this opinion deals only with the United States-Florida controversy. Florida contends that the record shows it to be entitled under the Act to a declaration of ownership of three marine leagues of submerged lands, because (1) its boundary extended three leagues or more seaward into the Gulf when it became a State, and (2) Congress approved such a three-league boundary for Florida after its admission into the Union and before passage of the Submerged Lands Act. Since we agree with Florida’s latter contention, as to congressional approval, we find it unnecessary to decide the boundaries of Florida at the time it became a State. Florida claims that Congress approved its three-league boundary in 1868, by approving a constitution submitted to Congress as required by a Reconstruction Act passed March 2, 1867. 14 Stat. 428. That constitution carefully described Florida’s boundary on the Gulf of Mexico side as running from a point in the Gulf “three leagues from the mainland” and “thence northwestwardly three leagues from the land” to the next point. The United States concedes that from 1868 to the present day Florida has claimed by its constitutions a three-league boundary into the Gulf. The United States also admits that Florida submitted this constitution to Congress in 1868, but denies that the Gulf boundary it defined was “approved” by Congress within the meaning of the Submerged Lands Act. This is the decisive question as between Florida and the United States. The 1868 Florida Constitution was written and adopted by Florida pursuant to the congressional Act of March 2, 1867 as supplemented by a second Act of March 23, 1867. These Reconstruction Acts purported “to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States,” including Florida. The States involved were divided into military districts and subjected to strict military authority. Detailed provisions were made for registration of voters, election of delegates to constitutional conventions, the framing of constitutions “in conformity with the provisions” of these Reconstruction Acts, and submission of the constitutions to the people of those States for their ratification and approval — all under the supervision and control of commanding generals. Constitutions so adopted were then to be “submitted to Congress for examination and approval,” after which approval by Congress and after ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment by each State, each should be “declared entitled to representation in Congress.” Florida’s Constitution was written, considered and voted upon in the State in accordance with these statutory directions and under the eye and control of an Army general. When submitted to Congress it was much debated, and thereafter on June 25, 1868, another Act was passed authorizing the admission of Florida and other Southern States “to Representation in Congress.” 15 Stat. 73. The preamble to this “Admission Act” declared that these States had adopted their constitutions “in pursuance of the provisions” of the 1867 Acts, which Acts, as has been pointed out, required “examination and approval” of the constitutions as a prerequisite to readmission of congressional representation. Thus by its own description, Congress not only approved Florida’s Constitution which included three-league boundaries, but Congress in 1868 approved it within the meaning of the 1867 Acts. In turn, the approval the 1867 Acts required appears to be precisely the approval the 1953 Act contemplates. The Government argues, however, that these readmission enactments did not contemplate and Congress did not make a general scrutiny of all the provisions of the state constitutions, but only that the constitutions had been duly adopted and were republican in form. The Government makes many references to debates which indicated that some Senators and Congressmen were satisfied with such a limited examination of the constitutions. Florida, on the other hand, points out many other remarks which indicated a much closer examination of the state constitutions. It is beyond doubt that the proposed constitutions were printed, then read, discussed, and amended in the Congress. For instance, the very 1868 bill that admitted Florida’s congressional representatives contained a proviso rejecting certain parts of the Georgia Constitution. That at least some Congressmen scrutinized the constitutions to see if amendments were necessary is persuasively shown by the remarks of Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, set out below. Mr. Stevens was Chairman of the all-important Joint Committee on Reconstruction, and, because of his leading role as architect of the reconstruction plan finally adopted and carried out by Congress, has appropriately been called “the Father of the Reconstruction.” The voluminous references to the Reconstruction debates fail to show us precisely how closely the Southern States’ Reconstruction Constitutions were examined. We cannot know, for sure, whether all or any of the Congressmen or Senators gave special attention to Florida’s boundary description. We are sure, however, that this constitution was examined and approved as a whole, regardless of how thorough that examination may have been, and we think that the 1953 Submerged Lands Act requires no more than this. Moreover, the Hearings and the Reports on the Submerged Lands Act show, as the Government’s brief concedes, that those who wrote into that measure a provision whereby a State was granted up to three leagues if such a boundary had been “heretofore approved by Congress,” had their minds specifically focused on Florida’s claim based on submission of its 1868 Constitution to Congress. When Florida’s claims were mentioned in the hearings it was generally assumed that Congress had previously “approved” its three-league boundaries. The Senate Report on a prior bill, set forth as a part of the report on the 1953 Act, pointed out that “In 1868 Congress approved the Constitution of Florida, in which its boundaries were defined as extending 3 marine leagues seaward and a like distance into the Gulf of Mexico.” S. Rep. No. 133, 83d Cong., 1st Sess. 64-65. The language of the Submerged Lands Act was at least in part designed to give Florida an opportunity to prove its right to adjacent submerged lands so as to remedy what the Congress evidently felt had been an injustice to Florida. Upon proof that Florida’s claims met the statutory standard — “boundaries . . . heretofore approved by the Congress” — the Act was intended to “confirm” and “restore” the three-league ownership Florida had claimed as its own so long and which claim this Court had in effect rejected in United States v. Texas, 339 U. S. 707; United States v. Louisiana, 339 U. S. 699; and United States v. California, 332 U. S. 19. As previously shown, Congress in 1868 did approve Florida’s claim to a boundary three leagues from its shores. And, as we have held, the 1953 Act was within the power of Congress to enact. Alabama v. Texas, 347 U. S. 272. See also United States v. California, 332 U. S. 19, 27. We therefore deny the United States' motion for judgment. We hold that the Submerged Lands Act grants Florida a three-marine-league belt of land under the Gulf, seaward from its coastline, as described in Florida's 1868 Constitution. The cause is retained for such further proceedings as may be necessary more specifically to determine the coastline, fix the boundary and dispose of all other relevant matters. The parties may submit an appropriate form of decree giving effect to the conclusions reached in this opinion. It is so ordered. The Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Claric took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. Mr. Justice Frankfurter, whom Mr. Justice Brennan, Mr. Justice Whittaker and Mr. Justice Stewart join, concurring. Considering the variety of views evoked by these cases, I deem it appropriate to add a few words to the two Court opinions which I have joined. The one thing which I take to be incontestable is that Congress did not, by the Submerged Lands Act of 1953, make an outright grant to any of the Gulf States in excess of three miles. Congress only granted to each of these States the opportunity to establish at law that it possessed a boundary in excess of three miles, either by virtue of possession of such a boundary at the time of its admission to the Union or by virtue of congressional “approval” of such a boundary prior to the enactment of the Submerged Lands Act. A Gulf State that can successfully establish such a judicially ascertainable fact is entitled to a grant of the submerged lands beyond three miles to a distance of the lesser of three leagues or of the boundary so established. Congress, in the Submerged Lands Act itself, did not determine the existence of a boundary for any State beyond three miles, either explicitly or by implied approval of a claim presented to it in the course of the legislative process. Nor of course did Congress vest this Court with determination of a claim based on “equity” in the layman’s loose sense of the term, for it could not. Congress may indulge in largess based on considerations of policy; Congress cannot ask this Court to exercise benevolence on its behalf. There is no foundation in the Act of 1953 or its legislative history for the view that particularized, express approval of a State’s boundary claim by a prior Congress is required to make a defined boundary the measure of the grant. To the contrary, in the case of Florida, authoritative legislative history makes it perfectly clear that the very question deliberately preserved by the Act of 1953 was whether congressional approval of the new Florida Constitution in the Reconstruction legislation of 1867-1868, by which Florida was restored to full participation in the Union, amounted to an approval of the three-league boundary which that constitution explicitly set forth. I sustain Florida's claim because I find that its boundary was so approved. The proper construction of the effect of congressional “approval” of the Florida Reconstruction constitution presents problems quite different from those stirred by the constitutional controversy and its resulting problems that are compendiously known as Reconstruction. See Lincoln's last public address, April 11, 1865. 8 Basler, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 399. The readjustment of the relationship between the States that had remained in the Union and those that had seceded presented major issues not only for the political branches of the Government, the President and the Congress, but also for this Court. Insofar as the perplexing and recalcitrant problems of Reconstruction involved legal solutions, the evolution of constitutional doctrine was an indispensable element in the process of healing the wounds of the sanguinary conflict. It was in aid of that process that this Court formulated the doctrine expressed in the famous sentence in Texas v. White: “The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States.” 7 Wall. 700, 725. This theory served as a fruitful means for dealing with the problems for which it was devised. It is unrelated to the question now before us, namely, whether, when it “approved” as an entirety the Florida Constitution as a condition to the recognition of that State’s full membership in the Union, Congress exercised its undoubted power to approve the seaward boundary claim contained within it. It is in essence the contention of the United States that approval could only have been manifested explicitly, that Congress must have ratified the boundary provision in so many words, either expressly in the Reconstruction Acts, or by an authoritative gloss upon them in a committee report or a speech on the floor by a responsible chairman. But in these matters we are dealing with great acts of State, not with fine writing in an insurance policy. Florida was directed to submit a new constitution for congressional approval as a prerequisite for the exercise of her full rights in the Union of States and the resumption of her responsibilities. In this context it would attribute deceptive subtlety to the Congresses of 1867-1868 to hold that it is necessary to find a formal, explicit statement by them, whether in statutory text or history, that the boundary claim, as submitted in Florida’s new constitution, was duly considered and sanctioned, in order to find “approval” of that claim. 67 Stat. 29, 43 U. S. C. §§ 1301-1315. 43 U. S. C. § 1301 (a)(2), (b). Section 1301 (b) provides: “The term 'boundaries’ includes the seaward boundaries of a State or its boundaries in the Gulf of Mexico ... as they existed at the time such State became a member of the Union, or as heretofore approved by the Congress, . . . but in no event shall the term ... be interpreted as extending from the coast line more than . . . three marine leagues into the Gulf of Mexico.” Section 1311 (a) provides: “It is . . . declared to be in the public interest that (1) title to and ownership of the lands beneath navigable waters within the boundaries of the respective States ... be, and they are, . . . recognized, confirmed, established, and vested in and assigned to the respective States And § 1312 provides: “The seaward boundary of each original coastal State is approved and confirmed as a line three geographical miles distant from its coast line .... Nothing in this section is to be construed as questioning or in any manner prejudicing the existence of any State’s seaward boundary beyond three geographical miles if it was so provided by its constitution or laws prior to or at the time such State became a member of the Union, or if it has been heretofore approved by Congress.” The Florida Constitution of 1868, 25 Fla. Stat. Ann. 411, 413, was considered by Congress along with the constitutions of North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia and Alabama in an Act of June 25, 1868, readmitting those States to “representation in Congress.” 15 Stat. 73. The Florida boundary described in Article I of that State’s 1868 Constitution provided in relevant part: "... thence southeastwardly along the [Atlantic Ocean] coast to the edge of the Gulf Stream; thence southwestwardly along the edge of the Gulf Stream and Florida Reefs to and including the Tortugas Islands; thence north-eastwardly to a point three leagues from the mainland; thence north- westwardly three leagues from the land, to a point west of the mouth of the Perdido river; thence to the place of beginning.” (Emphasis supplied.) The Florida Constitution of 18S5, 25 Fla. Stat. Ann. 449, is that State’s current constitution. Language identical to that set forth above, note 4, supra, provides, in the present Article I, for the same three-league boundary described in 1868. Id., 717. See note 2, supra. 14 Stat. 428. 15 Stat. 2. Debates on the 1868 Act, including discussions of the constitutions of the States to be readmitted to representation in Congress, are reported at Cong. Globe, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. 2412-2413, 2445-2456, 2461-2466, 2498-2499, 2858-2860, 2861-2872, 2895-2900, 2901-2904, 2927-2935, 2963-2970, 2998-3022, 3023-3029, 3052, 3090-3097, 3466, 3484-3485, App. 314-316, 329-338, 347-354. See, e. g., the remarks of Senator Sherman. “When we go beyond securing the enforcement of the guaranty of republican government, which we have the power to do, when we undertake to legislate for them upon matters on which they have passed, we transcend our bounds.” Cong. Globe, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. 2969. Senator Williams said: “If I understand the reconstruction laws, it is not necessarily the duty of Congress to revise the constitution of every one of these States . . . [otherwise] we might just as well have made these constitutions at the beginning and sent them down there with instructions to the people to adopt them as the constitutions of the several States." Id., 2999. In opposing the inclusion of Florida in the Readmission bill, Congressman Paine, a member of the powerful Reconstruction Committee, said: “[I]t has been my duty as a member of the committee to scrutinize this constitution. I ought to explain to the House its character. After I have done that it will be for each member to decide himself whether he will or will not vote for concurrence.” Cong. Globe, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. 3091. See also discussion concerning the Arkansas Constitution, note 13, infra. 15 Stat. 73. As to this action a Congressman said: “With a microscopic view the Committee on Reconstruction, or a majority of them, have looked into the details of the constitution of Georgia, and propose to strike out of it certain provisions.” (Emphasis supplied.) Cong. Globe, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. 3094. “Now, all I have to say is this: this constitution of Arkansas has been before us for four weeks, fairly printed. ... I think that this constitution is above all suspicion, and I am a little scrupulous and particular about any constitution I am called upon to vote for. Now, with a constitution with which I can find no fault, after it has been so long before us, I cannot for a moment conceive that there has not been time enough allowed for all of us to become acquainted with it. And as in equity that is presumed to be done which should be done, whieh ought to be done, therefore it is to be presumed that there is not a man in this House who does not know all about this constitution.” (Emphasis supplied.) Cong. Globe, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. 2399. Congressman Stevens was here referring to one State, Arkansas, 500 copies of whose constitution were printed for use of the members of the House of Representatives, Cong. Globe, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. 2333, 2372. The record shows that Florida’s Constitution was referred to the Committee on Reconstruction and copies were printed for the use of the House. The congressional history indicates that all the constitutions were given equally close attention. Brodie, Thaddeus Stevens (1959), 371. See also 17 Dictionary of American Biography (1935), 620, 624, and biographies cited at 625. “Senator Long. When Congress approved the constitution of the State of Florida, fixing Florida’s boundary on the Gulf side 3 leagues out into the sea, could there be any doubt in your mind that Congress in effect said to Florida that your boundary goes out 3 leagues and agreed to it? That certainly is not a unilateral act, is it?” Hearings before Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs on S. J. Res. 13, S. 294, S, 107, S. 107 amendment, and S. J. Res. 18, 83d Cong., 1st Sess. 317. See also id., 323 and 326 for remarks that in 1868 “Congress approved” Florida's boundary, and 931 for Attorney General Brownell’s acknowledgment that Florida’s west coast would not be limited to the general three-mile line. At pages 21-23 of this report may be found a legislative history of the submerged lands controversy. Appendix E, the Report of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the prior bill, contains further helpful background material. For example, Senator Holland, the Senator from Florida, stated, in response to questioning on the precise issue: “I have never contended in this debate, or anywhere else, for a 3-league limitation in the case of my State, except as fixed by its constitution and except as approved, I believe, by the Congress. “If the Senator does not think we have a case which we can establish in court, why is he concerned about it? I am perfectly willing to rely upon that 3-league limit on our Gulf Coast, as stated in the Florida Constitution and as approved by the Congress, so I believe, in 1868. “So it is very difficult for me to understand why those who oppose the pending joint resolution feel that there is something to fear, if they feel we have no firm ease for that boundary. We do not spell out that firm case in the pending measure. In this measure we simply claim the right ... to show — if it be a fact — that we have a greater border than 3 miles, as we claim, in the Gulf of Mexico. “Likewise we claim — and to come under this measure we would have to establish that claim — that that 3-league border was not only provided in our constitution, and is still there, but that it was approved when our constitution was approved by act of Congress. “So if the Senator thinks that, any link in that chain is unsafe and insecure, that should make him believe that Florida will not have the claimed 3-league boundary .... “I am beginning to believe that my friends are fairly well convinced of the strength of the action taken by Congress, and are afraid that Florida does have a legal and a supportable claim to the 3-league boundary, because if the case were as weak as some Senators seem to believe it is, why would they be disturbed by the general wording of the pending joint resolution, which simply gives Florida its day in court?” 99 Cong. Rec. 2923. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
J
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Brennan delivered the opinion of the Court. . Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 79 Stat. 439, 42 U. S. C. § 1973c (1964 ed., Supp. V), provides that whenever a State or political subdivision covered by the Act shall enact or seek to administer “any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to. voting different from that in force or effect on November 1, 1964 ... no person shall be denied the right to vote for failure to comply with such qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure” if the State or subdivision has not first obtained a declaratory judgment in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia that such qualification, prerequisite, standard, , practice, or procedure “does not have the purpose and will not have the effect. of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color,” or unless the chief legal officer or other, appropriate official of such State or subdivision has submitted the qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure to the Attorney General of the United States “and the Attorney General has not interposed an objection within sixty days after such submission.” The question in this case is. whether the city of Canton, Mississippi, was precluded by § 5 from enforcing at the 1969 elections for mayor and aldermen certain changes with respect to voting not first submitted to the Attorney General or to the District Court for the District of Columbia. Appellants, voters and candidates for mayor or aider-man, sought to enjoin the 1969 elections in this action brought in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. They alleged that the requirement^ at the 1969 elections differed from those in effect on November 1, 1964, and at the last mayoral and aldermanic elections in 1965 because of (1) changes in locations of the polling places, (2) changes in the municipal boundaries through annexations of adjacent areas which enlarged the number of eligible voters, and (3) a change from ward to at-large election of aider-men. The city of Canton, they alleged, sought to enforce these changes without first submitting them to the Attorney General or obtaining a declaratory judgment under § 5. Pending the convening of the court of three judges required by § 5, a single judge temporarily restrained the elections, which were originally scheduled for the spring of 1969. The three-judge court, however, after hearing, dissolved the temporary injunction and dismissed the complaint. 301 F. Supp. 565 (1969). The elections were then held in October 1969 with the challenged changes in effect. We noted probable jurisdiction. 397 U. S. 903 (1970). We reverse. I The three-judge court misconceived the permissible scope of its inquiry into appellants’ allegations. Our decision in Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U. S. 544 (1969), handed down two months before this action was instituted, settled that question. The inquiry should have been limited to the determination whether “a state requirement is covered by § 5, but has not been subjected to the required federal - scrutiny.” Id., at 561. Allen held explicitly “[t]he only issue is whether a particular state enactment is subject to the provisions of the Voting Rights Act, and therefore must be submitted for approval before enforcement.” Id., at 558-559. For emphasis, we added: “It is important to distinguish the instant cases from those brought by a State seeking a declaratory judgment that its new voting laws do not have a discriminatory purpose or effect. ... In the latter type .of cases the substantive questions necessary for approval (i, e., discriminatory purpose or effect) are litigated, while in the cases here decided the only question is whether the. new legislation must be submitted for approval.” Id., at 556-556, n. 19 (emphasis supplied). . The single judge who first acted in this case before the three-judge court was convened recognized that Allen so limited the inquiry.. In his unreported oral opinion granting temporary relief, he correctly stated: “The only questions to 'be decided by . . . the three judge court to be designated, [are] whether or not the State of Mississippi or any of its political subdivisions have acted in such a way as to cause or constitute a voting, qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice or procedure with respect to voting within the meaning of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which changed the situation that existed as of November 1, 1964, and whether or not prior to doing so the City had filed a request for declaratory judgment with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia or asked for approval of the Attorney General of the United States . . . .” He correctly observed further that, although there was no proof that the challenged annexations which changed the city’s boundaries were made for the purpose of denying anyone any voting right or any right guaranteed by the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments, “the case of Allen versus State Board of Elections held that it is not the function or prerogative of this Court, even if it were now sitting as a three judge court, to determine the motive of the City in extending its boundary.” For Allen had explicitly held that, as between the United States' District Court for the District of Columbia and other district courts “Congress intended to treat ‘coverage’ questions differently from ‘substantive discrimination’ questions,” 393 U. S., at 559, and therefore: “we ¿o not consider whether this change has a discriminatory purpose or effect.”- 393 U. S., at 570. This is not to say that a district court limited to deciding a “coverage” question should close its eyes to the congressional purpose in enacting § 5 — to prevent the institution of changes which might have the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color, for Congress meant to reach “the subtle, as well as the obvious, state regulations . . .” which may have that effect. 393 U. S., at 565. What is foreclosed to such district court is what Congress expressly reserved for consideration by the District Court for the District of Columbia or the Attorney General — the determination whether a covered change does or does not have the purpose or effect “of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color.” The single judge made the limited examination of 'the claims concerning boundary extensions and selection of polling places permitted by Allen and, on the basis of preliminary findings that both were required to be submitted under § 5, granted the temporary injunction. But the three-judge court (which included the single judge) did not adhere to Allen’s holding. As we read the opinion of the three-judge court, the challenged changes were examined on the merits to determine whether they had “a discriminatory purpose or effect.” This emerges with particular clarity in the court’s con-. sideration of the annexations. Canton's failure to obtain prior approval of the annexations was held not to violate the Act on the express ground that “the black voters still had a majority of not less than 600 after the expansions were effected.” 301 F. Supp., at 567. Similarly, in considering the change from ward to at-large election of aldermen, as provided by a 1962 Mississippi statute, Miss. Code Ann. § 3374-36 (Supp. 1968), the court remarked, “Since a majority of the voters in Canton are black it is equally true that under the 1962 Act the black voters have the power, if they wish to be influenced by race alone to elect an all black governing body.” Idv at 568. It is true that the three-judge court disclaimed reliance on lack of discriminatory effect as the basis for its holding that the change from ward to at-large election of aldermen was not covered by § 5; the court stated that its decision rested on the fact that the 1962 law antedated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and should be complied with “regardless of whether [the city] complied in 1965.” Ibid. It is further true that in finding “no merit” in the challenge to the relocation of the polling places, the court based the holding on proofs that “[t]he changes were made necessary because one place did not have .space for voting machines, two others had to be moved because they had been situated on private property (bank lobbies) and permission to use the space had been withdrawn, and another was moved out of the courthouse to a school building because facilities were more ample and the move eliminated any interference with sessions of the various courts sitting at the courthouse.” Ibid. Nevertheless, these Considerations, so far as relevant, are relevant only to the questions reserved by § 5 for consideration by the Attorney General of the United States or the District Court for the District of Columbia. However, in the interest of judicial economy, we shall not remand to the District Court for the making of a properly limited inquiry. The record is adequate to enable us to decide whether the challenged changes should have been submitted for approval, and we shall, therefore, decide that question. II We held in Allen that Congress intended that the Act be given “the broadest possible scope” to reach “any state enactment which altered the election law of a covered State in even a minor way.” 393 U. S., at 566, 567. “It is significant that Congress chose not to include even . . . minor exceptions [e. g., changing from paper ballots to voting machines] in § 5, thus indicating an intention that all changes, no matter how small, be subjected to § 5 scrutiny.” Id., at 568. Tested by that standard, each of the three changes challenged in this case falls within § 5, if not as a “voting qualification or prerequisite to voting,” at all events as a “standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting different from that in force or effect on November 1, 1964.” Even without going beyond the plain words of the statute, we think it clear that the location of polling places constitutes a “standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting.” The abstract right to vote means little unless the right becomes a reality at the polling place on election day. The accessibility, prominence, facilities, and prior notice of the polling place’s location all have an effect on a person’s ability to exercise his franchise. Given § 5’s explicit concern with both the purpose and the effect of a voting “standard, practice, or procedure,” the location of polling places comes within the section’s coverage. Moreover, the legislative history provides ample support for the conclusion that Congress intended § 5 to cover a change in polling places. Before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Attorney General explicitly testified that a change in “the place of registration” and a change “from a paper ballot to a machine” were changes .of the kind that § 5 was designed to reach. Plainly the relocation of the polling places is precisely the same kind of change. Moreover, there inheres in the determination of the location of polling places an obvious potential for “denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color.” 79 Stat. 439, 42 U. S. C. § 1973c (1964 ed., Supp. V). Locations at distances remote from black communities or at places calculated to intimidate blacks from entering, or failure to publicize changes adequately might well have that effect. Consequently, we think it clear that § 5 requires prior submission of any changes in the location of polling places. Changing boundary lines by annexations which enlarge the city’s number of eligible voters also constitutes the change of a “standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting.” Clearly, revision of boundary lines has.an effect on voting in two ways: (1) by including certain voters within the city and leaving others outside, it determines who may vote in the municipal election and who may not; (2) it dilutes the weight of the votes of the voters to whom the franchise was limited before the annexation, and “the right of suffrage can be denied by . a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen’s vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise.” Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533, 555 (1964). Moreover, §5 was designed to cover changes having a potential for racial discrimination in voting, and such potential inheres in a change in the composition of the electorate affected by an annexation. Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U. S. 339 (1960), provides a clearcut illustration of the potential of boundary changes for “denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color.” In addition, based on the findings of an 18-month study of the operation of the Voting Rights Act by the United States Civil Rights Commission, the Commission’s director reported to Congress that gerrymandering and boundary changes had become prime weapons for discriminating against Negro voters: “The history of white domination in the South has ■ been one of adaptiveness, and the passage of the Voting Rights Acts and the increased black registration that followed has resulted in new methods to maintain white control of the political process. “For example, State legislatures and political party committees in Alabama and Mississippi have adopted laws or rules since the passage of the act which have had the purpose or effect of diluting the votes of newly enfranchised Negro voters. These measures. have taken the form, of switching to at-large elections where Negro voting strength is concentrated in particular election districts, facilitating the consolidation of predominantly Negro and predominantly white counties, and redrawing the lines of districts to divide concentrations of Negro voting strength.” , Hearings on Voting Rights Act Extension before Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Committee on the Judiciary, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., ser. 3, p. 17 (1969) (remarks of Mr. Glickstein) . In Fairley v. Patterson, 393 U. S. 544 (1969), a companion case to Allen, this Court held that § 5 applied to a change from district to at-large election of county supervisors on the ground that “[t]he right to vote can be affected by a dilution of voting power as well as by an absolute prohibition on casting a ballot: See Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533, 555 (1964).” 393 U. S., at 569. Mr. Justice Harlan’s separate opinion in that case accurately r.ecognized that the Court’s holding rested on its conclusion that “Congress intended to adopt the concept of. voting articulated in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533 (1964), and protect Negroes against a dilution of their voting power.” Fairley v. Patterson, supra, at 588. In terms of dilution of voting power, there is no difference between a change from district to at-large election and an annexation that changes both the boundaries and ward lines of a city to include more voters: We follow Fairley and hold that § 5 applies to the annexations in this case. Our conclusion that both the location of the polling places and municipal boundary changes come within § 5 draws further support from the interpretation followed by the Attorney General in his administration of the statute. “[T]his Court shows great deference to the interpretation given the statute by the officers or agency charged with its administration.” Udall v. Tollman, 380 U. S. 1, 16 (1965). The Attorney General’s interpretation was recently reported by officials of the Department of Justice in testimony related to the extension of the 1965 Act. They testified that the Department regarded relocating polling places and annexing territory as falling within the Act. Their testimony also indicated that this interpretation was accepted by at least some affected States and political subdivisions, which had submitted such changes for the Attorney General’s approval Hearings on Amendments to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., 248 (1969),' id., 2d Sess., 506 (1970). In support of this testimony, the Justice Department submitted a formal table showing the 313 changes in laws with respect to voting which had been submitted to the Attorney General and acted upon by him between 1965 and 1969. The Department divided its responses to these submissions into three categories: (1) changes that the Department did not consider within the scope of § 5; (2) changes that the Department considered within the scope of § 5, but to which the Department did not object; and (3) changes within the scope of § 5 to which the Department objected as discriminatory. Every change in boundary or election district lines as well as every change in polling places shown in that table was considered by the Department to be within the scope of § 5. Hearings on Voting Rights Act Extension before Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Committee on the Judiciary, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., ser. 3, pp. 308-313 (1969). The change from ward to at-large elections of all aider-men was of course a change within the coverage of the Act. Fairley v. Patterson, supra, is dispositive of that question. However, the question arises in this case in a peculiar context. The change to at-large elections was mandated by a Mississippi statute enacted in 1962. But Canton ignored the mandate in the conduct of the 1965 municipal elections and, as in 1961, elected aldermen by wards. Canton now argues that it had no choice but to comply with the 1962 statute in the 1969 elections. We have concluded, nevertheless, that the change to at-large elections required federal scrutiny under § 5. That section in express terms reaches any standard, practice, or procedure “different from that in force or effect on November 1, 1964.” In our view, § 5’s reference to the procedure “in force or effect on November 1, 1964,” must be taken to mean the procedure that would have been followed if the election had been held on that date. That judgment is necessarily a matter of inference in this case since Canton did not hold a munipical election on November 1, 1964. But in drawing that inference, there is little reason to blind ourselves to relevant evidence in the record by restricting our gaze to events that occurred before that date. Ordinarily we presume that officials will act in accordance with law. See First National Bank of Albuquerque v. Albright, 208 U. S. 548, 553 (1908). If the only available facts showed that Canton conducted its 1961 election by wards but that the Mississippi Legislature had subsequently enacted a statute in- 1962 requiring future municipal elections to be held at large, Canton officials would be entitled to the weight of that presumption. With the benefit of hindsight, however, we know that Canton elected its aldermen by wards in its June 1965 municipal election. The record reflects no relevant change between November 1964 and June 1965 to suggest that á different procedure would have been in effect if the elections had been held seven months easier Consequently, we conclude that the procedure in fact “in force or effect” in Canton on November 1, 1964, was to elect aldermen by wards. That sufficed to bring the 1969 change within § 5. As was the case in Allen, “It is clear, however, that the new procedure with respect to voting is different from the procedure in effect when . . . [Canton] became subject to the Act . . . .” 393 U. S., ‘at 570. The bearing of the 1962 statute upon the change was-for the Attorney General or the District Court for the District of Columbia to decide. Ill The appellants have urged that, in addition to reversing the District Court judgment, the Court should set aside the elections held in October 1969, and order new elections held forthwith in which the changes challenged in this case may not be enforced. In Allen we declined a like invitation and gave that decision only prospective effect, primarily because the scope of § 5 coverage was then an issue of first impression and “subject to rational disagreement.” 393 U. S., at 572. That reasoning is inapplicable in this case since Allen was decided two months before the originally scheduled dates of the Canton elections. In arguing for new elections, appellants emphasize the desire of Congress to ensure that States and subdivisions covered by the Act not institute new laws with respect to voting.that might have a racially discriminatory purpose or effect. On the basis of the legislative history, there is little question that Congress sought to achieve this goal by relying upon the voluntary submission by affected States and subdivisions of all changes in such laws before enforcing them. Failure of the affected governments to comply with the statutory requirement would nullify the entire scheme since the Department of Justice does not have the resources to police effectively all the States and subdivisions covered by the Act, see Allen, 393 U. S., at 55b, and since private suits seem unlikely to sufficiently supplement federal supervision. * Moreover, based upon ample proof of repeated evasion of court decrees and of extended litigation designed- to delay the implementation of federal constitutional rights, Congress expressly indicated its intention that the States and subdivisions, rather than citizens seeking to exercise their rights, bear the burden of delays in litigation. At the same time, we recognize that, in determining the appropriate remedy, other factors may be relevant, such as the nature of the changes complained of, and whether it was reasonably clear at the time of the election that the changes were covered by § 5. In certain circumstances, for example, it might be appropriate to enter an order affording local officials an opportunity to seek federal approval and ordering a new election only if local officials fail to do so or if the required federal approval is not forthcoming. Since the District Court is moré familiar with the nuances of the local situation than are we, and has heard the evidence in this case, we think the question of the appropriate remedy is for that •court to determine, in the first instance, after hearing the views of both parties. The judgment of the District Court is reversed, and the case is remanded to that court with instructions to issue injunctions restraining the further enforcement of the changes until such time as the appellees adequately demonstrate compliance with § 5, and for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. The full text of §5, 42 U. S. C. § 1973c (1964 ed.. Supp. V), provides: “Whenever a State or political subdivision with respect to which the prohibitions set forth in section 1973b (a) of this title are in effect shall enact, or seek to administer any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting different from that in force or effect on November 1, 1964, such State or subdivision may institute an action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for a declaratory judgment that such qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure does not have the purpose and will not have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color, and unless and until the court enters such judgment no person shall be denied the right to vote for failure to comply with such qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure: Provided, That such qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure may be enforced without such proceeding if the qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure has been submitted by the chief-legal officer or other appropriate official of such State or subdivision to the Attorney General and the Attorney General has not interposed an objection within sixty days after such submission, except that neither the Attorney General’s failure to object nor a declaratory judgment entered under this section shall bar a subsequent action to enjoin enforcement of such qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure. Any action under this section shall be heard and determined by a court of three judges in accordance with the provisions .of section 2284 of Title 28 and any appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court.” Mississippi and its subdivisions have been determined to be covered by the Act. 30 Fed. Reg. 9897 (Aug. 6, 1965). “[A]n individual may bring a suit for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief, claiming that a state requirement is covered by § 5, but'has not been subjected to the required federal scrutiny.” Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U. S. 544, 561 (1969). We construed the statute to require such a suit to be heard by a three-judge court. Ibid. Appellants alleged that prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, less than 200 black citizens of Canton were qualified electors. At the trial of this lawsuit, one of the appellants testified that there were approximately 3,050 registered black electors- and 2,850 white electors, for the 1969 election. Based on an average index of two voters per residence, the District Court concluded that the 1969 figures included approximately 82 black voters and .176 white voters from the annexations in this case. The annexations in this case also increased the land area of the city by approximately 50% and required the boundaries of all four election wards to be changed to conform to the new city limits. The municipal primary elections were originally scheduled for May 13 and 20, 1969, and the municipal general elections for June 3, 1969. The primary elections were actually held October 7 and 14, and the general election October 28, 1969, after the three-judge court dissolved the temporary injunction. The claim concerning the change from ward to at-large election of aldermen was added by amendment. “The ChaxRmak : I say, is., it not a fact that the keystone of this situation' is that these changes .in procedures that we are talking about, like changing from a paper ballot to a machine, may not likely have the effect of denying or abridging rights guaranteed by the 15th amendment? “Mr. Katzenba-ch : . . . Even in a sense a most innocent kind of ,law, as our experiences have indicated time and time again, can be used. You change the place of registration, for instance.” Hearings on H. R. 6400 before Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Committee on the Judiciary, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., ser. 2, p. 62 (1965).. One Congressman who had supported the 1965 Act observed, “When I voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, I hoped that 5 years would be ample time.- But resistance to progress has been' more subtle and more effective than I thought possible. A whole arsenal of racist weapons has been perfected. Boundary lines have been gerrymandered, elections have been switched to an at-large basis, counties have been consolidated, elective offices have been abolished where blacks had a chance of winning, the appointment, process has been substituted for the elective process, election officials have withheld the necessary information foe voting or running for office, and both physical and economic intimidation have .been employed. “Section 5 was intended to prevent the use of most of these devices. But apparently the States rarely obeyed the mandate of that section, and the Federal Government was too timid in its enforcement,” Hearings on Voting Rights Act Extension before Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Committee on the Judiciary, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., ser. 3, pp. 3-4 (1969) (remarks of Rep. McCulloch). Congress has extended the life of the 1965 Act, including § 5, from 1970 to 1975. Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970, Pub. L. 91-285, 84 Stat. 314. In its amicus brief filed in this Court in Fairley v. Patterson, No. 25, O. T. 1968, the Government took the position that § 5 applied to “laws [that] substantially change the constituency of certain elected officials .... There is surely no doubt today that the right to vote can be curtailed as effectively by an impermissible demarcation of an elected official’s constituency as by the destruction of ballots or the refusal to permit access to the voting booth.” Memorandum for the United States as Amicus■ Curiae 13. While the Government was arguing there that § 5 reached a change from ward to at-large elections, its interpretation is equally germane to the boundary annexations in the present cáse. Mr. Justice Harlan argues that the apparent clarity of the Department’s position, taken before congressional committees and before this Court, is clouded by the Department’s failure to challenge unsubmitted annexations in cov-. ered States. However, the Government, in its amicus brief in Fairley, specifically denied that any significance could be attributed to the Government’s failure to bring suit. In arguing that § 5 applied to redistrieting and reapportionment in States covered by the Act, the Government stated: “Nor can the Attorney General’s failure to [bring suit] in. cases involving reapportionment and redistricting be properly viewed as undermining these Section 5 cases or refuting the clear congressional • intent that that provision should be given broad scope. The most that can be assumed from past silence is that the Attorney General was not prepared to interpose an objection to the changes being effected . . . Memorandum- for the United States as Amicus Curiae, supra, at 22. Moreover, there is no indication that the Attorney General or other Justice Department officials were aware of the boundary changes referred to in the dissenting opinion; no mention of them appears in any of the extensive congressional materials on' the Justice Department’s enforcement activities under § 5, submitted to Congress in relation to the recent extension of the Act from 1970 to 1975. Hearings on'Amendments to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Senate Committee on-the Judiciary, 91st Cong., 1st and 2d Sess. (1969, 1970); Hearings on Voting Rights Act Extension before Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Committee on the Judiciary, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., ser. 3 (1969). Finally, attributing significance to any apparent failure of the Government to act is particularly hazardous in this case. Section 5 was enacted in large part because of the acknowledged and anticipated inability of the Justice Department — given limited resources — to investigate independently all changes with respect to voting enacted by States and subdivisions covered by the Act. See n. 13, infra. For- that reason, § 5 places the burden on the affected polities to submit all changes for prior approval. That the Department may hav£ been unable to discover and investigate changes not reported to it should not, in these circumstances, be surprising, and, does not cast any serious doubt on explicit official statements of the Department’s interpretation of the statute. The table reflects the fact that only South Carolina has complied rigorously with § 5. Through June 1969, it submitted 252 changes for approval, including all three annexations (and one consolidation) that wére approved by the state legislature between 1965 and 1969. No political subdivisions of South Carolina, however, submitted any changes on their own initiative. Georgia and its subdivisions had. submitted 60 changes for approval, including one annexation, one consolidation of election districts, and two changes in the lines of election districts. It is true that the Georgia Session Laws reflect numerous annexations that were not submitted to the Attorney General. It is also true that the Georgia Session Laws reflect at least an equal number of changes, obviously covered under any interpretation of § 5, that were also not. submitted. For example, in 1965,. the Georgia State Legislature enacted the following acts, each applicable, to one municipality, which were not submitted to the Attorney General: four acts changing voter qualifications in municipal election0 three acts changing municipal elections from paper ballots to voting machines, four acts completely revising municipal election codes, and two acts requiring a majority vote, instead of a plurality, for election of city officials. In 1968, the Georgia State Legislature enacted the following acts, each applicable to one municipality, which were not submitted to the Attorney General: seven acts ■ changing the dates of municipal elections and increasing the terms of municipal officials, one act .creating a voter residency requirement and an oath to be taken by all voters, one act changing the number of aldermen and requiring a majority vote for election of aldermen, one act changing voter qualifications, and one act completely revising a municipal election code. Nor is this an exhaustive list even for those- two years. The remaining four States covered by the Act — Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and' Virginia — have submitted- a combined total of 33 changes. The only conclusion to be drawn from this unfortunate record is that only one State is regularly complying with § 5’s requirement. The reason for Canton’s failure to conform its election to state law does not appear in the record. On oral argument, appellee’s counsel stated that the lapse was due to his overlooking the 1962 law. E. g., Hearings on H. R. 6400 before Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Committee on the Judiciary, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., ser. 2, pp. 60, 72 (1965); Hearings on S. 1564 before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 89th Cong., 1st Sess, pt. 1, pp. 14r-17 (1965);. Ill Cong. Rec. 10727 (1965) (remarks of Sen. Tydings); id., at 15645, 15648 (remarks of Rep. Celler); id., at 16221 (remarks of Rep. Corman). Opponents of the Act also recognized the severity of § 5’s requirements. E. g., id., at 10725 (remarks of Sen. Talmadge); id., at 15657 (remarks of Rep. Willis). We add only one restriction: If the District Court decides that a new election is required, Canton should be permitted to enforce any changes at the new election for which it can obtain federal approval. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Chief Justice Vinson delivered the opinion of the Court. Section 2 (a) of the Bankruptcy Act confers upon all bankruptcy courts “such jurisdiction at law and in equity as will enable them to exercise original jurisdiction in proceedings under this Act... to... (7) Cause the estates of bankrupts to be collected, reduced to money and distributed, and determine controversies in relation thereto, except as herein otherwise provided...” The exception has reference to § 23 (b), which requires that “Suits by the receiver and the trustee shall be brought or prosecuted only in the courts where the bankrupt might have brought or prosecuted them if proceedings under this Act had not been instituted, unless by consent of the defendant, except as provided in sections 60, 67, and 70 of this Act.” Congress, however, in the Chandler Act of 1938 declared the inapplicability of § 23 in reorganization proceedings under Chapter X; and it is upon the signifi-canee of this action to the jurisdiction of the federal courts that this case turns. Respondents were appointed trustees for the Central States Electric Corporation, a Virginia Corporation in reorganization in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Virginia. Following an investigation under § 167 of the’ Act, respondents were authorized to institute suit against petitioners, who are past and present officers and directors of the debtor and others having connection therewith. This suit was then filed against petitioners in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, alleging a conspiracy to misappropriate corporate assets and asking an accounting and other relief. There was no allegation of diversity and jurisdiction was rested upon "the Constitution of the United States (Article I, Section 8, Clause 4, and Article III, Section 2), the Act of Congress relating to Bankruptcies (U. S. Code Title 11), and... the provisions of Section 24 (1), (19) of the Judicial Code The District Court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction; but the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding that since the governing provisions of § 23, to which the “except" clause of § 2 (a) (7) refers, were suspended in Chapter X proceedings, jurisdiction to hear this plenary suit could be rested upon the general language of § 2. Other alleged grounds for jurisdiction were not considered. 159 F. 2d 67(1946). 1. Petitioners construe “proceedings under this Act,” within which the jurisdictional grant contained in § 2 is confined, as extending only to matters proper for summary disposition, and interpret the suspension of § 23 in Chapter X cases, without providing a substitute therefor, as removing from the Act an affirmative grant to federal courts of jurisdiction to hear plenary suits, rather than as an action aimed at expanding that jurisdiction. But these views rest, in the main, upon what we think is an erroneous appraisal of the history of §§ 2 and 23. Section 2 is substantially identical with § 1 of the Bankruptcy Act of 1867, Babbitt v. Butcher, 216 U. S. 102, 107 (1910); and cases dealing with that Act, while recognizing that certain suits brought by bankruptcy assignees should proceed in plenary, rather than summary, fashion, held that § 1 gave jurisdiction to the bankruptcy courts to proceed in both ways. And although certain aspects of a bankruptcy proceeding could be handled only by the court in which the adjudication was had, § 1 conferred upon all ban&ptcy courts jurisdiction to hear plenary suits brought by bankruptcy assignees against adverse claimants or against debtors of the bankrupt. Lathrop v. Drake, 91 U. S. 516 (1875), viewed the jurisdiction of the district courts in this manner and, we think, contrary to the statements later made in Bardes v. Hawarden Bank, 178 U. S. 524 (1900), and Schumacher v. Beeler, 293 U. S. 367 (1934), upon which petitioners rely, considered the jurisdiction of the district courts over plenary suits to rest upon § 1 of the 1867 Act. Section 2 of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898 substantially repeated the broad grant of jurisdiction contained in § 1 of the 1867 Act. The bankruptcy courts were given “such jurisdiction at law and in equity as will enable them to exercise original jurisdiction in bankruptcy proceedings....” But § 2 (7), while granting to all bankruptcy courts jurisdiction to collect and to hear controversies relating to the estate of the bankrupt, appended the words “except as herein otherwise provided.” The exception had reference to § 23, which, in the clause applicable to the district courts, provided that, unless by the consent of the defendant, suits by the bankruptcy trustee should be brought only in the courts where the bankrupt might have brought them if bankruptcy proceedings had not been instituted. In sharp contrast to the broad language of § 2 (7) and to the practice under the 1867 Act, § 23, in the interest of litigants and witnesses, deliberately directed to the state courts most of a bankruptcy trustee’s plenary suits. Some lower federal courts, however, immediately held that § 23 did not apply to suits brought to recover certain transfers of the bankrupt’s property and, relying upon § 2, upheld the jurisdiction of federal courts. Bardes v. Hawarden Bank, supra, checked this trend and gave full scope to the language of § 23. Suits to recover fraudulent transfers, like other plenary suits, were to be tried in the state courts. It was in the Bardes case unnecessary to explore the scope of § 2; for whatever the grant of jurisdiction there made, the interpretation given § 23 would have required the result reached. In any event, the construction of § 2, standing alone and without regard for the influence of § 23, as being confined to summary matters rested to a great extent upon a reading of Lathrop v. Drake, supra, with which, as has been indicated, we cannot agree. Congressional reaction to the Bardes case was almost immediate. Wishing to allow the trustee to resort to federal courts in recovering fraudulent transfers and preferences, Congress in 1903 created exceptions to § 23 in favor of suits brought under §§60 (b) and 67 (e); and, being doubly cautious, Congress also inserted in §§60 (b) and 67 (e) clauses giving any bankruptcy court jurisdiction to hear plenary suits brought under those sections. It was explained at the time by the House judiciary committee that § 2 (7) would probably have been ample basis for the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy courts, and that it was only to remove all doubt that §§ 60 (b) and 67 (e) had also been amended. Where §§60 (b), 67 (e), and 70 (e) were not involved, the Bardes rule continued to be applied where plenary proceedings were required, as in cases relating to property adversely held and suits upon choses in action belonging to the bankrupt’s estate. Left for summary disposition under § 2 were those proceedings in which the controversy related to property in the possession or constructive possession of the court or to property held by those asserting no truly adverse claim. From its inception, § 23 contained a clause seemingly mitigating the rigors of the jurisdictional requirements imposed. A trustee, “unless by consent of the proposed defendant,” could bring suit only in courts where the bankrupt could have sued. Subsequent to the Bardes case some lower federal courts held that, eyen with the consent of a defendant, some independent ground for federal jurisdiction must be present. The conflict was resolved in Schumacher v. Beeler, supra. It was held that in § 23 Congress had exercised its bankruptcy powers to confer upon federal courts jurisdiction conditioned upon a defendant’s consent and that, given consent, no independent ground for federal jurisdiction was required. The case turned upon the meaning of the consent clause in § 23. The remarks offered concerning § 2 were unnecessary and, in any event, were based upon the similar statements made in Bardes v. Hawarden Bank, supra. The Beeler decision, like that in the Bardes case, does not direct a conclusion that § 2, in the absence of § 23, confers only a summary jurisdiction; for it was because of the limitations of § 23 that plenary suits had been excluded from the otherwise broad scope of § 2. Cases construing the latter in the presence of the overriding prohibitions of § 23 are not persuasive in a situation where, for the first time, § 23 has been declared inoperative. 2. To accept petitioner’s reading of § 2 would produce consequences affording peculiar explanations for the express elimination of § 23 in Chapter X cases. For one thing, there would be destroyed the consent basis for federal jurisdiction of plenary suits brought by a trustee; and, for another, diversity jurisdiction would depend upon the citizenship of the trustee rather than upon that of the debtor. The latter is a formal change of no obvious value, and the former puts a greater limitation upon the jurisdiction of a Chapter X court than has been placed upon an equity receivership, 77B, or ordinary bankruptcy court, a result in obvious contrast to discernible trends in reorganization law. The committee reports and Congressional debates do not elaborate upon the decision to eliminate § 23, and the hearings reveal only that § 23 was one of several sections which the National Bankruptcy Conference desired to eliminate, and which might be held applicable if not expressly deleted. However, the action occurred in the process of developing a workable reorganization technique and should be viewed in that context. While an equity-receivership court had dependent jurisdiction, regardless of diversity or other independent grounds for federal jurisdiction, to hear plenary suits related to the estate of the debtor, under § 77B, which made reorganization of non-railroad corporations a part of the bankruptcy scheme, it was believed in some quarters that § 23 would have its traditional effect upon the jurisdiction of federal courts to hear plenary suits, even though the reorganization court was given the “powers” of an equity receivership court. Other commentators, thinking that § 77B should not provide a less efficient procedure than the equity receivership, considered § 23 inapplicable to 77B cases and regarded the reorganization courts as having jurisdiction to hear plenary suits. The controversy had not been settled when congressional committees were considering the bill which became the Chandler Act of 1938, and such a background for the suspension of § 23 in Chapter X cases obviously raises no inference of a desire to restrict, rather than to expand, the jurisdiction of the federal courts. To interpret the elimination of § 23 in Chapter X cases as restricting the access of the trustee to the federal courts would not be in harmony with other provisions contemporaneously written into Chapter X and defining anew the position and functions of the reorganization trustee. The appointment of a disinterested trustee was made mandatory in appropriate cases, his qualifications were prescribed, and upon him were devolved functions aimed at eliminating the abuses of previous reorganization schemes. It was his duty to prepare the reorganization plan, and there were conferred upon him investigative powers and duties which not only contemplated the discovery of wrongs done the debtor by its former management, but also insured the “prosecution of all causes of action” which might “add to the assets of corporations in reorganization.” These provisions were “of paramount importance in the revision of section 77B.” and are hardly indicative of a congressional desire to restrict the trustee’s choice of a forum in which to litigate plenary suits. On the contrary, the conclusion more in accord with the purposes of Chapter X and with the pivotal position in which the' trustee was placed is that Congress intended by the elimination of § 23 to establish the jurisdiction of federal courts to hear plenary suits brought by a reorganization trustee, even though diversity or other usual ground for federal jurisdiction is lacking. The decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals is in entire harmony with the foregoing considerations. The language of § 2, in its ordinary sense and no longer limited by § 23, easily comprehends the present type of suit; and so to hold directly and effectively subserves Congressional desires as revealed in the plain policy of Chapter X and in the express elimination of § 23, which has, since its enactment in 1898, been viewed as a sharp restriction upon the jurisdiction theretofore exercised by bankruptcy courts and as a strong preference for state courts. Since all reorganization courts are the objects of the jurisdiction conferred by § 2, the District Court for the Southern District of New York has jurisdiction to hear the present suit, which is brought by reorganization trustees and which charges misappropriation of the assets of a Chapter X debtor. “This seems to be the only logical conclusion to be derived from the fact that § 23 has no application under Chapter X.” 3. Respondents in the alternative argue that the equity-receivership powers conferred by § 115 include jurisdiction to hear plenary suits and that all reorganization courts may exercise the jurisdiction so conferred. Petitioners would, in any event, confine the effects of § 115 to the reorganization court in which the reorganization petition has been approved. We need not pass on these contentions; for, assuming that § 115 is jurisdictional and that it extends only to the primary court, jurisdiction in the present case may still be rested upon § 2. That section, in the absence of § 23, supports the jurisdiction of all district courts to hear plenary suits brought by a reorganization trustee, a result consistent with the aims of Chapter X and with the elimination of a section which is itself applicable to all district courts. Congress could have carved out of § 23 only a narrow exception in favor of the court in which the reorganization proceedings are pending and thereby left unchanged the jurisdiction of other courts over a trustee’s plenary suits. Limited exceptions are familiar in the history of § 23. But Congress went further and eliminated § 23 entirely in Chapter X proceedings. Because of the countrywide ramifications of corporate debtors placed in Chapter X reorganization, it is as usual as not for the trustee to resort to foreign jurisdictions for the disposition of plenary suits. Allowing the primary court to hear these suits will not change this situation, if it is true that the process of a reorganization court does not run nationwide in plenary cases. Congressional policy would receive only limited recogni- | tion if the suspension of § 23 is interpreted as allowing | the trustee access to only the appointing court and as - restricting his access to all other district courts. 4. Our holding is, of course, that Congress in 1938 extended the jurisdiction of the reorganization courts beyond that exercised by ordinary bankruptcy courts. Section 2 of the 1898 Act contained the broad language borrowed from § 1 of the Act of 1867. But the exception to § 2 (a) (7) acknowledged the overriding limitations of § 23, which was the embodiment of Congressional policy to exclude from the bankruptcy courts many of the trustee’s plenary suits. That same meaningful section was expressly eliminated in 1938 in the process of perfecting a chapter of the Bankruptcy Act dealing with the distinctive and special proceedings in corporate reorganizations. Cf. Continental Bank v. Rock Island R. Co., 294 U. S. 648, 676 (1935). This negation of long-standing policy should be given effect consistent with the aims of Chapter X and should not be hedged by judge-made principles not in accord with those aims. Congress need not document its specific actions in elaborate fashion in order to direct this Court’s attention to statutory policy and purpose. The failure to provide appropriate fanfare for the suspension of § 23 in Chapter X cases, and for the consequent expansion of federal jurisdiction, hardly invites our opinion as to the advisability of the action which Congress has taken. Judicial drives to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts should not lead to decision falling short of complete effectuation of statutory scheme. With the limitations of § 23 suspended, § 2 confers jurisdiction upon all reorganization courts to hear plenary suits brought by a Chapter X trustee. 5. Petitioners insist that certain consequences, which they term undesirable, will flow from this decision. It is said, for example, that the state courts will automatically be deprived of jurisdiction to hear a trustee’s plenary suits. But whether or not this and other suggested consequences will follow we leave for consideration in cases presenting such issues for decision. The decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals is Affirmed. The Chandler Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 840, generally revised the Bankruptcy Act of 1898, 30 Stat. 544, as amended. Section 2 in its original form was substantially as set out in the text except that jurisdiction was conferred “in bankruptcy proceedings,” instead of “in proceedings under this Act.” The change in language was made in 1938. Section 23 in full provides as follows: “JurisdictioN op United States and State Courts. — a. The United States district courts shall have jurisdiction of all controversies at law and in equity, as distinguished from proceedings under this Act, between receivers and trustees as such and adverse claimants, concerning the property acquired or claimed by the receivers or trustees, in the same manner and to the same extent as though such proceedings had not been instituted and such controversies had been between the bankrupts and such adverse claimants. “b. Suits by the receiver and the trustee shall be brought or prosecuted only in the courts where the bankrupt might have brought or prosecuted them if proceedings under this Act had not been instituted, unless by consent of the defendant, except as provided in sections 60, 67, and 70 of this Act.” Section 23 (a), as originally enacted, related to the circuit courts, which were abolished in 1911 by § 289 of the Judicial Code. 36 Stat. 1167. Formal amendment to § 23 (a) was made in 1926. 44 Stat. 664. Chapter X, containing the reorganization provisions, superseded § 77B. Section 102 of Chapter X provides: “The provisions of chapters I to VII, inclusive, of this Act shall, insofar as they are not inconsistent or in conflict with the provisions of this chapter, apply in proceedings under this chapter: Provided, however, That section 23, subdivisions h and n of section 57, section 64, and subdivision f of section 70, shall not apply in such proceedings unless an order shall be entered directing that bankruptcy be proceeded with pursuant to the provisions of chapters I to VII, inclusive. For the purposes of such application, provisions relating to 'bankrupts' shall be deemed to relate also to - 'debtors’, and ‘bankruptcy proceedings’ or ‘proceedings in bankruptcy’ shall be deemed to include proceedings under this chapter.” The investigation was made pursuant to the decision in Committee for Holders v. Kent, 143 F. 2d 684 (1944). Petitioners also based their motion to dismiss on the applicable statute of limitations; but the District Court indicated that if there had been jurisdiction to proceed, the motion to dismiss would otherwise have been denied, because of factual issues which first required determination: “Proceedings under this chapter,” referred to in §§ 101 and 102 of Chapter X, is similarly construed. According to this view there would, in Chapter X cases, be no provisions in the Bankruptcy Act conferring jurisdiction upon federal courts to hear plenary suits other than in §§ 60, 67, and 70. A reorganization trustee would be left, where he could, to take advantage of the ordinary grounds for federal jurisdiction. 14 Stat. 517. Section 1 gave the bankruptcy courts original jurisdiction “in all matters and proceedings in bankruptcy” which extended “to all cases and controversies arising between the bankrupt and any creditor or creditors who shall claim any debt or demand under the bankruptcy; to the collection of all the assets of the bankrupt... Sherman v. Bingham, 21 Fed. Cas. 1270, No. 12,762 (1872); Goodall v. Tuttle, 10 Fed. Cas. 579, No. 5,533 (1872). The requirement of plenary proceedings, though not expressly appearing in the Act, was well recognized. Marshall v. Knox, 16 Wall. 551 (1872); Smith v. Mason, 14 Wall. 419 (1871). Sherman v. Bingham, 21 Fed. Cas. 1270, No. 12,762 (1872); Goodall v. Tuttle, 10 Fed. Cas. 579, No. 5,533 (1872). The references to the Act contained in the discussion of the jurisdiction of the district courts obviously referred to § 1; and Sherman v. Bingham, 21 Fed. Cas. 1270, No. 12,762 (1872), which expressly based upon § 1 the jurisdiction of the district courts to hear plenary suits, was cited with unreserved approval. The pertinent passage in the Lathrop case is as follows: “The language conferring this jurisdiction of the district courts is very broad and general. It is, that they shall have original jurisdiction in their respective districts in all matters and proceedings in bankruptcy. The various branches of this jurisdiction are afterwards specified; resulting, however, in the two general classes before mentioned.... Each court within its own district may exercise the powers conferred; but those powers extend to all matters of bankruptcy, without limitation.... But the exclusion of other district courts from jurisdiction over these proceedings does not prevent them from exercising jurisdiction in matters growing out of or connected with that identical bankruptcy, so far as it does not trench upon or conflict with the jurisdiction of the court in which the case is pending. Proceedings ancillary to and in aid of the proceedings in bankruptcy may be necessary in other districts where the principal court cannot exercise jurisdiction; and it may be necessary for the assignee to institute suits in other districts for the recovery of assets of the bankrupt. That the courts of such other districts may exercise jurisdiction in such cases would seem to be the necessary result of the general jurisdiction conferred upon them, and is in harmony with the scope and design of the act. The State courts may undoubtedly be resorted to in cases of ordinary suits for the possession of property or the collection of debts; and it is not to be presumed that embarrassments would be encountered in those courts in the way of a prompt and fair administration of justice. But a uniform system of bankruptcy, national in its character, ought to be capable of execution in the national tribunals, without dependence upon those of the States in which it is possible that embarrassments might arise. The question has been quite fully and satisfactorily discussed by a member of this court in the first circuit, in the case of Shearman v. Bingham, 7 Bank. Reg. 490; and we concur in the opinion there expressed, that the several district courts have jurisdiction of suits brought by assignees appointed by other district courts in cases of bankruptcy.” 91 U. S. 516, 517-18. Section 2 created the courts of bankruptcy and invested them “with such jurisdiction at law and in equity as will enable them to exercise original jurisdiction in bankruptcy proceedings... to... (7) cause the estates of bankrupts to be collected, reduced to money and distributed, and determine controversies in relation thereto, except as herein otherwise provided....” First Nat. Bank v. Title and Trust Co., 198 U. S. 280, 289 (1905); Bryan v. Bernheimer, 181 U. S. 188, 194 (1901); Bardes v. Hawarden Bank, 178 U. S. 524, 535 (1900). Section 23 (b), as originally enacted, provided: “Suits by the trustee shall only be brought or prosecuted in the courts where the bankrupt, whose estate is being administered by such trustee, might have brought or prosecuted them if proceedings in bankruptcy had not been instituted, unless by consent of the proposed defendant.” “A construction of the statute of 1898 which would deprive the federal courts of jurisdiction of the suits in question [trustee’s suit to recover property] would make the act of 1898 unprecedented among bankrupt acts.” In re Hammond, 98 F. 845, 853 (1899). When S. 1035, which eventually became the Act of 1898, reached the House, the judiciary committee recommended striking out all after the enacting clause and substituting the committee’s own bill. Section 23 of the House version, 31 Cong. Rec. 1781 (1898), survived both debate and conference action and became § 23 of the Act of 1898. In reviewing the bill preliminary to debate, the chairman of the House judiciary committee explained: “The jurisdiction of State courts to try controversies between the trustees of bankrupt estates and parties claiming adverse interest is not in any way interfered with. “Suits by the trustee shall only be brought in the courts where the bankrupt might have brought them' except for the misfortune of his bankruptcy, unless by the consent of the proposed defendant. “Under the last bankruptcy law the litigation incident to the settlement of estates was conducted almost wholly in United States courts. The result was great inconvenience and much expense to a majority of the people interested in such litigation as principals, witnesses, and attorneys. Such will not be the effect under this bill. It is proper that such should not be the case, speaking generally, in behalf of the administration of justice.” 31 Cong. Rec. 1785 (1898). In re Woodbury, 98 F. 833 (1900); In re Hammond, 98 F. 845 (1899); Louisville Trust Co. v. Marx, 98 F. 456 (1899). 32 Stat. 798-9. Id. at 799-800. Congress likewise amended §70 (e), but by an oversight the exceptions made to § 23 were not correspondingly extended. The omission was corrected in 1910. 36 Stat. 840. See H. Rep. No. 511, 61st Cong., 2d Sess. 6 (1910). “Section 9: Under the law of 1867, the Federal and State courts had concurrent jurisdiction of suits to recover property fraudulently or preferentially transferred. Bardes v. Bank of Hawarden (la.), 178 U. S., 524, has so construed section 23 b, of the law as to deny such jurisdiction to the district courts, save with the consent of the proposed defendant. In commercial centers this amounts to a denial of justice, the calendars of the State courts being years behindhand; while, growing out of Bardes v. Bank, have come decisions which have crippled the administration of the law to a marked degree. (See in re Ward (Mass.), 5 Am. B. R., 215; Mueller v. Nugent (Ky.), 105 Fed., 581; this latter, however, recently reversed by the Supreme Court.) There is a very general demand for a return to the policy of the law of 1867. Were it not for section 23 b, section 2 (7), would -probably confer ample jurisdiction on the district courts. The change in section 23, b, proposed by the bill simply excepts from the operation of it all suits which can, under the specific words of the law, be brought to recover property, and this merely by referring to the three sections under which alone such suits can be brought. To remove dll doubt, also, sections 13 and 16 of the bill confer concurrent jurisdiction of all such suits on the State courts and the Federal district courts, by adding appropriate words to each of the three sections section 60 b, section 67 e, and section 70 e." H. Rep. No. 1698, 57th Cong., 1st Sess. 7 (1902). (Italics added.) Substantially the same explanation was given on the floor of the House by Representative George W. Ray, chairman of the judiciary committee. 35 Cong. Rec. 6941, 6942 (1902). Representative Ray, we note, was second ranking member of the judiciary committee at the time of the passage of the 1898 Act. It was that committee which drafted §§ 2 and 23 in substantially the form appearing in the 1898 Act. See note 15, supra. Representative Ray was also a member of the House conference committee, and it was in conference that the Act of 1898 was finally drafted and the serious differences between the House and Senate were resolved. Harris v. First Nat. Bank, 216 U. S. 382 (1910). Kelley v. Gill, 245 U. S. 116 (1917); In re Roman, 23 F. 2d 556 (1928); Lynch v. Bronson, 111 F. 605 (1910). Whitney v. Wenman, 198 U. S. 539 (1905); Mueller v. Nugent, 184 U. S. 1 (1902); Bryan v. Bernheimer, 181 U. S. 188 (1901); White v. Schloerb, 178 U. S. 542 (1900). “But in no case where it lacked possession, could the bankruptcy court... adjudicate in a summary proceeding the validity of a substantial adverse claim. In the absence of possession, there was under the Bankruptcy Act of 1898, as originally passed, no jurisdiction, without consent, to adjudicate the controversy even by a plenary suit.” Taubel-Scott-Kitzmiller Co. v. Fox, 264 U. S. 426, 433-34 (1924). Matthew v. Coppin, 32 F. 2d 100, 101 (1929); see Stiefel v. 14th Street Realty Corp., 48 F. 2d 1041, 1043 (1931); Coyle v. Duncan Spangler Coal Co., 288 F. 897, 901 (1923); Piano Co. v. First Wisconsin Trust Co., 283 F. 904, 906 (1922); De Friece v. Bryant, 232 F. 233, 236 (1916); McEldowney v. Card, 193 F. 475, 479 (1911). Contra: Beeler v. Schumacher, 71 F. 2d 831 (1934); Toledo Fence & Post Co. v. Lyons, 290 F. 637, 645 (1923). “The Congress, by virtue of its constitutional authority over bankruptcies, could confer or withhold jurisdiction to entertain such suits and could prescribe the conditions upon which the federal courts should have jurisdiction.... Exercising that power, the Congress prescribed in § 23b the condition of consent on the part of the defendant sued by the trustee.” Schumacher v. Beeler, 293 U. S. 367, 374 (1934). The cases decided under the 1867 Act and referred to in notes 10-11, supra, recognized the broad scope of language similar to that of § 2; and cases arising under the 1898 Act and decided before Bardes v. Hawarden Bank, 178 U. S. 524 (1900), based upon §2 the jurisdiction of the federal courts to entertain plenary suits to recover property adversely held. See note 16, supra. Later cases have recognized the overriding consequence of § 23. “Section 2, clause 7, confers upon the court of bankruptcy jurisdiction to ‘cause the estates of bankrupts to be collected, reduced to money and distributed, and determine controversies in relation thereto, except as herein otherwise provided.’ But § 23-b prohibits the trustee (with exceptions not here applicable) from prosecuting, without the consent of the proposed defendant, a suit in a court other than that in which the bankrupt might have brought it, had bankruptcy not intervened.” Kelley v. Gill, 245 U. S. 116, 119 (1917). “There is plainly a controversy in relation to the estate of a bankrupt, and subdivision 7 of section 2 would confer jurisdiction if it were not for the limiting words, ‘except as herein otherwise provided.’ ” Lynch v. Bronson, 160 F. 139, 140 (1908). See also Lowenstein v. Reikes, 54 F. 2d 481, 485 (1931) (dissenting opinion), and the analysis of the interplay of §§ 2 and 23 in Ross, Federal Jurisdiction in Suits by Trustees in Bankruptcy, 20 Iowa L. Rev. 565 (1935), which was written after the Beeler decision. Schumacher v. Beeler, 293 U. S. 367 (1934). See p. 652 and note 24, supra. In Tilton v. Model Taxi Corp., 112 F. 2d 86 (1940), a 77B case, the jurisdiction of the district court to entertain a plenary suit was based upon consent. The Senate report said in regard to the committee’s suggested amendments to § 102: “The proposed amendment amplifies the provision with reference to applicability so as to leave no doubt that the provisions of chapters I to VII are alone to be deemed applicable, except where inconsistent or in conflict with the provisions of the chapter.” S. Rep. No. 1916, 75th Cong., 3d Sess. 6 (1938). The amendments to § 102 were agreed to without comment on the floor of the Senate, and were similarly accepted by the House. 83 Cong. Rec. 8697,9103,9107,9110 (1938). The recommendation was made by Mr. John Gerdes. See Hearings before Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate, on H. R. 8046, 75th Cong., 2d Sess. 77 (1938). Mr. Gerdes did not at this time explain the reasons for the suggested suspension of § 23. He stated as follows: “Chapter X is not intended to be self-sufficient. All provisions of the general bankruptcy act are applicable to proceedings under chapter X, except such provisions are inconsistent with express provisions in chapter X. Some provisions of the general act are clearly inconsistent with the corporate reorganization provisions and are therefore inapplicable. Other provisions are clearly applicable. However, there are certain sections which by their nature permit of doubt as to whether or not they are applicable. Section 64 of the general bankruptcy act, for example, provides for a fixed priority in the payment of claims. This section deals solely with unsecured claims, only unsecured claims being affected by bankruptcy. To apply it in corporate reorganizations — where secured as well as.unsecured claims are dealt with — would cause great confusion. To make it clear that section 64 does not apply, we propose this amendment which expressly provides that 64 shall not be applicable to chapter X. The priorities under chapter X would therefore be those used in equity receiverships. That is the present practice under 77B, which expressly provides that section 64 shall not be applicable. When we adopt the same provision here we merely adopt the practice which is already in existence under section 77B. “In this enumeration of sections and subsections which are not applicable, we include only those as to which there may be reasonable doubt. The sections which we enumerate are 23, 57 (h), 57 (n), 64, and 70 (f). We propose that section 102 be amended to provide that these sections and subsections shall not. be applicable to proceedings under chapter X.” A representative of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York also listed § 23 among those sections which “have no applicability to a reorganization procedure.” Id. at 37. And the spokesman for the Philadelphia Court Plan Committee suggested amending §23 Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
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sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Stewart delivered the opinion of the Court. A New Jersey law prohibits the importation of most “solid or liquid waste which originated or was collected outside the territorial limits of the State . . . In this case we are required to decide whether this statutory prohibition violates the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. I The statutory provision in question is ch. 363 of 1973 N. J. Laws, which took effect in early 1974. In pertinent part it provides: “No person shall bring into this State any solid or liquid waste which originated or was collected outside the territorial limits of the State, except garbage to be fed to swine in the State of New Jersey, until the commissioner '[of the State Department of Environmental Protection] shall determine that such action can be permitted without endangering the public health, safety and welfare and has promulgated regulations permitting and regulating the treatment and disposal of such waste in this State.” N. J. Stat. Ann. §13:17-10 (West Supp. 1978). As authorized by ch. 363, the Commissioner promulgated regulations permitting four categories of waste to enter the State. Apart from these narrow exceptions, however, New Jersey closed its borders to all waste from other States. Immediately affected by these developments were the operators of private landfills in New Jersey, and several cities in other States that had agreements with these operators for waste disposal. They brought suit against New Jersey and its Department of Environmental Protection in state court, attacking the statute and regulations on a number of state and federal grounds. In an oral opinion granting the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, the trial court declared the law unconstitutional because it discriminated against interstate commerce. The New Jersey Supreme Court consolidated this case with another reaching the same conclusion, Hackensack Meadowlands Development Comm’n v. Municipal Sanitary Landfill Auth., 127 N. J. Super. 160, 316 A. 2d 711, and reversed, 68 N. J. 451, 348 A. 2d 505. It found that eh. 363 advanced vital health and environmental objectives with no economic discrimination against, and with little burden upon, interstate commerce, and that the law was therefore permissible under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The court also found no congressional intent to pre-empt ch. 363 by enacting in 1965 the Solid Waste Disposal Act, 79 Stat. 997, 42 U. S. C. § 3251 et seg., as amended by the Resource Recovery Act of 1970, 84 Stat. 1227. The plaintiffs then appealed to this Court. After noting probable jurisdiction, 425 U. S. 910, and hearing oral argument, we remanded for reconsideration of the appellants’ preemption claim in light of the newly enacted Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, 90 Stat. 2795. 430 U. S. 141. Again the New Jersey Supreme Court found no federal pre-emption of the state law, 73 N. J. 562, 376 A. 2d 888, and again we noted probable jurisdiction, 434 U. S. 964. We agree with the New Jersey court that the state law has not been pre-empted by federal legislation. The dispositive question, therefore, is whether the law is constitutionally permissible in light of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. II Before it addressed the merits of the appellants’ claim, the New Jersey Supreme Court questioned whether the interstate movement of those wastes banned by ch. 363 is “commerce” at all within the meaning of the Commerce Clause. Any doubts on that score should be laid to rest at the outset. The state court expressed the view that there may be two definitions of “commerce” for constitutional purposes. When relied on “to support some exertion of federal control or regulation,” the Commerce Clause permits “a very sweeping concept” of commerce. 68 N. J., at 469, 348 A. 2d, at 514. But when relied on “to strike down or restrict state legislation,” that Clause and the term “commerce” have a “much more confined . . . reach.” Ibid. The state court reached this conclusion in an attempt to reconcile modern Commerce Clause concepts with several old cases of this Court holding that States can prohibit the importation of some objects because they “are not legitimate subjects of trade and commerce.” Bowman v. Chicago & Northwestern R. Co., 125 U. S. 465, 489. These articles include items “which, on account of their existing condition, ■'would bring in and spread disease, pestilence, and death, such as rags or other substances infected with the germs of yellow fever or the virus of small-pox, or cattle or meat or other provisions that are diseased or decayed, or otherwise, from their condition and quality, unfit for human use or consumption.” Ibid. See also Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig, Inc., 294 U. S. 511, 525, and cases cited therein. The state court found that ch. 363 as narrowed by the state regulations, see n. 2, supra, banned only “those wastes which can [not] be put to effective use,” and therefore those wastes were not commerce at all, unless “the mere transportation and disposal of valueless waste between states constitutes interstate commerce within the meaning of the constitutional provision.” 68 N. J., at 468, 348 A. 2d, at 514. We think the state court misread our cases, and thus erred in assuming that they require a two-tiered definition of commerce. In saying that innately harmful articles “are not legitimate subjects of trade and commerce,” the Bowman Court was stating its conclusion, not the starting point of its reasoning. All objects of interstate trade merit Commerce Clause protection; none is excluded by definition at the outset. In Bowman and similar cases, the Court held simply that because the articles' worth in interstate commerce was far outweighed by the dangers inhering in their very movement, States could prohibit their transportation across state lines. Hence, we reject the state court’s suggestion that the banning of “valueless” out-of-state wastes by ch. 363 implicates no constitutional protection. Just as Congress has power to regulate the interstate movement of these wastes, States are not free from constitutional scrutiny when they restrict that movement. Cf. Hughes v. Alexandria Scrap Corp., 426 U. S. 794, 802-814; Meat Drivers v. United States, 371 U. S. 94. Ill A Although the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate commerce among the States, many subjects of potential federal regulation under that power inevitably escape congressional attention “because of their local character and their number and diversity.” South Carolina State Highway Dept. v. Barnwell Bros., Inc., 303 U. S. 177, 185. In the absence of federal legislation, these subjects are open to control by the States so long as they act within the restraints imposed by the Commerce Clause itself. See Raymond Motor Transportation, Inc. v. Rice, 434 U. S. 429, 440. The bounds of these restraints appear nowhere in the words of the Commerce Clause, but have emerged gradually in the decisions of this Court giving effect to its basic purpose. That broad purpose was well expressed by Mr. Justice Jackson in his opinion for the Court in H. P. Hood & Sons, Inc. v. Du Mond, 336 U. S. 525, 537-538: “This principle that our economic unit is the Nation, which alone has the gamut of powers necessary to control of the economy, including the vital power of erecting customs barriers against foreign competition, has as its corollary that the states are not separable economic units. As the Court said in Baldwin v. Seelig, 294 U. S. [511], 527, what is ultimate is the principle that one state in its dealings with another may not place itself in a position of economic isolation.’ ” The opinions of the Court through the years have reflected an alertness to the evils of “economic isolation” and protectionism, while at the same time recognizing that incidental burdens on interstate commerce may be unavoidable when a State legislates to safeguard the health and safety of its people. Thus, where simple economic protectionism is effected by state legislation, a virtually per se rule of invalidity has been erected. See, e. g., H. P. Hood & Sons, Inc., v. Du Mond, supra; Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U. S. 385, 403-406; Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig, Inc., supra; Buck v. Kuykendall, 267 U. S. 307, 315-316. The clearest example of such legislation is a law that overtly blocks the flow of interstate commerce at a State’s borders. Cf. Welton v. Missouri, 91 U. S. 275. But where other legislative objectives are credibly advanced and there is no patent discrimination against interstate trade, the Court has adopted a much more flexible approach, the general contours of which were outlined in Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U. S. 137, 142: “Where the statute regulates evenhandedly to effectuate a legitimate local public interest, and its effects on interstate commerce are only incidental, it will be upheld unless the burden imposed on such commerce is clearly excessive in relation to the putative local benefits. . . . If a legitimate local purpose is found, then the question becomes one of degree. And the extent of the burden that will be tolerated will of course depend on the nature of the local interest involved, and on whether it could be promoted as well with a lesser impact on interstate activities.” See also Raymond Motor Transportation, Inc. v. Rice, supra, at 441-442; Hunt v. Washington Apple Advertising Comm’n, 432 U. S. 333, 352-354; Great A&P Tea Co. v. Cottrell, 424 U. S. 366, 371-372. The crucial inquiry, therefore, must be directed to determining whether ch. 363 is basically a protectionist measure, or whether it can fairly be viewed as a law directed to legitimate local concerns, with effects upon interstate commerce that are only incidental. B The purpose of ch. 363 is set out in the statute itself as follows: “The Legislature finds and determines that . . . the volume of solid and liquid waste continues to rapidly increase, that the treatment and disposal of these wastes continues to pose an even greater threat to the quality of the environment of New Jersey, that the available and appropriate land fill sites within the State are being diminished, that the environment continues to be threatened by the treatment and disposal of waste which originated or was collected outside the State, and that the public health, safety and welfare require that the treatment and disposal within this State of all wastes generated outside of the State be prohibited.” The New Jersey Supreme Court accepted this statement of the state legislature’s purpose. The state court additionally found that New Jersey’s existing landfill sites will be exhausted within a few years; that to go on using these sites or to develop new ones will take a heavy environmental toll, both from pollution and from loss of scarce open lands; that new techniques to divert waste from landfills to other methods of disposal and resource recovery processes are under development, but that these changes will require time; and finally, that “the extension of the lifespan of existing landfills, resulting from the exclusion of out-of-state waste, may be of crucial importance in preventing further virgin wetlands or other undeveloped lands from being devoted to landfill purposes.” 68 N. J., at 460-465, 348 A. 2d, at 509-512. Based on these findings, the court concluded that ch. 363 was designed to protect, not the State’s economy, but its environment, and that its substantial benefits outweigh its “slight” burden on interstate commerce. Id., at 471-478, 348 A. 2d, at 515-519. The appellants strenuously contend that ch. 363, “while outwardly cloaked fin the currently fashionable garb of environmental protection/ ... is actually no more than a legislative effort to suppress competition and stabilize the cost of solid waste disposal for New Jersey residents . . . They cite passages of legislative history suggesting that the problem addressed by ch. 363 is primarily financial: Stemming the flow of out-of-state waste into certain landfill sites will extend their lives, thus delaying the day when New Jersey cities must transport their waste to more distant and expensive sites. The appellees, on the other hand, deny that ch. 363 was motivated by financial concerns or economic protectionism. In the words of their brief, “[n]o New Jersey commercial interests stand to gain advantage over competitors from outside the state as a result of the ban on dumping out-of-state waste.” Noting that New Jersey landfill operators are among the plaintiffs, the appellee’s brief argues that “[t]he complaint is not that New Jersey has forged an economic preference for its own commercial interests, but rather that it has denied a small group of its entrepreneurs an economic opportunity to traffic in waste in order to protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizenry at large.” This dispute about ultimate legislative purpose need not be resolved, because its resolution would not be relevant to the constitutional issue to be decided in this case. Contrary to the evident assumption of the state court and the parties, the evil of protectionism can reside in legislative means as well as legislative ends. Thus, it does not matter whether the ultimate aim of ch. 363 is to reduce the waste disposal costs of New Jersey residents or to save remaining open lands from pollution, for we assume New Jersey has every right to protect its residents’ pocketbooks as well as their environment. And it may be assumed as well that New Jersey may pursue those ends by slowing the flow of all waste into the State’s remaining landfills, even though interstate commerce may incidentally be affected. But whatever New Jersey’s ultimate purpose, it may not be accomplished by discriminating against articles of commerce coming from outside the State unless there is some reason, apart from their origin, to treat them differently. Both on its face and in its plain effect, ch. 363 violates this principle of nondiscrimination. The Court has consistently found parochial legislation of this kind to be constitutionally invalid, whether the ultimate aim of the legislation was to assure a steady supply of milk by erecting barriers to allegedly ruinous outside competition, Baldwin v. O. A. F. Seelig, Inc., 294 U. S., at 522-524; or to create jobs by keeping industry within the State, Foster-Fountain Packing Co. v. Haydel, 278 U. S. 1, 10; Johnson v. Haydel, 278 U. S. 16; Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U. S., at 403-404; or to preserve the State’s financial resources from depletion by fencing out indigent immigrants, Edwards v. California, 314 U. S. 160, 173-174. In each of these cases, a presumably legitimate goal was sought to be achieved by the illegitimate means of isolating the State from the national economy. Also relevant here are the Court’s decisions holding that a State may not accord its own inhabitants a preferred right of access over consumers in other States to natural resources located -within its borders. West v. Kansas Natural Gas Co., 221 U. S. 229; Pennsylvania v. West Virginia, 262 U. S. 553. These cases stand for the basic principle that a “State is without power to prevent privately owned articles of trade from being shipped and sold in interstate commerce on the ground that they are required to satisfy local demands or because they are needed by the people of the State.” Foster-Fountain Packing Co. v. Haydel, supra, at 10. The New Jersey law at issue in this case falls squarely within the area that the Commerce Clause puts off limits to state regulation. On its face, it imposes on out-of-state commercial interests the full burden of conserving the State’s remaining landfill space. It is true that in our previous cases the scarce natural resource was itself the article of commerce, whereas here the scarce resource and the article of commerce are distinct. But that difference is without consequence. In both instances, the State has overtly moved to slow or freeze the flow of commerce for protectionist reasons. It does not matter that the State has shut the article of commerce inside the State in one case and outside the State in the other. What is crucial is the attempt by one State to isolate itself from a problem common to many by erecting a barrier against the movement of interstate trade. The appellees argue that not all laws which facially discriminate against out-of-state commerce are forbidden protectionist regulations. In particular, they point to quarantine laws, which this Court has repeatedly upheld even though they appear to single out interstate commerce for special treatment. See Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig, Inc., supra, at 525; Bowman v. Chicago & Northwestern R. Co., 125 U. S., at 489. In the appellees’ view, ch. 363 is analogous to such health-protective measures, since it reduces the exposure of New Jersey residents to the allegedly harmful effects of landfill sites. It is true that certain quarantine laws have not been considered forbidden protectionist measures, even though they were directed against out-of-state commerce. See Asbell v. Kansas, 209 U. S. 251; Reid v. Colorado, 187 U. S. 137; Bowman v. Chicago & Northwestern R. Co., supra, at 489. But those quarantine laws banned the importation of articles such as diseased livestock that required destruction as soon as possible because their very movement risked contagion and other evils. Those laws thus did not discriminate against interstate commerce as such, but simply prevented traffic in noxious articles, whatever their origin. The New Jersey statute is not such a quarantine law. There has been no claim here that the very movement of waste into or through New Jersey endangers health, or that waste must be disposed of as soon and as close to its point of generation as possible. The harms caused by waste are said to arise after its disposal in landfill sites, and at that point, as New Jersey concedes, there is no basis to distinguish out-of-state waste from domestic waste. If one is inherently harmful, so is the other. Yet New Jersey has banned the former while leaving its landfill sites open to the latter. The New Jersey law blocks the importation of waste in an obvious effort to saddle those outside the State with the entire burden of slowing the flow of refuse into New Jersey’s remaining landfill sites. That legislative effort is clearly impermissible under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Today, cities in Pennsylvania and New York find it expedient or necessary to send their waste into New Jersey for disposal, and New Jersey claims the right to close its borders to such traffic. Tomorrow, cities in New Jersey may find it expedient or necessary to send their waste into Pennsylvania or New York for disposal, and those States might then claim the right to close their borders. The Commerce Clause will protect New Jersey in the future, just as it protects her neighbors now, from efforts by one State to isolate itself in the stream of interstate commerce from a problem shared by all. The judgment is Reversed. New Jersey enacted a Waste Control Act, N. J. Stat. Ann. § 13:1/-1 et seq. (West Supp. 1978), in early 1973. This Act empowered the State Commissioner of Environmental Protection to promulgate rules banning the movement of solid waste into the State. Within a year, the state legislature enacted ch. 363, which reversed the presumption and blocked the importation of all categories of waste unless excepted by rules of the Commissioner. Effective as of February 1974, these regulations provided as follows: “ (a) No person shall bring into this State, or accept for disposal in this State, any solid or liquid waste which originated or was collected outside the territorial limits of this State. This Section shall not apply to: “1. Garbage to be fed to swine in the State of New Jersey; “2. Any separated waste material, including newsprint, paper, glass and metals, that is free from putrescible materials and not mixed with other solid or liquid waste that is intended for a recycling or reclamation facility; “3. Municipal solid waste to be separated or processed into usable secondary materials, including fuel and heat, at a resource recovery facility provided that not less than 70 per cent of the thru-put of any such facility is to be separated or processed into usable secondary materials; and “4. Pesticides, hazardous waste, chemical waste, bulk liquid, bulk semi-liquid, which is to be treated, processed or recovered in a solid waste disposal facility which is registered with the Department for such treatment, processing or recovery, other than by disposal on or in the lands of this State.” N. J. Admin. Code 7:1-4.2 (Supp. 1977). The decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court disposed of the appellants’ pre-emption and Commerce Clause claims, but remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings on the other claims. The appellants then dismissed with prejudice the other counts in their complaint so that there would be a final judgment from which they could appeal to this Court. The surviving provisions of the 1965 Solid Waste Disposal Act, 79 Stat. 997, the Resource Discovery Act of 1970, 84 Stat. 1227, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, 90 Stat. 2795, are now codified as the Solid Waste Disposal Act, found at 42 U. S. C. § 6901 et seq. (1976 ed.). From our review of this federal legislation, we find no “clear and manifest purpose of Congress,” Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U. S. 218, 230, to pre-empt the entire field of interstate waste management or transportation, either by express statutory command, see Jones v. Rath Packing Co., 430 U. S. 519, 530-531, or by implicit legislative design, see City of Burbank v. Lockheed Air Terminal, 411 U. S. 624, 633. To the contrary, Congress expressly has provided that “the collection and disposal of solid wastes should continue to be primarily the function of State, regional, and local agencies . . . .” 42 U. S. C. §6901 (a)(4) (1976 ed.). Similarly, ch. 363 is not pre-empted because of a square conflict with particular provisions of federal law or because of general incompatibility with basic federal objectives. See Ray v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 435 U. S. 151, 158; Jones v. Rath Packing Co., supra, at 540-541. In short, we agree with the New Jersey Supreme Court that ch. 363 can be enforced consistently with the program goals and the respective federal-state roles intended by Congress when it enacted the federal legislation. U. S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 3. We express no opinion about New Jersey's power, consistent with the Commerce Clause, to restrict to state residents access to state-owned resources, compare Douglas v. Seacoast Products, Inc., 431 U. S. 265, 283-287, with id., at 287-290 (Rehnquist, J., concurring and dissenting); Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U. S. 385, 404; or New Jersey’s power*to spend state funds solely on behalf of state residents and businesses, compare Hughes v. Alexandria Scrap Corp., 426 U. S. 794, 805-810; id., at 815 (SteveNS, J., concurring), with id., at 817 (BeeNNAN, J., dissenting). Also compare South Carolina State Highway Dept. v. Barnwell Bros., Inc., 303 U. S. 177, 187, with Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona ex rel. Sullivan, 325 U. S. 761, 783. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an indictment charging husband and wife with conspiring to commit an offense against the United States in violation of § 371 of Title 18 of the United States Code, which was enacted by Congress on June 25, 1948, 62 Stat. 683, 701, in connection with § 545 of that Code, id., 716, in that they sought illicitly to bring goods into the United States with intent to defraud it. On authority of controlling decisions of its Circuit, Dawson v. United States, 10 F. 2d 106, and Gros v. United States, 138 F. 2d 261, the District Court dismissed the indictment on the ground that it did not state an offense, to wit, a husband and wife are legally incapable of conspiring within the condemnation of § 371. The case came here on direct review of the order dismissing the indictment, 358 U. S. 944, under the Criminal Appeals Act of March 2, 1907, now 18 U. S. C. § 3731. The construction of § 371 by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has been explicitly rejected by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Johnson v. United States, 81 U. S. App. D. C. 254, 157 F. 2d 209, and by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Thompson v. United States, 227 F. 2d 671, and Wright v. United States, 243 F. 2d 569. The question raised by these conflicting views is clear-cut and uncomplicated. The claim that husband and wife are outside the scope of an enactment of Congress in 1948, making it an offense for two persons to conspire, must be given short shrift once we heed the admonition of this Court that “we free our minds from the notion that criminal statutes must be construed by some artificial and conventional rule,” United States v. Union Supply Co., 215 U. S. 50, 55, and therefore do not allow ourselves to be obfuscated by medieval views regarding the legal status of woman and the common law’s reflection of them. Considering that legitimate business enterprises between husband and wife have long been commonplaces in our time, it would enthrone an unreality into a rule of law to suggest that man and wife are legally incapable of engaging in illicit enterprises and therefore, forsooth, do not engage in them. None of the considerations of policy touching the law’s encouragement or discouragement of domestic felicities on the basis of which this Court determined appropriate rules for testimonial compulsion as between spouses, Hawkins v. United States, 358 U. S. 74, and Wyatt v. United States, 362 U. S. 525, are relevant to yielding to the claim that an unqualified interdiction by Congress against a conspiracy between two persons precludes a husband and wife from being two persons. Such an immunity to husband and wife as a pair of conspirators would have to attribute to Congress one of two assumptions: either that responsibility of husband and wife for joint participation in a criminal enterprise would make for marital disharmony, or that a wife must be presumed to act under the coercive influence of her husband and, therefore, cannot be a willing participant. The former assumption is unnourished by sense; the latter implies a view of American womanhood offensive to the ethos of our society. The fact of the matter is that we are asked to write into law a doctrine that parrot-like has been repeated in decisions and texts from what was given its authoritative expression by Hawkins early in the eighteenth century. He wrote: “It plainly appears from the Words of the Statute, That one Person alone cannot be guilty of Conspiracy within the Purport of it; from whence it follows, . . . That no such Prosecution is maintainable against a Husband and Wife only, because they are esteemed but as one Person in Law, and are presumed to have but one Will.” (Hawkins, Pleas of the Crown, 4th ed. 1762, Bk. I, chap, lxxii, Sect. 8, p. 192.) The pronouncement of Hawkins apparently rests on a case in a Year Book of 38 Edward III, decided in 1365. The learning invoked for this ancient doctrine has been questioned by modern scholarship. See Williams, The Legal Unity of Husband and Wife, 10 Mod. L. Rev., 16 (1947) ; and cf. Winfield, The History of Conspiracy (1921), § 27, p. 64, and § 37, p. 88. But in any event the answer to Hawkins with his Year Book authority, as a basis for a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1960 construing a statute enacted in 1948, was definitively made long ago by Mr. Justice Holmes: “It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IY. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past.” Holmes, Collected Legal Papers, 187 (1920), reprinting The Path of the Law, 10 Harv. L. Rev. 457, 469 (1897). For this Court now to act on Hawkins’s formulation of the medieval view that husband and wife “are esteemed but as one Person in Law, and are presumed to have but one Will” would indeed be “blind imitation of the past.” It would require us to disregard the vast changes in the status of woman — the extension of her rights and correlative duties — whereby a wife’s legal submission to her husband has been wholly wiped out, not only in the English-speaking world generally but emphatically so in this country. How far removed we were even nearly a century ago when Congress passed the original státute against criminal conspiracy, the Act of March 2, 1867, 14 Stat. 484, from the legal and social climate of eighteenth century common law regarding the status of woman is pithily illustrated by recalling the self-deluding romanticism of Blackstone, whereby he could conscientiously maintain that “even the disabilities, which the wife lies under, are for the most part intended for her protection and benefit. So great a favourite is the female sex of the laws of England.” Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765), Bk. I, ch. 15, p. 433. It would be an idle parade of learning to document the statement that these common-law disabilities were extensively swept away in our different state of society, both by legislation and adjudication, long before the originating conspiracy Act of 1867 was passed. Suffice it to say that we cannot infuse into the conspiracy statute a fictitious attribution to Congress of regard for the medieval notion of woman’s submissiveness to the benevolent coercive powers of a husband in order to relieve her of her obligation of obedience to an unqualifiedly expressed Act of Congress by regarding her as a person whose legal personality is merged in that of her husband making the two one. „ , Reversed. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. This case involves questions as to the application of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act to certain persons who worked in a government-owned plant in which respondent produced munitions under a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with the War Department. It involves such subsidiary issues as whether the plaintiffs were employees of the Government or of the private contractor, whether munitions produced for shipment across state lines in war use are produced for “commerce” and whether they are “goods” within the meaning of the Act. Substantial claims of petitioners may be denied or large sums added to the cost of the war by the answers to these questions, and many cases other than this will be controlled by its decision. The manner in which the case has thus far developed raises the question whether as a matter of good judicial administration this Court should attempt to decide these far-reaching issues on this record. No one questions that, taking its allegations at their face value, the complaint in this case states a cause of action under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Summary judgment has gone against the plaintiffs because, by affidavit and exhibits, the allegations have been found unsustainable. The defendant filed a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure “on the ground that defendant is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” The motion, so far as the Fair Labor Standards Act was concerned, was based on an affidavit “which states facts showing that as a matter of law neither complainants nor defendant were covered” by the Act in that neither “were engaged in commerce, or in the production of goods for commerce.” Made part of the affidavit by reference were defendant’s construction and operation contract with the Government and some 22 supplements or change orders covering nearly 200 pages of the record. The complainants then filed a supplemental complaint which added by reference all regulations and interpretative bulletins of the Department of Labor and Administrator of the Fair Labor Standards Act clarifying and explaining it. And, as against defendant’s affidavit and exhibits, the plaintiffs, as recited in the District Court’s opinion, offered by reference affidavits of three former employees of the contractor showing the customs of payment and operation as bearing on the issue of whether they were government employees or those of the private contractor. The affidavits do not appear in the record, but parts deemed relevant are set out in the court’s opinion. On this basis the District Court first denied summary judgment. 68 F. Supp. 576. It was of the view that the plaintiffs, whatever the forms of the transaction, were in reality employed by the Government and, hence, the Fair Labor Standards Act by its own terms did not cover them. But it held that they were covered by § 4 (b) of the Act of July 2, 1940, and were entitled to recover overtime under it. On rehearing, the court concluded, however, that no remedy under this latter Act was available to them in this action as it was not pleaded. Accordingly, it granted summary judgment against them. 70 F. Supp. 929. The Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc affirmed. 164 F. 2d 1016. It held that the plaintiffs were in substance employees of the United States, that munitions were not a part of commerce within the meaning of the Act, and that in any event munitions were not “goods” within the meaning of the Act. One judge, concurring, did not pass on the question whether petitioners were employees of the Government but held only that munitions were produced for war, not for commerce. One judge dissented on the ground that the whole system “was designed and operated so that the United States should not be the employer” and considered that munitions produced for transportation to a place outside of the State were produced for commerce and those engaged therein were subject to the Act. The case is here on certiorari, 333U. S.841. The Silas Mason Company, in a sense, is no more than a nominal defendant, for it is entitled to reimbursement from the Government. The Government, the ultimate party in interest, appears through the Department of Justice in support of the statutory basis for the claims against itself. But it advises us that “The Department of the Army is of the view that respondent's position has merit for the reasons set forth in the brief filed by respondent. The Army is concerned with the great cost to which the Government will be subjected if the numerous suits akin to this are lost, or even if it must bear the cost of defending them. Furthermore, the Army believes that the classes of employees involved in these cases were well paid, that they accepted their compensation without complaint or expectation of receiving-more until this litigation was commenced sometime after the termination of their employment, and that accordingly there is little equity in the employees’ present position.” Three Acts of Congress require consideration. The plaintiffs and the Government say the Fair Labor Standards Act is controlling. The defendant, the Department of the Army, which handled the transaction, and the District Court consider that the Act of July 2, 1940, controls the liability. But the trial court held it cannot be the basis of adjudication of plaintiffs’ claims because no such issue was pleaded and that holding has become the law of the case since there has been no appeal. The plaintiffs pleaded their cause of action also under the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, but it was held unavailable to them below and their petition for certiorari to this Court raises no question as to that Act and acquiesces in dropping it from our consideration. On the question as to who was the employer, on which this case was decided below, the complaint makes a clear, factual and simple allegation. It says that these plaintiffs were employed by the corporate defendant itself. This allegation has been overborne by interpreting the terms of the contracts between that alleged employer and a third party, that is, the Government, which terms may or may not have been known to the employees. There is substantial controversy as to the way those two parties, the Government and defendant in actual practice, construed their contracts, both sides of the controversy being based on events of which we are asked to take judicial notice or to spell out from contracts without the tests which trial affords. The plaintiffs in turn seek to counteract whatever inferences may be drawn from the defendant’s version of dealings between defendant and the Government by contrary inferences from dealings between employees and the defendant. But they do not prove plaintiffs’ own dealings, which are not in the record, but offer affidavits which relate specifically to “laborers and mechanics” while plaintiffs were inspectors and foremen, a difference that may be material. Insofar as the allegations of the complaint are impeached by the course of dealing between defendant and the Government, they are not supported by any course of dealing to which these plaintiffs were parties. What they were paid and on what basis, whether they have already been paid for overtime on the theory that one of the other Acts applies, we do not know. Defendant’s present position, which, for all we know, may or may not be shared by the Department of the Army, is that we do not need to settle the question as to whether defendant or the Government was the actual employer, that the effect of the war-time legislation was to set up a wholly new system of war production, which was neither private enterprise nor government operation, but an amalgamation of the two, which also prescribed a complete system of labor relation by statute which supersedes and precludes operation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. But this broad contention seems not to have been submitted to either court below, is not consistent with the theoretical basis of their decisions and appears fully presented for the first time in the reply brief in this Court. The short of the matter is that we have an extremely important question, probably affecting all cost-plus-fixed-fee war contractors and many of their employees immediately, and ultimately affecting by a vast sum the cost of fighting the war. No conclusion in such a case should prudently be rested on an indefinite factual foundation. The case, which counsel have described as a constantly expanding one, comes to us almost in the status in which it should come to a trial court. In addition to the welter of new contentions and statutory provisions we must pick our way among over a score of technical contracts, each amending some earlier one, without full background knowledge of the dealings of the parties. The hearing of contentions as to disputed facts, the sorting of documents to select relevant provisions, ascertain their ultimate form and meaning in the case, the practical construction put on them by the parties and reduction of the mass of conflicting contentions as to fact and inference from facts, is a task primarily for a court of one judge, not for a court of nine. We do not hold that in the form the controversy took in the District Court that tribunal lacked power or justification for applying the summary judgment procedure. But summary procedures, however salutary where issues are clear-cut and simple, present a treacherous record for deciding issues of far-flung import, on which this Court should draw inferences with caution from complicated courses of legislation, contracting and practice. We consider it the part of good judicial administration to withhold decision of the ultimate questions involved in this case until this or another record shall present a more solid basis of findings based on litigation or on a comprehensive statement of agreed facts. While we might be able, on the present record, to reach a conclusion that would decide the case, it might well be found later to be lacking in the thoroughness that should precede judgment of this importance and which it is the purpose of the judicial process to provide. Without intimating any conclusion on the merits, we vacate the judgments below and remand the case to the District Court for reconsideration and amplification of the record in the light of this opinion and of present contentions. Judgments vacated. Mr. Justice Black thinks the judgment should be reversed. Mr. Justice Douglas concurs in the result. Act of June 25, 1938, c. 676, 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U. S. C. § 201. The Act defines commerce as follows: “ ‘Commerce’ means trade, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the several States or from any State to any place outside thereof.” The Act defines goods as follows: " ‘Goods’ means goods (including ships and marine equipment), wares, products, commodities, merchandise, or articles or subjects of commerce of any character, or any part or ingredient thereof, but does not include goods after their delivery into the actual physical possession of the ultimate consumer thereof other than a producer, manufacturer, or processor thereof.” Rule 56 provides that the trial court may award summary judgment after motion, notice and hearing, provided the pleadings, depositions, admissions and affidavits on file show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Act of July 2,1940, c. 508,54 Stat. 712. Act of June 30, 1936, c. 881, 49 Stat. 2036, 41 U. S. C. § 35. Rule 56 requires that summary judgment shall be rendered if “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact . . . See note 4. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
G
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice O’Connor announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which The Chief Justice, Justice White, and Justice Scalia join. This case calls upon us to define the proper legal standard for determining when isolated decisions by municipal officials or employees may expose the municipality itself to liability under 42 U. S. C. § 1983. I The principal facts are not in dispute. Respondent James H. Praprotnik is an architect who began working for petitioner city of St. Louis in 1968. For several years, respondent consistently received favorable evaluations of his job performance, uncommonly quick promotions, and significant increases in salary. By 1980, he was serving in a management-level city planning position at petitioner’s Community Development Agency (CDA). The Director of CDA, Donald Spaid, had instituted a requirement that the agency’s professional employees, including architects, obtain advance approval before taking on private clients. Respondent and other CDA employees objected to the requirement. In April 1980, respondent was suspended for 15 days by CDA’s Director of Urban Design, Charles Kindleberger, for having accepted outside employment without prior approval. Respondent appealed to the city’s Civil Service Commission, a body charged with reviewing employee grievances. Finding the penalty too harsh, the Commission reversed the suspension, awarded respondent backpay, and directed that he be reprimanded for having failed to secure a clear understanding of the rule. The Commission’s decision was not well received by respondent’s supervisors at CDA. Kindleberger later testified that he believed respondent had lied to the Commission, and that Spaid was angry with respondent. Respondent’s next two annual job performance evaluations were markedly less favorable than those in previous years. In discussing one of these evaluations with respondent, Kindleberger apparently mentioned his displeasure with respondent’s 1980 appeal to the Civil Service Commission. Respondent appealed both evaluations to the Department of Personnel. In each case, the Department ordered partial relief and was upheld by the city’s Director of Personnel or the Civil Service Commission. In April 1981, a new Mayor came into office, and Donald Spaid was replaced as Director of CDA by Frank Hamsher. As a result of budget cuts, a number of layoffs and transfers significantly reduced the size of CDA and of the planning section in which respondent worked. Respondent, however, was retained. In the spring of 1982, a second round of layoffs and transfers occurred at CDA. At that time, the city’s Heritage and Urban Design Commission (Heritage) was seeking approval to hire someone who was qualified in architecture and urban planning. Hamsher arranged with the Director of Heritage, Henry Jackson, for certain functions to be transferred from CDA to Heritage. This arrangement, which made it possible for Heritage to employ a relatively high-level “city planning manager,” was approved by Jackson’s supervisor, Thomas Nash. Hamsher then transferred respondent to Heritage to fill this position. Respondent objected to the transfer, and appealed to the Civil Service Commission. The Commission declined to hear the appeal because respondent had not suffered a reduction in his pay or grade. Respondent then filed suit in Federal District Court, alleging that the transfer was unconstitutional. The city was named as a defendant, along with Kindleberger, Hamsher, Jackson (whom respondent deleted from the list before trial), and Deborah Patterson, who had succeeded Hamsher at CDA. At Heritage, respondent became embroiled in a series of disputes with Jackson and Jackson’s successor, Robert Killen. Respondent was dissatisfied with the work he was assigned, which consisted of unchallenging clerical functions far below the level of responsibilities that he had previously enjoyed. At least one adverse personnel decision was taken against respondent, and he obtained partial relief after appealing that decision. In December 1983, respondent was laid off from Heritage. The layoff was attributed to a lack of funds, and this apparently meant that respondent’s supervisors had concluded that they could create two lower level positions with the funds that were being used to pay respondent’s salary. Respondent then amended the complaint in his lawsuit to include a challenge to the layoff. He also appealed to the Civil Service Commission, but proceedings in that forum were postponed because of the pending lawsuit and have never been completed. Tr. Oral Arg. 31-32. The case went to trial on two theories: (1) that respondent’s First Amendment rights had been violated through retaliatory actions taken in response to his appeal of his 1980 suspension; and (2) that respondent’s layoff from Heritage was carried out for pretextual reasons in violation of due process. The jury returned special verdicts exonerating each of the three individual defendants, but finding the city liable under both theories. Judgment was entered on the verdicts, and the city appealed. A panel of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found that the due process claim had been submitted to the jury on an erroneous legal theory and vacated that portion of the judgment. With one judge dissenting, however, the panel affirmed the verdict holding the city liable for violating respondent’s First Amendment rights. 798 F. 2d 1168 (1986). Only the second of these holdings is challenged here. The Court of Appeals found that the jury had implicitly determined that respondent’s layoff from Heritage was brought about by an unconstitutional city policy. Id., at 1173. Applying a test under which a “policymaker” is one whose employment decisions are “final” in the sense that they are not subjected to de novo review by higher ranking officials, the Court of Appeals concluded that the city could be held liable for adverse personnel decisions taken by respondent’s supervisors. Id., at 1173-1175. In response to petitioner’s contention that the city’s personnel policies are actually set by the Civil Service Commission, the Court of Appeals concluded that the scope of review before that body was too “highly circumscribed” to allow it fairly to be said that the Commission, rather than the officials who initiated the actions leading to respondent’s injury, were the “final authority” responsible for setting city policy. Id., at 1175. Turning to the question whether a rational jury could have concluded that respondent had been injured by an unconstitutional policy, the Court of Appeals found that respondent’s transfer from CDA to Heritage had been “orchestrated” by Hamsher, that the transfer had amounted to a “constructive discharge,” and that the injury had reached fruition when respondent was eventually laid off by Nash and Killen. Id., at 1175-1176, and n. 8. The court held that the jury’s verdict exonerating Hamsher and the other individual defendants could be reconciled with a finding of liability against the city because “the named defendants were not the supervisors directly causing the lay off, when the actual damages arose.” Id., at 1173, n. 3. Cf. Los Angeles v. Heller, 475 U. S. 796 (1986). The dissenting judge relied on our decision in Pembaur v. Cincinnati, 475 U. S. 469 (1986). He found that the power to set employment policy for petitioner city of St. Louis lay with the Mayor and Aldermen, who were authorized to enact ordinances, and with the Civil Service Commission, whose function was to hear appeals from city employees who believed that their rights under the city’s Charter, or under applicable rules and ordinances, had not been properly respected. 798 F. 2d, at 1180. The dissent concluded that respondent had submitted no evidence proving that the Mayor and Aldermen, or the Commission, had established a policy of retaliating against employees for appealing from adverse personnel decisions. Id., at 1179-1181. The dissenting judge also concluded that, even if there were such a policy,, the record evidence would not support a finding that respondent was in fact transferred or laid off in retaliation for the 1980 appeal from his suspension. Id., at 1181-1182. We granted certiorari, 479 U. S. 1029 (1987), and we now reverse. II We begin by addressing a threshold procedural issue. The second question presented in the petition for certiorari reads as follows: “Whether the failure of a local government to establish an appellate procedure for the review of officials’ decisions which does not defer in substantial part to the original decisionmaker’s decision constitutes a delegation of authority to establish final government policy such that liability may be imposed on the local government on the basis of the decisionmaker’s act alone, when the act is neither taken pursuant to a rule of general applicability nor is a decision of specific application adopted as the result of a formal process?” Pet. for Cert. i. Although this question was manifestly framed in light of the holding of the Court of Appeals, respondent argues that petitioner failed to preserve the question through a timely objection to the jury instructions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 51. Arguing that both parties treated the identification of municipal “policymakers” as a question of fact at trial, respondent emphasizes that the jury was given the following instruction, which was offered by the city itself: “As a general principle, a municipality is not liable under 42 U. S. C. 1983 for the actions of its employees. However, a municipality may be held liable under 42 U. S. C. 1983 if the allegedly unconstitutional act was committed by an official high enough in the government so that his or her actions can be said to represent a government decision.” App. 113. Relying on Oklahoma City v. Tuttle, 471 U. S. 808 (1985), and Springfield v. Kibbe, 480 U. S. 257 (1987), respondent contends that the jury instructions should be reviewed only for plain error, and that the jury’s verdict should be tested only for sufficiency of the evidence. Declining to defend the legal standard adopted by the Court of Appeals, respondent vigorously insists that the judgment should be affirmed on the basis of the jury’s verdict and petitioner’s alleged failure to comply with Rule 51. Petitioner argues that it preserved the legal issues presented by its petition for certiorari in at least two ways. First, it filed a pretrial motion for summary judgment, or alternatively for judgment on the pleadings. In support of that motion, petitioner argued that respondent had failed to allege the existence of any impermissible municipal policy or of any facts that would indicate that such a policy existed. Second, petitioner filed a motion for directed verdict at the close of respondent’s case, renewed that motion at the close of all the evidence, and eventually filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Respondent’s arguments do not bring our jurisdiction into question, and we must not lose sight of the fact, stressed in Tuttle, that the “decision to grant certiorari represents a commitment of scarce judicial resources with a view to deciding the merits of one or more of the questions presented in the petition.” 471 U. S., at 816. In Kibbe, it is true, the writ was dismissed in part because the petitioner sought to challenge a jury instruction to which it had not objected at trial. In the case before us, the focus of petitioner’s challenge is not on the jury instruction itself, but on the denial of its motions for summary judgment and a directed verdict. Although the same legal issue was raised both by those motions and by the jury instruction, “the failure to object to an instruction does not render the instruction the 'law of the case’ for purposes of appellate review of the denial of a directed verdict or judgment notwithstanding the verdict.” Kibbe, supra, at 264 (dissenting opinion) (citations omitted). Petitioner’s legal position in the District Court — that respondent had failed to establish an unconstitutional municipal policy — was consistent with the legal standard that it now advocates. It should not be surprising if petitioner’s arguments in the District Court were much less detailed than the arguments it now makes in response to the decision of the Court of Appeals. That, however, does not imply that petitioner failed to preserve the issue raised in its petition for certiorari. Cf. post, at 165-167 (Stevens, J., dissenting). Accordingly, we find no obstacle to reviewing the question presented in the petition for certiorari, a question that was very clearly considered, and decided, by the Court of Appeals. We note, too, that petitioner has throughout this litigation been confronted with a legal landscape whose contours are “in a state of evolving definition and uncertainty.” Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc., 453 U. S. 247, 256 (1981). We therefore do not believe that our review of the decision of the Court of Appeals, a decision raising a question that “is important and appears likely to recur in § 1983 litigation against municipalities,” id., at 257, will undermine the policy of judicial efficiency that underlies Rule 51. The definition of municipal liability manifestly needs clarification, at least in part to give lower courts and litigants a fairer chance to craft jury instructions that will not require scrutiny on appellate review. Ill A Section 1 of the Ku Klux Act of 1871, Rev. Stat. § 1979, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 1983, provides: “Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State . . . , subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress. ...” Ten years ago, this Court held that municipalities and other bodies of local government are “persons” within the meaning of this statute. Such a body may therefore be sued directly if it is alleged to have caused a constitutional tort through “a policy statement, ordinance, regulation, or decision officially adopted and promulgated by that body’s officers.” Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U. S. 658, 690 (1978). The Court pointed out that § 1983 also authorizes suit “for constitutional deprivations visited pursuant to governmental ‘custom’ even though such a custom has not received formal approval through the body’s official decisionmaking channels.” Id., at 690-691. At the same time, the Court rejected the use of the doctrine of respondeat superior and concluded that municipalities could be held liable only when an injury was inflicted by a govern-merit’s “lawmakers or by those whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy.” Id., at 694. MonelVs rejection of respondeat superior, and its insistence that local governments could be held liable only for the results of unconstitutional governmental “policies,” arose from the language and history of § 1983. For our purposes here, the crucial terms of the statute are those that provide for liability when a government “subjects [a person], or causes [that person] to be subjected,” to a deprivation of constitutional rights. Aware that governmental bodies can act only through natural persons, the Court concluded that these governments should be held responsible when, and only when, their official policies cause their employees to violate another person’s constitutional rights. Reading the statute’s language in the light of its legislative history, the Court found that vicarious liability would be incompatible with the causation requirement set out on the face of § 1983. See id., at 691. That conclusion, like decisions that have widened the scope of § 1983 by recognizing constitutional rights that were unheard of in 1871, has been repeatedly reaffirmed. See, e. g., Owen v. City of Independence, 445 U. S. 622, 633, 655, n. 39 (1980); Polk County v. Dodson, 454 U. S. 312, 325 (1981); Tuttle, 471 U. S., at 818, and n. 5 (plurality opinion); id., at 828 (Brennan, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment); Pembaur v. Cincinnati, 475 U. S., at 478-480, and nn. 7-8. Cf. Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc., supra, at 259 (“[B]ecause the 1871 Act was designed to expose state and local officials to a new form of liability, it would defeat the promise of the statute to recognize any pre-existing immunity without determining both the policies that it serves and its compatibility with the purposes of § 1983”). In Monell itself, it was undisputed that there had been an official policy requiring city employees to take actions that were unconstitutional under this Court’s decisions. Without attempting to draw the line between actions taken pursuant to official policy and. the independent actions of employees and agents, the Monell Court left the “full contours” of municipal liability under § 1983 to be developed further on “another day.” 436 U. S., at 695. In the years since Monell was decided, the Court has considered several cases involving isolated acts by government officials and employees. We have assumed that an unconstitutional governmental policy could be inferred from a single decision taken by the highest officials responsible for setting policy in that area of the government’s business. See, e. g., Owen v. City of Independence, supra; Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc., 453 U. S. 247 (1981). Cf. Pembaur, supra, at 480. At the other end of the spectrum, we have held that an unjustified shooting by a police officer cannot, without more, be thought to result from official policy. Tuttle, 471 U. S., at 821 (plurality opinion); id., at 830-831, and n. 5 (Brennan, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). Cf. Kibbe, 480 U. S., at 260 (dissenting opinion). Two Terms ago, in Pembaur, supra, we undertook to define more precisely when a decision on a single occasion may be enough to establish an unconstitutional municipal policy. Although the Court was unable to settle on a general formulation, Justice Brennan’s opinion articulated several guiding principles. First, a majority of the Court agreed that municipalities may be held liable under § 1983 only for acts for which the municipality itself is actually responsible, “that is, acts which the municipality has officially sanctioned or ordered.” Id., at 480. Second, only those municipal officials who have “final policymaking authority” may by their actions subject the government to § 1983 liability. Id., at 483 (plurality opinion). Third, whether a particular official has “final policymaking authority” is a question of state law. Ibid, (plurality opinion). Fourth, the challenged action must have been taken pursuant to a policy adopted by the official or officials responsible under state law for making policy in that area of the city’s business. Id., at 482-483, and n. 12 (plurality opinion). The Courts of Appeals have already diverged in their interpretations of these principles. Compare, for example, Williams v. Butler, 802 F. 2d 296, 299-302 (CA8 1986) (en banc), cert. pending sub nom. Little Rock v. Williams, No. 86-1049, with Jett v. Dallas Independent School Dist., 798 F. 2d 748, 759-760 (CA5 1986) (dictum). Today, we set out again to clarify the issue that we last addressed in Pembaur. B We begin by reiterating that the identification of policy-making officials is a question of state law. “Authority to make municipal policy may be granted directly by a legislative enactment or may be delegated by an official who possesses such authority, and of course, whether an official had final policymaking authority is a question of state law.” Pembaur v. Cincinnati, supra, at 483 (plurality opinion). Thus the identification of policymaking officials is not a question of federal law, and it is not a question of fact in the usual sense. The States have extremely wide latitude in determining the form that local government takes, and local preferences have led to a profusion of distinct forms. Among the many kinds of municipal corporations, political subdivisions, and special districts of all sorts, one may expect to find a rich variety of ways in which the power of government is distributed among a host of different officials and official bodies. See generally C. Rhyne, The Law of Local Government Operations §§1.3-1.7 (1980). Without attempting to canvass the numberless factual scenarios that may come to light in litigation, we can be confident that state law (which may include valid local ordinances and regulations) will always direct a court to some official or body that has the responsibility for making law or setting policy in any given area of a local government’s business. We are not, of course, predicting that state law will always speak with perfect clarity. We have no reason to suppose, however, that federal courts will face greater difficulties here than those that they routinely address in other contexts. We are also aware that there will be cases in which policy-making responsibility is shared among more than one official or body. In the case before us, for example, it appears that the Mayor and Aldermen are authorized to adopt such ordinances relating to personnel administration as are compatible with the City Charter. See St. Louis City Charter, Art. XVIII, § 7(b), App. 62-63. The Civil Service Commission, for its part, is required to “prescribe . . . rules for the administration and enforcement of the provisions of this article, and of any ordinance adopted in pursuance thereof, and not inconsistent therewith.” §7(a), App. 62. Assuming that applicable law does not make the decisions of the Commission reviewable by the Mayor and Aldermen, or vice versa, one would have to conclude that policy decisions made either by the Mayor and Aldermen or by the Commission would be attributable to the city itself. In any event, however, a federal court would not be justified in assuming that municipal policymaking authority lies somewhere other than where the applicable law purports to put it. And certainly there can be no justification for giving a jury the discretion to determine which officials are high enough in the government that their actions can be said to represent a decision of the government itself. As the plurality in Pembaur recognized, special difficulties can arise when it is contended that a municipal policymaker has delegated his policymaking authority to another official. 475 U. S., at 482-483, and n. 12. If the mere exercise of discretion by an employee could give rise to a constitutional violation, the result would be indistinguishable from respondeat superior liability. If, however, a city’s lawful policymakers could insulate the government from liability simply by delegating their policymaking authority to others, § 1983 could not serve its intended purpose. It may not be possible to draw an elegant line that will resolve this conundrum, but certain principles should provide useful guidance. First, whatever analysis is used to identify municipal policymakers, egregious attempts by local governments to insulate themselves from liability for unconstitutional policies are precluded by a separate doctrine. Relying on the language of § 1983, the Court has long recognized that a plaintiff may be able to prove the existence of a widespread practice that, although not authorized by written law or express municipal policy, is “so permanent and well settled as to constitute a ‘custom or usage’ with the force of law.” Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co., 398 U. S. 144, 167-168 (1970). That principle, which has not been affected by Monell or subsequent cases, ensures that most deliberate municipal evasions of the Constitution will be sharply limited. Second, as the Pembaur plurality recognized, the authority to make municipal policy is necessarily the authority to make final policy. 475 U. S., at 481-484. When an official’s discretionary decisions are constrained by policies not of that official’s making, those policies, rather than the subordinate’s departures from them, are the act of the municipality. Similarly, when a subordinate’s decision is subject to review by the municipality’s authorized policymakers, they have retained the authority to measure the official’s conduct for conformance with their policies. If the authorized policymakers approve a subordinate’s decision and the basis for it, their ratification would be chargeable to the municipality because their decision is final. C Whatever refinements of these principles may be suggested in the future, we have little difficulty concluding that the Court of Appeals applied an incorrect legal standard in this case. In reaching this conclusion, we do not decide whether the First Amendment forbade the city to retaliate against respondent for having taken advantage of the grievance mechanism in 1980. Nor do we decide whether there was evidence in this record from which a rational jury could conclude either that such retaliation actually occurred or that respondent suffered any compensable injury from whatever retaliatory action may have been taken. Finally, we do not address petitioner’s contention that the jury verdict exonerating the individual defendants cannot be reconciled with the verdict against the city. Even assuming that all these issues were properly resolved in respondent’s favor, we would not be able to affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals. The city cannot be held liable under § 1983 unless respondent proved the existence of an unconstitutional municipal policy. Respondent does not contend that anyone in city government ever promulgated, or even articulated, such a policy. Nor did he attempt to prove that such retaliation was ever directed against anyone other than himself. Respondent contends that the record can be read to establish that his supervisors were angered by his 1980 appeal to the Civil Service Commission; that new supervisors in a new administration chose, for reasons passed on through some informal means, to retaliate against respondent two years later by transferring him to another agency; and that this transfer was part of a scheme that led, another year and a half later, to his layoff. Even if one assumes that all this was true, it says nothing about the actions of those whom the law established as the makers of municipal policy in matters of personnel administration. The Mayor and Aldermen enacted no ordinance designed to retaliate against respondent or against similarly situated employees. On the contrary, the city established an independent Civil Service Commission and empowered it to review and correct improper personnel actions. Respondent does not deny that his repeated appeals from adverse personnel decisions repeatedly brought him at least partial relief, and the Civil Service Commission never so much as hinted that retaliatory transfers or layoffs were permissible. Respondent points to no evidence indicating that the Commission delegated to anyone its final authority to interpret and enforce the following policy set out in Article XVIII of the city’s Charter, §2(a), App. 49: “Merit and fitness. All appointments and promotions to positions in the service of the city and all measures for the control and regulation of employment in such positions, and separation therefrom, shall be on the sole basis of merit and fitness . . . .” The Court of Appeals concluded that “appointing authorities,” like Hamsher and Killen, who had the authority to initiate transfers and layoffs, were municipal “policymakers.” The court based this conclusion on its findings (1) that the decisions of these employees were not individually reviewed for “substantive propriety” by higher supervisory officials; and (2) that the Civil Service Commission decided appeals from such decisions, if at all, in a circumscribed manner that gave substantial deference to the original decisionmaker. 798 F. 2d, at 1174-1175. We find these propositions insufficient to support the conclusion that Hamsher and Killen were authorized to establish employment policy for the city with respect to transfers and layoffs. To the contrary, the City Charter expressly states that the Civil Service Commission has the power and the duty: “To consider and determine any matter involved in the administration and enforcement of this [Civil Service] article and the rules and ordinances adopted in accordance therewith that may be referred to it for decision by the director [of personnel], or on appeal by any appointing authority, employe, or taxpayer of the city, from any act of the director or of any appointing authority. The decision of the commission in all such matters shall be final, subject, however, to any right of action under any law of the state or of the United States.” St. Louis City Charter, Art. XVIII, § 7(d), App. 63. This case therefore resembles the hypothetical example in Pembaur: “[I]f [city] employment policy was set by the [Mayor and Aldermen and by the Civil Service Commission], only [those] bodies’] decisions would provide a basis for [city] liability. This would be true even if the [Mayor and Aider-men and the Commission] left the [appointing authorities] discretion to hire and fire employees and [they] exercised that discretion in an unconstitutional manner . . . .” 475 U. S., at 483, n. 12. A majority of the Court of Appeals panel determined that the Civil Service Commission’s review of individual employment actions gave too much deference to the decisions of appointing authorities like Hamsher and Killen. Simply going along with discretionary decisions made by one’s subordinates, however, is not a delegation to them of the authority to make policy. It is equally consistent with a presumption that the subordinates are faithfully attempting to comply with the policies that are supposed to guide them. It would be a different matter if a particular decision by a subordinate was cast in the form of a policy statement and expressly approved by the supervising policymaker. It would also be a different matter if a series of decisions by a subordinate official manifested a “custom or usage” of which the supervisor must have been aware. See supra, at 127. In both those cases, the supervisor could realistically be deemed to have adopted a policy that happened to have been formulated or initiated by a lower ranking official. But the mere failure to investigate the basis of a subordinate’s discretionary decisions does not amount to a delegation of policymaking authority, especially where (as here) the wrongfulness of the subordinate’s decision arises from a retaliatory motive or other unstated rationale. In such circumstances, the purposes of § 1983 would not be served by treating a subordinate employee’s decision as if it were a reflection of municipal policy. Justice Brennan’s opinion, concurring in the judgment, finds implications in our discussion that we do not think necessary or correct. See post, at 142-147. We nowhere say or imply, for example, that “a municipal charter’s precatory admonition against discrimination or any other employment practice not based on merit and fitness effectively insulates the municipality from any liability based on acts inconsistent with that policy.” Post, at 145, n. 7. Rather, we would respect the decisions, embodied in state and local law, that allocate policymaking authority among particular individuals and bodies. Refusals to carry out stated policies could obviously help to show that a municipality’s actual policies were different from the ones that had been announced. If such a showing were made, we would be confronted with a different case than the one we decide today. Nor do we believe that we have left a “gaping hole” in § 1983 that needs to be filled with the vague concept of “de facto final policymaking authority.” Post, at 144. Except perhaps as a step towards overruling Monell and adopting the doctrine of respondeat superior, ad hoc searches for officials possessing such “defacto” authority would serve primarily to foster needless unpredictability in the application of § 1983. IV We cannot accept either the Court of Appeals’ broad definition of municipal policymakers or respondent’s suggestion that a jury should be entitled to define for itself which officials’ decisions should expose a municipality to liability. Respondent has suggested that the record will support an inference that policymaking authority was in fact delegated to individuals who took retaliatory action against him and who were not exonerated by the jury. Respondent’s arguments appear to depend on a legal standard similar to the one suggested in Justice Stevens’ dissenting opinion, post, at 171, which we do not accept. Our examination of the record and state law, however, suggests that further review of this case may be warranted in light of the principles we have discussed. That task is best left to the Court of Appeals, which will be free to invite additional briefing and argument if necessary. Accordingly, the decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Justice Kennedy took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. Unlike Justice Brennan, we would not replace this standard with a new approach in which state law becomes merely an “appropriate starting point” for an “assessment of a municipality’s actual power structure.” Post, at 143,145. Municipalities cannot be expected to predict how courts or juries will assess their “actual power structures,” and this uncertainty could easily lead to results that would be hard in practice to distinguish from the results of a regime governed by the doctrine of respondeat superior. It is one thing to charge a municipality with responsibility for the decisions of officials invested by law, or by a “custom or usage” having the force of law, with policymaking authority. It would be something else, and something inevitably more capricious, to hold a municipality responsible for every decision that is perceived as “final” through the lens of a particular factfinder’s evaluation of the city’s “actual power structure.” Justice Stevens, who believes that Monell incorrectly rejected the doctrine of respondeat superior, suggests a new theory that reflects his perceptions of the congressional purposes underlying § 1983. See post, at 148, n. 1. This theory would apparently ignore state law, and distinguish between “high” officials and “low” officials on the basis of an independent evaluation of the extent to which a particular official’s actions have “the potential of controlling governmental decisionmaking,” or are “perceived as the actions of the city itself.” Post, at 171. Whether this evaluation would be conducted by judges or juries, we think the legal test is too imprecise to hold much promise of consistent adjudication or principled analysis. We can see no reason, except perhaps a desire to come as close as possible to respondeat superior without expressly adopting that doctrine, that could justify introducing such unpredictability into a body of law that is already so difficult. As Justice Stevens acknowledges, see post, at 148, n. 1, this Court has repeatedly rejected his interpretation of Congress’ intent. We have held that Congress intended to hold municipalities responsible under § 1983 only for the execution of official policies and customs, and not for injuries inflicted solely by employees or agents. See, e. g., Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U. S. 658, 694 (1978); Pembaur v. Cincinnati, 475 U. S. 469, 478-480 (1986). Like the Pembaur plurality, we think it is self-evident that official policies can only be adopted by those legally charged with doing so. See supra, at 124, and n. 1. We are aware of nothing in § 1983 or its legislative history, and Justice Stevens points to nothing, that would support the notion that unauthorized acts of subordinate employees are official policies because they may have the “potential”' to become official policies or may be “perceived as” official policies. Accordingly, we conclude that Justice Stevens’ proposal is without a basis in the law. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. In its insurance operations respondent United Insurance Company uses “debit agents” whose primary functions are collecting premiums from policyholders, preventing the lapsing of policies, and selling such new insurance as time allows. The Insurance Workers International Union, having won a certification election, seeks to represent the debit agents, and the question before us is whether these agents are “employees” who are protected by the National Labor Relations Act or “independent contractors” who are expressly exempted from the Act. Respondent company refused to recognize the Union, claiming that its debit agents were independent contractors rather than employees. In the ensuing unfair labor practice proceeding the National Labor Relations Board held that these agents were employees and ordered the company to bargain collectively with the Union. 154 N. L. R. B. 38. On appeal the Court of Appeals found that the debit agents were independent contractors and refused to enforce the Board’s order. 371 F. 2d 316 (C. A. 7th Cir.). The importance of the question in the context involved to the administration of the National Labor Relations Act prompted us to grant the petitions of the Board and the Union for certiorari. 389 U. S. 815. At the outset the critical issue is what standard or standards should be applied in differentiating “employee” from “independent contractor” as those terms are used in the Act. Initially this Court held in NLRB v. Hearst Publications, 322 U. S. 111, that “Whether . . . the term ‘employee’ includes [particular] workers . . . must be answered primarily from the history, terms and purposes of the legislation.” 322 U. S., at 124. Thus the standard was one of economic and policy considerations within the labor field. Congressional reaction to this construction of the Act was adverse and Congress passed an amendment specifically excluding “any individual having the status of an independent contractor” from the definition of “employee” contained in § 2 (3) of the Act. The obvious purpose of this amendment was to have the Board and the courts apply general agency principles in distinguishing between employees and independent contractors under the Act. And both petitioners and respondents agree that the proper standard here is the law of agency. Thus there is no doubt that we should apply the common-law agency test here in distinguishing an employee from an independent contractor. Since agency principles are to be applied, some factual background showing the relationship between the debit agents and respondent company is necessary. These basic facts are stated in the Board’s opinion and will be very briefly summarized here. Respondent has district offices in most States which are run by a manager who, usually has several assistant managers under him. Each assistant manager has a staff of four or five debit agents, and the total number of such agents connected with respondent company is approximately 3,300. New agents are hired by district managers, after interviews; they need have no prior experience and are assigned to a district office under the supervision of an assistant district manager. Once he is hired, a debit agent is issued a debit book which contains the names and addresses of the company’s existing policyholders in a relatively concentrated geographic area. This book is company property and must be returned to the company upon termination of the agent’s service. The main job of the debit agents is to collect premiums from the policyholders listed in this book. They also try to prevent the lapsing of policies and sell new insurance when time allows. The company compensates the agents as agreed to in the “Agent’s Commission Plan” under which the agent retains 20% of his weekly premium collections on* industrial insurance and 10% from holders of ordinary life, and 50% of the first year’s premiums on new ordinary life insurance sold by him. The company plan also provides for bonuses and other fringe benefits for the debit agents, including a vacation-with-pay plan and participation in a group insurance and profit-sharing plan. At the beginning of an agent’s service an assistant district manager accompanies the new agent on his rounds to acquaint him with his customers and show him the approved collection and selling techniques. The agent is also supplied with a company “Rate Book,” which the agent is expected to follow, containing detailed instructions on how to perform many of his duties. An agent must turn in his collected premiums to the district office once a week and also file a weekly report. At this time the agent usually attends staff meetings for the discussion of the latest company sales techniques, company directives, etc. Complaints against an agent are investigated by the manager or assistant manager, and, if well founded, the manager talks with the agent to “set him straight.” Agents who have poor production records, or who fail to maintain their accounts properly or to follow company rules, are “cautioned.” The district manager submits a weekly report to the home office, specifying, among other things, the agents whose records are below average; the amounts of their debits; their collection percentages, arrears, and production; and what action the district manager has taken to remedy the production “letdown.” If improvement does not follow, the company asks such agents to “resign,” or exercises its rights under the “Agent’s Commission Plan” to fire them “at any time.” There are innumerable situations which arise in the common law where it is difficult to say whether a particular individual is an employee or an independent contractor, and these cases present such a situation. On the one hand these debit agents perform their work primarily away from the company’s offices and fix their own hours of work and work days; and clearly they are not as obviously employees as are production workers in a factory. On the other hand, however, they do not have the independence, nor are they allowed the initiative and decision-making authority, normally associated with an independent contractor. In such a situation as this there is no shorthand formula or magic phrase that can be applied to find the answer, but all of the incidents of the relationship must be assessed and weighed with no one factor being decisive. What is important is that the total factual context is assessed in light of the pertinent common-law agency principles. When this is done, the decisive factors in these cases become the following: the agents do not operate their own independent businesses, but perform functions that are an essential part of the company’s normal operations; they need not have any prior training or experience, but are trained by company supervisory personnel; they do business in the company’s name with considerable assistance and guidance from the company and its managerial personnel and ordinarily sell only the company’s policies; the “Agent’s Commission Plan” that contains the terms and conditions under which they operate is promulgated and changed unilaterally by the company; the agents account to the company for the funds they collect under an elaborate and regular reporting procedure; the agents receive the benefits of the company’s vacation plan and group insurance and pension fund; and the agents have a permanent working arrangement with the company under which they may continue as long as their performance is satisfactory. Probably the best summation of what these factors mean in the reality of the actual working relationship was given by the chairman of the board of respondent company in a letter to debit agents about the time this unfair labor practice proceeding arose: “if any agent believes he has the power to make his own rules and plan of handling the company’s business, then that agent should hand in his resignation at once, and if we learn that said agent is not going to operate in accordance with the company’s plan, then the company will be forced to make the agents final [sic]. “The company is going to have its business managed in your district the same as all other company districts in the many states where said offices are located. The other company officials and I have managed the United Insurance Company of America’s operations for over 45 years very successfully, and we are going to continue the same successful plan of operation, and we will not allow anyone to interfere with us and our successful plan.” The Board examined all of these facts and found that they showed the debit agents to be employees. This was not a purely factual finding by the Board, but involved the application of law to facts — what do the facts establish under the common law of agency: employee or independent contractor? It should also be pointed out that such a determination of pure agency law involved no special administrative expertise that a court does not possess. On the other hand, the Board’s determination was a judgment made after a hearing with witnesses and oral argument had been held and on the basis of written briefs. Such a determination should not be set aside just because a court would, as an original matter, decide the case the other way. As we said in Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, “Nor does it [the requirement for canvassing the whole record] mean that even as to matters not requiring expertise a court may displace the Board’s choice between two fairly conflicting views, even though the court would justifiably have made a different choice had the matter been before it de novo.” 340 U. S., at 488. Here the least that can be said for the Board’s decision is that it made a choice between two fairly conflicting views, and under these circumstances the Court of Appeals should have enforced the Board’s order. It was error to refuse to do so. Reversed. Mr. Justice Brennan and Mr. Justice Marshall took no part in the consideration or decision of these cases. The National Labor Relations Act, as amended (61 Stat. 136, 73 Stat. 519, 29 U. S. C. § 151 et seq.), protects an “employee” only and specifically excludes “any individual having the status of an independent contractor.” (§2(3).) See 93 Cong. Rec. 6441-6442, 2 Leg. Hist. of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, p. 1537. See also H. R. Rep. No. 245, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 18, 1 Leg. Hist., 1947, p. 309; H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 32-33, 1 Leg. Hist., 1947, pp. 536-537. See annotated cases in 55 A. L. R. 289 et seq. and 61 A. L. R. 218 et seq. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
G
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondent is a Cuban immigrant with little education and almost no knowledge of English. In 1984, he was charged with murder arising from the stabbing death of a man who had allegedly attempted to intervene in a confrontation between respondent and his girlfriend in a bar. Respondent was provided with a defense attorney and interpreter. The attorney recommended to respondent that he plead nolo contendere to first-degree manslaughter. Ore. Rev. Stat. § 163.118(l)(a) (1987). Respondent signed a plea form that explained in English the rights he was waiving by entering the plea. The state court held a plea hearing, at which petitioner was represented by counsel and his interpreter. The judge asked the attorney and interpreter if they had explained to respondent the rights in the plea form and the consequences of his plea; they responded in the affirmative. The judge then explained to respondent, in English, the rights he would waive by his plea, and asked the interpreter to translate. Respondent indicated that he understood his rights and still wished to plead nolo contendere. The judge accepted his plea. Later, respondent brought a collateral attack on the plea in a state-court proceeding. He alleged his plea had not been knowing and intelligent and therefore was invalid because his translator had not translated accurately and completely for him the mens rea element of manslaughter. He also contended that he did not understand the purposes of the plea form or the plea hearing. He contended that he did not know he was pleading no contest to manslaughter, but rather that he thought he was agreeing to be tried for manslaughter. After a hearing, the state court dismissed respondent’s petition, finding that respondent was properly served by his trial interpreter arid that the interpreter correctly, fully, and accurately translated the communications between respondent and his attorney. App. 51. The State Court of Appeals affirmed, and the State Supreme Court denied review. Respondent then entered Federal District Court seeking a writ of habeas corpus. Respondent contended that the material facts concerning the translation were not adequately developed at the state-court hearing, implicating the fifth circumstance of Townsend v. Sain, 372 U. S. 293, 313 (1963), and sought a federal evidentiary hearing on whether his nolo contendere plea was unconstitutional. The District Court found that the failure to develop the critical facts relevant to his federal claim was attributable to inexcusable neglect and that no evidentiary hearing was required. App. to Pet. for Cert. 37, 38. Respondent appealed. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recognized that the alleged failure to translate the mens rea element of first-degree manslaughter, if proved, would be a basis for overturning respondent’s plea, 926 F. 2d 1492, 1494 (1991), and determined that material facts had not been adequately developed in the state postconviction court, id., at 1500, apparently due to the negligence of postconviction counsel. The court held that Townsend v. Sain, supra, at 317, and Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 438 (1963), required an evidentiary hearing in the District Court unless respondent had deliberately bypassed the orderly procedure of the state courts. Because counsel’s negligent failure to develop the facts did not constitute a deliberate bypass, the Court of Appeals ruled that respondent was entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the question whether the mens rea element of first-degree manslaughter was properly explained to him. 926 F. 2d, at 1502. We granted certiorari to decide whether the deliberate bypass standard is the correct standard for excusing a habeas petitioner’s failure to develop a material fact in state-court proceedings. 502 U. S. 807 (1991). We reverse. Because the holding of Townsend v. Sain that Fay v. Noia’s deliberate bypass standard is applicable in a case like this had not been reversed, it is quite understandable that the Court of Appeals applied that standard in this case. However, in light of more recent decisions of this Court, Townsend’s holding in this respect must be overruled. Fay v. Noia was itself a case where the habeas petitioner had not taken advantage of state remedies by failing to appeal — a procedural default case. Since that time, however, this Court has rejected the deliberate bypass standard in state procedural default cases and has applied instead a standard of cause and prejudice. In Francis v. Henderson, 425 U. S. 536 (1976), we acknowledged a federal court’s power to entertain an application for habeas even where the claim has been procedurally waived in state proceedings, but nonetheless examined the appropriateness of the exercise of that power and recognized, as we had in Fay, that considerations of comity and concerns for the orderly administration of criminal justice may in some circumstances require a federal court to forgo the exercise of its habeas corpus power. 425 U. S., at 538-539. We held that a federal habeas petitioner is required to show cause for his procedural default, as well as actual prejudice. Id., at 542. In Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U. S. 72 (1977), we rejected the application of Fay’s standard of “knowing waiver” or “deliberate bypass” to excuse a petitioner’s failure to comply with a state contemporaneous-objection rule, stating that the state rule deserved more respect than the Fay standard accorded it. 433 U. S., at 88. We observed that procedural rules that contribute to error-free state trial proceedings are thoroughly desirable. We applied a cause-and-prejudice standard to a petitioner’s failure to object at trial and limited Fay to its facts. 433 U. S., at 87-88, and n. 12. We have consistently reaffirmed that the “cause-and-prejudice” standard embodies the correct accommodation between the competing concerns implicated in a federal court’s habeas power. Reed v. Ross, 468 U. S. 1, 11 (1984); Engle v. Isaac, 456 U. S. 107, 129 (1982). In McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S. 467 (1991), we held that the same standard used to excuse state procedural defaults should be applied in habeas corpus cases where abuse of the writ is claimed by the government. Id., at 493. This conclusion rested on the fact that the two doctrines are similar in purpose and design and implicate similar concerns. Id., at 493-494. The writ strikes at finality of a state criminal conviction, a matter of particular importance in a federal system. Id., at 491, citing Murray v. Carrier, 477 U. S. 478, 487 (1986). Federal habeas litigation also places a heavy burden on scarce judicial resources, may give litigants incentives to withhold claims for manipulative purposes, and may create disincentives to present claims when evidence is fresh. 499 U. S., at 491-492. See also Reed v. Ross, supra, at 13; Wainwright, supra, at 89. Again addressing the issue of state procedural default in Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U. S. 722 (1991), we described Fay as based on a conception of federal/state relations that undervalued the importance of state procedural rules, 501 U. S., at 750, and went on to hold that the cause-and-prejudice standard applicable to failure to raise a particular claim should apply as well to failure to appeal at all. Ibid. “All of the State’s interests — in channeling the resolution of claims to the most appropriate forum, in finality, and in having an opportunity to correct its own errors — are implicated whether a prisoner defaults one claim or all of them.” Id., at 750. We therefore applied the cause-and-prejudice standard uniformly to state procedural defaults, eliminating the “irrational” distinction between Fay and subsequent cases. 501 U. S., at 751. In light of these decisions, it is similarly irrational to distinguish between failing to properly assert a federal claim in state court and failing in state court to properly develop such a claim, and to apply to the latter a remnant of a decision that is no longer upheld with regard to the former. The concerns that motivated the rejection of the deliberate bypass standard in Wainwright, Coleman, and other cases are equally applicable to this case. As in cases of state procedural default, application of the cause-and-prejudice standard to excuse a state prisoner’s failure to develop material facts in state court will appropriately accommodate concerns of finality, comity, judicial economy, and channeling the resolution of claims into the most appropriate forum. Applying the cause-and-prejudice standard in cases like this will obviously contribute to the finality of convictions, for requiring a federal evidentiary hearing solely on the basis of a habeas petitioner’s negligent failure to develop facts in state-court proceedings dramatically increases the opportunities to relitigate a conviction. Similarly, encouraging the full factual development in state court of a claim that state courts committed constitutional error advances comity by allowing a coordinate jurisdiction to correct its own errors in the first instance. It reduces the “inevitable friction” that results when a federal habeas court “overturn[s] either the factual or legal conclusions reached by the state-court system.” Sumner v. Mata, 449 U. S. 539, 550 (1981). Also, by ensuring that full factual development takes place in the earlier, state-court proceedings, the cause-and-prejudice standard plainly serves the interest of judicial economy. It is hardly a good use of scarce judicial resources to duplicate factfinding in federal court merely because a petitioner has negligently failed to take advantage of opportunities in state-court proceedings. Furthermore, ensuring that full factual development of a claim takes place in state court channels the resolution of the claim to the most appropriate forum. The state court is the appropriate forum for resolution of factual issues in the first instance, and creating incentives for the deferral of factfind-ing to later federal-court proceedings can only degrade the accuracy and efficiency of judicial proceedings. This is fully consistent with, and gives meaning to, the requirement of exhaustion. The Court has long held that state prisoners must exhaust state remedies before obtaining federal habeas relief. Ex parte Royall, 117 U. S. 241 (1886). The requirement that state prisoners exhaust state remedies before a writ of habeas corpus is granted by a federal court is now incorporated in the federal habeas statute. 28 U. S. C. §2254. Exhaustion means more than notice. In requiring exhaustion of a federal claim in state court, Congress surely meant that exhaustion be serious and meaningful. The purpose of exhaustion is not to create a procedural hurdle on the path to federal habeas court, but to channel claims into an appropriate forum, where meritorious claims may be vindicated and unfounded litigation obviated before resort to federal court. Comity concerns dictate that the requirement of exhaustion is not satisfied by the mere statement of a federal claim in state court. Just as the State must afford the petitioner a full and fair hearing on his federal claim, so must the petitioner afford the State a full and fair opportunity to address and resolve the claim on the merits. Cf. Picard v. Connor, 404 U. S. 270, 275 (1971). Finally, it is worth noting that applying the cause-and-prejudice standard in this case also advances uniformity in the law of habeas corpus. There is no good reason to maintain in one area of habeas law a standard that has been rejected in the area in which it was principally enunciated. And little can be said for holding a habeas petitioner to one standard for failing to bring a claim in state court and excusing the petitioner under another, lower standard for failing to develop the factual basis of that claim in the same forum. A different rule could mean that a habeas petitioner would not be excused for negligent failure to object to the introduction of the prosecution’s evidence, but nonetheless would be excused for negligent failure to introduce any evidence of his own to support a constitutional claim. Respondent Tamayo-Reyes is entitled to an evidentiary hearing if he can show cause for his failure to develop the facts in state-court proceedings and actual prejudice resulting from that failure. We also adopt the narrow exception to the cause-and-prejudice requirement: A habeas petitioner’s failure to develop a claim in state-court proceedings will be excused and a hearing mandated if he can show that a fundamental miscarriage of justice would result from failure to hold a federal evidentiary hearing. Cf. McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S., at 494; Murray v. Carrier, 477 U. S., at 496. The State concedes that a remand to the District Court is appropriate in order to afford respondent the opportunity to bring forward evidence establishing cause and prejudice, Brief for Petitioner 21, and we agree that respondent should have that opportunity. Accordingly, the decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the cause is remanded to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. So ordered. With respect to respondent’s claim that the plea form and plea proceeding were not adequately translated, the Court of Appeals concluded that state postconviction proceedings afforded petitioner ample opportunity to contest the translations, that the material facts surrounding these issues were adequately developed, and that the state court’s findings were adequately supported by the record. The Court of Appeals therefore held that a federal evidentiary hearing on that claim was not required. 926 F. 2d, at 1602. Justice O’Connor asserts that Townsend v. Sain, 372 U. S. 293 (1963), insofar as relevant to this case, merely reflected existing law. The claim thus seems to be that the general rule stated by the Court in Townsend governing when an evidentiary hearing must be granted to a federal habeas corpus petitioner, as well as each of the Court’s six criteria particularizing its general pronouncement, reflected what was to be found in prior holdings of the Court. This is a very doubtful claim. Surely the Court at that time did not think this was the case, for it pointedly observed that prior cases had not settled all aspects of the hearing problem in habeas proceedings and that the lower federal courts had reached widely divergent and irreconcilable results in dealing with hearing issues. Id., at 310, and n. 8. Hence it deemed it advisable to give further guidance to the lower courts. It also expressly stated that the rules it was announcing “must be considered to supersede, to the extent of any inconsistencies, the opinions in Brown v. Allen[, 344 U. S. 443 (1953)].” Id., at 312. This was necessary because Brown was inconsistent with the holding of Townsend regarding habeas petitioners who failed to adequately develop federal claims in state-court proceedings. See Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443, 465 (1953) (federal court may deny writ without rehearing of facts “where the legality of [the] detention has been determined, on the facts presented,” by the state court) (emphasis added); id., at 463 (writ should be refused, without more, if federal court satisfied from the record that “state process has given fair consideration to the issues and the offered evidence”) (emphasis added). We have unequivocally acknowledged that Townsend substantially changed the availability of evidentiary hearings in federal habeas proceedings. See Smith v. Yeager, 393 U. S. 122, 125 (1968) (per curiam). It is not surprising, then, that none of the cases cited by Justice O’Con-nor remotely support Townsend’s requirement for a hearing in any case where the “material facts were not adequately developed at the state-court hearing” due to petitioner’s own neglect. 372 U. S., at 313. Finally, it is undeniable that Fay v. Noia’s deliberate bypass standard overruled prior procedural default cases, and it is no less true that Townsend’s adoption of that standard as a definition of “inexcusable neglect” made new law. Justice O’Connor puts aside our overruling of Fay v. Noia’s standard in procedural default cases on the ground that in those cases the cause- and-prejudice standard is just an acceptable precondition to reaching the merits of a habeas petitioner’s claim, but insists that applying that standard to cases in which the petitioner defaulted on the development of a claim is not subject to the same characterization. For the reasons stated in the text, we disagree. Moreover, Justice O’Connor’s position is considerably weakened by her concession that the cause-and-prejudice standard is properly applied to a factually undeveloped claim which had been exhausted but which is first asserted federally in a second or later ha-beas petition. Contrary to Justice O’Connor’s view, post, at 17, we think it clear that the Townsend Court thought that the same standard used to deny a hearing in a procedural default ease should be used to deny a hearing in cases described in its fifth circumstance. It is difficult to conceive any other reason for our borrowing the deliberate bypass standard of Fay v. Noia, particularly if, as the dissent seems to say, post, at 17, Townsend relied on, but did not repeat, the analysis found in Fay v. Noia. Yet the dissent insists that the rejection of Fay v. Noia’s analysis in our later cases should have no impact on a case such as we have before us now. “An application for a writ of habeas corpus . . . shall not be granted unless it appears that the applicant has exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State . ..28 U. S. C. § 2254(b). It is asserted by Justice O’Connor that in adopting 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d) Congress assumed the continuing validity of all aspects of Townsend, including the requirement of a hearing in all fifth circumstance cases absent a deliberate bypass. For several reasons, we disagree. First, it is evident that § 2254(d) does not codify Townsend’s specifications of when a hearing is required. Townsend described categories of cases in which evidentiary hearings would be required. Section 2254(d), however, does not purport to govern the question of when hearings are required; rather, it lists exceptions to the normal presumption of correctness of state-court findings and deals with the burden of proof where hearings are held. The two issues are distinct, and the statute indicates no assumption that the presence or absence of any of the statutory exceptions will determine whether a hearing is held. Second, to the extent that it even considered the issue of default, Congress sensibly could have read Townsend as holding that the federal habeas corpus standard for cases of default under Townsend’s fifth circumstance and cases of procedural default should be the same. Third, § 2254(d) does not mention or recognize any exception for inexcusable neglect, let alone reflect the specific standard of deliberate bypass. In the face of this silence, it should not be assumed that if there is to be a judicially created standard for equitable default, it must be no other than the deliberate bypass standard borrowed by Townsend from a decision that has since been repudiated. We agree with Justice O’Connor that under our holding a claim invoking the fifth circumstance of Townsend will be unavailing where the cause asserted is attorney error. Murray v. Carrier, 477 U. S. 478 (1986), and Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U. S. 722 (1991), dictate as much. Such was the intended effect of those cases, but this does not make that circumstance a dead letter, for cause may be shown for reasons other than attorney error. We noted in Murray, a procedural default case, that objective factors external to the defense may impede counsel’s efforts to comply and went on to say: “Without attempting an exhaustive catalog of such objective impediments to compliance with a procedural rule, we note that a showing that the factual or legal basis for a claim was not reasonably available to counsel, see Reed v. Ross, 468 U. S., at 16, or that ‘some interference by officials,’ Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443, 486 (1953), made compliance impracticable, would constitute cause under this standard.” 477 U. S., at 488. Much of the same may be said of cases where the petitioner has defaulted on the development of a claim. Nor, to the extent it is relevant to our decision in this case, is Justice O’Connor’s argument that many forms of cause would fall under other Townsend circumstances persuasive. For example, the third and sixth circumstances of Townsend speak to the denial by a court of full and fair hearing; however, a situation where facts were inadequately developed because of interference from officials would fall naturally into the fifth circumstance. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. The Michigan State Bar brought this action in January 1959 to enjoin the members of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen from engaging in activities undertaken for the stated purpose of assisting their fellow workers, their widows and families, to protect themselves from excessive fees at the hands of incompetent attorneys in suits for damages under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. The complaint charged, as factors relevant to the cause of action, that the Union recommended selected attorneys to its members and their families, that it secured a commitment from those attorneys that the maximum fee charged would not exceed 25% of the recovery, and that it recommended Chicago lawyers to represent Michigan claimants. The State Bar’s complaint appears to be a plea for court protection of unlimited legal fees. The Union’s answers admitted that it had engaged in the practice of protecting members against large fees and incompetent counsel; that since 1930 it had recommended, with respect to FELA claims, that injured member employees, and their families, consult attorneys designated by the Union as “Legal Counsel”; that prior to March 1959, it had informed the injured members and their families that the legal counsel would not charge in excess of 25% of any recovery; and that Union representatives were reimbursed for transporting injured employees, or their families, to the legal counsel offices. The only evidence introduced in this case was the testimony of one employee of the Association of American Railroads in 1961 that from 1953 through 1960 a large number of Michigan FELA claimants were represented by the Union’s designated Chicago legal counsel. Based on this evidence and the Union’s admissions set out above, the state trial court in 1962 issued an order enjoining the Union’s activities on the ground that they violated the state statute making it a misdemeanor to “solicit” damage suits against railroads. The Union appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, but before the case was argued on appeal, this Court handed down its decision in Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia State Bar, 377 U. S. 1 (1964), involving a similar injunction secured by the Virginia State Bar against the Union. We held in that case that the First Amendment guarantees of free speech, petition, and assembly give railroad workers the right to cooperate in helping and advising one another in asserting their rights under the FELA. While not deciding every question that possibly could be raised, our opinion left no doubt that workers have a right under the First Amendment to act collectively to secure good, honest lawyers to assert their claims against railroads. Acknowledging our decision in Trainmen, the Michigan Supreme Court remanded the instant case to the state trial court with permission for amendment of the complaint “to seek, if it be so advised, relief not inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s said opinion.” 374 Mich. 152, 155, 132 N. W. 2d 78, 79. After remand, the State Bar made a motion for further proceedings. That motion was heard on February 5, 1965, at which time the Bar declined to amend its complaint. For reasons not explained in the record, the case lingered in the trial court until May 24, 1968. On that date, after a motion for judgment by the State Bar and arguments on the motion, the trial court adopted verbatim the injunction entered in the Virginia state courts after our remand in Trainmen. In affirming the trial court decree, the material part of which is set out below, the Michigan Supreme Court gave our holding in Trainmen the narrowest possible reading, focusing only on the specific literal language of the injunctive provisions challenged in that case rather than the broad range of union activities held to be protected by the First Amendment. Similarly, the Michigan court erroneously restricted our holding in United Mine Workers v. Illinois State Bar Assn., 389 U. S. 217 (1967), to “the operative portion” of the Illinois decree prohibiting any financial connection between the attorney and the Union. The Michigan Supreme Court failed to follow our decisions in Trainmen, United Mine Workers, and NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415 (1963), upholding the First Amendment principle that groups can unite to assert their legal rights as effectively and economically as practicable. When applied, as it must be, to the Union’s activities reflected in the record of this case, the First Amendment forbids the restraints imposed by the injunction here under review for the following among other reasons. First. The decree approved by the Michigan Supreme Court enjoins the Union from “giving or furnishing legal advice to its members or their families.” Given its broadest meaning, this provision would bar the Union’s members, officers, agents, or attorneys from giving any kind of advice or counsel to an injured worker or his family concerning his FELA claim. In Trainmen we upheld the commonsense proposition that such activity is protected by the First Amendment. Moreover, the plain meaning of this particular injunctive provision would emphatically deny the right of the Union to employ counsel to represent its members, a right explicitly upheld in United Mine Workers and NAACP v. Button. We cannot accept the restricted interpretation of this provision urged by the State Bar, and accepted by our Brother Harlan, that it only prohibits the Union or its members themselves from “practicing law.” The record is devoid of any evidence or allegation of such conduct on the part of the Union or its members. A decree must relate specifically and exclusively to the pleadings and proof. If not so related, the provision, because of its vagueness, will jeopardize the exercise of protected freedoms. This injunction, like a criminal statute, prohibits conduct under fear of punishment. Therefore, we look at the injunction as we look at a statute, and if upon its face it abridges rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, it should be struck down. Our statement in NAACP v. Button concerning the statute there in question is equally applicable to the injunction now before us: “[W]e cannot assume that, in its subsequent enforcement, ambiguities will be resolved in favor of adequate protection of First Amendment rights.” 371 U. S., at 438. Second. The decree also enjoins the Union from furnishing to any attorney, the names of injured members or information relating to their injuries. The investigation of accidents by Union staff for purposes of gathering evidence to assist the injured worker or his family in asserting FELA claims was part of the Union practice upheld in Trainmen. 377 U. S., at 4 n. 8. It would seem at least a little strange now to hold that the Union cannot communicate that information to the injured member’s attorney. Third. A provision of the decree enjoins the members of the Union from.“accepting or receiving compensation of any kind, directly or indirectly, for the solicitation of legal employment for any lawyer, whether by way of salary, commission or otherwise.” The Union conceded that prior to 1959, Union representatives were reimbursed for their actual time spent and out-of-pocket expenses incurred in bringing injured members or their families to the offices of the legal counsel. Since the members of a union have a First Amendment right to help and advise each other in securing effective legal representation, there can be no doubt that transportation of injured members to an attorney’s office is within the scope of that protected activity. To the extent that the injunction prohibits this practice, it is invalid under Trainmen, United Mine Workers, and NAACP v. Button. Fourth. Our Brothers Harlan and White apparently accept the State Bar contention that the provision prohibiting compensation to Union representatives for solicitation refers to compensation paid by the attorney rather than the Union. And so interpreted, it supplements the two provisions which prohibit the Union from sharing in legal fees received by the recommended counsel. There is no basis for this restraint. Such activity is not even suggested in the complaint. There is not a line of evidence concerning such practice in the record in this case. If there is any such suggestion, it is in records in other cases involving other parties in other courts, records upon which we believe our Brother Harlan erroneously seeks to rely. In fact, the explanation for the appearance of the provisions in this decree appears to be the Michigan court’s verbatim adoption of a Virginia injunction issued in a different case on different pleadings relating to different facts. Decrees between litigants should not rest on any such unsupportable basis as this. Our Brother Harlan appears to concede that the State Bar has neither alleged nor proved that the Union has engaged in the past, is presently engaging, or plans to engage, in the sharing of legal fees. Nonetheless, he suggests that the injunction against such conduct is justified in order to remove any “temptation” for the Union to participate in such activities. We cannot accept this novel concept of equity jurisdiction that would open the courts to claims for injunctions against “temptation,” and would deem potential “temptation” to be a sufficient basis for the issuance of an injunction. Indeed, it would appear that jurisdiction over “temptation” has heretofore been reserved to the churches. An injunction can issue only after the plaintiff has established that the conduct sought to be enjoined is illegal and that the defendant, if not enjoined, will engage in such conduct. In Hitchman Coal & Coke Co. v. Mitchell, 245 U. S. 229, 262 (1917), this Court struck the portions of a decree enjoining a union from picketing and physical violence because there was no evidence that either of these forms of interference was threatened. Likewise in the present case, with respect to the prohibition against sharing legal fees, the State Bar simply has made no showing that such conduct was threatened. Indeed, it has made no showing at all. Therefore, that provision of the decree, to use an often quoted slogan, would appear to be not only unjustified, but also '‘arbitrary and capricious.” Fifth. Finally, the challenged decree bars the Union from controlling, directly or indirectly, the fees charged by any lawyer. The complaint alleged that the Union sought to protect its members from excessive legal fees by securing an agreement from the counsel it recommends that the fee will not exceed 25% of the recovery, and that the percentage will include all expenses incidental to investigation and litigation. The Union in its answer admitted that prior to 1959 it secured such agreements for the protection of its members. United Mine Workers upheld the right of workers to act collectively to obtain affordable and effective legal representation. One of the abuses sought to be remedied by the Mine Workers’ plan was the situation pursuant to which members “were required to pay forty or fifty per cent of the amounts recovered in damage suits, for attorney fees.” 389 U. S., at 219. The Mine Workers dealt with the problem by employing an attorney on a salary basis, thereby providing free legal representation for its members in asserting their claims before the state workmen’s compensation board. The Union in the instant case sought to protect its members against the same abuse by limiting the fee charged by recommended attorneys. It is hard to believe that a court of justice would deny a cooperative union of workers the right to protect its injured members, and their widows and children, from the injustice of excessive fees at the hands of inadequate counsel. Indeed, the Michigan court was foreclosed from so doing by our decision in United Mine Workers. In the context of this case we deal with a cooperative union of workers seeking to assist its members in effectively asserting claims under the FELA. But the principle here involved cannot be limited to the facts of this case. At issue is the basic right to group legal action, a right first asserted in this Court by an association of Negroes seeking the protection of freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. The common thread running through our decisions in NAACP v. Button, Trainmen, and United Mine Workers is that collective activity undertaken to obtain meaningful access to the courts is a fundamental right within the protection of the First Amendment. However, that right would be a hollow promise if courts could deny associations of workers or others the means of enabling their members to meet the costs of legal representation. That was the holding in United Mine Workers, Trainmen, and NAACP v. Button. The injunction in the present case cannot stand in the face of these prior decisions. Reversed. Mr. Justice Stewart took no part in the decision of this case. On January 1, 1969, after the decree was entered in the court below, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen merged into a newly created union, the United Transportation Union. The successor union is the petitioner in this case. 35 Stat. 65, as amended, 45 U. S. C. §§ 51-60. Section 750.410, Mich. Comp. Laws (1948), in relevant part provides: “Any person ... or organization of any kind, either incorporated or unincorporated . . . who shall directly or indirectly . . . solicit any person injured as the result of an accident ... for the purpose of representing such person in making claim for damages . . . shall be guilty of a misdemeanor . . . .” The decree entered by the Michigan trial court permanently restrained and enjoined the Union: “from giving or furnishing legal advice to its members or their families; from informing any lawyer or lawyers that an accident has been suffered by a member or non-member of the said Brotherhood and furnishing the name and address of-such injured or deceased person for the purpose of obtaining legal employment for any lawyer; from stating or suggesting that a recommended lawyer will defray expenses of any kind or make advances for any purpose to such injured persons or their families pending settlement of their claim; from controlling, directly or indirectly, the fees charged or to be charged by any lawyer; from accepting or receiving compensation of any kind, directly or indirectly, for the solicitation of legal employment for any lawyer, whether by way of salary, commission or otherwise; from sharing in any manner in the legal fees of any lawyer or countenancing the splitting of or sharing in such fees with any layman or lay agency; and from sharing in any recovery for personal injury or death by gift, assignment or otherwise.” 383 Mich. 201, 174 N. W. 2d 811. The decree overturned in United Mine Workers also enjoined the union from: “Giving legal counsel and advice.” 389 U. S., at 218 n. 1. It was conceded in that case that the provision was directed at the Union’s employment of an attorney. Our Brother HarlaN suggests that the injured member should be free to direct the collected information to whatever lawyer he chooses, rather than for the Union to give it to the Union’s recommended legal counsel. However, the injunction prohibits the Union from furnishing the information to “any lawyer,” apparently including both recommended and nonrecommended counsel alike. The injunction would prohibit the injured member’s attorney, regardless of whether or not he was recommended by the Union, from communicating with the Union’s representative who investigated the accident, is familiar with the facts, and, other than the injured member himself, is probably the person most qualified to answer the attorney’s questions and assist in preparation of the claim. To satisfy the Michigan court’s notion that direct communication between the Union and the member's attorney is somehow unlawful, it seems our Brother HarlaN would restrict the Union’s efforts, which we expressly approved in Trainmen, of assisting the injured member in preparing his case for trial, to a written accident report filed with the injured member. Mr. Justice Brandéis dissented on the ground that this principle should have been applied to strike the other provisions of the injunction as well. 245 U. S., at 263 (Brandeis, J., dissenting). The injunction also bars the Union “from stating or suggesting that & recommended lawyer will defray expenses of any kind or make advances for any purpose to such injured persons or their families pending settlement of their claim.” The only allegation in the complaint possibly relating to this injunctive provision is that the Union representatives informed the injured members that the 25% fee included all expenses. This provision of the injunction, therefore, is invalid for the same reasons that the provision limiting fees is invalid. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
F
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Powell announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II, III-B, III-C, and IV, and an opinion with respect to Part III-A, in which The Chief Justice, Justice White, and Justice O’Connor join. The question presented in this case is whether and to what extent a State’s interest in the confidentiality of its investigative files concerning child abuse must yield to a criminal defendant’s Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment right to discover favorable evidence. I As part of its efforts to combat child abuse, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has established Children and Youth Services (CYS), a protective service" agency charged with investigating cases of suspected mistreatment and neglect. In 1979, respondent George Ritchie was charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, incest, and corruption of a minor. The victim of the alleged attacks was his 13-year-old daughter, who claimed that she had been assaulted by Ritchie two or three times per week during the previous four years. The girl reported the incidents to the police, and the matter then was referred to the CYS. During pretrial discovery, Ritchie served CYS with a subpoena, seeking access to the records concerning the daughter. Ritchie requested disclosure of the file related to the immediate charges, as well as certain records that he claimed were compiled in 1978, when CYS investigated a separate report by an unidentified source that Ritchie’s children were being abused. CYS refused to comply with the subpoena, claiming that the records were privileged under Pennsylvania law. The relevant statute provides that all reports and other information obtained in the course of a CYS investigation must be kept confidential, subject to 11 specific exceptions. One of those exceptions is that the agency may disclose the reports to a “court of competent jurisdiction pursuant to a court order.” Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 11, §2215(a)(5) (Purdon Supp. 1986). Ritchie moved to have CYS sanctioned for failing to honor the subpoena, and the trial court held a hearing on the motion in chambers. Ritchie argued that he was entitled to the information because the file might contain the names of favorable witnesses, as well as other, unspecified exculpatory evidence. He also requested disclosure of a medical report that he believed was compiled during the 1978 CYS investigation. Although the trial judge acknowledged that he had not examined the entire CYS file, he accepted a CYS representative’s assertion that there was no medical report in the record. The judge then denied the motion and refused to order CYS to disclose the files. See App. 72a. At trial, the main witness against Ritchie was his daughter. In an attempt to rebut her testimony, defense counsel cross-examined the girl at length, questioning her on all aspects of the alleged attacks and her reasons for not reporting the incidents sooner. Except for routine evidentiary rulings, the trial judge placed no limitation on the scope of cross-examination. At the close of trial Ritchie was convicted by a jury on all counts, and the judge sentenced him to 3 to 10 years in prison. On appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, Ritchie claimed, inter alia, that the failure to disclose the contents of the CYS file violated the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, as applied to the States through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court agreed that there had been a constitutional violation, and accordingly vacated the conviction and remanded for further proceedings. 324 Pa. Super. 557, 472 A. 2d 220 (1984). The Superior Court ruled, however, that the right of confrontation did not entitle Ritchie to the full disclosure that he sought. It held that on remand, the trial judge first was to examine the confidential material in camera, and release only the verbatim statements made by the daughter to the CYS counselor. But the full record then was to be made available to Ritchie’s lawyer, for the limited purpose of allowing him to argue the relevance of the statements.. The court stated that the prosecutor also should be allowed to argue that the failure to disclose the statements was harmless error. If the trial judge determined that the lack of information was prejudicial, Ritchie would be entitled to a new trial. Id., at 567-568, 472 A. 2d, at 226. On appeal by the Commonwealth, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania agreed that the conviction must be vacated and the case remanded to determine if a new trial is necessary. 509 Pa. 357, 502 A. 2d 148 (1985). But the court did not agree that the search for material evidence must be limited to the daughter’s verbatim statements. Rather, it concluded that Ritchie, through his lawyer, is entitled to review the entire file to search for any useful evidence. It stated: “When materials gathered become an arrow of inculpation, the person inculpated has a fundamental constitutional right to examine the provenance of the arrow and he who aims it.” Id., at 367, 502 A. 2d, at 153. The Pennsylvania Court concluded that by denying access to the file, the trial court order had violated both the Confrontation Clause and the Compulsory Process Clause. The court was unpersuaded by the Commonwealth’s argument that the trial judge already had examined the file and determined that it contained no relevant information. It ruled that the constitutional infirmity in the trial court’s order was that Ritchie was unlawfully denied the opportunity to have the records reviewed by “the eyes and the perspective of an advocate,” who may see relevance in places that a neutral judge would not. Ibid. In light of the substantial and conflicting interests held by the Commonwealth and Ritchie, we granted certiorari. 476 U. S. 1139 (1986). We now affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. J-H HH Before turning to the constitutional questions, we first must address Ritchie’s claim that the Court lacks jurisdiction, because the decision below is not a “final judgment or decree.” See 28 U. S. C. § 1257(3); Market Street R. Co. v. Railroad Comm’n of California, 324 U. S. 548, 551 (1945). Normally the finality doctrine contained in § 1257(3) is not satisfied if the state courts still must conduct further substantive proceedings before the rights of the parties as to the federal issues are resolved. Ibid.; Radio Station WOW, Inc. v. Johnson, 326 U. S. 120, 123-127 (1945). Ritchie argues that under this standard the case is not final, because there are several more proceedings scheduled in the Pennsylvania courts: at a minimum there will be an in camera review of the file, and the parties will present arguments on whether the lack of disclosure was prejudicial; after that, there could be a new trial on the merits. Ritchie claims that because the Sixth Amendment issue may become moot at either of these stages, we should decline review until these further proceedings are completed. Although it is true that this Court is without jurisdiction to review an interlocutory judgment, it also is true that the principles of finality have not been construed rigidly. As we recognized in Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U. S. 469 (1975), there are at least four categories of cases in which jurisdiction is proper even when there are further proceedings anticipated in the state court. One of these exceptions states that the Court may consider cases: “[WJhere the federal claim has been finally decided, with further proceedings on the merits in the state courts to come, but in which later review of the federal issue cannot be had, whatever the ultimate outcome of the case.... [I]n these cases, if the party seeking interim review ultimately prevails on the merits, the federal issue will be mooted; if he were to lose on the merits, however, the governing state law would not permit him again to present his federal claims for review.” Id., at 481. We find that the case before us satisfies this standard because the Sixth Amendment issue will not survive for this Court to review, regardless of the outcome of the proceedings on remand. If the trial court decides that the CYS files do not contain relevant information, or that the nondisclosure was harmless, the Commonwealth will have prevailed and will have no basis to seek review. In this situation Ritchie’s conviction will be reinstated, and the issue of whether defense counsel should have been given access will be moot. Should Ritchie appeal the trial court’s decision, the Commonwealth’s only method for preserving the constitutional issue would be by cross-claims. Thus the only way that this Court will be able to reach the Sixth Amendment issue is if Ritchie eventually files a petition for certiorari on the trial court’s adverse ruling, and the Commonwealth files a cross-petition. When a case is in this procedural posture, we have considered it sufficiently final to justify review. See, e. g., New York v. Quarles, 467 U. S. 649, 651, n. 1 (1984); South Dakota v. Neville, 459 U. S. 553, 558, n. 6 (1983). Alternatively, if Ritchie is found to have been prejudiced by the withholding and is granted a new trial, the Commonwealth still will be unable to obtain a ruling from this Court. On retrial Ritchie either will be convicted, in which case the Commonwealth’s ability to obtain review again will rest on Ritchie’s willingness to appeal; or he will be acquitted, in which case the Commonwealth will be barred from seeking review by the Double Jeopardy Clause. See ibid.; California v. Stewart, 384 U. S. 436, 498, n. 71 (1966) (decided with Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966)). Therefore, if this Court does not consider the constitutional claims now, there may well be no opportunity to do so in the future. The Sixth Amendment issue has been finally decided by the highest court of Pennsylvania, and unless we review that decision, the harm that the Commonwealth seeks to avoid— the disclosure of the entire confidential file — will occur regardless of the result on remand. We thus cannot agree with the suggestion in Justice Stevens’ dissent that if we were to dismiss this case and it was resolved on other grounds after disclosure of the file, “the Commonwealth would not have been harmed.” Post, at 74. This hardly could be true, because of the acknowledged public interest in ensuring the confidentiality of CYS records. See n. 17, infra. Although this consideration is not dispositive, we have noted that “statutorily created finality requirements should, if possible, be construed so as not to cause crucial collateral claims to be lost and potentially irreparable injuries to be suffered.” Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U. S. 319, 331, n. 11 (1976). We therefore reject Ritchie’s claim that the Court lacks jurisdiction, and turn to the merits of the case before us. HH HH 1 — I The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that Ritchie, through his lawyer, has the right to examine the full contents of the CYS records. The court found that this right of access is required by both the Confrontation Clause and the Compulsory Process Clause. We discuss these constitutional provisions in turn. A The Confrontation Clause provides two types of protections for a criminal defendant: the right physically to face those who testify against him, and the right to conduct cross-examination. Delaware v. Fensterer, 474 U. S. 15, 18-19 (1985) (per curiam). Ritchie does not allege a violation of the former right. He was not excluded from any part of the trial, nor did the prosecutor improperly introduce out-of-court statements as substantive evidence, thereby depriving Ritchie of the right to “confront” the declarant. See Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U. S. 56 (1980). Cf. United States v. Inadi, 475 U. S. 387 (1986). Instead, Ritchie claims that by denying him access to the information necessary to prepare his defense, the trial court interfered with his right of cross-examination. Ritchie argues that he could not effectively question his daughter because, without the CYS material, he did not know which types of questions would best expose the weaknesses in her testimony. Had the files been disclosed, Ritchie argues that he might have been able to show that the daughter made statements to the CYS counselor that were inconsistent with her trial statements, or perhaps to reveal that the girl acted with an improper motive. Of course, the right to cross-examine includes the opportunity to show that a witness is biased, or that the testimony is exaggerated or unbelievable. United States v. Abel, 469 U. S. 45, 50 (1984); Davis v. Alaska, 415 U. S. 308, 316 (1974). Because this type of evidence can make the difference between conviction and acquittal, see Napue v. Illinois, 360 U. S. 264, 269 (1959), Ritchie argues that the failure to disclose information that might have made cross-examination more effective undermines the Confrontation Clause’s purpose of increasing the accuracy of the truth-finding process at trial. See United States v. Inadi, supra, at 396. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court accepted this argument, relying in part on our decision in Davis v. Alaska, supra. In Davis the trial judge prohibited defense counsel from questioning a witness about the latter’s juvenile criminal record, because a state statute made this information presumptively confidential. We found that this restriction on cross-examination violated the Confrontation Clause, despite Alaska’s legitimate interest in protecting the identity of juvenile offenders. 415 U. S., at 318-320. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court apparently interpreted our decision in Davis to mean that a statutory privilege cannot be maintained when a defendant asserts a need, prior to trial, for the protected information that might be used at trial to impeach or otherwise undermine a witness’ testimony. See 509 Pa., at 365-367, 502 A. 2d, at 152-153. If we were to accept this broad interpretation of Davis, the effect would be to transform the Confrontation Clause into a constitutionally compelled rule of pretrial discovery. Nothing in the case law supports such a view. The opinions of this Court show that the right to confrontation is a trial right, designed to prevent improper restrictions on the types of questions that defense counsel may ask during cross-examination. See California v. Green, 399 U. S. 149, 157 (1970) (“[I]t is this literal right to ‘confront’ the witness at the time of trial that forms the core of the values furthered by the Confrontation Clause”); Barber v. Page, 390 U. S. 719, 725 (1968) (“The right to confrontation is basically a trial right”). The ability to question adverse witnesses, however, does not include the power to require the pretrial disclosure of any and all information that might be useful in contradicting unfavorable testimony. Normally the right to confront one’s accusers is satisfied if defense counsel receives wide latitude at trial to question witnesses. Delaware v. Fensterer, 474 U. S., at 20. In short, the Confrontation Clause only guarantees “an opportunity for effective cross-examination, not cross-examination that is effective in whatever way, and to whatever extent, the defense might wish.” Id., at 20 (emphasis in original). See also Ohio v. Roberts, supra, at 73, n. 12 (except in “extraordinary cases, no inquiry into ‘effectiveness’ [of cross-examination] is required”). We reaffirmed this interpretation of the Confrontation Clause last Term in Delaware v. Fensterer, supra. In that case, the defendant was convicted in part on the testimony of the State’s expert witness, who could not remember which scientific test he had used to form his opinion. Although this inability to recall frustrated defense counsel’s efforts to discredit the testimony, we held that there had been no Sixth Amendment violation. The Court found that the right of confrontation was not implicated, “for the trial court did not limit the scope or nature of defense counsel’s cross-examination in any way.” 474 U. S., at 19. Fensterer was in full accord with our earlier decisions that have upheld a Confrontation Clause infringement claim on this issue only when there was a specific statutory or court-imposed restriction at trial on the scope of questioning. The lower court’s reliance on Davis v. Alaska therefore is misplaced. There the state court had prohibited defense counsel from questioning the witness about his criminal record, even though that evidence might have affected the witness’ credibility. The constitutional error in that case was not that Alaska made this information confidential; it was that the defendant was denied the right “to expose to the jury the facts from which jurors... could appropriately draw inferences relating to the reliability of the witness.” 415 U. S., at 318. Similarly, in this case the Confrontation Clause was not violated by the withholding of the CYS file; it only would have been impermissible for the judge to have prevented Ritchie’s lawyer from cross-examining the daughter. Because defense counsel was able to cross-examine all of the trial witnesses fully, we find that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court erred in holding that the failure to disclose the CYS file violated the Confrontation Clause. B The Pennsylvania Supreme Court also suggested that the failure to disclose the CYS file violated the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of compulsory process. Ritchie asserts that the trial court’s ruling prevented him from learning the names of the “witnesses in his favor,” as well as other evidence that might be contained in the file. Although the basis for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling on this point is unclear, it apparently concluded that the right of compulsory process includes the right to have the State’s assistance in uncovering arguably useful information, without regard to the existence of a state-created restriction — here, the confidentiality of the files. 1 This Court has had little occasion to discuss the contours of the Compulsory Process Clause. The first and most celebrated analysis came from a Virginia federal court in 1807, during the treason and misdemeanor trials of Aaron Burr. Chief Justice Marshall, who presided as trial judge, ruled that Burr’s compulsory process rights entitled him to serve a subpoena on President Jefferson, requesting the production of allegedly incriminating evidence. United States v. Burr, 25 F. Cas. 30, 35 (No. 14,692d) (CC Va. 1807). Despite the implications of the Burr decision for federal criminal procedure, the Compulsory Process Clause rarely was a factor in this Court’s decisions during the next 160 years. More recently, however, the Court has articulated some of the specific rights secured by this part of the Sixth Amendment. Our cases establish, at a minimum, that criminal defendants have the right to the government’s assistance in compelling the attendance of favorable witnesses at trial and the right to put before a jury evidence that might influence the determination of guilt. This Court has never squarely held that the Compulsory Process Clause guarantees the right to discover the identity of witnesses, or to require the government to produce exculpatory evidence. But cf. United States v. Nixon, 418 U. S. 683, 709, 711 (1974) (suggesting that the Clause may require the production of evidence). Instead, the Court traditionally has evaluated claims such as those raised by Ritchie under the broader protections of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See United States v. Bagley, 473 U. S. 667 (1985); Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (1963). See also Wardius v. Oregon, 412 U. S. 470 (1973). Because the applicability of the Sixth Amendment to this type of case is unsettled, and because our Fourteenth Amendment precedents addressing the fundamental fairness of trials establish a clear framework for review, we adopt a due process analysis for purposes of this case. Although we conclude that compulsory process provides no greater protections in this area than those afforded by due process, we need not decide today whether and how the guarantees of the Compulsory Process Clause differ from those of the Fourteenth Amendment. It is enough to conclude that on these facts, Ritchie’s claims more properly are considered by reference to due process. 2 It is well settled that the government has the-obligation to turn over evidence in its possession that is both favorable to the accused and material to guilt or punishment. United States v. Agurs, 427 U. S. 97 (1976); Brady v. Maryland, supra, at 87. Although courts have used different terminologies to define “materiality,” a majority of this Court has agreed, “[ejvidence is material only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A ‘reasonable probability’ is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.” United States v. Bagley, 473 U. S., at 682 (opinion of Blackmun, J.); see id., at 685 (opinion of White, J.). At this stage, of course, it is impossible to say whether any information in the CYS records may be relevant to Ritchie’s claim of innocence, because neither the prosecution nor defense counsel has seen the information, and the trial judge acknowledged that he had not reviewed the full file. The Commonwealth, however, argues that no materiality inquiry is required, because a statute renders the contents of the file privileged. Requiring disclosure here, it is argued, would override the Commonwealth’s compelling interest in confidentiality on the mere speculation that the file “might” have been useful to the defense. Although we recognize that the public interest in protecting this type of sensitive information is strong, we do not agree that this interest necessarily prevents disclosure in all circumstances. This is not a case where a state statute grants CYS the absolute authority to shield its files from all eyes. Cf. 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. §5945.1(b) (1982) (unqualified statutory privilege for communications between sexual assault counselors and victims). Rather, the Pennsylvania law provides that the information shall be disclosed in certain circumstances, including when CYS is directed to do so by court order. Pa. Stat. Ann., Title 11, §2215(a)(5) (Purdon Supp. 1986). Given that the Pennsylvania Legislature contemplated some use of CYS records in judicial proceedings, we cannot conclude that the statute prevents all disclosure in criminal prosecutions. In the absence of any apparent state policy to the contrary, we therefore have no reason to believe that relevant information would not be disclosed when a court of competent jurisdiction determines that the information is “material” to the defense of the accused. We therefore affirm the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to the extent it orders a remand for further proceedings. Ritchie is entitled to have the CYS file reviewed by the trial court to determine whether it contains information that probably would have changed the outcome of his trial. If it does, he must be given a new trial. If the records maintained by CYS contain no such information, or if the nondisclosure was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, the lower court will be free to reinstate the prior conviction. c This ruling does not end our analysis, because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did more than simply remand. It also held that defense counsel must be allowed to examine all of the confidential information, both relevant and irrelevant, and present arguments in favor of disclosure. The court apparently concluded that whenever a defendant alleges that protected evidence might be material, the appropriate method of assessing this claim is to grant full access to the disputed information, regardless of the State’s interest in confidentiality. We cannot agree. A defendant’s right to discover exculpatory evidence does not include the unsupervised authority to search through the Commonwealth’s files. See United States v. Bagley, supra, at 675; United States v. Agurs, supra, at 111. Although the eye of an advocate may be helpful to a defendant in ferreting out information, Dennis v. United States, 384 U. S. 855, 875 (1966), this Court has never held — even in the absence of a statute restricting disclosure — that a defendant alone may make the determination as to the materiality of the information. Settled practice is to the contrary. In the typical case where a defendant makes only a general request for exculpatory material under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (1963), it is the State that decides which information must be disclosed. Unless defense counsel becomes aware that other exculpatory evidence was withheld and brings it to the court’s attention, the prosecutor’s decision on disclosure is final. Defense counsel has no constitutional right to conduct his own search of the State’s files to argue relevance. See Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U. S. 545, 559 (1977) (“There is no general constitutional right to discovery in a criminal case, and Brady did not create one”). We find that Ritchie’s interest (as well as that of the Commonwealth) in ensuring a fair trial can be protected fully by requiring that the CYS files be submitted only to the trial court for in camera review. Although this rule denies Ritchie the benefits of an “advocate’s eye,” we note that the trial court’s discretion is not unbounded. If a defendant is aware of specific information contained in the file (e. g., the medical report), he is free to request it directly from the court, and argue in favor of its materiality. Moreover, the duty to disclose is ongoing; information that may be deemed immaterial upon original examination may become important as the proceedings progress, and the court would be obligated to release information material to the fairness of the trial. To allow full disclosure to defense counsel in this type of case would sacrifice unnecessarily the Commonwealth’s compelling interest in protecting its child-abuse information. If the CYS records were made available to defendants, even through counsel, it could have a seriously adverse effect on Pennsylvania’s efforts to uncover and treat abuse. Child abuse is one of the most difficult crimes to detect and prosecute, in large part because there often are no witnesses except the victim. A child’s feelings of vulnerability and guilt and his or her unwillingness to come forward are particularly acute when the abuser is a parent. It therefore is essential that the child have a state-designated person to whom he may turn, and to do so with the assurance of confidentiality. Relatives and neighbors who suspect abuse also will be more willing to come forward if they know that their identities will be protected. Recognizing this, the Commonwealth — like all other States — has made a commendable effort to assure victims and witnesses that they may speak to the CYS counselors without fear of general disclosure. The Commonwealth’s purpose would be frustrated if this confidential material had to be disclosed upon demand to a defendant charged with criminal child abuse, simply because a trial court may not recognize exculpatory evidence. Neither precedent nor common sense requires such a result. > I — I We agree that Ritchie is entitled to know whether the CYS file contains information that may have changed the outcome of his trial had it been disclosed. Thus we agree that a remand is necessary. We disagree with the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to the extent that it allows defense counsel access to the CYS file. An in camera review by the trial court will serve Ritchie’s interest without destroying the Commonwealth’s need to protect the confidentiality of those involved in child-abuse investigations. The judgment of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is affirmed in part and reversed in part, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Although the 1978 investigation took place during the period that the daughter claimed she was being molested, it is undisputed that the daughter did not tell CYS about the assaults at that time. No criminal charges were filed as a result of this earlier investigation. The statute provides in part: “(a) Except as provided in section 14 [Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 11, §2214 (Purdon Supp. 1986)], reports made pursuant to this act including but not limited to report summaries of child abuse... and written reports... as well as any other information obtained, reports written or photographs or X-rays taken concerning alleged instances of child abuse in the possession of the department, a county children and youth social service agency or a child protective service shall be confidential and shall only be made available to: “(5) A court of competent jurisdiction pursuant to a court order.” Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 11, § 2215(a) (Purdon Supp. 1986). At the time of trial the statute only provided five exceptions to the general rule of confidentiality, including the exception for court-ordered disclosure. The statute was amended in 1982 to increase the number of exceptions. For example, the records now may be revealed to law enforcement officials for use in criminal investigations. § 2215(a)(9). But, the identity of a person who reported the abuse or who cooperated in the investigation may not be released if the disclosure would be detrimental to that person’s safety. § 2215(c). The trial judge stated that he did not read “50 pages or more of an extensive record.” App. 72a. The judge had no knowledge of the case before the pretrial hearing. See id,., at 68a. There is no suggestion that the Commonwealth’s prosecutor was given access to the file at any point in the proceedings, or that he was aware of its contents. The Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects both the right of confrontation and the right of compulsory process: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right... to be confronted with the witnesses against him; [and] to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor.” Both Clauses are made obligatory on the States by the Fourteenth Amendment. Pointer v. Texas, 380 U. S. 400, 403-406 (1965) (Confrontation Clause); Washington v. Texas, 388 U. S. 14, 17-19 (1967) (Compulsory Process Clause). The court noted that the trial court should take “appropriate steps” to guard against improper dissemination of the confidential material, including, for example, “fashioning of appropriate protective orders, or conducting certain proceedings in camera.” 509 Pa., at 368, n. 16, 502 A. 2d, at 153, n. 16. These steps were to be taken, however, subject to “the right of [Ritchie], through his counsel, to gain access to the information.” Ibid. As Justice Stevens’ dissent points out, post, at 74, there is a third possibility. If the trial court finds prejudicial error and orders a retrial, the Commonwealth may attempt to take an immediate appeal of this order. See Pa. Rule App. Proe. 311(a). Justice Stevens’ dissent suggests that because the Commonwealth can raise the Sixth Amendment issue again in this appeal, respect for the finality doctrine should lead us to dismiss. But even if we were persuaded that an immediate appeal would lie in this situation, it would not necessarily follow that the constitutional issue will survive. The appellate court could find that the failure to disclose was harmless, precluding further review by the Commonwealth. Alternatively, the appellate court could agree that the error was prejudicial, thus permitting the Commonwealth to claim that the Sixth Amendment does not compel disclosure. But as Justice Stevens’ dissent recognizes, the Pennsylvania courts already have considered and resolved this issue in their earlier proceedings; if the Commonwealth were to raise it again in a new set of appeals, the courts below would simply reject the claim under the law-of-the-case doctrine. Law-of-the-case principles are not a bar to this Court’s jurisdiction, of course, and thus Justice Stevens’ dissent apparently would require the Commonwealth to raise a fruitless Sixth Amendment claim in the trial court, the Superior Court, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court still another time before we regrant certiorari on the question that is now before us. The goals of finality would be frustrated, rather than furthered, by these wasteful and time-consuming procedures. Based on the unusual facts of this ease, the justifications for the finality doctrine — efficiency, judicial restraint, and federalism, see Radio Station WOW, Inc. v. Johnson, 326 U. S. 120, 124 (1945); post, at 72 — would be ill served by another round of litigation on an issue that has been authoritatively decided by the highest state court. Nothing in our decision in United States v. Ryan, 402 U. S. 530 (1971), requires a different result. In that case the respondent was served with a subpoena requiring him to produce business records for a grand jury. The District Court denied a motion to quash, and respondent appealed. We concluded that the District Court order was not appealable. Id., at 532. We rejected the contention that immediate review was necessary to avoid the harm of disclosing otherwise protected material, noting that parties who face such an order have the option of making the decision “final” simply by refusing to comply with the subpoena. Although there are similarities between this case and Ryan, the analogy is incomplete. In Ryan the Court was concerned about the “necessity for expedition in the administration of the criminal law,” id., at 533, an interest that would be undermined if all pretrial orders were immediately ap-pealable. Ryan also rests on an implicit assumption that unless a party resisting discovery is willing to risk being held in contempt, the significance of his claim is insufficient to justify interrupting the ongoing proceedings. That is not the situation before us. Here the trial already has taken place, and the issue reviewed by the Commonwealth appellate courts. The interests of judicial economy and the avoidance of delay, rather than being hindered, would be best served by resolving the issue. Cf. Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U. S., 469, 477-478 (1975) (exceptions to finality doctrine justified in part by need to avoid economic waste and judicial delay). We also reject Ritchie’s suggestion that we should dismiss this action and allow the ease to return to the trial court, so that the Commonwealth can formally refuse to comply with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision and be held in contempt. Here we are not faced merely with an individual’s assertion that a subpoena is unduly burdensome, but with a holding of a State Supreme Court that the legislative interest in confidentiality will not be given effect. The Commonwealth’s interest in immediate review of this case is obvious and substantial. Contrary to Justice Stevens’ dissent, we do not think that the finality doctrine requires a new round of litigation and appellate review simply to give the Commonwealth “the chance to decide whether to comply with the order.” Post, at 77. See n. 7, supra. To prolong the proceedings on this basis would be inconsistent with the “pragmatic” approach we normally have taken to finality questions. See generally Bradley v. Richmond School Bd., 416 U. S. 696, 722-723, n. 28 (1974) (“This Court has been inclined to follow a ‘pragmatic approach’ to the question of finality”) (citation omitted). This is not to suggest, of course, that there are no protections for pretrial discovery in criminal cases. See discussion in Part IH-B, infra. We simply hold that with respect to this issue, the Confrontation Clause only protects a defendant’s trial rights, and does not compel the pretrial production of information that might be useful in preparing for trial. Also, we hardly need say that nothing in our opinion today is intended to alter a trial judge’s traditional power to control the scope of cross-examination by prohibiting questions that are prejudicial, Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. Shortly after petitioner and respondent were married on February 5, 1943, respondent discovered that petitioner was the lawful wife of one Mann. At that time petitioner and respondent were living in Virginia and agreed that petitioner would go to Florida and obtain there a divorce from Mann, so that they could be remarried. That course was followed, respondent paying a part of the expenses of the trip to Florida and of the divorce action. Petitioner received a Florida decree and a few weeks later, December 18, 1943, again married respondent. Marital difficulties developed and petitioner secured in Hawaii a decree .of separation and maintenance. Thereafter respondent brought the present action in the Vermont courts to have the marriages declared null and void. Petitioner was served by publication and" appeared. There was a trial, after which the Windsor County Court granted a' judgment of annulment. It found that under Florida law it was necessary for petitioner to have had an intention to live and remain in Florida, which she did not have; that she testified falsely in the Florida proceedings respecting her domicile in Florida; and that she secured the Florida decree by deceiving the Florida court as to her domicile. The Windsor County Court annulled the marriage of February 5, 1943, and dismissed the petition as respects the second marriage. The Supreme Court of Vermont affirmed the judgment annulling the first marriage but reversed the dismissal as to the second marriage and held it also null and void. 116 Vt. 374, 76 A. 2d 593. The case is here on certiorari. 341 U. S. 914. On this record we do not know what happened in the Florida divorce proceedings except that the Florida court entered a divorce decree in favor of petitioner and against Mann. So far as we know, Mann was a party to the proceedings. So far as we know, the issue of domicile was contested, litigated and resolved in petitioner’s favor. If the defendant spouse appeared in the Florida proceedings and contested the issue of the wife’s domicile (Sherrer v. Sherrer, 334 U. S. 343) or appeared and admitted her Florida domicile (Coe v. Coe, 334 U. S. 378) or was personally served in the divorce state (Johnson v. Muelberger, 340 U. S. 581, 587), he would be barred from attacking the decree collaterally; and so would a stranger to the Florida proceedings, such as respondent,, unless Florida applies a less strict rule of res judicata to the second husband than it does to the first. See Johnson v. Muelberger, supra. On the other hand, if the defendant spouse had neither appeared nor been served in Florida, the Vermont court, under the ruling in Williams v. North Carolina, 325 U. S. 226, could reopen the issue of domicile. But the burden of undermining the decree of a sister state “rests heavily upon the assailant.” Williams v. North Carolina, supra, p. 234; Esenwein v. Commonwealth, 325 U. S. 279, 280-281. A judgment presumes jurisdiction over the subject matter and over the persons. See Titus v. Wallick, 306 U. S. 282, 287. As stated for the Court by Justice Stone in Adam v. Saenger, 303 U. S. 59, 62, “If it appears on its face to be a record of a'court of general jurisdiction, such jurisdiction over the cause and the parties is to be presumed unless disproved by extrinsic evidence, or by the record itself.” The Florida decree is entitled to that presumption. That presumption may of course be overcome by showing, for example, that Mann never was served in Florida nor made an appearance in the case either generally or specially to contest the jurisdictional issues. The Vermont Supreme Court recognized that there were no findings on those issues .in the present record. The Court in referring to the case of Williams v. North Carolina, 325 U. S. 226, said, “It was there held that the question of bona fide domicile was open to attack, notwithstanding the full faith and credit clause when the other spouse' neither had appeared nor been served with process in the state. The findings here do not show either of these criteria.” 116 Vt. 374, 378, 76 A. 2d 593, 595. Yet it is essential that the court know what transpired in Florida before this collateral attack on the Florida decree can be. resolved. For until Florida’s jurisdiction is shownsto be ^vulnerable, Vermont may not relitigate the issue of domicile on which the Florida decree rests. It was said on argument that the first husband appeared in the Florida proceeding. But the record does not contain the Florid^ decree nor any stipulation concerning it. , ■ We deal only with the presumption, not with, the issues on which the Vermont court made its findings. We also reserve the question, discussed on argument, whether re- _ spondent would now be in a position to attack the Florida. decree collaterally if it were found to be collusive and he participated in the fraud. The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded to the Supreme Court of Vermont for proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. Reversed. Mr. Justice Bt:$ton concurs in the result. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
K
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Whittaker delivered the opinion of the Court. This case is concerned with the timeliness of an appeal from a judgment of conviction and sentence in a criminal case under Rule 37 (a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. These three petitioners, having been jointly indicted, with two others, on five counts in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas for willfully attempting and conspiring to evade the federal income taxes of their corporate employer, entered, and the court accepted, pleas of nolo contendere on March 17, 1959. But the court decided that pronouncement of its judgment should await conclusion! of the impending jury trial of the other two defendants. Soon after the con-elusion of that rather protracted trial, the court, on June 19, 1959, orally pronounced its judgment convicting petitioners and sentencing them to imprisonment. Three days later, on June 22, formal judgment was prepared, signed by the judge and filed with the clerk. The next day, June 23, petitioners filed their separate “motion [s] in arrest of judgment.” Those motions were denied on July 13. Two days later, on July 15, petitioners filed their separate notices of appeal from the judgment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. On the Government’s motion, that court dismissed the appeals as untimely under Rule 37 (a)(2). 280 F. 2d 24. It held, in effect, that, although there is no such express limitation in the Rules, the provisions of Rule 34 impliedly modify and limit the provisions of Rule 37 (a)(2). And it concluded that, although “motion [s] ... in arrest of judgment” had, in fact, “been made within the 10-day period” after entry of the judgment appealed from (Rule 37 (a)(2)), it cannot be so regarded under these Rules because the tender by petitioners and acceptance by the court of the pleas of nolo contendere on March 17 constituted the “determination of [their] guilt,” and, inasmuch as the motions in arrest were not made “within 5 days after [that] determination of guilt” as required by Rule 34, it followed that, to be timely under Rule 37 (a) (2), the appeals had to “be taken within 10 days after entry of the judgment or order appealed from” (Rule 37 (a)(2)), or by June 30 or July 2 — depending upon whether it was the oral pronouncement of June 19 or the formal entry of June 22 that constituted the judgment — and not “within 10 days after entry of the order denying the motion.” (Rule 37 (a)(2).) 280 F. 2d, at 27-28. Because of a conflict between the circuits upon the question presented and. of its importance to the proper administration of the criminal Rules, we granted certiorari. 364 U. S. 813. Buttressed by Lujan v. United States, 204 F. 2d 171 (C. A. 10th Cir.), and Smith v. United States, 273 F. 2d 462 (C. A. 10th Cir.), holding, on similar facts, that Rule 37 (a) (2) alone and unaffected by any other Rule prescribes the time within which an appeal must be taken to a Court of Appeals in a criminal case, and further buttressed by their belief that this Court, too, so held, even if sub silentio, in exercising jurisdiction, under facts virtually identical to those here, in Sullivan v. United States, 348 U. S. 170, petitioners point to the facts that Rule 37 (a)(2) is captioned “Time for Taking Appeal”; that it is the only Rule that purports to deal with the subject; that it does not speak of motions filed within five days, nor after “verdict or finding of guilty” (Rule 33), nor after “determination of guilt” (Rule 34)— whatever that term may mean — and makes no reference to timeliness, under any other Rule, of the motions of which it speaks, but that it simply says in plain and unmistakable language that “An appeal by a defendant may be taken within 10 days after entry of the judgment or order appealed from, but if a motion ... in arrest of judgment has been made within the 10-day period an appeal from a judgment of conviction may be taken within 10 days after entry of the order denying the motion.” Then, after pointing to the admitted fact that their motions in arrest were “made within the 10-day period” — actually within three days — after entry of the judgment appealed from, and that they appealed on the second day after their motions were denied, petitioners strenuously insist that their appeals were timely. They contend that to hold their appeals to have been untimely, in these circumstances, would be to mutilate the plain language of Rule 37 (a) (2) and to make of it a trap even for the wary — including their experienced and competent counsel who were doing their best to protect petitioners’ rights of appeal. And they insist that such a snare should not be permitted to deprive one of the valuable right of an appeal upon which his liberty, or even his life, may well depend. Though we are impressed by this demonstration and argument, as also by the legalisms of the Government’s countervailing argument, and although recognizing, as we do, the obscurity, if not inconsistency, in these Rules that has been exposed by this case, we need not here decide whether Rules 33 and 34 modify Rule 37 (a)(2) so as to limit the time which it specifies for the taking of an appeal — but may and should leave that problem and its kindred ones, brought to the fore in this case, for resolution by the rule-making process, United States v. Robin son, 361 U. S. 220 — for we have concluded that it was the judgment of conviction and sentence, not the tender and acceptance of the pleas of nolo contendere, that constituted the “determination of guilt” within the meaning of Rule 34. And, inasmuch as the motions in arrest were “made within 5 days after [that] determination of guilt,” as required by Rule 34, and thus, in any view, were also “made within the 10-day period” after entry of the judgment appealed from, as required by Rule 37 (a)(2), the appeal, taken “within 10 days after entry of the order denying the motion,” was timely. Although it is said that a plea of nolo contendere means literally “I do not contest it,” Piassick v. United States, 253 E. 2d 658, 661, and “is a mere statement of unwillingness to contest and no more,” Mickler v. Fahs, 243 F. 2d 515, 517, it does admit “every essential element of the offense [that is] well pleaded in the charge.” United States v. Lair, 195 F. 47, 52 (C. A. 8th Cir.). Cf. United States v. Frankfort Distilleries, 324 U. S. 293, 296. Hence, it is tantamount to “an admission of guilt for the purposes of the case,” Hudson v. United States, 272 U. S. 451, 455, and “nothing is left but to render judgment, for the obvious reason that in the face of the plea no issue of fact exists, and none can be made while the plea remains of record,” United States v. Norris, 281 U. S. 619, 623. Yet the plea itself does not constitute a conviction nor hence a “determination of guilt.” It is only a confession of the well-pleaded facts in the charge. It does not dispose of the case. It is still up to the court “to render judgment” thereon. United States v. Norris, supra, at 623. At any time before sentence is imposed — i. e., before the pronouncement of judgment — the plea may be withdrawn, with the consent of the court. Rule 32 (d), Fed. Rules Crim. Proc. Necessarily, then, it is the judgment of the court — not the plea — that constitutes the “determination of guilt.” Apart from the opinion below, we have not been cited to any case, and have found none, that holds or even intimates the contrary. In view of this disposition of the jurisdictional question, we need not decide petitioners’ alternative contentions that their motions in arrest should be treated as motions under Rule 12 (b) (2) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (see Finn v. United States, 256 F. 2d 304, 306 (C. A. 4th Cir.); Hotch v. United States, 208 F. 2d 244, 250 (C. A. 9th Cir.); United States v. Holmes, 110 F. Supp. 233, 234 (D. C. S. D. Tex.)), or as motions to vacate sentences under 28 U. S. C. § 2255 (see Marteney v. United States, 216 F. 2d 760 (C. A. 10th Cir.); Finn v. United States, supra). The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded to the Court of Appeals for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. Reversed and remanded. “Rulb 37. Taking Appeal; and Petition for Writ of Certiorari. “(a) Taking Appeal to a Court of Appeals. “(2) Time for Taking Appeal. An appeal by a defendant may be taken within 10 days after entry of the judgment or order appealed from, but if a motion for a new trial or in arrest of judgment has been made within the 10-day period an appeal from a judgment of conviction may be taken within 10 days after entry of the order denying the motion. . . .” The corporate employer and taxpayer was Farnsworth & Chambers Co., Inc. Petitioners were employee-officers of that corporation, and collectively owned approximately 7 percent of its issued and outstanding capital stock. The first four counts of the indictment charged willful attempt to evade the corporation’s income taxes for the years 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1954, respectively, and the fifth count charged a conspiracy to commit the four substantive offenses charged. The two codefendants who stood trial were Richard A. Farns-worth, Sr., and his son. They owned a major part of the corporation’s capital stock. Their trial, which began on April 6, 1959, and continued through June 9, resulted in a verdict of acquittal of the son on all counts, and a failure of the jury to agree on any of the counts as to the father. Petitioners were sentenced to imprisonment — Blocker for three years, Lott and Frazier for two years, on each count, the sentences to run concurrently, and each was fined $20,000. Each of the motions in arrest prayed, inter alia, “that the judgment and sentence ... be arrested and set aside, that the indictment ... be dismissed, and that [there] be granted such other relief as justice may demand.” Actually, only Lott appealed on July 15. Blocker and Frazier appealed two days later, on July 17. “Rule 34- Arrest of Judgment. “The court shall arrest judgment if the indictment or information does not charge an offense or if the court was without jurisdiction of the offense charged. The motion in arrest of judgment shall be made within 5 days after determination of guilt or within such further time as the court may fix during the 5-day period.” In accord with the decision below is United States v. Bertone, 249 F. 2d 156 (C. A. 3d Cir.). And see O’Neal v. United States, 264 F. 2d 809 (C. A. 5th Cir.); Drown v. United States, 198 F. 2d 999 (C. A. 9th Cir.); Godwin v. United States, 185 F. 2d 411 (C. A. 8th Cir.). To the contrary are Lujan v. United States, 204 F. 2d 171 (C. A. 10th Cir.); Smith v. United States, 273 F. 2d 462 (C. A. 10th Cir.); and see Sullivan v. United States, 212 F. 2d 125 (C. A. 10th Cir.), affirmed, 348 U. S. 170. In light of the confusion that has arisen under these Rules, as exposed by this case, it is hoped that those who advise the Court with respect to the exercise of its rule-making powers — more particularly of course the Judicial Conference of the United States (28 U. S. C. §331) and the Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure — will give these problems their early attention. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Breyer announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which Justice O’Connor and Justice Souter join. In April 1986, before the Colorado Republican Party had selected its senatorial candidate for the fall’s election, that party’s Federal Campaign Committee bought radio advertisements attacking Timothy Wirth, the Democratic Party’s likely candidate. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) charged that this “expenditure” exceeded the dollar limits that a provision of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA or Act) imposes upon political party “expenditure[s] in connection with” a “general election campaign” for congressional office. 90 Stat. 486, as amended, 2 U. S. C. § 441a(d)(3). This case focuses upon the constitutionality of those limits as applied to this case. We conclude that the First Amendment prohibits the application of this provision to the kind of expenditure at issue here — an expenditure that the political party has made independently, without coordination with any candidate. I To understand the issues and our holding, one must begin with FECA as it emerged from Congress in 1974. That Act sought both to remedy the appearance of a “corrupt” political process (one in which large contributions seem to buy legislative votes) and to level the electoral playing field by reducing campaign costs. See Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1, 25-27 (1976) (per curiam). It consequently imposed limits upon the amounts that individuals, corporations, “political committees” (such as political action committees, or PAC’s), and political parties could contribute to candidates for federal office, and it also imposed limits upon the amounts that candidates, corporations, labor unions, political committees, and political parties could spend, even on their own, to help a candidate win election. See 18 U. S. C. §§608, 610 (1970 ed., Supp. IY). This Court subsequently examined several of the Act’s provisions in light of the First Amendment’s free speech and association protections. See Federal Election Comm’n v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Inc., 479 U. S. 238 (1986); Federal Election Comm’n v. National Conservative Political Action Comm., 470 U. S. 480 (1985) (NCPAC); California Medical Assn. v. Federal Election Comm’n, 453 U. S. 182 (1981); Buckley, supra. In these cases, the Court essentially weighed the First Amendment interest in permitting candidates (and their supporters) to spend money to advance their political views against a “compelling” governmental interest in assuring the electoral system’s legitimacy, protecting it from the appearance and reality of corruption. See Massachusetts Citizens for Life, supra, at 256-263; NCPAC, supra, at 493-501; California Medical Assn., supra, at 193-199; Buckley, 424 U. S., at 14-23. After doing so, the Court found that the First Amendment prohibited some of FECA’s provisions, but permitted others. Most of the provisions this Court found unconstitutional imposed expenditure limits. Those provisions limited candidates’ rights to spend their own money, id., at 51-54, limited a candidate’s campaign expenditures, id., at 54-58, limited the right of individuals to make “independent” expenditures (not coordinated with the candidate or candidate’s campaign), id., at 39-51, and similarly limited the right of political committees to make “independent” expenditures, NCPAC, supra, at 497. The provisions that the Court found constitutional mostly imposed contribution limits — limits that apply both when an individual or political committee contributes money directly to a candidate and also when they indirectly contribute by making expenditures that they coordinate with the candidate, § 441a(a)(7)(B)(i). See Buckley, supra, at 23-36. See also 424 U. S., at 46-48; California Medical Assn., supra, at 193-199 (limits on contributions to political committees). Consequently, for present purposes, the Act now prohibits individuals and political committees from making direct, or indirect, contributions that exceed the following limits: (a) For any “person”: $1,000 to a candidate “with respect to any election”; $5,000 to any political committee in any year; $20,000 to the national committees of a political party in any year; but all within an overall limit (for any individual in any year) of $25,000. 2 U. S. C. §§441a(a)(1), (3). (b) For any “multicandidate political committee”: $5,000 to a candidate “with respect to any election”; $5,000 to any political committee in any year; and $15,000 to the national committees of a political party in any year. § 441a(a)(2). FECA also has a special provision, directly at issue in this case, that governs contributions and expenditures by political parties. §441a(d). This special provision creates, in part, an exception to the above contribution limits. That is, without special treatment, political parties ordinarily would be subject to the general limitation on contributions by a “multicandidate political committee” just described. See §441a(a)(4). That provision, as we said in subsection (b) above, limits annual contributions by a “multicandi-date political committee” to no more than $5,000 to any candidate. And as also mentioned above, this contribution limit governs not only direct contributions but also indirect contributions that take the form of coordinated expenditures, defined as “expenditures made... in cooperation, consultation, or concert, with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate, his authorized political committees, or their agents.” § 441a(a)(7)(B)(i). Thus, ordinarily, a party’s coordinated expenditures would be subject to the $5,000 limitation. However, FECA’s special provision, which we shall call the “Party Expenditure Provision,” creates a general exception from this contribution limitation, and from any other limitation on expenditures. It says: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law with respect to limitations on expenditures or limitations on contributions,... political party [committees]... may make expenditures in connection with the general election campaign of candidates for Federal office....” §441a(d)(1) (emphasis added). After exempting political parties from the general contribution and expenditure limitations of the statute, the Party Expenditure Provision then imposes a substitute limitation upon party “expenditures” in a senatorial campaign equal to the greater of $20,000 or “2 cents multiplied by the voting age population of the State,” § 441a(d)(3)(A)(i), adjusted for inflation since 1974, § 441a(c). The provision permitted a political party in Colorado in 1986 to spend about $103,000 in connection with the general election campaign of a candidate for the United States Senate. See FEC Record, vol. 12, no. 4, p. 1 (Apr. 1986). (A different provision, not at issue in this case, § 441a(d)(2), limits party expenditures in connection with Presidential campaigns. Since this case involves only the provision concerning congressional races, we do not address issues that might grow out of the public funding of Presidential campaigns.) In January 1986, Timothy Wirth, then a Democratic Congressman, announced that he would rim for an open Senate seat in November. In April, before either the Democratic primary or the Republican convention, the Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee (Colorado Party or Party), a petitioner here, bought radio advertisements attacking Congressman Wirth. The State Democratic Party complained to the FEC. It pointed out that the Colorado Party had previously assigned its $103,000 general election allotment to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, leaving it without any permissible spending balance. See Federal Election Comm’n v. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Comm., 454 U. S. 27 (1981) (state party may appoint national senatorial campaign committee as agent to spend its Party Expenditure Provision allotment). It argued that the purchase of radio time was an “expenditure in connection with the general election campaign of a candidate for Federal office,” §441a(d)(3), which, consequently, exceeded the Party Expenditure Provision limits. The FEC agreed with the Democratic Party. It brought a complaint against the Colorado Party, charging a violation. The Colorado Party defended in part by claiming that the Party Expenditure Provision’s expenditure limitations violated the First Amendment — a charge that it repeated in a counterclaim that said the Colorado Party intended to make other “expenditures directly in connection with” senatorial elections, App. 68, ¶48, and attacked the constitutionality of the entire Party Expenditure Provision. The Federal District Court interpreted the provision’s words “‘in connection with’ the general election campaign of a candidate” narrowly, as meaning only expenditures for advertís-ing using “ ‘express words of advocacy of election or defeat.’ ” 839 F. Supp. 1448, 1455 (Colo. 1993) (quoting Buckley, 424 U. S., at 46, n. 52). See also Massachusetts Citizens for Life, 479 U. S., at 249. As so interpreted, the court held, the provision did not cover the expenditures here. The court entered summary judgment for the Colorado Party and dismissed its counterclaim as moot. Both sides appealed. The Government, for the FEC, argued for a somewhat broader interpretation of the statute— applying the limits to advertisements containing an “electioneering message” about a “clearly identified candidate,” FEC Advisory Op. 1985-14, 2 CCH Fed. Election Camp. Fin. Guide ¶ 5819, p. 11, 185 (May 30, 1985) — which, it said, both covered the expenditure and satisfied the Constitution. The Court of Appeals agreed. It found the Party Expenditure Provision applicable, held it constitutional, and ordered judgment in the FEC’s favor. 59 F. 3d 1015, 1023-1024 (CA10 1995). We granted certiorari primarily to consider the Colorado Party’s argument that the Party Expenditure Provision violates the First Amendment “either facially or as applied.” Pet. for Cert. i. For reasons we shall discuss in Part IV, infra, we consider only the latter question — whether the Party Expenditure Provision as applied here violates the First Amendment. We conclude that it does. II The summary judgment record indicates that the expenditure in question is what this Court in Buckley called an “independent” expenditure, not a “coordinated” expenditure that other provisions of FECA treat as a kind of campaign “contribution.” See Buckley, supra, at 36-37, 46-47, 78; NCPAC, 470 U. S., at 498. The record describes how the expenditure was made. In a deposition, the Colorado Party’s Chairman, Howard Callaway, pointed out that, at the time of the expenditure, the Party had not yet selected a senatorial nominee from among the three individuals vying for the nomination. App. 195-196. He added that he arranged for the development of the script at his own initiative, id., at 200, that he, and no one else, approved it, id., at 199, that the only other politically relevant individuals who might have read it were the Party’s executive director and political director, ibid., and that all relevant discussions took place at meetings attended only by Party staff, id., at 204. Notwithstanding the above testimony, the Government argued in District Court — and reiterates in passing in its brief to this Court, Brief for Respondent 27, n. 20 — that the deposition showed that the Party had coordinated the advertisement with its candidates. It pointed to Callaway’s statement that it was the practice of the Party to “coordinate] with the candidate” “campaign strategy,” App. 195, and for Callaway to be “as involved as [he] could be” with the individuals seeking the Republican nomination, ibid., by making available to them “all of the assets of the party,” id., at 195-196. These latter statements, however, are general descriptions of Party practice. They do not refer to the advertising campaign at issue here or to its preparation. Nor do they conflict with, or cast significant doubt upon, the uncontro-verted direct evidence that this advertising campaign was developed by the Colorado Party independently and not pursuant to any general or particular understanding with a candidate. We can find no “genuine” issue of fact in this respect. Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 56(e); Matsushita Elec. Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U. S. 574, 586-587 (1986). And we therefore treat the expenditure, for constitutional purposes, as an “independent” expenditure, not an indirect campaign contribution. So treated, the expenditure falls within the scope of the Court’s precedents that extend First Amendment protection to independent expenditures. Beginning with Buckley, the Court’s cases have found a “fundamental constitutional difference between money spent to advertise one’s views independently of the candidate’s campaign and money contributed to the candidate to be spent on his campaign.” NCPAC, supra, at 497. This difference has been grounded in the observation that restrictions on contributions impose “only a marginal restriction upon the contributor’s ability to engage in free communication,” Buckley, supra, at 20-21, because the symbolic communicative value of a contribution bears little relation to its size, 424 U. S., at 21, and because such limits leave “persons free to engage in independent political expression, to associate actively through volunteering their services, and to assist to a limited but nonetheless substantial extent in supporting candidates and committees with financial resources,” id,., at 28. At the same time, reasonable contribution limits directly and materially advance the Government’s interest in preventing exchanges of large financial contributions for political favors. Id., at 26-27. In contrast, the Court has said that restrictions on independent expenditures significantly impair the ability of individuals and groups to engage in direct political advocacy and “represent substantial... restraints on the quantity and diversity of political speech.” Id., at 19. And at the same time, the Court has concluded that limitations on independent expenditures are less directly related to preventing corruption, since “[t]he absence of prearrangement and coordination of an expenditure with the candidate... not only undermines the value of the expenditure to the candidate, but also alleviates the danger that expenditures will be given as a quid pro quo for improper commitments from the candidate.” Id., at 47. Given these established principles, we do not see how a provision that limits a political party’s independent expenditures can escape their controlling effect. A political party’s independent expression not only reflects its members’ views about the philosophical and governmental matters that bind them together, it also seeks to convince others to join those members in a practical democratic task, the task of creating a government that voters can instruct and hold responsible for subsequent success or failure. The independent expression of a political party’s views is “core” First Amendment activity no less than is the independent expression of individuals, candidates, or other political committees. See, e. g., Eu v. San Francisco County Democratic Central Comm., 489 U. S. 214 (1989). We are not aware of any special dangers of corruption associated with political parties that tip the constitutional balance in a different direction. When this Court considered, and held unconstitutional, limits that FECA had set on certain independent expenditures by PAC’s, it reiterated Buckley’s observation that “the absence of prearrangement and coordination” does not eliminate, but it does help to “alleviate,” any “danger” that a candidate will understand the expenditure as an effort to obtain a “quid pro quo.” See NCPAC, 470 U. S., at 498. The same is true of independent party expenditures. We recognize that FECA permits individuals to contribute more money ($20,000) to a party than to a candidate ($1,000) or to other political committees ($5,000). 2 U. S. C. § 441a(a). We also recognize that FECA permits unregulated “soft money” contributions to a party for certain activities, such as electing candidates for state office, see § 431(8)(A)(i), or for voter registration and “get out the vote” drives, see § 431(8)(B)(xii). But the opportunity for corruption posed by these greater opportunities for contributions is, at best, attenuated. Unregulated “soft money” contributions may not be used to influence a federal campaign, except when used in the limited, party-building activities specifically designated in the statute. See §431(8)(B). Any contribution to a party that is earmarked for a particular campaign is considered a contribution to the candidate and is subject to the contribution limitations. §441a(a)(8). A party may not simply channel unlimited amounts of even undesignated contributions to a candidate, since such direct transfers are also considered contributions and are subject to the contribution limits on a “multicandidate political committee.” §441a(a)(2). The greatest danger of corruption, therefore, appears to be from the ability of donors to give sums up to $20,000 to a party which may be used for independent party expenditures for the benefit of a particular candidate. We could understand how Congress, were it to conclude that the potential for evasion of the individual contribution limits was a serious matter, might decide to change the statute’s limitations on contributions to political parties. Cf. California Medical Assn., 453 U. S., at 197-199 (plurality opinion) (danger of evasion of limits on contribution to candidates justified prophylactic limitation on contributions to PAC’s). But we do not believe that the risk of corruption present here could justify the “markedly greater burden on basic freedoms caused by” the statute’s limitations on expenditures. Buckley, 424 U. S., at 44. See also id., at 46-47, 51; NCPAC, supra, at 498. Contributors seeking to avoid the effect of the $1,000 contribution limit indirectly by donations to the national party could spend that same amount of money (or more) themselves more directly by making their own independent expenditures promoting the candidate. See Buckley, supra, at 44-48 (risk of corruption by individuals’ independent expenditures is insufficient to justify limits on such spending). If anything, an independent expenditure made possible by a $20,000 donation, but controlled and directed by a party rather than the donor, would seem less likely to corrupt than the same (or a much larger) independent expenditure made directly by that donor. In any case, the constitutionally significant fact, present equally in both instances, is the lack of coordination between the candidate and the source of the expenditure. See Buckley, supra, at 45-46; NCPAC, supra, at 498. This fact prevents us from assuming, absent convincing evidence to the contrary, that a limitation on political parties’ independent expenditures is necessary to combat a substantial danger of corruption of the electoral system. The Government does not point to record evidence or legislative findings suggesting any special corruption problem in respect to independent party expenditures. See Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC, 512 U. S. 622, 664 (1994) (“When the Government defends a regulation on speech as a means to... prevent anticipated harms, it must do more than simply posit the existence of the disease sought to be cured” (citation and internal quotation marks omitted)); NCPAC, supra, at 498. To the contrary, this Court’s opinions suggest that Congress wrote the Party Expenditure Provision not so much because of a special concern about the potentially “corrupting” effect of party expenditures, but rather for the constitutionally insufficient purpose of reducing what it saw as wasteful and excessive campaign spending. See Buckley, supra, at 57. In fact, rather than indicating a special fear of the corruptive influence of political parties, the legislative history demonstrates Congress’ general desire to enhance what was seen as an important and legitimate role for political parties in American elections. See Federal Election Comm’n v. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Comm., 454 U. S., at 41 (Party Expenditure Provision was intended to “assur[e] that political parties will continue to have an important role in federal elections”); S. Rep. No. 93-689, p. 7 (1974) (“[A] vigorous party system is vital to American politics.... [P]ooling resources from many small contributors is a legitimate function and an integral part of party politics”); id., at 7-8, 15. We therefore believe that this Court’s prior case law controls the outcome here. We do not see how a Constitution that grants to individuals, candidates, and ordinary political committees the right to make unlimited independent expenditures could deny the same right to political parties. Having concluded this, we need not consider the Party’s further claim that the statute’s “in connection with” language, and the FEC’s interpretation of that language, are unconstitutionally vague. Cf. Buckley, supra, at 40-44. III The Government does not deny the force of the precedent we have discussed. Rather, it argued below, and the lower courts accepted, that the expenditure in this case should be treated under those precedents, not as an “independent expenditure,” but rather as a “coordinated expenditure,” which those cases have treated as “contributions,” and which those cases have held Congress may constitutionally regulate. See, e. g., Buckley, supra, at 23-38. While the District Court found that the expenditure in this case was “coordinated,” 839 F. Supp., at 1453, it did not do so based on any factual finding that the Party had consulted with any candidate in the making or planning of the advertising campaign in question. Instead, the District Court accepted the Government’s argument that all party expenditures should be treated as if they had been coordinated as a matter of law, “[b]ased on Supreme Court precedent and the Commission’s interpretation of the statute,” ibid. The Court of Appeals agreed with this legal conclusion. 59 F. 3d, at 1024. Thus, the lower courts’ “finding” of coordination does not conflict with our conclusion, supra, at 613-614, that the summary judgment record shows no actual coordination as a matter of fact. The question, instead, is whether the Court of Appeals erred as a legal matter in accepting the Government’s conclusive presumption that all party expenditures are “coordinated.” We believe it did. In support of its argument, the Government points to a set of legal materials, based on FEC interpretations, that seem to say or imply that all party expenditures are “coordinated.” These include: (1) an FEC regulation that forbids political parties to make any “independent expenditures... in connection with” a “general election campaign,” 11 CFR § 110.7(b)(4) (1995); (2) FEC Advisory Opinions that use the word “coordinated” to describe the Party Expenditure Provision’s limitations, see, e. g., FEC Advisory Op. 1984-15, 1 CCH Fed. Election Camp. Fin. Guide ¶ 5766, p. 11,069 (May 31, 1984) (AO 1984-15); FEC Advisory Op. 1988-22, 2 CCH Fed. Election Camp. Fin. Guide ¶5932, p. 11,471, n. 4 (July 5, 1988) (AO 1988-22); (3) one FEC Advisory Opinion that says explicitly in a footnote that “coordination with candidates is presumed and ‘independence’ precluded,” ibid.; and (4) a statement by this Court that “[p]arty committees are considered incapable of making ‘independent’ expenditures,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Comm., supra, at 28-29, n. 1. The Government argues, on the basis of these materials, that the FEC has made an “empirical judgment that party officials will as a matter of course consult with the party’s candidates before funding communications intended to influence the outcome of a federal election.” Brief for Respondent 27. The FEC materials, however, do not make this empirical judgment. For the most part those materials use the word “coordinated” as a description that does not necessarily deny the possibility that a party could also make independent expenditures. See, e. g., AO 1984-15, ¶ 5766, at 11,069. We concede that one Advisory Opinion says, in a footnote, that “coordination with candidates is presumed.” AO 1988-22, ¶ 5932, at 11,471, n. 4. But this statement, like the others, appears without any internal or external evidence that the FEC means it to embody an empirical judgment (say, that parties, in fact, hardly ever spend money independently) or to represent the outcome of an empirical investigation. Indeed, the statute does not require any such investigation, for it applies both to coordinated and to independent expenditures alike. See §441a(d)(3) (a “political party... may not make any expenditure” in excess of the limits (emphasis added)). In any event, language in other FEC Advisory Opinions suggests the opposite, namely, that sometimes, in fact, parties do make independent expendí-tures. See, e. g., AO 1984-15, ¶ 5766, at 11,069 (“Although consultation or coordination with the candidate is permissible, it is not required”). In these circumstances, we cannot take the cited materials as an empirical, or experience-based, determination that, as a factual matter, all party expenditures are coordinated with a candidate. That being so, we need not hold, on the basis of these materials, that the expenditures here were “coordinated.” The Government does not advance any other legal reason that would require us to accept the FEC’s characterization. The FEC has not claimed, for example, that, administratively speaking, it is more difficult to separate a political party’s “independent,” from its “coordinated,” expenditures than, say, those of a PAC. Cf. 11 CFR § 109.1 (1995) (distinguishing between independent and coordinated expenditures by other political groups). Nor can the FEC draw significant legal support from the footnote in Democratic Senatorial Campaign Comm., 454 U. S., at 28-29, n. 1, given that this statement was dicta that purported to describe the regulatory regime as the FEC had described it in a brief. Nor does the fact that the Party Expenditure Provision fails to distinguish between coordinated and independent expenditures indicate a congressional judgment that such a distinction is impossible or untenable in the context of political party spending. Instead, the use of the unmodified term “expenditure” is explained by Congress’ desire to limit all party expenditures when it passed the 1974 amendments, just as it had limited all expenditures by individuals, corporations, and other political groups. See 18 U. S. C. §§ 608(e), 610 (1970 ed., Supp. IV); Buckley, 424 U. S., at 39. Finally, we recognize that the FEC may have characterized the expenditures as “coordinated” in light of this Court’s constitutional decisions prohibiting regulation of most independent expenditures. But, if so, the characterization cannot help the Government prove its case. An agency’s simply calling an independent expenditure a “coordinated expendí-ture” cannot (for constitutional purposes) make it one. See, e. g., NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415, 429 (1963) (the government “cannot foreclose the exercise of constitutional rights by mere labels”); Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U. S. 229, 235-238 (1963) (State may not avoid First Amendment’s strictures by applying the label “breach of the peace” to peaceful demonstrations). The Government also argues that the Colorado Party has conceded that the expenditures are “coordinated.” But there is no such concession in respect to the underlying facts. To the contrary, the Party’s “Questions Presented” in its petition for certiorari describes the expenditure as one “the party has not coordinated with its candidate.” See Pet. for Cert. i. In the lower courts the Party did accept the FEC’s terminology, but it did so in the context of legal arguments that did not focus upon the constitutional distinction that we now consider. See Reply Brief for Petitioners 9-10, n. 8 (denying that the FEC’s labels can control constitutional analysis). The Government has not referred us to any place where the Party conceded away or abandoned its legal claim that Congress may not limit the uncoordinated expenditure at issue here. And, in any event, we are not bound to decide a matter of constitutional law based on a concession by the particular party before the Court as to the proper legal characterization of the facts. Cf. United States Nat. Bank of Ore. v. Independent Ins. Agents of America, Inc., 508 U. S. 439, 447 (1993); Massachusetts v. United States, 333 U. S. 611, 623-628 (1948); Young v. United States, 315 U. S. 257, 259 (1942) (recognizing that “our judgments are precedents” and that the proper understanding of matters of law “cannot be left merely to the stipulation of parties”). Finally, the Government and supporting amici argue that the expenditure is “coordinated” because a party and its candidate are identical, i. e., the party, in a sense, “is” its candidates. We cannot assume, however, that this is so. See, e. g., W. Keefe, Parties, Politics, and Public Policy in America 59-74 (5th ed. 1988) (describing parties as “coalitions” of differing interests). Congress chose to treat candidates and their parties quite differently under the Act, for example, by regulating contributions from one to the other. See §441a(a)(2)(B). See also 11 CFR §§110.2, 110.3(b) (1995). And we are not certain whether a metaphysical identity would help the Government, for in that case one might argue that the absolute identity of views and interests eliminates any potential for corruption, as would seem to be the case in the relationship between candidates and their campaign committees. Cf. Buckley, supra, at 54-59 (Congress may not limit expenditures by candidate/campaign committee); First Nat. Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U. S. 765, 790 (1978) (where there is no risk of “corruption” of a candidate, the Government may not limit even contributions). IV The Colorado Party and supporting amici have argued a broader question than we have decided, for they have claimed that, in the special case of political parties, the First Amendment forbids congressional efforts to limit coordinated expenditures as well as independent expenditures. Because the expenditure before us is an independent expenditure we have not reached this broader question in deciding the Party’s “as applied” challenge. We recognize that the Party filed a counterclaim in which it sought to raise a facial challenge to the Party Expenditure Provision as a whole. But that counterclaim did not focus specifically upon coordinated expenditures. See App. 68-69. Nor did its summary judgment affidavits specifically allege that the Party intended to make coordinated expenditures exceeding the statute’s limits. See id., at 159, ¶ 4. While this lack of focus does not deprive this Court of jurisdiction to consider a facial challenge to the Party Expenditure Provision as overbroad or as unconstitutional in all applications, it does provide a prudential reason for this Court not to decide the broader question, especially since it may not be necessary to resolve the entire current dispute. If, in fact, the Party wants to make only independent expenditures like those before us, its counterclaim is mooted by our resolution of its “as applied” challenge. Cf. Renne v. Geary, 501 U. S. 312, 323-324 (1991) (facial challenge should generally not be entertained when an “as-applied” challenge could resolve the case); Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc., 472 U. S. 491, 503-504 (1985). More importantly, the opinions of the lower courts, and the parties’ briefs in this case, did not squarely isolate, and address, party expenditures that in fact are coordinated, nor did they examine, in that context, relevant similarities or differences with similar expenditures made by individuals or other political groups. Indeed, to our knowledge, this is the first case in the 20-year history of the Party Expenditure Provision to suggest that in-fact coordinated expenditures by political parties are protected from congressional regulation by the First Amendment, even though this Court’s prior cases have permitted regulation of similarly coordinated expenditures by individuals and other political groups. See Buckley, 424 U. S., at 46-47. This issue is complex. As Justice Kennedy points out, post, at 629-630, party coordinated expenditures do share some of the constitutionally relevant features of independent expenditures. But many such expenditures are also virtually indistinguishable from simple contributions (compare, for example, a donation of money with direct payment of a candidate’s media bills, see Buckley, supra, at 46). Moreover, political parties also share relevant features with many PAC’s, both having an interest in, and devoting resources to, the goal of electing candidates who will “work to further” a particular “political agenda,” which activity would benefit from coordination with those candidates. Post, at 630. See, e. g., NCPAC, 470 U. S., at 490 (describing the purpose and activities of the National Conservative PAC); id., at 492 (coordinated expenditures by PAC’s are subject to FECA contribution limitations). Thus, a holding on in-fact coordinated party expenditures necessarily implicates a broader range of issues than may first appear, including the constitutionality of party contribution limits. But the focus of this litigation, and of the lower court opinions, has not been on such issues, but rather on whether the Government may conclusively deem independent party expenditures to be coordinated. This lack of focus may reflect, in part, the litigation strategy of the parties. The Government has denied that any distinction can be made between a party’s independent and its coordinated expenditures. The Colorado Party, for its part, did not challenge a different provision of the statute — a provision that imposes a $5,000 limit on any contribution by a “multicandidate political committee” (including a coordinated expenditure) and which would apply to party coordinated expenditures if the entire Party Expenditure Provision were struck from the statute as unconstitutional. See §§441a(a)(2), (4), (7)(B)(i). Rather than challenging the constitutionality of this provision as well, thereby making clear that it was challenging Congress’ authority to regulate in-fact coordinated party expenditures, the Party has made an obscure severability argument that would leave party coordinated expenditures exempt from that provision. See Reply Brief for Petitioners 11, n. 9. While these strategies do not deprive the parties of a right to adjudicate the counterclaim, they do provide a reason for this Court to defer consideration of the broader issues until the lower courts have reconsidered the question in light of our current opinion. Finally, we note that neither the parties nor the lower courts have considered whether or not Congress would have wanted the Party Expenditure Provision’s limitations to stand were they to apply only to coordinated, and not to independent, expenditures. See Buckley, supra, at 108; NCPAC, supra, at 498. This nonconstitutional ground for exempting party coordinated expenditures from FECA limitations should be briefed and considered before addressing the constitutionality of such regulation. See United States v. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
C
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. After hearing oral argument and fully examining the record, we conclude that the totality of circumstances as the record makes them manifest did not warrant bringing the case here. Accordingly, the writ is dismissed. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. PER CURIAM. Respondent Percy Hutton accused two friends, Derek Mitchell and Samuel Simmons Jr., of stealing a sewing machine, in which he had hidden $750. Mitchell and Simmons denied the accusation, but Hutton remained suspicious. On the night of September 16, 1985, he lured the pair into his car and, after pointing a gun at each, drove them around town in search of the machine. By night's end, Hutton had recovered his sewing machine, Simmons was in the hospital with two gunshot wounds to the head, and Mitchell was nowhere to be found. Simmons survived, but Mitchell was found dead a few weeks later, also having been shot twice. More than 30 years ago, an Ohio jury convicted Hutton of aggravated murder, attempted murder, and kidnaping. In connection with the aggravated murder conviction, the jury made two additional findings: that Hutton engaged in "a course of conduct involving the ... attempt to kill two or more persons," and that Hutton murdered Mitchell while "committing, attempting to commit, or fleeing immediately after ... kidnapping," Ohio Rev.Code Ann. §§ 2929.04(A)(5), (7) (Lexis 1982). Because of these "aggravating circumstances," Ohio law required that Hutton be sentenced to "death, life imprisonment without parole, [or] life imprisonment with parole eligibility after" no fewer than 20 years in prison. § 2929.03(C)(2). Several days after rendering its verdict, the jury reconvened for the penalty phase of the trial. The State argued for the death penalty. In opposition, Hutton gave an unsworn statement professing his innocence and presented evidence about his background and psychological profile. When the presentations concluded, the trial court instructed the jury that it could recommend a death sentence only if it unanimously found that the State had "prove[d] beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances, of which the Defendant was found guilty, outweigh[ed] the [mitigating factors]." State v. Hutton, 100 Ohio St.3d 176, 185, 2003-Ohio-5607, 797 N.E.2d 948, 958 ; see Ohio Rev.Code Ann. § 2929.03(D)(2). The jury deliberated and recommended death. The trial court accepted the recommendation after also finding, "beyond a reasonable doubt, ... that the aggravating circumstances ... outweigh[ed] the mitigating factors." § 2929.03(D)(3). The Ohio Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed Hutton's death sentence. In doing so, both concluded that "the evidence support[ed] the finding of the aggravating circumstances." § 2929.05(A); see Hutton, 100 Ohio St.3d, at 187, 797 N.E.2d, at 961 ; State v. Hutton, 72 Ohio App.3d 348, 350, 594 N.E.2d 692, 694 (1991). The courts also "independently weigh[ed] all of the facts ... to determine whether the aggravating circumstances [Hutton] was found guilty of committing outweigh[ed] the mitigating factors." Ohio Rev.Code Ann. § 2929.05(A). Both agreed with the jury and the trial court that "aggravating circumstances outweigh[ed] the mitigating factors," and that a death sentence was warranted. Hutton, 100 Ohio St.3d, at 191, 797 N.E.2d, at 963-964 ; see Hutton, 72 Ohio App.3d, at 352, 594 N.E.2d, at 695. The case before this Court concerns Hutton's subsequent petition for federal habeas relief. In 2005, Hutton filed such a petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, arguing that the trial court violated his due process rights during the penalty phase of his trial. According to Hutton, the court gave the jurors insufficient guidance because it failed to tell them that, when weighing aggravating and mitigating factors, they could consider only the two aggravating factors they had found during the guilt phase. Hutton, however, had not objected to the trial court's instruction or raised this argument on direct appeal, and the District Court on federal habeas concluded that his due process claim was procedurally defaulted. Hutton v. Mitchell, 2013 WL 2476333, *64 (N.D.Ohio, June 7, 2013) ; see State v. Hutton, 53 Ohio St.3d 36, 39, n. 1, 559 N.E.2d 432, 437-438, n. 1 (1990) (declining to address trial court's instructions because Hutton "specifically declined to object ... at trial, and ha[d] not raised or briefed the issue" on appeal). The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed. The court concluded that, notwithstanding the procedural default, it could "reach the merits" of Hutton's claim to "avoid a fundamental miscarriage of justice." Hutton v. Mitchell, 839 F.3d 486, 498 (2016) (internal quotation marks omitted). The Sixth Circuit began its analysis with Sawyer v. Whitley, 505 U.S. 333, 112 S.Ct. 2514, 120 L.Ed.2d 269 (1992). In that decision, this Court established that a habeas petitioner may obtain review of a defaulted claim upon "show[ing] by clear and convincing evidence that, but for a constitutional error, no reasonable jury would have found [him] eligible for the death penalty under the applicable state law." Id., at 336, 112 S.Ct. 2514. Hutton had not argued that this exception to default applied to his case. Nonetheless, the Sixth Circuit held that the exception justified reviewing his claim. The court gave two reasons: First, Hutton was not eligible to receive a death sentence because "the jury had not made the necessary finding of the existence of aggravating circumstances." 839 F.3d, at 498-499. And second, since the trial court "gave the jury no guidance as to what to consider as aggravating circumstances" when weighing aggravating and mitigating factors, the record did not show that the jury's death recommendation "was actually based on a review of any valid aggravating circumstances." Id., at 500. On the merits, the court concluded that the trial court violated Hutton's constitutional rights by giving an erroneous jury instruction. Judge Rogers dissented on the ground that Hutton could not overcome the procedural default. The Sixth Circuit was wrong to reach the merits of Hutton's claim. The court's first reason for excusing default was that "the jury had not [found] the existence of aggravating circumstances." Id., at 498-499. But it had, at the guilt phase of Hutton's trial. As Judge Rogers pointed out, "the jury found two such factors"-engaging in a course of conduct designed to kill multiple people and committing kidnaping-"in the process of convicting Hutton ... of aggravated murder." Id., at 511. Each of those findings "rendered Hutton eligible for the death penalty." Ibid. Hutton has not argued that the trial court improperly instructed the jury about aggravating circumstances at the guilt phase. Nor did the Sixth Circuit identify any such error. Instead, the instruction that Hutton contends is incorrect, and that the Sixth Circuit analyzed, was given at the penalty phase of trial. That penalty phase instruction plainly had no effect on the jury's decision-delivered after the guilt phase and pursuant to an unchallenged instruction-that aggravating circumstances were present when Hutton murdered Mitchell. The Sixth Circuit's second reason for reaching the merits rests on a legal error. Under Sawyer, a court may review a procedurally defaulted claim if, "but for a constitutional error, no reasonable jury would have found the petitioner eligible for the death penalty." 505 U.S., at 336, 112 S.Ct. 2514 (emphasis added). Here, the alleged error was the trial court's failure to specify that, when weighing aggravating and mitigating factors, the jury could consider only the aggravating circumstances it found at the guilt phase. Assuming such an error can provide a basis for excusing default, the Sixth Circuit should have considered the following: Whether, given proper instructions about the two aggravating circumstances, a reasonable jury could have decided that those aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances. But the court did not ask that question. Instead, it considered whether, given the (alleged) improper instructions, the jury might have been relying on invalid aggravating circumstances when it recommended a death sentence. See 839 F.3d, at 500 (explaining that, because the trial court gave "no guidance as to what to consider as aggravating circumstances," the court could not determine whether the death recommendation "was actually based on a review of any valid aggravating circumstances"). The court, in other words, considered whether the alleged error might have affected the jury's verdict, not whether a properly instructed jury could have recommended death. That approach, which would justify excusing default whenever an instructional error could have been relevant to a jury's decision, is incompatible with Sawyer . Neither Hutton nor the Sixth Circuit has "show[n] by clear and convincing evidence that"-if properly instructed-"no reasonable juror would have" concluded that the aggravating circumstances in Hutton's case outweigh the mitigating circumstances. Sawyer, 505 U.S., at 336, 112 S.Ct. 2514. In fact, the trial court, Ohio Court of Appeals, and Ohio Supreme Court each independently weighed those factors and concluded that the death penalty was justified. On the facts of this case, the Sixth Circuit was wrong to hold that it could review Hutton's claim under the miscarriage of justice exception to procedural default. The petition for certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis are granted, the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered . Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Chief Justice Vinson delivered the opinion of the Court. The question here is how a taxpayer who acquires de-preciable property subject to an unassumed mortgage, holds it for a period, and finally sells it still so encumbered, must compute her taxable gain. Petitioner was the sole beneficiary and the executrix of the will of her husband, who died January 11, 1932. He then owned an apartment building and lot subject to a mortgage, which secured a principal debt of $255,000.00 and interest in default of $7,042.50. As of that date, the property was appraised for federal estate tax purposes at a value exactly equal to the total amount of this encumbrance. Shortly after her husband’s death, petitioner entered into an agreement with the mortgagee whereby she was to continue to operate the property — collecting the rents, paying for necessary repairs, labor, and other operating expenses, and reserving $200.00 monthly for taxes — and was to remit the net rentals to the mortgagee. This plan was followed for nearly seven years, during which period petitioner reported the gross rentals as income, and claimed and was allowed deductions for taxes and operating expenses paid on the property, for interest paid on the mortgage, and for the physical exhaustion of the building. Meanwhile, the arrearage of interest increased to $15,857.71. On November 29, 1938, with the mortgagee threatening foreclosure, petitioner sold to a third party for $3,000.00 cash, subject to the mortgage, and paid $500.00 expenses of sale. Petitioner reported a taxable gain of $1,250.00. Her theory was that the “property” which she had acquired in 1932 and sold in 1938 was only the equity, or the excess in the value of the apartment building and lot over the amount of the mortgage. This equity was of zero value when she acquired it. No depreciation could be taken on a zero value. Neither she nor her vendee ever assumed the mortgage, so, when she sold the equity, the amount she realized on the sale was the net cash received, or $2,500.00. This sum less the zero basis constituted her gain, of which she reported half as taxable on the assumption that the entire property was a “capital asset.” The Commissioner, however, determined that petitioner realized a net taxable gain of $23,767.03. His theory was that the “property” acquired and sold was not the equity, as petitioner claimed, but rather the physical property itself, or the owner’s rights to possess, use, and dispose of it, undiminished by the mortgage. The original basis thereof was $262,042.50, its appraised value in 1932. Of this value $55,000.00 was allocable to land and $207,042.50 to building. During the period that petitioner held the property, there was an allowable depreciation of $28,045.10 on the building, so that the adjusted basis of the building at the time of sale was $178,997.40. The amount realized on the sale was said to include not only the $2,500.00 net cash receipts, but also the principal amount of the mortgage subject to which the property was sold, both totaling $257,500.00. The selling price was allocable in the proportion, $54,471.15 to the land and $203,028.85 to the building. The Commissioner agreed that the land was a “capital asset,” but thought that the building was not. Thus, he determined that petitioner sustained a capital loss of $528.85 on the land, of which 50% or $264.42 was taken into account, and an ordinary gain of $24,031.45 on the building, or a net taxable gain as indicated. The Tax Court agreed with the Commissioner that the building was not a “capital asset.” In all other respects it adopted petitioner’s contentions, and expunged the deficiency. Petitioner did not appeal from the part of the ruling adverse to her, and these questions are no longer at issue. On the Commissioner’s appeal, the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, one judge dissenting. We granted certiorari because of the importance of the questions raised as to the proper construction of the gain and loss provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. The 1938 Act, § 111 (a), defines the gain from “the sale or other disposition of property” as “the excess of the amount realized therefrom over the adjusted basis provided in section 113 (b) . . . .” It proceeds, § 111 (b), to define “the amount realized from the sale or other disposition of property” as “the sum of any money received plus the fair market value of the property (other than money) received.” Further, in § 113 (b), the “adjusted basis for determining the gain or loss from the sale or other disposition of property” is declared to be “the basis determined under subsection (a), adjusted ... [(1) (B)] ... for exhaustion, wear and tear, obsolescence, amortization ... to the extent allowed (but not less than the amount allowable) . . . .” The basis under subsection (a) “if the property was acquired by . . . devise ... or by the decedent’s estate from the decedent,” § 113 (a) (5), is “the fair market value of such property at the time of such acquisition.” Logically, the first step under this scheme is to determine the unadjusted basis of the property, under § 113 (a) (5), and the dispute in this case is as to the construction to be given the term “property.” If “property,” as used in that provision, means the same thing as “equity,” it would necessarily follow that the basis of petitioner’s property was zero, as she contends. If, on the contrary, it means the land and building themselves, or the owner’s legal rights in them, undiminished by the mortgage, the basis was $262,042.50. We think that the reasons for favoring one of the latter constructions are of overwhelming weight. In the first place, the words of statutes — including revenue acts— should be interpreted where possible in their ordinary, everyday senses. The only relevant definitions of “property” to be found in the principal standard dictionaries are the two favored by the Commissioner, i. e., either that “property” is the physical thing which is a subject of ownership, or that it is the aggregate of the owner’s rights to control and dispose of that thing. “Equity” is not given as a synonym, nor do either of the foregoing definitions suggest that it could be correctly so used. Indeed, “equity” is defined as “the value of a property . . . above the total of the liens. . . .” The contradistinction could hardly be more pointed. Strong countervailing considerations would be required to support a contention that Congress, in using the word “property,” meant “equity,” or that we should impute to it the intent to convey that meaning. In the second place, the Commissioner’s position has the approval of the administrative construction of § 113 (a) (5). With respect to the valuation of property under that section, Reg. 101, Art. 113 (a) (5) —1, promulgated under the 1938 Act, provided that “the value of property as of the date of the death of the decedent as appraised for the purpose of the Federal estate tax . . . shall be deemed to be its fair market value . . . .” The land and building here involved were so appraised in 1932, and their appraised value — $262,042.50—was reported by petitioner as part of the gross estate. This was in accordance with the estate tax law and regulations, which had always required that the value of decedent’s property, undiminished by liens, be so appraised and returned, and that mortgages be separately deducted in computing the net estate. As the quoted provision of the Regulations has been in effect since 1918, and as the relevant statutory provision has been repeatedly reenacted since then in substantially the same form, the former may itself now be considered to have the force of law. Moreover, in the many instances in other parts of the Act in which Congress has used the word “property,” or expressed the idea of “property” or “equity,” we find no instances of a misuse of either word or of a confusion of the ideas. In some parts of the Act other than the gain and loss sections, we find “property” where it is unmistakably used in its ordinary sense. On the other hand, where either Congress or the Treasury intended to convey the meaning of “equity,” it did so by the use of appropriate language. A further reason why the word “property” in § 113 (a) should not be construed to mean “equity” is the bearing such construction would have on the allowance of deductions for depreciation and on the collateral adjustments of basis. Section 23 (1) permits deduction from gross income of “a reasonable allowance for the exhaustion, wear and tear of property . . . .” Sections 23 (n) and 114 (a) declare that the “basis upon which exhaustion, wear and tear . . . are to be allowed” is the basis “provided in section 113 (b) for the purpose of determining the gain upon the sale” of the property, which is the § 113 (a) basis “adjusted . . . for exhaustion, wear and tear ... to the extent allowed (but not less than the amount allowable). . . .” Under these provisions, if the mortgagor’s equity were the § 113 (a) basis, it would also be the original basis from which depreciation allowances are deducted. If it is, and if the amount of the annual allowances were to be computed on that value, as would then seem to be required, they will represent only a fraction of the cost of the corresponding physical exhaustion, and any recoupment by the mortgagor of the remainder of that cost can be effected only by the reduction of his taxable gain in the year of sale. If, however, the amount of the annual allowances were to be computed on the value of the property, and then deducted from an equity basis, we would in some instances have to accept deductions from a minus basis or deny deductions altogether. The Commissioner also argues that taking the mortgagor's equity as the § 113 (a) basis would require the basis to be changed with each payment on the mortgage, and that the attendant problem of repeatedly recomputing basis and annual allowances would be a tremendous accounting burden on both the Commissioner and the taxpayer. Moreover, the mortgagor would acquire control over the timing of his depreciation allowances. Thus it appears that the applicable provisions of the Act expressly preclude an equity basis, and the use of it is contrary to certain implicit principles of income tax depreciation, and entails very great administrative difficulties. It may be added that the Treasury has never furnished a guide through the maze of problems that arise in connection with depreciating an equity basis, but, on the contrary, has consistently permitted the amount of depreciation allowances to be computed on the full value of the property, and subtracted from it as a basis. Surely, Congress’ long-continued acceptance of this situation gives it full legislative endorsement. We conclude that the proper basis under § 113 (a) (5) is the value of the property, undiminished by mortgages thereon, and that the correct basis here was $262,042.50. The next step is to ascertain what adjustments are required under § 113 (b). As the depreciation rate was stipulated, the only question at this point is whether the Commissioner was warranted in making any depreciation adjustments whatsoever. Section 113 (b) (1) (B) provides that “proper adjustment in respect of the property shall in all cases be made . . .for exhaustion, wear and tear ... to the extent allowed (but not less than the amount allowable) . . . (Italics supplied.) The Tax Court found on adequate evidence that the apartment house was property of a kind subject to physical exhaustion, that it was used in taxpayer’s trade or business, and consequently that the taxpayer would have been entitled to a depreciation allowance under § 23 (1), except that, in the opinion of that Court, the basis of the property was zero, and it was thought that depreciation could not be taken on a zero basis. As we have just decided that the correct basis of the property was not zero, but $262,042.50, we avoid this difficulty, and conclude that an adjustment should be made as the Commissioner determined. Petitioner urges to the contrary that she was not entitled to depreciation deductions, whatever the basis of the property, because the law allows them only to one who actually bears the capital loss, and here the loss was not hers but the mortgagee’s. We do not see, however, that she has established her factual premise. There was no finding of the Tax Court to that effect, nor to the effect that the value of the property was ever less than the amount of the lien. Nor was there evidence in the record, or any indication that petitioner could produce evidence, that this was so. The facts that the value of the property was only equal to the lien in 1932 and that during the next six and one-half years the physical condition of the building deteriorated and the amount of the lien increased, are entirely inconclusive, particularly in the light of the buyer’s willingness in 1938 to take subject to the increased lien and pay a substantial amount of cash to boot. Whatever may be the rule as to allowing depreciation to a mortgagor on property in his possession which is subject to an unassumed mortgage and clearly worth less than the lien, we are not faced with that problem and see no reason to decide it now. At last we come to the problem of determining the “amount realized” on the 1938 sale. Section 111 (b), it will be recalled, defines the “amount realized” from “the sale ... of property” as “the sum of any money received plus the fair market value of the property (other than money) received,” and § 111 (a) defines the gain on “the sale ... of property” as the excess of the amount realized over the basis. Quite obviously, the word “property,” used here with reference to a sale, must mean “property” in the same ordinary sense intended by the use of the word with reference to acquisition and depreciation in § 113, both for certain of the reasons stated heretofore in discussing its meaning in § 113, and also because the functional relation of the two sections requires that the word mean the same in one section that it does in the other. If the “property” to be valued on the date of acquisition is the property free of liens, the “property” to be priced on a subsequent sale must be the same thing. Starting from this point, we could not accept petitioner’s contention that the $2,500.00 net cash was all she realized on the sale except on the absurdity that she sold a quarter-of-a-million dollar property for roughly one per cent of its value, and took a 99 per cent loss. Actually, petitioner does not urge this. She argues, conversely, that because only $2,500.00 was realized on the sale, the “property” sold must have been the equity only, and that consequently we are forced to accept her contention as to the meaning of “property” in § 113. We adhere, however, to what we have already said on the meaning of “property,” and we find that the absurdity is avoided by our conclusion that the amount of the mortgage is properly included in the “amount realized” on the sale. Petitioner concedes that if she had been personally liable on the mortgage and the purchaser had either paid or assumed it, the amount so paid or assumed would be considered a part of the “amount realized” within the meaning of § 111 (b). The cases so deciding have already repudiated the notion that there must be an actual receipt by the seller himself of “money” or “other property,” in their narrowest senses. It was thought to be decisive that one section of the Act must be construed so as not to defeat the intention of another or to frustrate the Act as a whole, and that the taxpayer was the “beneficiary” of the payment in “as real and substantial [a sense] as if the money had been paid it and then paid over by it to its creditors.” Both these points apply to this case. The first has been mentioned already. As for the second, we think that a mortgagor, not personally liable on the debt, who sells the property subject to the mortgage and for additional consideration, realizes a benefit in the amount of the mortgage as well as the boot. If a purchaser pays boot, it is immaterial as to our problem whether the mortgagor is also to receive money from the purchaser to discharge the mortgage prior to sale, or whether he is merely to transfer subject to the mortgage — it may make a difference to the purchaser and to the mortgagee, but not to the mortgagor. Or put in another way, we are no more concerned with whether the mortgagor is, strictly speaking, a debtor on the mortgage, than we are with whether the benefit to him is, strictly speaking, a receipt of money or property. We are rather concerned with the reality that an owner of property, mortgaged at a figure less than that at which the property will sell, must and will treat the conditions of the mortgage exactly as if they were his personal obligations. If he transfers subject to the mortgage, the benefit to him is as real and substantial as if the mortgage were discharged, or as if a personal debt in an equal amount had been assumed by another. Therefore we conclude that the Commissioner was right in determining that petitioner realized $257,500.00 on the sale of this property. The Tax Court’s contrary determinations, that “property,” as used in § 113 (a) and related sections, means “equity,” and that the amount of a mortgage subject to which property is sold is not the measure of a benefit realized, within the meaning of § 111 (b), announced rules of general applicability on clear-cut questions of law. The Circuit Court of Appeals therefore had jurisdiction to review them. Petitioner contends that the result we have reached taxes her on what is not income within the meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment. If this is because only the direct receipt of cash is thought to be income in the constitutional sense, her contention is wholly without merit. If it is because the entire transaction is thought to have been “by all dictates of common sense ... a ruinous disaster,” as it was termed in her brief, we disagree with her premise. She was entitled to depreciation deductions for a period of nearly seven years, and she actually took them in almost the allowable amount. The crux of this case, really, is whether the law permits her to exclude allowable deductions from consideration in computing gain. We have already showed that, if it does, the taxpayer can enjoy a double deduction, in effect, on the same loss of assets. The Sixteenth Amendment does not require that result any more than does the Act itself. Affirmed. The record does not show whether he was personally liable for the debt. This position is, of course, inconsistent with her practice in claiming such deductions in each of the years the property was held. The deductions so claimed and allowed by the Commissioner were in the total amount of $25,500.00. See §117 (a), (b), Revenue Act of 1938, c. 289, 52 Stat. 447. Under this provision only 50% of the gain realized on the sale of a “capital asset” need be taken into account, if the property had been held more than two years. The parties stipulated as to the relative parts of the 1932 appraised value and of the 1938 sales price which were allocable to land and building. The parties stipulated that the rate of depreciation applicable to the building was 2% per annum. The Commissioner explains that only the principal amount, rather than the total present debt secured by the mortgage, was deemed to be a measure of the amount realized, because the difference was attributable to interest due, a deductible item. See supra, note 4. See § 117 (a) (1), Revenue Act of 1938, supra. 3 T. C. 585. The Court held that the building was not a “capital asset” within the meaning of § 117 (a) and that the entire gain on the building had to be taken into account under § 117 (b), because it found that the building was of a character subject to physical exhaustion and that petitioner had used it in her trade or business. But because the Court accepted petitioner’s theory that the entire property had a zero basis, it held that she was not entitled to the 1938 depreciation deduction on the building which she had inconsistently claimed. For these reasons, it did not expunge the deficiency in its entirety. 153 F. 2d 504. 328 U. S. 826. All subsequent references to a revenue act are to this Act unless otherwise indicated. The relevant parts of the gain and loss provisions of the Act and Code are identical. Old Colony R. Co. v. Commissioner, 284 U. S. 552, 560. See Webster’s New International Dictionary, Unabridged, 2d Ed.; Funk & Wagnalls’ New Standard Dictionary; Oxford English Dictionary. See Webster’s New International Dictionary, supra. Crooks v. Harrelson, 282 U. S. 55, 59. See §§202 and 203 (a) (1), Revenue Act of 1916; §§402 and 403 (a) (1), Revenue Acts of 1918 and 1921; §§302, 303 (a) (1), Revenue Acts of 1924 and 1926; § 805, Revenue Act of 1932. See Reg. 37, Arts. 13, 14, and 47; Reg. 63, Arts. 12, 13, and 41; Reg. 68, Arts. 11, 13, and 38; Reg. 70, Arts. 11, 13, and 38; Reg. 80, Arts. 11,13, and 38. See City Bank Farmers’ Trust Co. v. Bowers, 68 F. 2d 909, cert. denied, 292 U. S. 644; Rodiek v. Helvering, 87 F. 2d 328; Adriance v. Higgins, 113 F. 2d 1013. See also Reg. 45, Art. 1562; Reg. 62, Art. 1563; Reg. 65, Art. 1594; Reg. 69, Art. 1594; Reg. 74, Art. 596; Reg. 77, Art. 596; Reg. 86, Art. 113 (a) (5)-l (c); Reg. 94, Art. 113 (a) (5)-l (c); Reg. 103, § 19.113 (a) (5) — 1 (c); Reg. Ill, §29.113 (a) (5)-l (c). § 202 (a) (3), Revenue Act of 1921; § 204 (a) (5), Revenue Act of 1924; § 204 (a) (5), Revenue Act of 1926; § 113 (a) (5), Revenue Act of 1928; § 113 (a) (5), Revenue Act of 1932; § 113 (a) (5), Revenue Act of 1934; § 113 (a) (5), Revenue Act of 1936; § 113 (a) (5), Revenue Act of 1938; § 113 (a) (5), Internal Revenue Code. Helvering y. Reynolds Co., 306 U. S. 110, 114. Cf. Helvering v. Stockholms Bank, 293 U. S. 84, 87. Sec. 23 (a) (1) permits the deduction from gross income of “rentals . . . required to be made as a condition to the continued use ... for purposes of the trade or business, of property ... in which he [the taxpayer] has no equity." (Italics supplied.) Sec. 23 (1) permits the deduction from gross income of “a reasonable allowance for the exhaustion, wear and tear of property used in the trade or business . . . .” (Italics supplied.) See also §303 (a) (1), Revenue Act of 1926, c. 27, 44 Stat. 9; § 805, Revenue Act of 1932, c. 209,47 Stat. 280. See §23 (a) (1), supra, note 24; §805, Revenue Act of 1932, supra, note 24; §3482, I. R. C.; Reg. 105, §81.38. This provision of the Regulations, first appearing in 1937, T. D. 4729, 1937-1 Cum. Bull. 284, 289, permitted estates which were not liable on mortgages applicable to certain of decedent’s property to return “only the value of the equity of redemption (or value of the property, less the indebtedness) . . . .” Secs. 23 (n) and 114 (a), in defining the “basis upon which” depreciation is “to be allowed,” do not distinguish between basis as the minuend from which the allowances are to be deducted, and as the dividend from which the amount of the allowance is to be computed. The Regulations indicate that the basis of property is the same for both purposes. Reg. 101, Art. 23 (l)-4, 5. This is contrary to Treasury practice, and to Reg. 101, Art. 23 (l)-5, which provides in part: “The capital sum to be recovered shall be charged off over the useful life of the property, either in equal annual installments or in accord-anee with any other recognized trade practice, such as an apportionment of the capital sum over units of production.” See Detroit Edison Co. v. Commissioner, 319 U. S. 98, 101. So long as the mortgagor remains in possession, the mortgagee can not take depreciation deductions, even if he is the one who actually sustains the capital loss, as § 23 (1) allows them only on property “used in the trade or business.” Sec. 113 (b) (1) (A) requires adjustment of basis “for expenditures . . . properly chargeable to capital account . . . .” Obviously we are not considering a situation in which a taxpayer has acquired and sold an equity of redemption only, i. e., a right to redeem the property without a right to present possession. In that situation, the right to redeem would itself be the aggregate of the taxpayer’s rights and would undoubtedly constitute “property” within the meaning of §113 (a). No depreciation problems would arise. See note 28. See note 22. See Helvering v. Lazarus & Co., 308 U. S. 252; Duffy v. Central R. Co., 268 U. S. 55, 64. See Maguire v. Commissioner, 313 U. S. 1,8. We are not troubled by petitioner’s argument that her contract of sale expressly provided for the conveyance of the equity only. She actually conveyed title to the property, and the buyer took the same property that petitioner had acquired in 1932 and used in her trade or business until its sale. United States v. Hendler, 303 U. S. 564; Brons Hotels, Inc., 34 B. T. A. 376; Walter F. Haass, 37 B. T. A. 948. See Douglas v. Willcuts, 296 U. S. 1, 8. See Brons Hotels, Inc., supra, 34 B. T. A. at 381. See United States v. Hendler, supra, 303 U. S. at 566. Obviously, if the value of the property is less than the amount of the mortgage, a mortgagor who is not personally liable cannot realize a benefit equal to the mortgage. Consequently, a different problem might be encountered where a mortgagor abandoned the property or transferred it subject to the mortgage without receiving boot. That is not this case. For instance, this petitioner returned the gross rentals as her own income, and out of them paid interest on the mortgage, on which she claimed and was allowed deductions. See Reg. 77, Art. 141; Reg. 86, Art. 23 (b)-1; Reg. 94, Art. 23 (b)-1; Reg. 101, Art. 23 (b)-1. See Commissioner v. Wilcox, 327 U. S. 404, 410; Trust of Bingham v. Commissioner, 325 U. S. 365, 369-372. Cf. John Kelley Co. v. Commissioner, 326 U. S. 521, 527; Dobson v. Commissioner, 320 U. S. 489. Ibid; see also § 1141 (a) and (c), I. R. C. Douglas v. Willcuts, supra, 296 U. S. at 9; Burnet v. Wells, 289 U. S. 670, 677. In the course of the argument some reference was made, as by analogy, to a situation in which a taxpayer acquired by devise property subject to a mortgage in an amount greater than the then value of the property, and later transferred it to a third person, still subject to the mortgage, and for a cash boot. Whether or not the difference between the value of the- property on acquisition and the amount of the mortgage would in that situation constitute either statutory or constitutional income is a question which is different from the one before us, and which we need not presently answer. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
L
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice SOTOMAYOR delivered the opinion of the Court. What are the "waters of the United States"? As it turns out, defining that statutory phrase-a central component of the Clean Water Act-is a contentious and difficult task. In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) tried their hand at proffering a definition through an agency regulation dubbed the Waters of the United States Rule (WOTUS Rule or Rule). The WOTUS Rule prompted several parties, including petitioner National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), to challenge the regulation in federal court. This case, however, is not about the substantive challenges to the WOTUS Rule. Rather, it is about in which federal court those challenges must be filed. There are two principal avenues of judicial review of an action by the EPA. Generally, parties may file challenges to final EPA actions in federal district courts, ordinarily under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). But the Clean Water Act (or Act) enumerates seven categories of EPA actions for which review lies directly and exclusively in the federal courts of appeals. See 86 Stat. 892, as amended, 33 U.S.C. § 1369(b)(1). The Government contends that the WOTUS Rule fits within two of those enumerated categories: (1) EPA actions "in approving or promulgating any effluent limitation or other limitation under section 1311, 1312, 1316, or 1345," 33 U.S.C. § 1369(b)(1)(E), and (2) EPA actions "in issuing or denying any permit under section 1342," § 1369(b)(1)(F). We disagree. The WOTUS Rule falls outside the ambit of § 1369(b)(1), and any challenges to the Rule therefore must be filed in federal district courts. I A Although the jurisdictional question in this case is a discrete issue of statutory interpretation, it unfolds against the backdrop of a complex administrative scheme. The Court reviews below the aspects of that scheme that are relevant to the question at hand. 1 Congress enacted the Clean Water Act in 1972 "to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters." § 1251(a). One of the Act's principal tools in achieving that objective is § 1311(a), which prohibits "the discharge of any pollutant by any person," except in express circumstances. A "discharge of a pollutant" is defined broadly to include "any addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source," such as a pipe, ditch, or other "discernible, confined and discrete conveyance." §§ 1362(12), (14). And "navigable waters," in turn, means "the waters of the United States, including the territorial seas." § 1362(7). Because many of the Act's substantive provisions apply to "navigable waters," the statutory phrase "waters of the United States" circumscribes the geographic scope of the Act in certain respects. Section 1311(a) contains important exceptions to the prohibition on discharge of pollutants. Among them are two permitting schemes that authorize certain entities to discharge pollutants into navigable waters. See Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 715, 723, 126 S.Ct. 2208, 165 L.Ed.2d 159 (2006) (plurality opinion). The first is the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program, which is administered by the EPA under § 1342. Under that program, the EPA issues permits allowing persons to discharge pollutants that can wash downstream "upon [the] condition that such discharge will meet... all applicable requirements under sections 1311, 1312, 1316, 1317, 1318, and 1343." § 1342(a)(1). "NPDES permits impose limitations on the discharge of pollutants, and establish related monitoring and reporting requirements, in order to improve the cleanliness and safety of the Nation's waters." Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 174, 120 S.Ct. 693, 145 L.Ed.2d 610 (2000). One such limitation is an "effluent limitation," defined in the Act as a "restriction... on quantities, rates, and concentrations" of specified pollutants "discharged from point sources into navigable waters, the waters of the contiguous zone, or the ocean, including schedules of compliance." § 1362(11). The second permitting program, administered by the Corps under § 1344, authorizes discharges of " 'dredged or fill material,' " which "are solids that do not readily wash downstream." Rapanos, 547 U.S., at 723, 126 S.Ct. 2208 (plurality opinion). Although the Corps bears primary responsibility in determining whether to issue a § 1344 permit, the EPA retains authority to veto the specification of a site for discharge of fill material. See § 1344(c). 2 The statutory term "waters of the United States" delineates the geographic reach of many of the Act's substantive provisions, including the two permitting programs outlined above. In decades past, the EPA and the Corps (collectively, the agencies) have struggled to define and apply that statutory term. See, e.g., 42 Fed.Reg. 37124, 37127 (1977) ; 51 Fed.Reg. 41216-41217 (1986). And this Court, in turn, has considered those regulatory efforts on several occasions, upholding one such effort as a permissible interpretation of the statute but striking down two others as overbroad. Compare United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes, Inc., 474 U.S. 121, 106 S.Ct. 455, 88 L.Ed.2d 419 (1985) (upholding the Corps' interpretation that "waters of the United States" include wetlands adjacent to navigable waters), with Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook Cty. v. Army Corps of Engineers, 531 U.S. 159, 121 S.Ct. 675, 148 L.Ed.2d 576 (2001) (rejecting application of the Corps' interpretation of "waters of the United States" as applied to sand and gravel pit); and Rapanos, 547 U.S., at 729, 757, 126 S.Ct. 2208 (plurality opinion) (remanding for further review the Corps' application of the Act to wetlands lying "near ditches or man-made drains that eventually empty into traditional navigable waters"). In 2015, responding to repeated calls for a more precise definition of "waters of the United States," the agencies jointly promulgated the WOTUS Rule. 80 Fed.Reg. 37054 (final rule). The WOTUS Rule was intended to "provid[e] simpler, clearer, and more consistent approaches for identifying the geographic scope of the [Act]." Id., at 37057. To that end, the Rule separates waters into three jurisdictional groups-waters that are categorically jurisdictional (e.g., interstate waters); those that require a case-specific showing of their significant nexus to traditionally covered waters (e.g., waters lying in the flood plain of interstate waters); and those that are categorically excluded from jurisdiction (e.g., swimming pools and puddles). See 33 C.F.R. § 328.3 (2017) ; 80 Fed.Reg. 37057. Although the revised regulatory definition "applies broadly to [the Act's] programs," the WOTUS Rule itself states that it "imposes no enforceable duty on any state, local, or tribal governments, or the private sector." 80 Fed.Reg. 37102. Indeed, the Rule's preamble states that it "does not establish any regulatory requirements" and is instead "a definitional rule that clarifies the scope of" the statutory term "waters of the United States." Id., at 37054. B As noted above, the Act contemplates two primary avenues for judicial review of EPA actions, each with its own unique set of procedural provisions and statutes of limitations. For "certain suits challenging some agency actions," the Act grants the federal courts of appeals original and "exclusive" jurisdiction. Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center, 568 U.S. 597, 608, 133 S.Ct. 1326, 185 L.Ed.2d 447 (2013). Seven categories of EPA actions fall within that jurisdictional provision; they include actions of the EPA Administrator- "(A) in promulgating any standard of performance under section 1316 of this title, (B) in making any determination pursuant to section 1316(b)(1)(C) of this title, (C) in promulgating any effluent standard, prohibition, or pretreatment standard under section 1317 of this title, (D) in making any determination as to a State permit program submitted under section 1342(b) of this title, (E) in approving or promulgating any effluent limitation or other limitation under section 1311, 1312, 1316, or 1345 of this title, (F) in issuing or denying any permit under section 1342 of this title, and (G) in promulgating any individual control strategy under section 1314(l ) of this title." 33 U.S.C. § 1369(b)(1). To challenge those types of actions, a party must file a petition for review in the court of appeals for the "judicial district in which [the party] resides or transacts business which is directly affected by" the challenged action. Ibid. Any such petition must be filed within 120 days after the date of the challenged action. Ibid. If there are multiple petitions challenging the same EPA action, those petitions are consolidated in one circuit, chosen randomly from among the circuits in which the petitions were filed. See 28 U.S.C. § 2112(a)(3). Section 1369(b) also contains a preclusion-of-review provision, which mandates that any agency action reviewable under § 1369(b)(1)"shall not be subject to judicial review in any civil or criminal proceeding for enforcement." 33 U.S.C. § 1369(b)(2). The second avenue for judicial review covers final EPA actions falling outside the scope of § 1369(b)(1). Those actions are typically governed by the APA. Under the APA, an aggrieved party may file suit in a federal district court to obtain review of any "final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court." See 5 U.S.C. § 704. Those suits generally must be filed within six years after the claim accrues. 28 U.S.C. § 2401(a). C Soon after the agencies promulgated the WOTUS Rule, several parties, including NAM, challenged the Rule in United States District Courts across the country. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) denied the Government's request to consolidate and transfer those actions to a single district court. See Order Denying Transfer in In re Clean Water Rule, MDL No. 2663, Doc. 163 (Oct. 13, 2015). Uncertainty surrounding the scope of the Act's judicial-review provision had also prompted many parties-but not NAM-to file "protective" petitions for review in various Courts of Appeals to preserve their challenges in the event that their District Court lawsuits were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction under § 1369(b). The JPML consolidated these appellate-court actions and transferred them to the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. See Consolidation Order in In re EPA and Dept. of Defense Final Rule, MCP No. 135, Doc. 3 (July 28, 2015). The Court of Appeals thereafter issued a nationwide stay of the WOTUS Rule pending further proceedings. See In re EPA and Dept. of Defense Final Rule, 803 F.3d 804 (C.A.6 2015). Meanwhile, parallel litigation continued in the District Courts. Some District Courts dismissed the pending lawsuits, concluding that the courts of appeals had exclusive jurisdiction over challenges to the Rule. See Murray Energy Corp. v. EPA, 2015 WL 5062506, *6 (N.D.W.Va., Aug. 26, 2015) (dismissing for lack of jurisdiction); Georgia v. McCarthy, 2015 WL 5092568, *3 (S.D.Ga., Aug. 27, 2015) (concluding that court lacked jurisdiction to enter preliminary injunction). One District Court, by contrast, held that it had jurisdiction to review the WOTUS Rule. See North Dakota v. EPA, 127 F.Supp.3d 1047, 1052-1053 (D.N.D. 2015). NAM intentionally did not file a protective petition in any court of appeals to "ensure that [it] could challenge the Sixth Circuit's jurisdiction." Brief for Petitioner 1, n. 1. Instead, NAM intervened as a respondent in the Sixth Circuit and, along with several other parties, moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The Government opposed those motions, arguing that challenges to the WOTUS Rule must be brought first in the Court of Appeals because the Rule fell within subparagraphs (E) and (F) of § 1369(b)(1). The Court of Appeals denied the motions to dismiss in a fractured decision that resulted in three separate opinions. In re U.S. Dept. of Defense, 817 F.3d 261 (6th Cir.2016). The Court of Appeals denied rehearing en banc. We granted certiorari, 580 U.S. ----, 137 S.Ct. 811, 196 L.Ed.2d 595 (2017), and now reverse. II As noted, § 1369(b)(1) enumerates seven categories of EPA actions that must be challenged directly in the federal courts of appeals. Of those seven, only two are at issue in this case: subparagraph (E), which encompasses actions "approving or promulgating any effluent limitation or other limitation under section 1311, 1312, 1316, or 1345," § 1369(b)(1)(E), and subparagraph (F), which covers actions "issuing or denying any [NPDES] permit," § 1369(b)(1)(F). We address each of those statutory provisions in turn. A Subparagraph (E) grants courts of appeals exclusive jurisdiction to review any EPA action "in approving or promulgating any effluent limitation or other limitation under section 1311, 1312, 1316, or 1345." 33 U.S.C. § 1369(b)(1)(E). The Government contends that "EPA's action in issuing the" WOTUS Rule "readily qualifies as an action promulgating or approving an 'other limitation' under section 1311," because the Rule establishes the "geographic scope of limitations promulgated under Section 1311." Brief for Federal Respondents 18-19. We disagree. To begin, the WOTUS Rule is not an "effluent limitation"-a conclusion the Government does not meaningfully dispute. An "effluent limitation" is "any restriction... on quantities, rates, and concentrations" of certain pollutants "which are discharged from point sources into navigable waters." § 1362(11). The WOTUS Rule imposes no such restriction. Rather, the Rule announces a regulatory definition for a statutory term and "imposes no enforceable duty" on the "private sector." See 80 Fed.Reg. 37102. The Government instead maintains that the WOTUS Rule is an "other limitation" under subparagraph (E). Although the Act provides no express definition of that residual phrase, the text and structure of subparagraph (E) tell us what that language means. And it is not as broad as the Government insists. For starters, Congress' use of the phrase "effluent limitation or other limitation" in subparagraph (E) suggests that an "other limitation" must be similar in kind to an "effluent limitation": that is, a limitation related to the discharge of pollutants. An "other limitation," for instance, could be a non-numerical operational practice or an equipment specification that, like an "effluent limitation," restricts the discharge of pollutants, even though such a limitation would not fall within the precise statutory definition of "effluent limitation." That subparagraph (E) cross-references §§ 1311, 1312, 1316, and 1345 reinforces this natural reading. The unifying feature among those cross-referenced sections is that they impose restrictions on the discharge of certain pollutants. See, e.g., 33 U.S.C. § 1311 (imposing general prohibition on "the discharge of any pollutant by any person"); § 1312 (governing "water quality related effluent limitations"); § 1316 (governing national performance standards for new sources of discharges); § 1345 (restricting discharges and use of sewage sludge). In fact, some of those sections give us concrete examples of the type of "other limitation" Congress had in mind. Section 1311(b)(1)(C) allows the EPA to issue "any more stringent limitation[s]" if technology-based effluent limitations cannot "meet water quality standards, treatment standards, or schedules of compliance." And § 1345(d)(3) provides that, if "it is not feasible to prescribe or enforce a numerical limitation" on pollutants in sewage sludge, the EPA may "promulgate a design, equipment, management practice, or operational standard." All of this demonstrates that an "other limitation," at a minimum, must also be some type of restriction on the discharge of pollutants. Because the WOTUS Rule does no such thing, it does not fit within the "other limitation" language of subparagraph (E). The Government tries to escape this conclusion by arguing that subparagraph (E) expressly covers "any effluent limitation or other limitation," § 1369(b)(1)(E) (emphasis added), and that the use of the word "any" makes clear that Congress intended subparagraph (E) to sweep broadly and encompass all EPA actions imposing limitations of any sort under the cross-referenced sections. True, use of the word "any" will sometimes indicate that Congress intended particular statutory text to sweep broadly. See, e.g., Ali v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 552 U.S. 214, 220, 128 S.Ct. 831, 169 L.Ed.2d 680 (2008) ("Congress' use of 'any' to modify 'other law enforcement officer' is most naturally read to mean law enforcement officers of whatever kind"). But whether it does so necessarily depends on the statutory context, and the word "any" in this context does not bear the heavy weight the Government puts upon it. Contrary to the Government's assertion, the word "any" cannot expand the phrase "other limitation" beyond those limitations that, like effluent limitations, restrict the discharge of pollutants. In urging otherwise, the Government reads the words "effluent limitation and other" completely out of the statute and insists that what Congress really meant to say is "any limitation" under the cross-referenced sections. Of course, those are not the words that Congress wrote, and this Court is not free to "rewrite the statute" to the Government's liking. Puerto Rico v. Franklin Cal. Tax-Free Trust, 579 U.S. ----, ----, 136 S.Ct. 1938, 1949, 195 L.Ed.2d 298 (2016) ("[O]ur constitutional structure does not permit this Court to rewrite the statute that Congress has enacted" (internal quotation marks omitted)). Even if the Court accepted the Government's reading of "effluent limitation or other limitation," however, the Rule still does not fall within subparagraph (E) because it is not a limitation promulgated or approved "under section 1311." § 1369(b)(1)(E). This Court has acknowledged that the word "under" is a "chameleon" that "must draw its meaning from its context." Kucana v. Holder, 558 U.S. 233, 245, 130 S.Ct. 827, 175 L.Ed.2d 694 (2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). With respect to subparagraph (E), the statutory context makes clear that the prepositional phrase-"under section 1311"-is most naturally read to mean that the effluent limitation or other limitation must be approved or promulgated "pursuant to" or "by reason of the authority of" § 1311. See St. Louis Fuel and Supply Co., Inc. v. FERC, 890 F.2d 446, 450 (C.A.D.C.1989) (R.B. Ginsburg, J.) (" 'under' means'subject [or pursuant] to' or 'by reason of the authority of' "); cf. Black's Law Dictionary 1368 (5th ed. 1979) (defining "under" as "according to"). Here, the EPA did not promulgate or approve the WOTUS Rule under § 1311. As noted above, § 1311 generally bans the discharge of pollutants into navigable waters absent a permit. Nowhere does that provision direct or authorize the EPA to define a statutory phrase appearing elsewhere in the Act. In fact, the phrase "waters of the United States" does not appear in § 1311 at all. Rather, the WOTUS Rule was promulgated or approved under § 1361(a), which grants the EPA general rulemaking authority "to prescribe such regulations as are necessary to carry out [its] functions under" the Act. Proving the point, the Government's own brief cites § 1361(a) as the statutory provision that "authorized the [EPA] to issue the [WOTUS] Rule." Brief for Federal Respondents 17, n. 3. The Government nonetheless insists that the language "under section 1311" poses no barrier to its reading of subparagraph (E) because the "[WOTUS] Rule's legal and practical effect is to make effluent and other limitations under Section 1311 applicable to the waters that the Rule covers." Id., at 28. But the Government's "practical-effects" test is not grounded in the statutory text. Subparagraph (E) encompasses EPA actions that "approv[e] or promulgat[e] any effluent limitation or other limitation under section 1311," not EPA actions that have the "legal or practical effect" of making such limitations applicable to certain waters. Tellingly, the Government offers no textual basis to read its "practical-effects" test into subparagraph (E). Beyond disregarding the statutory text, the Government's construction also renders other statutory language superfluous. Take, for instance, subparagraph (E)'s cross-references to §§ 1312 and 1316. See § 1369(b)(1)(E) (covering EPA action "in approving or promulgating any effluent limitation or other limitation under section 1311, 1312, 1316, or 1345" (emphasis added)). Section 1311(a) authorizes discharges that comply with those two cross-referenced sections. See § 1311(a) (prohibiting discharge of pollutants "[e]xcept as in compliance with... sections 1312, 1316..."). Thus, EPA actions under §§ 1312 and 1316 also would have a "legal and practical effect" on the scope of § 1311's general prohibition of discharges, as the Government contends is the case with the WOTUS Rule. If, on the Government's reading, EPA actions under §§ 1312 and 1316 would count as actions "under section 1311" sufficient to trigger subparagraph (E), Congress would not have needed to cross-reference §§ 1312 and 1316 again in subparagraph (E). That Congress did so undercuts the Government's proposed "practical-effects" test. Similarly, the Government's "practical-effects" test ignores Congress' decision to grant appellate courts exclusive jurisdiction only over seven enumerated types of EPA actions set forth in § 1369(b)(1). Section 1313, which governs the EPA's approval and promulgation of state water-quality standards, is a prime example. Approving or promulgating state water-quality standards under § 1313 also has the "legal and practical effect" of requiring that effluent limitations be tailored to meet those standards. Under the Government's reading, subparagraph (E) would encompass EPA actions taken under § 1313, even though such actions are nowhere listed in § 1369(b)(1). Courts are required to give effect to Congress' express inclusions and exclusions, not disregard them. See Russello v. United States, 464 U.S. 16, 23, 104 S.Ct. 296, 78 L.Ed.2d 17 (1983) ("Where Congress includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in another section of the same Act, it is generally presumed that Congress acts intentionally and purposely in the disparate inclusion or exclusion" (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted)). Accordingly, subparagraph (E) does not confer original and exclusive jurisdiction on courts of appeals to review the WOTUS Rule. B The Government fares no better under subparagraph (F). That provision grants courts of appeals exclusive and original jurisdiction to review any EPA action "in issuing or denying any permit under section 1342." § 1369(b)(1)(F). As explained above, NPDES permits issued under § 1342"authoriz[e] the discharge of pollutants" into certain waters "in accordance with specified conditions." Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd. v. Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Inc., 484 U.S. 49, 52, 108 S.Ct. 376, 98 L.Ed.2d 306 (1987). The WOTUS Rule neither issues nor denies a permit under the NPDES permitting program. Because the plain language of subparagraph (F) is "unambiguous," "our inquiry begins with the statutory text, and ends there as well." BedRoc Limited, LLC v. United States, 541 U.S. 176, 183, 124 S.Ct. 1587, 158 L.Ed.2d 338 (2004) (plurality opinion). Rather than confront that statutory text, the Government asks us to ignore it altogether. To that end, the Government urges us to apply the "functional interpretive approach" that it purports the Court employed in Crown Simpson Pulp Co. v. Costle, 445 U.S. 193, 100 S.Ct. 1093, 63 L.Ed.2d 312 (1980) (per curiam ). Brief for Federal Respondents 31. Crown Simpson, the Government says, broadens the statutory inquiry under subparagraph (F) by directing courts to ask whether agency actions are " 'functionally similar' " to permit issuances or denials. Brief for Federal Respondents 33 (quoting Crown Simpson, 445 U.S., at 196, 100 S.Ct. 1093 ). According to the Government, the WOTUS Rule is "functionally similar" to issuing or denying a permit because it establishes the geographical bounds of EPA's permitting authority and thereby dictates whether permits may or may not be issued. We reject this approach because it misconstrues Crown Simpson and ignores the statutory text. First, Crown Simpson provides scant support for the Government's atextual construction of subparagraph (F). In that case, the Court held that subparagraph (F) conferred jurisdiction over the EPA's veto of a state-issued permit. See 445 U.S., at 196, 100 S.Ct. 1093. The Court explained that "[w]hen [the] EPA... objects to effluent limitations contained in a state-issued permit, the precise effect of its action is to 'den[y]' a permit within the meaning of [subparagraph F]." Ibid. Contrary to the Government's suggestion, the WOTUS Rule in no way resembles the EPA's veto of a state-issued permit addressed in Crown Simpson. Although the WOTUS Rule may define a jurisdictional prerequisite of the EPA's authority to issue or deny a permit, the Rule itself makes no decision whatsoever on individual permit applications. Crown Simpson is therefore inapposite. In addition, the Government's proposed "functional interpretive approach" is completely unmoored from the statutory text. As explained above, subparagraph (F) applies only to EPA actions "issuing or denying" a permit "under section 1342." The Government invites us to broaden that narrow language to cover any agency action that dictates whether a permit is issued or denied. Congress easily could have drafted subparagraph (F) in that broad manner. Indeed, Congress could have said that subparagraph (F) covers EPA actions "relating to whether a permit is issued or denied," or, alternatively, EPA actions "establishing the boundaries of EPA's permitting authority." But Congress chose not to do so. The Court declines the Government's invitation to override Congress' considered choice by rewriting the words of the statute. See Franklin Cal. Tax-Free Trust, 579 U.S., at ----, 136 S.Ct., at 1948-1949. Finally, the Government's interpretation of subparagraph (F) would create surplusage in other parts of § 1369(b)(1). Subparagraph (D) is one example. That provision gives federal appellate courts original jurisdiction to review EPA actions "making any determination as to a State permit program submitted under section 1342(b)." Put differently, subparagraph (D) establishes the boundaries of EPA's permitting authority vis-à-vis the States. Under the Government's functional interpretive approach, however, subparagraph (F) would already reach actions delineating the boundaries of EPA's permitting authority, thus rendering subparagraph (D) unnecessary. Absent clear evidence that Congress intended this surplusage, the Court rejects an interpretation of the statute that would render an entire subparagraph meaningless. As this Court has noted time and time again, the Court is "obliged to give effect, if possible, to every word Congress used." Reiter v. Sonotone Corp., 442 U.S. 330, 339, 99 S.Ct. 2326, 60 L.Ed.2d 931 (1979). For these reasons, subparagraph (F) does not grant courts of appeals exclusive jurisdiction to review the WOTUS Rule in the first instance. III A Unable to anchor its preferred reading in the statutory text, the Government seeks refuge in a litany of extratextual considerations that it believes support direct circuit-court review of the WOTUS Rule. Those considerations-alone and in combination-provide no basis to depart from the statute's plain language. First, the Government contends that initial circuit-court review of the WOTUS Rule would avoid an irrational bifurcated judicial-review scheme under which federal courts of appeals would review individual actions issuing or denying permits, whereas district courts would review broader regulations governing those actions. In E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. Train, 430 U.S. 112, 97 S.Ct. 965, 51 L.Ed.2d 204 (1977), the Court described such a bifurcated regime as a "truly perverse situation." Id., at 136, 97 S.Ct. 965. And a few years later, in Crown Simpson, the Court declared that "[a]bsent a far clearer expression of congressional intent, we are unwilling to read the Act as creating such a seemingly irrational bifurcated system." 445 U.S., at 197, 100 S.Ct. 1093. Unlike in Crown Simpson, however, here the Court perceives such a "clea[r] expression of congressional intent." Ibid. Even if the Court might draft the statute differently, Congress made clear that rules like the WOTUS Rule must be reviewed first in federal district courts. Moreover, the bifurcation that the Government bemoans is no more irrational than Congress' choice to assign challenges to NPDES permits to circuit courts, and challenges to § 1344 permits to district courts. See 33 U.S.C. § 1369(b)(1)(E). And notably, many of this Court's recent decisions regarding the agencies' application and definition of the term "waters of the United States" have originated in district courts, not the courts of appeals. See, e.g., Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., 578 U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 1807, 195 L.Ed.2d 77 (2016) ; Sackett v. EPA, 566 U.S. 120, 132 S.Ct. 1367, 182 L.Ed.2d 367 (2012) ; Rapanos, 547 U.S., at 729, 126 S.Ct. 2208 (plurality opinion). Second, and relatedly, the Government argues that immediate court-of-appeals review facilitates quick and orderly resolution of disputes about the WOTUS Rule. We acknowledge that routing WOTUS Rule challenges directly to the courts of appeals may improve judicial efficiency. See Crown Simpson, 445 U.S., at 197, 100 S.Ct. 1093 (noting that "the additional level of judicial review" that would occur in district courts "would likely cause delays in resolving disputes under the Act"); see also Harrison v. PPG Industries, Inc., 446 U.S. 578, 593, 100 S.Ct. 1889, 64 L.Ed.2d 525 (1980) ("The most obvious advantage of direct review by a court of appeals is the time saved compared to review by a district court, followed by a second review on appeal"). But efficiency was not Congress' only consideration. Had Congress wanted to prioritize efficiency, it could have authorized direct circuit-court review of all nationally applicable regulations, as it did under the Clean Air Act. See 42 U.S.C. § 7607(b)(1) (granting the D.C. Circuit original jurisdiction to review "any other nationally applicable regulations promulgated, or final action taken, by the Administrator under this chapter" and granting regional circuits jurisdiction to review "any other final action of the Administrator under this chapter... which is locally or regionally applicable"). That Congress structured judicial review under the Act differently confirms what the text makes clear-that § 1369(b)(1) does not grant courts of appeals original jurisdiction to review many types of EPA action, including the WOTUS Rule. Third, the Government contends that "initial review in a court of appeals" promotes " '[n]ational uniformity, an important goal in dealing with broad regulations.' " Brief for Federal Respondents 35 (quoting Natural Resources Defense Council v. EPA, 673 F.2d 400, 405, n. 15 (C.A.D.C.1982) (R.B. Ginsburg, J.)). That argument carries some logical force. After all, the numerous challenges to the WOTUS Rule in this very case were consolidated in one Court of Appeals, avoiding any risk of conflict among other courts of appeals, whereas the same was not true for the challenges filed in district courts, leading to some conflicting outcomes. But even if Congress sought to ensure national uniformity, it did not pursue that end at all costs. Although § 1369(b)(1) does not authorize immediate circuit-court review of all national rules under the Act, it does permit federal appellate courts to review directly certain effluent and other limitations and individual permit decisions. See, e.g., §§ 1369(b)(1)(E), (F). It is true that Congress could have funneled all challenges to national rules to the courts of appeals, but it chose a different tack Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mb. Chief Justice Burger delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented in this case is whether testimony given by a grand jury witness suspected of wrongdoing may be used against him in a later prosecution for a substantive criminal offense when the witness was not informed in advance of his testimony that he was a potential defendant in danger of indictment. (1) The facts are not in dispute. Zimmerman and Woodard were driving respondent’s van truck when a Washington, D. C., policeman stopped them for a traffic offense. Seeing a motorcycle in the rear of the van which he identified as stolen, the officer arrested both men and impounded respondent’s vehicle. When respondent came to reclaim the van, he told police that Zimmerman and Woodard were friends who were driving the- van with his permission. He explained the presence of the stolen motorcycle by saying that while driving the van himself he had stopped to assist an unknown motorcyclist whose machine had broken down. Respondent then allowed the motorcycle to be placed in his van to take it for repairs. Soon after this the van stalled and he walked to a nearby gasoline station to call Zimmerman and Woodard for help, leaving the van with the unknown motorcyclist. After reaching Zimmerman by phone, respondent waited at the gasoline station for his friends, then returned to the spot he had left the van when they failed to appear; by that time the van had disappeared. Respondent said he was not alarmed, assuming his friends had repaired the van and driven it away. Shortly thereafter, Zimmerman and Woodard were arrested with the stolen motorcycle in the van. Not surprisingly, the officer to whom respondent related this tale was more than a little skeptical; he told respondent he did not believe his story, and advised him not to repeat it in court, “because you’re liable to be in trouble if you [do so].” The officer also declined to release the van. Respondent then repeated this story to an Assistant United States Attorney working on the case. The prosecutor, too, was dubious of the account; nevertheless, he released the van to respondent. At the same time, he served respondent with a subpoena to appear before the grand jury investigating the motorcycle theft. When respondent appeared before the grand jury, the Assistant United States Attorney in charge had not yet decided whether to seek an indictment against him. The prosecutor was aware of respondent’s explanation, and was also aware of the possibility that respondent could be indicted by the grand jury for the theft if his story was not believed. The prosecutor did not advise respondent before his appearance that he might be indicted on a criminal • charge in connection with the stolen motorcycle. But respondent, after reciting the usual oath to tell the truth, was given a series of other warnings, as follows: “Q---- “You have a right to remain silent. You are not required to say anything to us in this Grand Jury at any time or to answer any question. “Anything you say can be used against you in Court. “You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we question you and have him outside the Grand Jury during any questioning. “If you cannot afford a lawyer and want one a lawyer will be provided for you. “If you want to answer questions now without a lawyer present you will still have the right to stop answering at any time. “You also have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to a lawyer. “Now, do you understand those rights, sir? “A Yes, I do. “Q And do you want to answer questions of the Grand Jury in reference to a stolen motorcycle that was found in your truck? “A Yes, sir. “Q And do you want a lawyer here or outside the Grand Jury room while you answer those questions? “A No, I don’t think so.” In response to questions, respondent again related his version of how the stolen motorcycle came to be in the rear of his van. Subsequently, the grand jury indicted respondent, Zimmerman, and Woodard for grand larceny and receiving stolen property. Respondent moved to suppress his testimony and quash the indictment, arguing that it was based on evidence obtained in violation of his Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination. The Superior Court for the District of Columbia suppressed the testimony and dismissed the indictment, holding that before the Government could use respondent’s grand jury testimony at trial, it had first to demonstrate that respondent had knowingly waived his privilege against compelled self-incrimination. Notwithstanding the comprehensive warnings described earlier, the court found no effective waiver had been made, holding that respondent was not properly advised of his Fifth Amendment rights. The court thought the Constitution required, at a minimum, that “inquiry be made of the suspect to determine what his educational background is, and what his formal education is and whether or not he understands that this is a constitutional privilege and whether he fully understands the consequences of what might result in the event that he does waive his constitutional right and in the event that he does make incriminatory statements . . . .” The court also held that respondent should have been told that his testimony could lead to his indictment by the grand jury before which he was testifying, and could then be used to convict him in a criminal prosecution. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed the suppression order. 328 A. 2d 98 (1974). That court also took the position that “the most significant failing of the prosecutor was in not advising [respondent] that he was a potential defendant. Another shortcoming was in the prosecutor’s waiting until after administering the oath in the cloister of the grand jury before undertaking to furnish what advice was given.” Id., at 100. (2) The implicit premise of the- District of Columbia Court of Appeals’ holding is that a grand jury inquiry, like police custodial interrogation, is an “interrogation of persons suspected or accused of crime [that] contains inherently compelling pressures which work to undermine the individual’s will to resist and to compel him_to speak where he would not otherwise do so freely.” Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436, 467 (1966). But this Court has not decided that the grand jury setting presents coercive elements which compel witnesses to incriminate themselves. Nor have we decided whether any Fifth Amendment warnings whatever are constitutionally required for grand jury witnesses; moreover, we have no occasion to decide these matters today, for even assuming that the grand jury setting exerts some • pressures on witnesses generally or on those who may later be indicted, the comprehensive warnings respondent received in this case plainly satisfied any possible claim to warnings. Accordingly, respondent’s grand jury testimony may properly be used against him in a subsequent trial for theft of the motorcycle. Although it is well settled that the Fifth Amendment privilege extends to grand jury proceedings, Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U. S. 547 (1892), it is also axiomatic that the Amendment does not automatically preclude self-incrimination, whether spontaneous or in response to questions put by government officials. “It does not preclude a witness from testifying voluntarily in matters which may incriminate him,” United States v. Monia, 317 U. S. 424, 427 (1943), for “those competent and freewilled to do so may give evidence against the whole world, themselves included.” United States v. Kimball, 117 F. 156, 163 (CCSDNY 1902); accord, Miranda, supra, at 478; Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U. S. 433 (1974); Hoffa v. United States, 385 U. S. 293 (1966). Indeed, far from being prohibited by the Constitution, admissions of guilt by wrongdoers, if not coerced, are inherently desirable. In addition-to guaranteeing the right to remain silent unless immunity is granted, the Fifth Amendment proscribes only self-incrimination obtained by a “genuine compulsion of testimony.” Michigan v. Tucker, supra, at 440. Absent some officially coerced self-accusation, the Fifth Amendment privilege is not violated by even the most damning admissions. Accordingly, unless the record reveals some compulsion, respondent's incriminating testimony cannot conflict with any constitutional guarantees of the privilege. The Constitution does not prohibit every element which influences a criminal suspect to make incriminating admissions. See Garner v. United States, 424 U. S. 648 (1976), Beckwith v. United States, 425 U. S. 341 (1976); Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U. S. 218, 223-227 (1973). Of course, for many witnesses the grand jury room engenders an atmosphere conducive to truthtelling, for it is likely that upon being brought before such a body of neighbors and fellow citizens, and having been placed under a solemn oath to tell the truth, many witnesses will feel obliged to do just that. But it does not offend the guarantees of the Fifth Amendment if in that setting a witness is more likely to tell the truth than in less solemn surroundings. The constitutional guarantee is only that the witness be not compelled to give self-incriminating testimony. The test is whether, considering the totality of the circumstances, the free will of the witness was overborne. Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U. S. 534, 544 (1961). (3) After being sworn, respondent was explicitly advised that he had a right to remain silent and that any statements he did make could be used to convict him of crime. It is inconceivable that such a warning would fail to alert him to his right to refuse to answer any question which might incriminate him. This advice also eliminated any possible compulsion to self-incrimination which might otherwise exist. To suggest otherwise is to ignore the record and reality. Indeed, it seems self-evident that one who is told he is free to refuse to answer questions is in a curious posture to later complain that his answers were compelled. Moreover, any possible coercion or unfairness resulting from a witness’ misimpression that he must answer truthfully even questions with incriminatory aspects is completely removed by the warnings given here. Even in the presumed psychologically coercive atmosphere of police custodial interrogation, Miranda does not require that any additional warnings be given simply because the suspect is a potential defendant; indeed, such suspects are potential defendants more often than not. United States v. Binder, 453 F. 2d 805, 810 (CA2 1971), cert. denied, 407 U. S. 920 (1972). Respondent points out that unlike one subject to custodial interrogation, whose arrest should inform him only too clearly that he is a potential criminal defendant, a grand jury witness may well be unaware that he is targeted for possible prosecution. While this may be so in some situations, it is an overdrawn generalization. In any case, events here clearly put respondent on notice that he was a suspect in the motorcycle theft. He knew that the grand jury was investigating that theft and that his involvement was known to the authorities. Respondent was made abundantly aware that his exculpatory version of events had been disbelieved by the police officer, and that his friends, whose innocence his own story supported, were to be prosecuted for the theft. The interview with the prosecutor put him on additional notice that his implausible story was not accepted as true. The warnings he received in the grand jury room served further to alert him to his own potential criminal liability. In sum, by the time he testified respondent knew better than anyone else of his potential defendant status. However, all of this is largely irrelevant, since we do not understand what constitutional disadvantage a failure to give potential defendant warnings could possibly inflict on a grand jury witness, whether or not he has received other warnings. It is firmly settled that the prospect of being indicted does not entitle a witness to commit perjury, and witnesses who are not grand jury targets are protected from compulsory self-incrimination to the same extent as those who are. Because target witness status neither enlarges nor diminishes the constitutional protection against compelled self-incrimination, potential-defendant warnings add nothing of value to protection of Fifth Amendment rights. Respondent suggests he must prevail under Garner v. United States, supra. There, the petitioner was charged with a gambling conspiracy. As part of its case, the Government introduced Garner’s income tax returns, in one of which he had identified his occupation as “professional gambler,” and in all of which he had reported substantial income from wagering. The Court recognized that Garner was indeed compelled by law to file a tax return, but held that this did not constitute compelled self-incrimination. The Court noted that Garner did not claim his Fifth Amendment privilege, instead making the incriminating disclosure that he was a professional gambler. Garner holds that the Self-Incrimination Clause is violated only when the Government compels disclosures which it knows will incriminate the declarant — that is, only when it intentionally places the individual under “compulsions to incriminate, not merely compulsions to make unprivileged disclosures.” 424 U. S., at 657. But the distinction between compulsion to incriminate and compulsion to disclose what the Government is entitled to know is of no help to respondent; in this case there was no compulsion to do either. In Beckwith v. United States, decided shortly after Garner, we reaffirmed the need for showing overbearing compulsion as a prerequisite to a Fifth Amendment violation. There, the Government agent interrogated the taxpayer for the explicit purpose of securing information that would incriminate him. There, as here, the interrogation was not conducted in an inherently coercive setting; hence the claim of compelled self-incrimination was rejected. (4) . Since warnings were given, we are not called upon to decide whether such warnings were constitutionally required. However, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that whatever warnings are required are insufficient if given “in the cloister of the grand jury.” 328 A. 2d, at 100. That court gave no reason for its view that warnings must be given outside the presence of the jury, but respondent now advances two justifications. First, it could be thought that warnings given to respondent before the grand jury came too late, because of the short time to assimilate their significance, and because of the presence of the grand jurors. But respondent does not contend that he did not understand the warnings given here. In any event, it is purely speculative to attribute any such effects to warnings given in the presence of the jury immediately before taking the stand. If anything, the proximity of the warnings to respondent’s testimony and the solemnity of the grand jury setting seem likely to increase their effectiveness. Second, respondent argues that giving the oath in the presence of the grand jury undermines assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege by placing the witness in fear that the grand jury will infer guilt from invocation of the privilege. But this argument entirely overlooks that the grand jury’s historic role is as an investigative body; it is not the final arbiter of guilt or innocence. Moreover, it is well settled that invocation of the Fifth Amendment privilege in a grand jury proceeding is not admissible in a criminal trial, where guilt or innocence is actually at stake. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. Reversed and remanded. With United States v. Mandujano, 425 U. S. 564 (1976), and United States v. Wong, ante, p. 174, we have settled that grand jury witnesses, including those already targeted for indictment, may be convicted of perjury on the basis of their false grand jury testimony even though they were not first advised of their Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination. 2 This was an obvious overstatement of respondent’s constitutional rights; the very purpose of the grand jury is to elicit testimony, and it can compel answers, by use of contempt powers, to all except self-incriminating questions. After the oral warnings, respondent was also handed a card containing all the warnings prescribed by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966), and a waiver form acknowledging that the witness waived the privilege against compelled self-incrimination. Respondent signed the waiver. The Court of Appeals declined to dismiss the indictment, however, relying on a line of cases in this Court holding that an indictment returned by a properly constituted grand jury is not subject to challenge on the ground that it was based on unconstitutionally obtained evidence. See United States v. Calandra, 414 U. S. 338 (1974); United States v. Blue, 384 U. S. 251 (1966); Lawn v. United States, 355 U. S. 339 (1958). Respondent’s cross-petition seeking review of this portion of the Court of Appeals’ ruling was denied, 426 U. S. 905 (1976), and the validity of the indictment is not an issue in this case. Though both courts below found no effective waiver of Fifth Amendment rights, neither court found, and no one suggests here, that respondent’s signing of the waiver-of-rights form was involuntary or was made without full appreciation of all the rights of which he was advised. The Government does not challenge, and we do not disturb, the finding that at the time of his grand jury appearance respondent was a potential defendant whose indictment was considered likely by the prosecution. In Miranda, the Court saw as inherently coercive any police custodial interrogation conducted by isolating the suspect with police officers; therefore, the Court established a per se rule that all incriminating statements made during such interrogation are barred as “compelled.” All Miranda’s safeguards, which are designed to avoid the coercive atmosphere, rest on the overbearing compulsion which the Court thought was caused by isolation of a suspect in police custody. See Oregon v. Mathiason, 429 U. S. 492 (1977); Beckwith v. United States, 425 U. S. 341 (1976); Garner v. United States, 424 U. S. 648, 653-654 (1976); Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U. S., at 444. Although the District of Columbia Court of Appeals rested its holding solely on the Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment, respondent urges the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause. He contends it is fundamentally unfair to elicit incriminating testimony from a potential defendant without first informing him of his target status. This, it is argued, would alert the witness more pointedly so as to enable him to decide whether to invoke the privilege against compelled self-incrimination. This line of argument simply restates respondent’s claims under the Self-Incrimination Clause and is rejected for the same reasons. Moreover, there is no evidence of any governmental misconduct which undermined the fairness of the proceedings. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Powell announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, IV, and V, and an opinion with respect to Parts II and III in which The Chief Justice, Justice Rehnquist, and Justice O’Connor join. This case requires us to define the circumstances under which federal courts should entertain a state prisoner’s petition for writ of habeas corpus that raises claims rejected on a prior petition for the same relief. h-4 In the early morning of July 4, 1970, respondent and two confederates robbed the Star Taxicab Garage in the Bronx, New York, and fatally shot the night dispatcher. Shortly before, employees of the garage had observed respondent, a former employee there, on the premises conversing with two other men. They also witnessed respondent fleeing after the robbery, carrying loose money in his arms. After eluding the police for four days, respondent turned himself in. Respondent admitted that he had been present when the crimes took place, claimed that he had witnessed the robbery, gave the police a description of the robbers, but denied knowing them. Respondent also denied any involvement in the robbery or murder, claiming that he had fled because he was afraid of being blamed for the crimes. After his arraignment, respondent was confined in the Bronx House of Detention, where he was placed in a cell with a prisoner named Benny Lee. Unknown to respondent, Lee had agreed to act as a police informant. Respondent made incriminating statements that Lee reported to the police. Prior to trial, respondent moved to suppress the statements on the ground that they were obtained in violation of his right to counsel. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on the suppression motion, which revealed that the statements were made under the following circumstances. Before respondent arrived in the jail, Lee had entered into an arrangement with Detective Cullen, according to which Lee agreed to listen to respondent’s conversations and report his remarks to Cullen. Since the police had positive evidence of respondent’s participation, the purpose of placing Lee in the cell was to determine the identities of respondent’s confederates. Cullen instructed Lee not to ask respondent any questions, but simply to “keep his ears open” for the names of the other perpetrators. Respondent first spoke to Lee about the crimes after he looked out the cellblock window at the Star Taxicab Garage, where the crimes' had occurred. Respondent said, “someone’s messing with me,” and began talking to Lee about the robbery, narrating the same story that he had given the police at the time of his arrest. Lee advised respondent that this explanation “didn’t sound too good,” but respondent did not alter his story. Over the next few days, however, respondent changed details of his original account. Respondent then received a visit from his brother, who mentioned that members of his family were upset because they believed that respondent had murdered the dispatcher. After the visit, respondent again described the crimes to Lee. Respondent now admitted that he and two other men, whom he never identified, had planned and carried out the robbery, and had murdered the dispatcher. Lee informed Cullen of respondent’s statements and furnished Cullen with notes that he had written surreptitiously while sharing the cell with respondent. After hearing the testimony of Cullen and Lee, the trial court found that Cullen had instructed Lee “to ask no questions of [respondent] about the crime but merely to listen as to what [respondent] might say in his presence.” The court determined that Lee obeyed these instructions, that he “at no time asked any questions with respect to the crime,” and that he “only listened to [respondent] and made notes regarding what [respondent] had to say.” The trial court also found that respondent’s statements to Lee were “spontaneous” and “unsolicited.” Under state precedent, a defendant’s volunteered statements to a police agent were admissible in evidence because the police were not required to prevent talkative defendants from making incriminating statements. See People v. Kaye, 25 N. Y. 2d 139, 145, 250 N. E. 2d 329, 332 (1969). The trial court accordingly denied the suppression motion. The jury convicted respondent of common-law murder and felonious possession of a weapon. On May 18, 1972, the trial court sentenced him to a term of 20 years to life on the murder count and to a concurrent term of up to 7 years on the weapons count. The Appellate Division affirmed without opinion, People v. Wilson, 41 App. Div. 2d 903, 343 N. Y. S. 2d 563 (1973), and the New York Court of Appeals denied respondent leave to appeal. On December 7, 1973, respondent filed a petition for federal habeas corpus relief. Respondent argued, among other things, that his statements to Lee were obtained pursuant to police investigative methods that violated his constitutional rights. After considering Massiah v. United States, 377 U. S. 201 (1964), the District Court for the Southern District of New York denied the writ on January 7,1977. The record demonstrated “no interrogation whatsoever” by Lee and “only spontaneous statements” from respondent. In the District Court’s view, these “fact[s] preclude[d] any Sixth Amendment violation.” A divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed. Wilson v. Henderson, 584 F. 2d 1185 (1978). The court noted that a defendant is denied his Sixth Amendment rights when the trial court admits in evidence incriminating statements that state agents “‘had deliberately elicited from him after he had been indicted and in the absence of counsel.’” Id., at 1189, quoting Massiah v. United States, supra, at 206. Relying in part on Brewer v. Williams, 430 U. S. 387 (1977), the court reasoned that the “deliberately elicited” test of Massiah requires something more than incriminating statements uttered in the absence of counsel. On the facts found by the state trial court, which were entitled to a presumption of correctness under 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d), the court held that respondent had not established a violation of his Sixth Amendment rights. We denied a petition for a writ of certiorari. Wilson v. Henderson, 442 U. S. 945 (1979). Following this Court’s decision in United States v. Henry, 447 U. S. 264 (1980), which applied the Massiah test to suppress statements made to a paid jailhouse informant, respondent decided to relitigate his Sixth Amendment claim. On September 11, 1981, he filed in state trial court a motion to vacate his conviction. The judge denied the motion, on the grounds that Henry was factually distinguishable from this case, and that under state precedent Henry was not to be given retroactive effect, see People v. Pepper, 53 N. Y. 2d 213, 423 N. E. 2d 366 (1981). The Appellate Division denied respondent leave to appeal. On July 6, 1982, respondent returned to the District Court for the Southern District of New York on a habeas petition, again arguing that admission in evidence of his incriminating statements to Lee violated his Sixth Amendment rights. Respondent contended that the decision in Henry constituted a new rule of law that should be applied retroactively to this case. The District Court found it unnecessary to consider retroactivity because it decided that Henry did not undermine the Court of Appeals’ prior disposition of respondent’s Sixth Amendment claim. Noting that Henry reserved the question whether the Constitution forbade admission in evidence of an accused’s statements to an informant who made “no effort to stimulate conversations about the crime charged,” see United States v. Henry, supra, at 271, n. 9, the District Court believed that this case presented that open question and that the question must be answered negatively. The District Court noted that the trial court’s findings were presumptively correct, see 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d), and were fully supported by the record. The court concluded that these findings were “fatal” to respondent’s claim under Henry since they showed that Lee made no “affirmative effort” of any kind “to elicit information” from respondent. A different, and again divided, panel of the Court of Appeals reversed. Wilson v. Henderson, 742 F. 2d 741 (1984). As an initial matter, the court stated that, under Sanders v. United States, 373 U. S. 1 (1963), the “ends of justice” required consideration of this petition, notwithstanding the fact that the prior panel had determined the merits adversely to respondent. 742 F. 2d, at 743. The court then reasoned that the circumstances under which respondent made his incriminating statements to Lee were indistinguishable from the facts of Henry. Finally, the court decided that Henry was fully applicable here because it did not announce a new constitutional rule, but merely applied settled principles to new facts. 742 F. 2d, at 746-747. Therefore, the court concluded that all of the judges who had considered and rejected respondent’s claim had erred, and remanded the case to the District Court with instructions to order respondent’s release from prison unless the State elected to retry him. We granted certiorari, 472 U. S. 1026 (1985), to consider the Court of Appeals’ decision that the “ends of justice” required consideration of this successive habeas corpus petition and that court’s application of our decision in Henry to the facts of this case. We now reverse. K A In concluding that it was appropriate to entertain respondent’s successive habeas corpus petition, the Court of Appeals relied upon Sanders v. United States, 373 U. S. 1 (1963), which announced guidelines for the federal courts to follow when presented with habeas petitions or their equivalent claimed to be “successive” or an “abuse of the writ.” The narrow question in Sanders was whether a federal prisoner’s motion under 28 U. S. C. § 2255 was properly denied without a hearing on the ground that the motion constituted a successive application. Id., at 4-6. The Court undertook not only to answer that question, but also to explore the standard that should govern district courts’ consideration of successive petitions. Sanders framed the inquiry in terms of the requirements of the “ends of justice,” advising district courts to dismiss habeas petitions or their equivalent raising claims determined adversely to the prisoner on a prior petition if “the ends of justice would not be served by reaching the merits of the subsequent application.” Id., at 15, 16-17. While making clear that the burden of proof on this issue rests on the prisoner, id., at 17, the Court in Sanders provided little specific guidance as to the kind of proof that a prisoner must offer to establish that the “ends of justice” would be served by relitigation of the claims previously decided against him. The Court of Appeals’ decision in this case demonstrates the need for this Court to provide that guidance. The opinion of the Court of Appeals sheds no light on this important threshold question, merely declaring that the “ends of justice” required successive federal habeas corpus review. Failure to provide clear guidance leaves district judges “at large in disposing of applications for a writ of habeas corpus,” creating the danger that they will engage in “the exercise not of law but of arbitrariness.” Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443, 497 (1953) (opinion of Frankfurter, J.). This Court therefore must now define the considerations that should govern federal courts’ disposition of successive petitions for habeas corpus. B Since 1867, when Congress first authorized the federal courts to issue the writ on behalf of persons in state custody, this Court often has been called upon to interpret the language of the statutes defining the scope of that jurisdiction. It may be helpful to review our cases construing these frequently used statutes before we answer the specific question before us today. Until the early years of this century, the substantive scope of the federal habeas corpus statutes was defined by reference to the scope of the writ at common law, where the courts’ inquiry on habeas was limited exclusively “to the jurisdiction of the sentencing tribunal.” Stone v. Powell, 428 U. S. 465, 475 (1976). See Wainwright v. Sykes, 438 U. S. 72, 78, 79 (1977); see also Oaks, Legal History in the High Court — Habeas Corpus, 64 Mich. L. Rev. 451, 458-468 (1966). Thus, the finality of the judgment of a committing court of competent jurisdiction was accorded absolute respect on habeas review. See Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U. S. 218, 254-256 (1973) (POWELL, J., concurring). During this century, the Court gradually expanded the grounds on which habeas corpus relief was available, authorizing use of the writ to challenge convictions where the prisoner claimed a violation of certain constitutional rights. See Wainwright v. Sykes, supra, at 79-80; Stone v. Powell, supra, at 475-478. The Court initially accomplished this expansion while purporting to adhere to the inquiry into the sentencing court’s jurisdiction. Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U. S., at 79. Ultimately, the Court abandoned the concept of jurisdiction and acknowledged that habeas “review is available for claims of ‘disregard of the constitutional rights of the accused, and where the writ is the only effective means of preserving his rights.’” Ibid., quoting Waley v. Johnston, 316 U. S. 101, 104-105 (1942). Our decisions have not been limited to expanding the scope of the writ. Significantly, in Stone v. Powell, we removed from the reach of the federal habeas statutes a state prisoner’s claim that “evidence obtained in an unconstitutional search or seizure was introduced at his trial” unless the prisoner could show that the State had failed to provide him “an opportunity for full and fair litigation” of his Fourth Amendment claim. 428 U. S., at 494 (footnotes omitted). Although the Court previously had accepted jurisdiction of search and seizure claims, id., at 480, we were persuaded that any “advance of the legitimate goal of furthering Fourth Amendment rights” through application of the judicially ere-ated exclusionary rule on federal habeas was “outweighed by the acknowledged costs to other values vital to a rational system of criminal justice.” Id., at 494. Among those costs were diversion of the attention of the participants at a criminal trial “from the ultimate question of guilt or innocence,” and exclusion of reliable evidence that was “often the most probative information bearing on the guilt or innocence of the defendant.” Id., at 490. Our decision to except this category of claims from habeas corpus review created no danger that we were denying a “safeguard against compelling an innocent man to suffer an unconstitutional loss of liberty.” Id., at 491-492, n. 31. Rather, a convicted defendant who pressed a search and seizure claim on collateral attack was “usually asking society to redetermine an issue that ha[d] no bearing on the basic justice of his incarceration. ” Id., at 492, n. 31. In decisions of the past two or three decades construing the reach of the habeas statutes, whether reading those statutes broadly or narrowly, the Court has reaffirmed that “habeas corpus has traditionally been regarded as governed by equitable principles.” Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 438 (1963), citing United States ex rel. Smith v. Baldi, 344 U. S. 561, 573 (1953) (dissenting opinion). See Stone v. Powell, supra, at 478, n. 11. The Court uniformly has been guided by the proposition that the writ should be available to afford relief to those “persons whom society has grievously wronged” in light of modern concepts of justice. Fay v. Noia, supra, at 440-441. See Stone v. Powell, supra, at 492, n. 31. Just as notions of justice prevailing at the inception of habeas corpus were offended when a conviction was issued by a court that lacked jurisdiction, so the modern conscience found intolerable convictions obtained in violation of certain constitutional commands. But the Court never has defined the scope of the writ simply by reference to a perceived need to assure that an individual accused of crime is afforded a trial free of constitutional error. Rather, the Court has performed its statutory task through a sensitive weighing of the interests implicated by federal habeas corpus adjudication of constitutional claims determined adversely to the prisoner by the state courts. E. g., Engle v. Isaac, 456 U. S. 107, 126-129 (1982); Stone v. Powell, supra, at 489-495; Fay v. Noia, supra, at 426-434. III A The Court in Sanders drew the phrase “ends of justice” directly from the version of 28 U. S. C. § 2244 in effect in 1963. The provision, which then governed petitions filed by both federal and state prisoners, stated in relevant part that no federal judge “shall be required to entertain an application for a writ of habeas corpus to inquire into the detention of a person..., if it appears that the legality of such detention has been determined” by a federal court “on a prior application for a writ of habeas corpus and the petition presents no new ground not theretofore presented and determined, and the judge... is satisfied that the ends of justice will not be served by such inquiry.” 28 U. S. C. §2244 (1964 ed.) (emphasis added). Accordingly, in describing guidelines for successive petitions, Sanders did little more than quote the language of the then-pertinent statute, leaving for another day the task of giving that language substantive content. In 1966, Congress carefully reviewed the habeas corpus statutes and amended their provisions, including §2244. Section 2244(b), which we construe today, governs successive petitions filed by state prisoners. The section makes no reference to the “ends of justice,” and provides that the federal courts “need not” entertain “subsequent applications” from state prisoners “unless the application alleges and is predicated on a factual or other ground not adjudicated on” the prior application “and unless the court... is satisfied that the applicant has not on the earlier application deliberately withheld the newly asserted ground or otherwise abused the writ.” In construing this language, we are cognizant that Congress adopted the section in light of the need — often recognized by this Court — to weigh the interests of the individual prisoner against the sometimes contrary interests of the State in administering a fair and rational system of criminal laws. The legislative history demonstrates that Congress intended the 1966 amendments, including those to § 2244(b), to introduce “a greater degree of finality of judgments in habeas corpus proceedings.” S. Rep. No. 1797, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1966) (Senate Report). Congress was concerned with the “steadily increasing” burden imposed on the federal courts by “applications by State prisoners for writs of habeas corpus.” Id., at 1; see H. R. Rep. No. 1892, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 5-6 (1966) (House Report). In many instances, the “heavy burden” created by these applications was “unnecessary” because state prisoners “have been filing applications either containing allegations identical to those asserted in a previous application that has been denied, or predicated upon grounds obviously well known to them when they filed the preceding application.” Senate Report, at 2; see House Report, at 5. The Senate Report explicitly states that the “purpose” of the amendments was to “alleviate the unnecessary burden” by adding “to section 2244... provisions for a qualified application of the doctrine of res judicata.” Senate Report, at 2; see House Report, at 8. The House also expressed concern that the increasing number of habeas applications from state prisoners “greatly interfered with the procedures and processes of the State courts by delaying, in many eases, the proper enforcement of their judgments.” Id., at 5. Based on the 1966 amendments and their legislative history, petitioner argues that federal courts no longer must consider the “ends of justice” before dismissing a successive petition. We reject this argument. It is clear that Congress intended for district courts, as the general rule, to give preclusive effect to a judgment denying on the merits a ha-beas petition alleging grounds identical in substance to those raised in the subsequent petition. But the permissive language of § 2244(b) gives federal courts discretion to entertain successive petitions under some circumstances. Moreover, Rule 9(b) of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases in the United States District Courts, which was amended in 1976, contains similar permissive language, providing that the district court “may” dismiss a “second or successive petition” that does not “allege new or different grounds for relief.” Consistent with Congress’ intent in enacting § 2244(b), however, the Advisory Committee Note to Rule 9(b), 28 U. S. C., p. 358, states that federal courts should entertain successive petitions only in “rare instances.” Unless those “rare instances” are to be identified by whim or caprice, district judges must be given guidance for determining when to exercise the limited discretion granted them by § 2244(b). Accordingly, as a means of identifying the rare case in which federal courts should exercise their discretion to hear a successive petition, we continue to rely on the reference in Sanders to the “ends of justice.” Our task is to provide a definition of the “ends of justice” that will accommodate Congress’ intent to give finality to federal habeas judgments with the historic function of habeas corpus to provide relief from unjust incarceration. B We now consider the limited circumstances under which the interests of the prisoner in relitigating constitutional claims held meritless on a prior petition may outweigh the countervailing interests served by according finality to the prior judgment. We turn first to the interests of the prisoner. The prisoner may have a vital interest in having a second chance to test the fundamental justice of his incarceration. Even where, as here, the many judges who have reviewed the prisoner’s claims in several proceedings provided by the State and on his first petition for federal habeas corpus have determined that his trial was free from constitutional error, a prisoner retains a powerful and legitimate interest in obtaining his release from custody if he is innocent of the charge for which he was incarcerated. That interest does not extend, however, to prisoners whose guilt is conceded or plain. As Justice Harlan observed, the guilty prisoner himself has “an interest in insuring that there will at some point be the certainty that comes with an end to litigation, and that attention will ultimately be focused not on whether a conviction was free from error but rather on whether the prisoner can be restored to a useful place in the community.” Sanders v. United States, 373 U. S., at 24-25 (dissenting). Balanced against the prisoner’s interest in access to a forum to test the basic justice of his confinement are the interests of the State in administration of its criminal statutes. Finality serves many of those important interests. Availability of unlimited federal collateral review to guilty defendants frustrates the State’s legitimate interest in deterring crime, since the deterrent force of penal laws is diminished to the extent that persons contemplating criminal activity believe there is a possibility that they will 'escape punishment through repetitive collateral attacks. See Engle v. Isaac, 456 U. S., at 127-128, n. 32. Similarly, finality serves the State’s goal of rehabilitating those who commit crimes because “[rjehabilitation demands that the convicted defendant realize that ‘he is justly subject to sanction, that he stands in need of rehabilitation.’” Id., at 128, n. 32 (quoting Bator, Finality in Criminal Law and Federal Habeas Corpus for State Prisoners, 76 Harv. L. Rev. 441, 452 (1963)). See Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U. S., at 262 (Powell, J., concurring). Finality also serves the State’s legitimate punitive interests. When a prisoner is freed on a successive petition, often many years after his crime, the State may be unable successfully to retry him. Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U. S. 54, 62 (1968). This result is unacceptable if the State must forgo conviction of a guilty defendant through the “erosion of memory” and “dispersion of witnesses” that occur with the passage of time that invariably attends collateral attack. Engle v. Isaac, supra, at 127-128; Friendly, Is Innocence Irrelevant? Collateral Attack on Criminal Judgments, 38 U. Chi. L. Rev. 142, 146-148 (1970). In the light of the historic purpose of habeas corpus and the interests implicated by successive petitions for federal ha-beas relief from a state conviction, we conclude that the “ends of justice” require federal courts to entertain such petitions only where the prisoner supplements his constitutional claim with a colorable showing of factual innocence. This standard was proposed by Judge Friendly more than a decade ago as a prerequisite for federal habeas review generally. Friendly, supra. As Judge Friendly persuasively argued then, a requirement that the prisoner come forward with a colorable showing of innocence identifies those habeas petitioners who are justified in again seeking relief from their incarceration. We adopt this standard now to effectuate the clear intent of Congress that successive federal habeas review should be granted only in rare cases, but that it should be available when the ends of justice so require. The prisoner may make the requisite showing by establishing that under the probative evidence he has a colorable claim of factual innocence. The prisoner must make his evidentiary showing even though — as argued in this case — the evidence of guilt may have been unlawfully admitted. C Applying the foregoing standard in this case, we hold that the Court of Appeals erred in concluding that the “ends of justice” would be served by consideration of respondent’s successive petition. The court conceded that the evidence of respondent’s guilt “was nearly overwhelming.” 742 F. 2d, at 742. The constitutional claim argued by respondent does not itself raise any question as to his guilt or innocence. The District Court and the Court of Appeals should have dismissed this successive petition under § 2244(b) on the ground that the prior judgment denying relief on this identical claim was final. > Even if the Court of Appeals had correctly decided to entertain this successive habeas petition, we conclude that it erred in holding that respondent was entitled to relief under United States v. Henry, 447 U. S. 264 (1980). As the District Court observed, Henry left open the question whether the Sixth Amendment forbids admission in evidence of an accused’s statements to a jailhoúse informant who was “placed in close proximity but [made] no effort to stimulate conversations about the crime charged.” Id., at 271, n. 9. Our review of the line of cases beginning with Massiah v. United States, 377 U. S. 201 (1964), shows that this question must, as the District Court properly decided, be answered negatively. A The decision in Massiah had its roots in two concurring opinions written in Spano v. New York, 360 U. S. 315 (1959). See Maine v. Moulton, 474 U. S. 159, 172 (1985). Following his indictment for first-degree murder, the defendant in Spano retained a lawyer and surrendered to the authorities. Before leaving the defendant in police custody, counsel cautioned him not to respond to interrogation. The prosecutor and police questioned the defendant, persisting in the face of his repeated refusal to answer and his repeated request to speak with his lawyer. The lengthy interrogation involved improper police tactics, and the defendant ultimately confessed. Following a trial at which his confession was admitted in evidence, the defendant was convicted and sentenced to death. 360 U. S., at 316-320. Agreeing with the Court that the confession was involuntary and thus improperly admitted in evidence under the Fourteenth Amendment, the concurring Justices also took the position that the defendant’s right to counsel was violated by the secret interrogation. Id., at 325 (Douglas, J., concurring). As Justice Stewart observed, an indicted person has the right to assistance of counsel throughout the proceedings against him. Id., at 327. The defendant was denied that right when he was subjected to an “all-night inquisition,” during which police ignored his repeated requests for his lawyer. Ibid. The Court in Massiah adopted the reasoning of the concurring opinions in Spano and held that, once a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel has attached, he is denied that right when federal agents “deliberately elicit” incriminating statements from him in the absence of his lawyer. 377 U. S., at 206. The Court adopted this test, rather than one that turned simply on whether the statements were obtained in an “interrogation,” to protect accused persons from “‘indirect and surreptitious interrogations as well as those conducted in the jailhouse. In this case, Massiah was more seriously imposed upon... because he did not even know that he was under interrogation by a government agent.’” Ibid., quoting United States v. Massiah, 307 F. 2d 62, 72-73 (1962) (Hays, J., dissenting in part). Thus, the Court made clear that it was concerned with interrogation or investigative techniques that were equivalent to interrogation, and that it so viewed the technique in issue in Massiah. In United States v. Henry, the Court applied the Massiah test to incriminating statements made to a jailhouse informant. The Court of Appeals in that case found a violation of Massiah because the informant had engaged the defendant in conversations and “had developed a relationship of trust and confidence with [the defendant] such that [the defendant] revealed incriminating information.” 447 U. S., at 269. This Court affirmed, holding that the Court of Appeals reasonably concluded that the Government informant “deliberately used his position to secure incriminating information from [the defendant] when counsel was not present.” Id., at 270. Although the informant had not questioned the defendant, the informant had “stimulated” conversations with the defendant in order to “elicit” incriminating information. Id., at 273; see id., at 271, n. 9. The Court emphasized that those facts, like the facts of Massiah, amounted to “ ‘indirect and surreptitious interrogation]’ ” of the defendant. 447 U. S., at 273. Earlier this Term, we applied the Massiah standard in a case involving incriminating statements made under circumstances substantially similar to the facts of Massiah itself. In Maine v. Moulton, 474 U. S. 159 (1985), the defendant made incriminating statements in a meeting with his accomplice, who had agreed to cooperate with the police. During that meeting, the accomplice, who wore a wire transmitter to record the conversation, discussed with the defendant the charges pending against him, repeatedly asked the defendant to remind him of the details of the crime, and encouraged the defendant to describe his plan for killing witnesses. Id., at 165-166, and n. 4. The Court concluded that these investigatory techniques denied the defendant his right to counsel on the pending charges. Significantly, the Court emphasized that, because of the relationship between the defendant and the informant, the informant’s engaging the defendant “in active conversation about their upcoming trial was certain to elicit” incriminating statements from the defendant. Id., at 177, n. 13. Thus, the informant’s participation “in this conversation was ‘the functional equivalent of interrogation.’” Ibid, (quoting United States v. Henry, 447 U. S., at 277 (Powell, J., concurring)). As our recent examination of this Sixth Amendment issue in Moulton makes clear, the primary concern of the Massiah line of decisions is secret interrogation by investigatory techniques that are the equivalent of direct police interrogation. Since “the Sixth Amendment is not violated whenever — by luck or happenstance — the State obtains incriminating statements from the accused after the right to counsel has attached,” 474 U. S., at 176, citing United States v. Henry, supra, at 276 (Powell, J., concurring), a defendant does not make out a violation of that right simply by showing that an informant, either through prior arrangement or voluntarily, reported his incriminating statements to the police. Rather, the defendant must demonstrate that the police and their informant took some action, beyond merely listening, that was designed deliberately to elicit incriminating remarks. B It is thus apparent that the Court of Appeals erred in concluding that respondent’s right to counsel was violated under the circumstances of this case. Its error did not stem from any disagreement with the District Court over appropriate resolution of the question reserved in Henry, but rather from its implicit conclusion that this case did not present that open question. That conclusion was based on a fundamental mistake, namely, the Court of Appeals’ failure to accord to the state trial court’s factual findings the presumption of correctness expressly required by 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d). Patton v. Yount, 467 U. S. 1025 (1984); Sumner v. Mata, 449 U. S. 539 (1981). The state court found that Officer Cullen had instructed Lee only to listen to respondent for the purpose of determining the identities of the other participants in the robbery and murder. The police already had solid evidence of respondent’s participation. The court further found that Lee followed those instructions, that he “at no time asked any questions” of respondent concerning the pending charges, and that he “only listened” to respondent’s “spontaneous” and “unsolicited” statements. The only remark made by Lee that has any support in this record was his comment that respondent’s initial version of his participation in the crimes “didn’t sound too good.” Without holding that any of the state court’s findings were not entitled to the presumption of correctness under § 2254(d), the Court of Appeals focused on that one remark and gave a description of Lee’s interaction with respondent that is completely at odds with the facts found by the trial court. In the Court of Appeals’ view, “[s]ubtly and slowly, but surely, Lee’s ongoing verbal intercourse with [respondent] served to exacerbate [respondent’s] already troubled state of mind.” 742 F. 2d, at 745. After thus revising some of the trial court’s findings, and ignoring other more relevant findings, the Court of Appeals concluded that the police “deliberately elicited” respondent’s incriminating statements. Ibid. This conclusion conflicts with the decision of every other state and federal judge who reviewed this record, and is clear error in light of the provisions and intent of § 2254(d). V The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. At the suppression hearing, Lee testified that, after hearing respondent’s initial version of his participation in the crimes, “I think I remember telling him that the story wasn’t — it didn’t sound too good. Things didn’t look too good for him.” At trial, Lee testified to a somewhat different version of his remark: “Well, I said, Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Stewart delivered the opinion of the Court. These two cases, consolidated for decision, raise the single question whether the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation in South Dakota, created by an 1867 treaty between the United States and the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Sioux Indians, was terminated and returned to the public domain, by the Act of March 3, 1891, c. 543, 26 Stat. 1035. In each of the two cases, the South Dakota courts asserted jurisdiction over members of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribe for acts done on lands which, though within the 1867 reservation borders, have been owned and settled by non-Indians since the 1891 Act. The parties agree that the state courts did not have jurisdiction if these lands are “Indian country,” as defined in 18 U. S. C. § 1151, and that this question depends upon whether the lands retained reservation status after 1891. We hold, for the reasons that follow, that the 1891 Act terminated the Lake Traverse Reservation, and that consequently the state courts have jurisdiction over conduct on non-Indian lands within the 1867 reservation borders. I The 1867 boundaries of the Lake Traverse Reservation enclose approximately 918,000 acres of land. Within the 1867 boundaries, there reside about 3,000 tribal members and 30,000 non-Indians. About 15% of the land is in the form of “Indian trust allotments”; these are individual land tracts retained by members of the Sisseton-Wahpe-ton Tribe when the rest of the reservation lands were sold to the United States in 1891. The trust allotments are scattered in a random pattern throughout the 1867 reservation area. The remainder of the reservation land was purchased from the United States by non-Indian settlers after 1891, and is presently inhabited by non-Indians. It is common ground here that Indian conduct occurring on the trust allotments is beyond the State's jurisdiction, being instead the proper concern of tribal or federal authorities. In the two cases before us, however, the State asserted jurisdiction over Indians based on conduct occurring on non-Indian, unallotted land within the 1867 reservation borders. The petitioner in No. 73-1148, Cheryl Spider DeCo-teau, is the natural mother of Herbert John Spider and Robert Lee Feather; all are enrolled members of the Sis-seton-Wahpeton Tribe. Both children have been assigned to foster homes by order of the respondent District County Court for the Tenth Judicial District of South Dakota. The petitioner gave Robert up for adoption in March of 1971, and Herbert was later separated from her through neglect and dependency proceedings in the respondent court, initiated by the State Welfare Department. On August 31, 1972, the petitioner commenced a habeas corpus action in a State Circuit Court alleging that the respondent had lacked jurisdiction to order her children separated from her and asking that they be released from the custodial process of the respondent. After a hearing, the state court denied the writ, finding that the respondent had possessed jurisdiction because “the non-Indian patented land, upon which a portion of the acts or omissions giving rise to the Order of the District County Court occurred, is not within Indian Country.” While acknowledging that this non-Indian patented land is within the 1867 boundaries of the Lake Traverse Reservation, the court noted that the tribe “had sold or relinquished [the non-Indian land in question] to the United States under the terms of the agreement which was ratified by acts of Congress, March 3, 1891.” The South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed, upon the ground that the 1891 Act ratified an 1889 Agreement by which “the Sisseton and Wahpeton Bands of Indians sold their unallotted lands, and the United States Government paid a sum certain for each and every acre purchased.... This, then, was an outright cession and sale of lands by the Indians to the United States. The land sold was separated from the reservation by Congress and became part of the public domain.” The relators in No. 73-1500 are enrolled members of the tribe who were convicted in South Dakota courts of various violations of the State’s penal laws committed on non-Indian lands within the 1867 reservation boundaries. The relators, in the custody of a state penitentiary, separately petitioned for writs of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota, alleging that the state courts had lacked criminal jurisdiction over their conduct within the 1867 reservation boundaries. The District Court summarily denied the petitions, but the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed. In DeMarrias v. South Dakota, 319 F. 2d 845, that court had previously held that the 1891 Act had terminated the Lake Traverse Reservation, leaving only allotted Indian lands within tribal or federal jurisdiction. But in the present case the Court of Appeals overruled its DeMarrias decision, finding it inconsistent with the principles of statutory construction established by this Court in Mattz v. Arnett, 412 U. S. 481, and Seymour v. Superintendent, 368 U. S. 351. The Court of Appeals accordingly held that “[t]he boundaries of the Lake Traverse Indian reservation remain as they were established in 1867. The scene of the alleged crimes is, therefore, within Indian country. South Dakota had no jurisdiction to try appellants.” 489 F. 2d 99, 103. We granted certiorari in the two eases, 417 U. S. 929, to resolve the conflict between the Supreme Court of South Dakota and the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit as to the effect of the 1891 Act on South Dakota’s civil and criminal jurisdiction over unallotted lands within the 1867 reservation boundaries. II When the Sioux Nation rebelled against the United States in 1862, the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Nation remained loyal to the Federal Government, many members serving as “scouts” for federal troops. This loyalty went unrecognized, however, when the Government confiscated the Sioux lands after the rebellion. In a belated act of gratitude, the United States entered into a treaty with the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribe in 1867. The treaty granted the tribe a permanent reservation in the Lake Traverse area, and provided for tribal self-government under the supervision of federal agents. But familiar forces soon began to work upon the Lake Traverse Reservation. A nearby and growing population of white farmers, merchants, and railroad men began urging authorities in Washington to open the reservation to general settlement. The Indians, suffering from disease and bad harvests, developed an increasing need for cash and direct assistance. Meanwhile, the Government had altered its general policy toward the Indian tribes. After 1871, the tribes were no longer regarded as sovereign nations, and the Government began to regulate their affairs through statute or through contractual agreements ratified by statute. In 1887, the General Allotment Act (or Dawes Act) was enacted in an attempt to reconcile the Government's responsibility for the Indians’ welfare with the desire of non-Indians to settle upon reservation lands. The Act empowered the President to allot portions of reservation land to tribal members and, with tribal consent, to sell the surplus lands to white settlers, with the proceeds of these sales being dedicated to the Indians’ benefit. See Mattz v. Arnett, 412 U. S., at 496-497. Against this background, a series of negotiations took place in 1889 with the objective of opening the Lake Traverse Reservation to settlement. In April of that year, a South Dakota banker, D. W. Diggs, sent to the Secretary of the Interior a request on behalf of the local white community that reservation lands be made available for commerce, farming, and railroad development. In May, Diggs met with a council of tribal leaders, who told him that the tribe would consider selling the reserved lands if the Government would first pay a “loyal scout claim” which the tribe believed was owing as part of the 1867 Treaty. Spokesmen for the tribe were quoted in the local press that month as follows: “We never thought to keep this reservation for our lifetime. “... Now that South Dakota has come in as a state we have some one to go to, to right our wrongs. The Indians have taken their land in severalty. They are waiting for patents. The Indians are anxious to get patents. We are willing the surplus land should be sold. We don’t expect to keep reservation. We want to get the benefit of the sale. If the government will pay what they owe, we will be pleased with the opening. There will be left over allotments 880,000 acres. If the government pays what they owe, and pay what they agree per acre, we will be pleased with the opening. When the government asks me to do anything, I am always willing to do it. I hope you will try to get the government to do what is right. “If the government will do this, it will benefit both the Indians and the whites [and illustrates by holding up half a dozen keys [in a] perpendicular position, separately], we all stand this way [and then, pressing them against each other], we will be as one key. When the reservation is open we meet as one body. We be as one. “... If we get the money we will open up. Your committee needn’t be discouraged, we will open up. “... We are anxious to become citizens and vote. We have laid before you all we have to say from our hearts....” By summer, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs had apparently been won over, for in August 1889, he sent to the Secretary of the Interior a set of draft instructions for the guidance of a Commission to negotiate with the Sisseton and Wahpeton Indians for the sale of their surplus lands. The instructions noted that the negotiations would be pursuant to § 5 of the General Allotment Act, that the allotment of individual tracts of reservation land to tribal members was already “virtually... completed,” and that “the Indians desire to sell a portion at least of their surplus [i. e., unallotted] lands.” While these proposed instructions suggested that sale of all the surplus lands might be “inadvisable,” the negotiations in fact proceeded toward such a total sale. The three Government representatives were appointed in November, and two weeks of meetings at the reservation promptly ensued. The proceedings at these meetings were transcribed, and the records show that the Indians wished to sell outright all of their unallotted lands, on three conditions: that each tribal member, regardless of age or sex, receive an allotment of 160 acres; that Congress appropriate moneys to make good on the tribe’s outstanding “loyal scout claim”; and that an adequate sales price per acre be arrived at for all of the unallotted land. In December, an Agreement was reached and the contract was signed by the required majority of male adult tribal members. Its terms were accurately summarized by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in his report to the Secretary of the Interior: “By article 1, the Indians cede, sell, relinquish, and convey to the United States all the unallotted land within the reservation remaining after the allotments and additional allotments provided for in article 4 shall have been made. “Article 2 provides that the United States will pay to the Indians $2.50 per acre for the lands ceded. “Article 3 provides for the payment of back annuities, and continues the annuities of $18,400 until July 1, 1901. “Article 4 provides for the equalization of allotments so that each person, including married women, shall have 160 acres.” President Harrison immediately submitted the Agreement to Congress for legislative approval. While the subsequent legislative history is largely irrelevant to the issues before us, three aspects bear notice. First, the several committee reports which commented on the Agreement recognized that it effected a simple and unqualified cession of all of the unallotted lands to the United States for a sum certain. Second, the Congress recognized that the Agreement could not be altered, and therefore debate centered largely on the disposition to be made by the United States of the lands it had acquired under the Agreement; it was decided that these lands should be sold to settlers at $2.50 per acre under the homestead laws. Third, the Congress included the Sisseton-Wahpeton Agreement in a comprehensive Act which also ratified several other agreements providing for the outright cession of surplus reservation lands to the Government. The other agreements employed cession language virtually identical to that in the Sisseton-Wahpeton Agreement, but in these other cases the Indians sold only a described portion of their lands, rather than all “unallotted” portions, the result being merely a reduction in the size of the affected reservations. The intended effect of all of these ratification agreements was made clear by the sponsors of the comprehensive legislation: “All the pending agreements or treaties for the purchase of Indian lands are ratified and confirmed by the provisions of this bill.... “The bill carries the largest appropriation ever carried by an Indian appropriation bill, but it extinguishes the Indian title to a great domain and opens it to settlement by the hardy and progessive pioneers....” “We do not pretend to make any modification or amendment of the agreements themselves. We merely ratify those, and then we take the estate we have acquired in this way, and after providing for the payment of the money, or whatever it is we have agreed to pay these Indians, we take these landed estates and parcel and divide them out among the people in a fashion that we think is the most conducive to the occupancy of that country by an honest, laborious, earnest, and faithful set of people.” “The remainder of the bill is made up of the other appropriations necessary to carry out the agreements that were made with Indians for the surrender of a large portion of their reservations to the public domain. In the main it has cost the United States between $1.25 and $1.50 an acre for some ten or eleven million acres of land. All this land is opened by this bill to settlement as part of the public domain upon the payment by the settler of $1.50 an acre, for all except that which was obtained from the Sisseton and Wahpeton reservation, which is open to settlement at $2.50 an acre, because the United States gave the Indians for the surrender $2.50 an acre.” As passed by the Congress, the 1891 Act recited and ratified the 1889 Agreement with the tribe and appropriated $2,203,000 to pay the tribe for the ceded land and to make good the tribe’s “loyal scout” claim. § 27, 26 Stat. 1038. A portion of the moneys was made available for immediate distribution to tribal members, on a per capita basis, and the remaining funds were, as had been agreed, "placed in the Treasury of the United States, to the credit of said... Indians [at five percent interest]... for the education and civilization of said bands of Indians or members thereof.” § 27, 26 Stat. 1039. The Act further provided that the 160-acre allotments were to be effected “as soon as practicable,” pursuant to the terms of the General Allotment Act. § 29, 26 Stat. 1039. Finally, the Act provided that upon payment of the per capita purchase moneys to the tribe, and the completion of the enlarged allotment process, “the lands by said agreement ceded, sold, relinquished, and conveyed to the United States” shall be opened “only to entry and settlement [at $2.50 per acre] under the homestead and townsite laws of the United States, excepting the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of said lands, which shall be reserved for common school purposes, and be subject to the laws of the State wherein located,” § 30, 26 Stat. 1039. On April 11, 1892, President Harrison declared open for settlement all “lands embraced in said reservation, saving and excepting the lands reserved for and allotted to said Indians.” The ceded lands were rapidly purchased and settled by non-Indians. The jurisdictional history subsequent to the 1891 Act is not wholly clear, but it appears that state jurisdiction over the ceded (i. e., unallotted) lands went virtually unquestioned until the 1960’s. The Lake Traverse Reservation was eliminated from the maps published by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs until 1908; thereafter, some Government maps included the area as an “open” or “former” reservation, while more recent ones have characterized it simply as a “reservation.” Federal Indian agents have remained active in the area, and Congress has regularly appropriated funds for the tribe’s welfare; the allotted Indian tracts have retained their “trust” status pursuant to periodic Executive Orders. A tribal constitution did not appear until 1946, and tribal jurisdiction under it extended only to “Indian-owned lands lying in the territory within the original confines of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Lake Traverse Sioux Reservation.” In 1963, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that the 1891 Act had terminated the reservation; in the process, the court noted that “the highest court of that state [South Dakota] has repeatedly held that South Dakota has jurisdiction,” and that the Justice Department had taken a like position. DeMarrias v. South Dakota, 319 F. 2d, at 846. But the Commissioner of Indian Affairs approved a new tribal constitution in 1966, which stated: “The jurisdiction of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe shall extend to lands lying in the territory within the original confines of the Lake Traverse Reservation as described in Article III of the Treaty of February 19, 1867.” Apparently, however, no tribal court or legal code was established to exercise this jurisdiction. In 1972, a field solicitor for the Department of the Interior rendered an opinion that the 1891 Act had not extinguished tribal jurisdiction over the 1867 reservation lands. In 1973, the Court of Appeals overruled DeMarrias, in the decision here under review, and in early 1974, after several months of preparation, the tribe formally established a law court and a legal code to exercise civil and-criminal jurisdiction throughout the 1867 reservation lands. Ill This Court does not lightly conclude that an Indian reservation has been terminated. “ [ W] hen Congress has once established a reservation all tracts included within it remain a part of the reservation until separated therefrom by Congress.” United States v. Celestine, 215 U. S. 278, 285. The congressional intent must be clear, to overcome “the general rule that ‘[djoubtful expressions are to be resolved in favor of the weak and defenseless people who are the wards of the nation, dependent upon its protection and good faith.’ ” McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Comm’n, 411 U. S. 164, 174, quoting Carpenter v. Shaw, 280 U. S. 363, 367. Accordingly, the Court requires that the “congressional determination to terminate... be expressed on the face of the Act or be clear from the surrounding circumstances and legislative history.” Mattz v. Arnett, 412 U. S., at 505. See also Seymour v. Superintendent, 368 U. S. 351, and United States v. Nice, 241 U. S. 591. In particular, we have stressed that reservation status may survive the mere opening of a reservation to settlement, even when the moneys paid for the land by the settlers are placed in trust by the Government for the Indians’ benefit. Mattz v. Arnett, supra, and Seymour v. Superintendent, supra. But in this case, “the face of the Act,” and its “surrounding circumstances” and “legislative history,” all point unmistakably to the conclusion that the Lake Traverse Reservation was terminated in 1891. The negotiations leading to the 1889 Agreement show plainly that the Indians were willing to convey to the Government, for a sum certain, all of their interest in all of their unallotted lands. See supra, at 432-437. The Agreement’s language, adopted by majority vote of the tribe, was precisely suited to this purpose: “The Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota or Sioux Indians hereby cede, sell, relinquish, and convey to the United States all their claim, right, title, and interest in and to all the unallotted lands within the limits of the reservation set apart to said bands of Indians as aforesaid remaining after the allotments and additional allotments provided for in article four of this agreement shall have been made.” This language is virtually indistinguishable from that used in the other sum-certain, cession agreements ratified by Congress in the same 1891 Act. See nn. 21 and 22, supra. That the lands ceded in the other agreements were returned to the public domain, stripped of reservation status, can hardly be questioned, and every party here acknowledges as much. The sponsors of the legislation stated repeatedly that the ratified agreements would return the ceded lands to the “public domain.” See supra, at 440-441. Cf. Mattz v. Arnett, 412 U. S., at 504 n. 22. It is true that the Sisseton-Wahpeton Agreement was unique in providing for cession of all, rather than simply a major portion of, the affected tribe’s unallotted lands. But, as the historical circumstances make clear, this was not because the tribe wished to retain its former reservation, undiminished, but rather because the tribe and the Government were satisfied that retention of allotments would provide an adequate fulcrum for tribal affairs. In such a situation, exclusive tribal and federal jurisdiction is limited to the retained allotments. 18 U. S. C. § 1151 (c). See United States v. Pelican, 232 U. S. 442. With the benefit of hindsight, it may be argued that the tribe and the Government would have been better advised to have carved out a diminished reservation, instead of or in addition to the retained allotments. But we cannot rewrite the 1889 Agreement and the 1891 statute. For the courts to reinstate the entire reservation, on the theory that retention of mere allotments was ill-advised, would carry us well beyond the rule by which legal ambiguities are resolved to the benefit of the Indians. We give this rule the broadest possible scope, but it remains at base a canon for construing the complex treaties, statutes, and contracts which define the status of Indian tribes. A canon of construction is not a license to disregard clear expressions of tribal and congressional intent. The Court of Appeals thought that a finding of termination here would be inconsistent with Mattz and Seymour. This is not so. We adhere without qualification to both the holdings and the reasoning of those decisions. But the gross differences between the facts of those cases and the facts here cannot be ignored. In Mattz, the Court held that an 1892 Act of Congress did not terminate the Klamath River Indian Reservation in northern California. That Act declared the reservation lands “subject to settlement, entry, and purchase” under the homestead laws of the United States, empowered the Secretary of the Interior to allot tracts to tribal members, and provided that any proceeds of land sales to settlers should be placed in a fund for the tribe’s benefit. The 1892 statute could be considered a termination provision only if continued reservation status were inconsistent with the mere opening of lands to settlement, and such is not the case. See 18 U. S. C. § 1151 (a). But the 1891 Act before us is a very different instrument. It is not a unilateral action by Congress but the ratification of a previously negotiated agreement, to which a tribal majority consented. The 1891 Act does not merely open lands to settlement; it also appropriates and vests in the tribe a sum certain — $2.50 per acre — in payment for the express cession and relinquishment of “all” of the tribe’s “claim, right, title and interest” in the unallotted lands. The statute in Matts, by contrast, benefited the tribe only indirectly, by establishing a fund dependent on uncertain future sales of its land to settlers. See also Ash Sheep Co. v. United States, 252 U. S. 159, 164 — 166. Furthermore, the circumstances surrounding congressional action in Matts militated persuasively against a finding of termination. That action represented a clear retreat from previous congressional attempts to vacate the Klamath River Reservation in express terms; and the Department of the Interior had consistently regarded the Klamath River Reservation as a continuing one, despite the 1892 legislation. Mattz v. Arnett, supra, at 503-505. In the present case, by contrast, the surrounding circumstances are fully consistent with an intent to terminate the reservation, and inconsistent with any other purpose. In Seymour, the Court held that a 1906 Act of Congress did not terminate the southern portion of the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington. Like that in question in Matts, this Act was unilateral in character; like that in question in Mattz, it merely opened reservation land to settlement and provided that the uncertain future proceeds of settler purchases should be applied to the Indians’ benefit. The Seymour Court was not confronted with a straightforward agreement ceding lands to the Government for a sum certain. In Seymour, the Court sharply contrasted the 1906 Act, which provided only for non-Indian settlement, with an 1892 Act, which plainly “ 'vacated’ ” and restored “ 'to the public domain’ ” the northern portion of the Colville Reservation. Seymour v. Superintendent, 368 U. S., at 355. The 1891 Act before us here is analogous to that 1892 statute. Thus, in finding a termination of the Lake Traverse Reservation, we are not departing from, but following and reaffirming, the guiding principles of Mattz and Seymour. Until the Court of Appeals altered the status quo, South Dakota had exercised jurisdiction over the un-allotted lands of the former reservation for some 80 years. Counsel for the tribal members stated at oral argument that many of the Indians have resented state authority and suffered under it. Counsel for the State denied this and argued that an end to state jurisdiction would be calamitous for all the residents of the area, Indian and non-Indian alike. These competing pleas are not for us to adjudge, for our task here is a narrow one. In the 1889 Agreement and the 1891 Act ratifying it, Congress and the tribe spoke clearly. Some might wish they had spoken differently, but we cannot remake history. The judgment in No. 73-1148 is affirmed, and that in No. 73-1500 is reversed. It is so ordered. APPENDIX A TO OPINION OF THE COURT TREATY OF FEB. 19, 1867, 15 STAT. 505, AS AMENDED, 15 STAT. 509 Whereas it is understood that a portion of the Sissiton and Warpeton bands of Santee Sioux Indians, numbering from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred persons, not only preserved their obligations to the government of the United States, during and since the outbreak of the Medewakantons and other bands of Sioux in 1862, but freely perilled their lives during that outbreak to rescue the residents on the Sioux reservation, and to obtain possession of white women and children made captives by the hostile bands; and that another portion of said Sissiton.and Warpeton bands, numbering from one thousand to twelve hundred persons, who did not participate in the massacre of the whites in 1862, fearing the indiscriminate vengeance of the whites, fled to the great prairies of the northwest, where they still remain; and Whereas Congress, in confiscating the Sioux annuities and reservations, made no provision for the support of these, the friendly portion of the Sissiton and Warpeton bands, and it is believed [that] they have been suffered to remain homeless wanderers, frequently subject to intense suffering from want of subsistence and clothing to protect them from the rigors of a high northern latitude, although at all times prompt in rendering service when called upon to repel hostile raids and to punish depredations committed by hostile Indians upon the persons and property of the whites; and Whereas the several subdivisions of the friendly Sissi-tons and Warpeton bands ask, through their representatives, that their adherence to their former obligations of friendship to the government and people of the United States be recognized, and that provision be made to enable them to return to an agricultural life and be relieved from a dependence upon the chase for a precarious subsistence: therefore, A treaty has been made and entered into, at Washington city, District of Columbia, this nineteenth day of February, A. D. 1867, by and between Lewis V. Bogy, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and William H. Watson, commissioners, on the part of the United States, and the undersigned chiefs and headmen of the Sissiton and Warpeton bands of Dakota or Sioux Indians, as follows, to wit: Article I. The Sissiton and Warpeton bands of Dakota Sioux Indians, represented in council, will continue their friendly relations with the government and people of the United States, and bind themselves individually and collectively to use their influence to the extent of their ability to prevent other bands of Dakota or other adjacent tribes from making hostile demonstrations against the government or people of the United States. Article II. The said bands hereby cede to the United States the right to construct wagon roads, railroads, mail stations, telegraph lines, and such other public improvements as the interest of the government may require, over and across the lands claimed by said bands (including their reservation as hereinafter designated) over any route or routes that that may be selected by authority of the government, said lands so claimed being bounded on the south and east by the treaty line of 1851 and the Red river of the North to the mouth of Goose river, on the north by the Goose river and a line running from the source thereof by the most westerly point of Devil’s lake to the Chief’s Bluff at the head of James river, and on the west by the James river to the mouth of Mocasín river, and thence to Kampeska lake. Article III. Por and in consideration of the cession above mentioned, and in consideration of the faithful and important services said to have been rendered by the friendly bands of Sissitons and Warpetons Sioux here represented, and also in consideration of the confiscation of all their annuities, reservations, and improvements, it is agreed that there shall be set apart for the members of said bands who have heretofore surrendered to the authorities of the government, and were not sent to the Crow Creek reservation, and for the members of said bands who were released from prison in 1866, the following described lands as a permanent reservation, viz.: Beginning at the head of Lake Travers [e], and thence along the treaty line of the treaty of 1851 to Kampeska lake; thence in a direct line to Reipan or the northeast point of the Coteau des Prairie [s], and thence passing north of Skunk lake, on the most direct line to the foot of Lake Traverse, and thence along the treaty line of 1851 to the place of beginning. Article IV. It is further agreed that a reservation be set apart for all other members of said bands who were not sent to the Crow Creek reservation, and also for the Cut head bands of Yanktonais Sioux, a reservation bounded as follows, viz.: Beginning at the most easterly point of Devil’s lake; thence along the waters of said lake to the most westerly point of the same; thence on a direct line to the nearest point on the Cheyenne river; thence down said river to a point opposite the lower end of Aspen island, and thence on a direct line to the place of beginning. Article V. The said reservations shall be apportioned in tracts of (160) one hundred and sixty acres to each head of a family, or single person over the age of (21) twenty-one years, belonging to said bands, and entitled to locate thereon, who may desire to locate permanently and cultivate the soil as a means of subsistence: each (160) one hundred and sixty acres so allotted to be made to conform to the legal subdivisions of the government surveys, when such surveys shall have been made; and every person to whom lands may be allotted under the provisions of this article who shall occupy and cultivate a portion thereof for five consecutive years shall thereafter be entitled to receive a patent for the same so soon as he shall have fifty acres of said tract fenced, ploughed, and in crop: Provided, [That] said patent shall not authorize any transfer of said lands, or portions thereof, except to the United States, but said lands and the improvements thereon shall descend to the proper heirs of the persons obtaining a patent. Article VI. And, further, in consideration of the destitution of said bands of Sissiton and Warpeton Sioux, parties hereto, resulting from the confiscation of their annuities and improvements, it is agreed that Congress will, in its own discretion, from time to time make such appropriations as may be deemed requisite to enable said Indians to return to an agricultural life under the system in operation on the Sioux reservation in 1862; including, if thought advisable, the establishment and support of local and manual labor schools; the employment of agricultural, mechanical, and other teachers; the opening and improvement of individual farms; and generally such objects as Congress in its wisdom shall deem necessary to promote the agricultural improvement and civilization of said bands. Article VII. An agent shall be appointed for said bands, who shall be located at Lake Traverse; and whenever there shall be five hundred (500) persons of said bands permanently located upon the Devil’s Lake reservation there shall be an agent or other competent person appointed to superintend at that place the agricultural, educational, and mechanical interests of said bands. Article VIII. All expenditures under the provisions of this treaty shall be made for the agricultural improvement and civilization of the members of said bands authorized to locate upon the respective reservations, as hereinbefore specified, in such manner as may be directed by law; but no goods, provisions, groceries, or other articles — except materials for the erection of houses and articles to facilitate the operations of agriculture — shall be issued to Indians or mixed-bloods on either reservation unless it be in payment for labor performed or for produce delivered: Provided, That, when persons located on either reservation, by reason of age, sickness, or deformity, are unable to labor, the agent may issue clothing and subsistence to such persons from such supplies as may be provided for said bands. Article IX. The withdrawal of the Indians from all dependence upon the chase as a means of subsistence being necessary to the adoption of civilized habits among them, it is desirable that no encouragement be afforded them to continue their hunting operations as means of support, and, therefore, it is agreed that no person will be authorized to trade for furs or peltries within the limits of the land claimed by said bands, as specified in the second article of this treaty, it being contemplated that the Indians will rely solely upon agricultural and mechanical labor for subsistence, and that the agent will supply the Indians and mixed-bloods on the respective reservations with clothing, provisions, &c., as set forth in article eight, so soon as the same shall.be provided for that purpose. And it is further agreed that no person not a member of said bands, parties hereto whether white, mixed-blood, or Indian, except persons in the employ of the government or located under its authority, shall be permitted to locate upon said lands, either for hunting, trapping, or agricultural purposes. Article X. The chiefs and headmen located upon either of the reservations set apart for said bands are authorized to adopt Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The judgments are affirmed. Solesbee v. Balkcom, 339 U. S. 9, 12. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court. This case raises three important questions regarding state taxation of the income of a vertically integrated corporation doing business in several States. The first issue is whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prevents a State from applying its statutory apportionment formula to the total corporate income of the taxpayer when the taxpayer’s functional accounting separates its income into the three distinct categories of marketing, exploration and production, and refining, and when the taxpayer performs only marketing operations within the State. The second issue is whether the Due Process Clause permits a State to subject to taxation under its statutory apportionment formula income derived from the extraction of oil and gas located outside the State which is used by the refining department of the taxpayer, or whether the State is required to allocate such income to the situs State. The third issue is whether the Commerce Clause requires such an allocation to the situs State. I A Appellant Exxon Corp., a vertically integrated petroleum company, is organized under the laws of Delaware with its general offices located in Houston, Tex. During the years in question here, 1965 through 1968, appellant’s corporate organization structure consisted of three parts: Corporate Management, Coordination and Services Management, and Operations Management. Corporate Management, which was the highest order of management for the entire corporation, consisted of the board of directors, the executive committee, the chairman of the board (who was also the chief executive officer), the president, and various directors-in-charge who were members of the board of directors. Coordination and Services Management was composed of corporate staff departments which provided specialized corporate services. These services included long-range planning for the company, maximization of overall company operations, development of financial policy and procedures, financing of corporate activities, maintenance of the accounting system, legal advice, public relations, labor relations, purchase and sale of raw crude oil and raw materials, and coordination between the refining and other operating functions “so as to obtain an optimum short range operating program.” App. 189; id., at 187-192. The third level of management within the corporation was Operations Management, which was responsible for directing the operating activities of the functional departments of the company. These functional departments were Exploration and Production, Refining, Marketing, Marine, Coal and Shale Oil, Minerals, and Land Management. Each functional department was organized as a separate unit operating independently of the other operating segments, and each department had its own separate management responsible for the proper conduct of the operation. These departments were treated as separate investment centers by the company, and a profit was determined for each functional department. At all relevant times each operating department was independently responsible for its performance. This arrangement permitted centralized management to evaluate each operation separately. Each department was therefore required to compete with the other departments for available investment funds, and with other members of the industry performing the same function for the company’s raw materials and refined products. There was no requirement that appellant’s crude oil go to its own refineries or that the refined products sold through marketing be produced from appellant’s crude oil. Transfers of products and raw materials among the three major functional departments — Exploration and Production, Refining, and Marketing — were theoretically based on competitive wholesale market prices. For purposes of separate functional accounting, transfers of crude oil from Exploration and Production to Refining were treated as sales at posted industry prices; transfers of products from Refining to Marketing were also based on wholesale market prices. If no readily available wholesale market value existed for a product, then representatives of the two departments involved would negotiate as to the appropriate internal transfer value. Appellant had no exploration and production operations or refining operations in Wisconsin; the only activity carried out in that State was marketing. The Wisconsin marketing district reported administratively to the central region office in Chicago, which in turn was responsible to the Marketing Department headquarters in Houston. App. 217. The motor oils, greases, and other packaged materials sold by appellant in Wisconsin during this period were manufactured outside the State and then shipped into that State from central warehouse facilities in Chicago. Tires, batteries, and accessories were centrally purchased through the Houston office and then shipped into Wisconsin for resale. The gasoline sold in Wisconsin was not produced by Exxon but rather was obtained from Pure Oil Co. in Illinois under an exchange agreement, permitting Exxon to reduce the cost of transporting the gasoline from its source to the retail outlets. This exchange agreement was negotiated by the Supply and Refining Departments. Additives were put into the Pure Oil gasoline in order to make the final product conform to uniform Exxon standards. Exxon used a nationwide uniform credit card system, which was administered out of the national headquarters in Houston. Uniform packaging and brand names were used, and the overall plan for distribution of products was developed in Houston. Promotional display equipment was designed by the engineering staff at the marketing headquarters. B Because appellant marketed its products in Wisconsin during the calendar years 1965 through 1968, it was required to file corporate income and franchise tax returns in that State for those years. Exxon prepared the returns based on separate state accounting methods, reflecting only the Wisconsin marketing operation. The returns showed losses in the amounts of $821,320 for 1965, $1,159,830 for 1966, $1,026,224 for 1967, and $919,575 for 1968. Accordingly, no tax was shown as being due for any of those years. Appellee Wisconsin Department of Revenue audited Exxon for the years in question, and on June 25, 1971, the Department sent the taxpayer a notice of assessment of additional income and franchise tax. The Department concluded that pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 71.07 (2) (1967) the Wisconsin marketing operation was “an integral part of a unitary business,” and therefore Exxon’s taxable income in Wisconsin must be determined by application of the State’s apportionment formula to the taxpayer’s total income. The Department’s calculation revealed an additional taxable income of $4,532,155 for the period 1965 through 1968. Additional taxes in the amount of $316,470.85 were assessed against appellant. Exxon filed an application for abatement in July 1971, which the Department denied on November 30, 1971. Appellant then filed a petition for review with the Wisconsin Tax Appeals Commission. The Commission agreed with the Department that Exxon’s separate geographical accounting did not accurately reflect its Wisconsin income for tax purposes. CCH Wis. Tax Rep. ¶201-223, p. 10,410 (1976). However, the Commission concluded that appellant’s three main functional operating departments — Exploration and Production, Refining, and Marketing — were separate unitary businesses. Id., at 10,409. According to the Commission, Exxon’s marketing operation in Wisconsin was an integral part of its overall marketing function, but was not an integral part of its exploration and production function nor its refining function. Id., at 10,411. The Commission found that the statutory apportionment formula as applied by the Department “had the effect of imposing a tax on the [appellant’s] exploration and on its refining net income, all of which was derived solely from operations outside the State of Wisconsin and which had no integral relationship to the [appellant’s] marketing operations within Wisconsin.” Id., at 10,410. The Commission also found that taxation by Wisconsin of Exxon’s net income from its exploration and production function and its refining function would subject appellant “to multiple-state taxation as to such income.” Ibid. The Commission therefore concluded that the Department had erred in its application of the apportionment formula since it had included “extraterritorial income,” but that “apportioning income earned by the [appellant] from its marketing function within and without the State of Wisconsin, would be proper....” Id., at 10, 411. The Circuit Court for Dane County set aside some of the factual findings and conclusions of law of the Tax Appeals Commission. CCH Wis. Tax Rep. ¶ 201-373, pp. 10,501-10,504 (1977). In particular, the Circuit Court held that the Commission’s finding that Exxon’s three main functional operating departments were separate unitary businesses was an erroneous conclusion of law. Id., at 10,502. Similarly, the court set aside the findings that there was no economic dependence between the Wisconsin marketing operations and Exxon’s exploration and production function or its refining function. Ibid. Instead the court held that “[t]he Wisconsin operation contributed sales to [Exxon’s] business of producing, refining and marketing petroleum products. This contribution was sufficient alone in the opinion of this Court to make [Exxon’s] business a unitary one.” Ibid. Accordingly, appellant’s business during the relevant years “considered as a whole both within and without Wisconsin constituted a unitary business” within the meaning of the apportionment statute. Ibid. The Circuit Court concluded, however, that another statute, Wis. Stat. § 71.07 (1) (1967), excluded from income subject to the apportionment formula all situs income derived from appellant’s oil and gas wells. CCH Wis. Tax Rep. ¶ 201-373, at 10,502-10,504. The Department had used a so-called “barrel formula” to separate two sets of income figures: income derived from the sale of crude oil to third parties, and income derived from crude oil produced by Exxon and transferred to its own refineries. The former was allocated to the situs State and excluded from Wisconsin taxable income, and the latter was included in the apportionment formula. A similar division was made of the income derived from appellant’s gas production. The Circuit Court held that both sets of income were derived from the oil and gas wells and should be allocated to the situs State under the statute. The court noted that “there is no question but that the department’s inclusion of [Exxon’s] income derived from crude oil and gas produced and not sold to third parties by [Exxon’s] production department resulted in double taxation of such income.” Id., at 10,503. The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part. 90 Wis. 2d 700, 281 N. W. 2d 94 (1979). That court concluded that the test for what constituted a unitary business was “ 'whether or not the operation of the portion of the business within the state is dependent upon or contributory to the operation of the business outside the state. If there is such a relationship the business is unitary.’ ” Id., at 711, 281 N. W. 2d, at 100, quoting G. Altman & F. Keesling, Allocation of Income in State Taxation 101 (2d ed. 1950). Reviewing the organizational structure and business operations of Exxon, the court reasoned that Exxon’s production and refining functions were dependent on its marketing operation to provide an outlet for its products, and Wisconsin was a part of that marketing system. In a high capital investment industry such as the petroleum industry, the court found, the existence of a stable marketing system was important for the full utilization of refining capacity. 90 Wis. 2d, at 718, 281 N. W. 2d, at 104. Accordingly, the court concluded that Exxon’s Wisconsin marketing operations were an integral part of one unitary business and therefore its total corporate income was subject to the statutory apportionment formula. Id., at 721-722, 281 N. W. 2d, at 105-106. The Wisconsin Supreme Court disagreed with the Circuit Court on the issue of situs income. While the extraction and production of oil and gas constituted “mining” within the meaning of Wis. Stat. § 71.07 (1) (1967), 90 Wis. 2d, at 723, 281 N. W. 2d, at 106, the court agreed with the Department that situs income which is part of the unitary stream of income is nonetheless apportionable under the statute, while situs income which does not enter the unitary stream of income is nonapportionable and must be excluded from the formula. Id., at 723-724, 281 N. W. 2d, at 106-107. The Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected appellant’s contention that its separate functional accounting proved that its exploration and production income was earned totally outside Wisconsin, noting that “the idea of separate functional accounting seems to be incompatible with the Very essence of formulary apportionment, namely, that where there are integrated, interdependent steps in the economic process carried on by a business enterprise, there is no logical or viable method for accurately separating out the profit attributable to one step in the economic process from other steps.’ ” Id., at 726, 281 N. W. 2d, at 109, quoting J. Hellerstein, State and Local Taxation 400 (3d ed. 1969). The court concluded that the State was acting within constitutional limitations despite appellant’s evidence based on separate functional accounting. The court also rejected Exxon’s argument that the sources of income derived from exploration and production were all outside of Wisconsin and therefore could not be taxed in that State without impermissibly burdening interstate commerce. According to the court, Wisconsin was taxing only its “fair share” of appellant’s income, there was a substantial nexus between appellant and the State, the tax was not claimed to discriminate between interstate and intrastate commerce, and the tax was fairly related to services provided by Wisconsin. 90 Wis. 2d, at 729-731, 281 N. W. 2d, at 110-111. Because of the importance of the issues raised, we noted probable jurisdiction, 444 U. S. 961 (1979). We now affirm. II We recently set forth at some length the basic principles for state taxation of the income of a business operating in interstate commerce, see Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes, 445 U. S. 425, 436-442 (1980), and need not repeat them here in great detail. It has long been settled that “the entire net income of a corporation, generated by interstate as well as intrastate activities, may be fairly apportioned among the States for tax purposes by formulas utilizing in-state aspects of interstate affairs.” Northwestern States Portland Cement Co. v. Minnesota, 358 U. S. 450, 460 (1959); Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes, supra, at 436. See generally Underwood Typewriter Co. v. Chamberlain, 254 U. S. 113 (1920); Hans Rees’ Sons v. North Carolina ex rel. Maxwell, 283 U. S. 123 (1931); Butler Bros. v. McColgan, 315 U. S. 501 (1942); Moorman Mfg. Co. v. Bair, 437 U. S. 267 (1978). See also Bass, Ratcliff & Oretton, Ltd. v. State Tax Comm’n, 266 U. S. 271 (1924). The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment imposes two requirements for such state taxation: a “minimal connection” or “nexus” between the interstate activities and the taxing State, and “a rational relationship between the income attributed to the State and the intrastate values of the enterprise.” Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes, supra, at 436, 437. See Moorman Mfg. Co. v. Bair, supra, at 272-273; National Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Department of Revenue, 386 U. S. 753, 756 (1967); Norfolk & Western R. Co. v. State Tax Comm’n, 390 U. S. 317, 325 (1968). The tax cannot be “out of all appropriate proportion to the business transacted by the appellant in that State.” Hans Rees’ Sons v. North Carolina ex rel. Maxwell, supra, at 135. The nexus is established if the corporation “avails itself of the ‘substantial privilege of carrying on business’ within the State.” Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes, supra, at 437, quoting Wisconsin v. J. C. Penney Co., 311 U. S. 435, 444-445 (1940). In the present case, Exxon does not dispute that it avails itself of that privilege through its marketing operations within Wisconsin. Appellant contends, however, that this nexus is insufficient to permit inclusion of all of Exxon’s corporate income within the apportionment formula. While appellant appears to concede that Wisconsin may properly apply its apportionment statute to Exxon’s Marketing Department income as established by its separate functional accounting, see Brief for Appellant 18, 29, 33; Reply Brief for Appellant 2-3, it argues that it has demonstrated through its accounting method what portion of its income is derived from exploration and production and from refining — functions which do not occur in Wisconsin and of which the marketing operation in that State is not an integral part. Appellant relies heavily on Moorman Mfg. Co. v. Bair, supra. The principal issue in that case was whether the single-factor sales formula used by Iowa to apportion for income tax purposes the income of an interstate business was prohibited by either the Due Process Clause or the Commerce Clause. In the course of that decision we noted that “[appellant does not suggest that it has shown that a significant portion of the income attributed to Iowa in fact was generated by its Illinois operations; the record does not contain any separate accounting analysis showing what portion of appellant’s profits was attributable to sales, to manufacturing, or to any other phase of the company’s operations.” 437 U. S., at 272. See also id., at 275, n. 9. Exxon contends that Moorman sanctions the use of separate functional accounting in order to prove the extraterritorial reach of a state tax statute, and that its accounting in this case demonstrates that the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s application of the state apportionment statute violates the Due Process Clause. We cannot agree. As this Court has on several occasions recognized, a company’s internal accounting techniques are not binding on a State for tax purposes. For example, in Butler Bros. v. McColgan, supra, an interstate business challenged the application of the California apportionment statute. The company was engaged in the wholesale dry goods and general merchandise business as a middleman, and it had distributing houses in seven States, including one in California. Each house maintained stocks of goods, had a cognizable territory, had its own sales force, did its own solicitation of sales, made its own credit and collection arrangements, and kept its own books. There was, however, a central buying division that was able to purchase goods for resale at a lower price. The company used “recognized accounting principles,” 315 U. S., at 505, to allocate all costs and charges to each house, with certain centralized expenses allocated among the houses. Based on that “separate accounting system,” id., at 507, the business asserted there was no net income in California. We concluded that California could constitutionally apply its apportionment formula to the company’s total net income to establish taxable income, rather than being limited to the income shown by the taxpayer’s accounting methods to be attributable to the one house in that State. The company had the “distinct burden of showing by 'clear and cogent evidence’ that it results in extraterritorial values being taxed,” ibid., quoting Norfolk & Western R. Co. v. North Carolina ex rel. Maxwell, 297 U. S. 682, 688 (1936), and the taxpayer’s accounting evidence was insufficient to meet that burden. “[W]e need not impeach the integrity of that accounting system to say that it does not prove appellant’s assertion that extraterritorial values are being taxed. Accounting practices for income statements may vary considerably according to the problem at hand.... A particular accounting system, though useful or necessary as a business aid, may not fit the different requirements when a State seeks to tax values created by business within its borders.... That may be due to the fact, as stated by Mr. Justice Brandeis in Underwood Typewriter Co. v. Chamberlain, 254 U. S. 113, 121, that a State in attempting to place upon a business extending into several States fits fair share of the-burden of taxation’ is ‘faced with the impossibility of allocating specifically the profits earned by the processes conducted within its borders.’ Furthermore, the particular system used may not reveal the facts basic to the State’s determination. Bass, Ratcliff & Cretton, Ltd. v. Tax Commission, supra, p. 283. In either aspect of the matter, the results of the accounting system employed by appellant do not impeach the validity or propriety of the formula which California has applied here.” 315 U. S., at 507-508. Similarly, in Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes, we noted that “separate accounting, while it purports to isolate portions of income received in various States, may fail to account for contributions to income resulting from functional integration, centralization of management, and economies of scale.” 445 U. S., at 438. Since such factors arise “from the operation of the business as a whole, it becomes misleading to characterize the income of the business as having a single identifiable ‘source.’ Although separate geographical accounting may be useful for internal auditing, for purposes of state taxation it is not constitutionally required.” Ibid The dicta in Moorman upon which appellant relies are not incompatible with these principles.. In Moorman we simply noted that the taxpayer had made no showing that its Illinois operations were responsible for profits from sales in Iowa. This hardly leads to the conclusion, urged by Exxon here, that a taxpayer’s separate functional accounting, if it purports to separate out income from various aspects of the business, must be accepted as a matter of constitutional law for state tax purposes. Such evidence may be helpful, but Moorman in no sense renders such accounting conclusive. The “linchpin of apportionability” for state income taxation of an interstate enterprise is the “unitary-business principle.” Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes, supra, at 439. If a company is a unitary business, then a State may apply an apportionment formula to the taxpayer’s total income in order to obtain a “rough approximation” of the corporate income that is “reasonably related to the activities conducted within the taxing State.” Moorman Mfg. Co. v. Bair, 437 U. S., at 273. See also Underwood Typewriter Co. v. Chamberlain, 254 U. S., at 120. In order to exclude certain income from the apportionment formula, the company must prove that “the income was earned in the course of activities unrelated to the sale of petroleum products in that State.” Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes, supra, at 439. The court looks to the “underlying economic realities of a unitary business,” and the income must derive from “unrelated business activity” which constitutes a “discrete business enterprise,” 445 U. S., at 441, 442, 439. We agree with the Wisconsin Supreme Court that Exxon is such a unitary business and that Exxon has not carried its burden of showing that its functional departments are “discrete business enterprises” whose income is beyond the apportionment statute of the State. While Exxon may treat its operational departments as independent profit centers, it is nonetheless true that this case involves a highly integrated business which benefits from an umbrella of centralized management and controlled interaction. As has already been noted, Exxon’s Coordination and Services Management provided many essential corporate services for the entire company, including the coordination of the refining and other operational functions “to obtain an optimum short range operating program.” App. 189. Many of the items sold by appellant in Wisconsin were obtained through a centralized purchasing office in Houston whose obvious purpose was to increase overall corporate profits through bulk purchases and efficient allocation of supplies among retailers. Cf. Butler Bros. v. McColgan, 315 U. S., at 508 (“the operation of the central buying division alone demonstrates that functionally the various branches are closely integrated”). Even the gasoline sold in Wisconsin was available only because of an exchange agreement with another company arranged by the Supply Department, part of Coordination and Services Management, and the Refining Department. Similarly, sales were facilitated through the use of a uniform credit card system, uniform packaging, brand names, and promotional displays, all run from the national headquarters. The important link among the three main operating departments of appellant was stated most clearly in the testimony of. an Exxon senior vice president. This official testified: “[I]n any industry which is highly capital intensive, such as the petroleum industry, the fixed operating costs are highly relative to total operating costs, and for this reason the profitability of such an industry is very sensitive and directly related to the full utilization of the capacity of the facilities. “So, in the case of the petroleum industry it is — where you have high capital investments in refineries, the existence of an assured supply of raw materials and crude is important and the assured and stable outlet for products is important, and therefore when there are — when these segments are under a single corporate entity, it provides for some assurance that the risk of disruptions in refining operations are minimized due to supply and demand imbalances that may occur from time to time. “[T]he placing individual segments under one corporate entity does provide greater profits stability for the reason that... nonparallel and nonmutual economic factors which may affect one department may be offset by the factors existing in another department.” App. 224-225. The evidence fully supports the conclusion of the court below that appellant’s marketing operation in Wisconsin is an integral part of a unitary business. Exxon’s use of separate functional accounting, and its decision for purposes of corporate accountability to assign wholesale market values to interdepartmental transfers of products and supplies, does not defeat the clear and sufficient nexus between appellant’s interstate activities and the taxing State. The same analysis disposes of the other prong of Exxon’s Due Process Clause attack on the Wisconsin statute. Appellant contends that at least the income derived from exploration and production must be treated as situs income and allocated to the situs State rather than included in the apportionment statute. Appellee did in fact exclude that income derived from the sale of crude oil and gas at the wellhead to third parties. However, the Department of Revenue concluded that the income characterized through appellant’s separate functional accounting as income derived from intracor-porate transfer of crude oil and gas for refining was part of the “unitary stream” of Exxon’s income and apportionable. We agree with appellee. As previously noted, appellant’s internal accounting system is not binding on the State for tax purposes. The decision to assign wholesale market values to internal transfers of raw materials for corporate accountability does not change the unitary nature of appellant’s business. An effective marketing operation is important to assure full or nearly full use of the refining capacities. Obviously the quality of the refined product affects the marketing operation. And the success of the Exploration and Production Department helps to keep the refineries operating at a capacity which is cost-efficient. There is indeed a unitary stream of income, of which the income derived from internal transfers of raw materials from exploration and production to refining is a part. There is a sufficient nexus to satisfy the Due Process Clause. There is also the necessary “rational relationship” between the income attributed to the State by the apportionment for-muía and the intrastate value of the business. Exxon had a total of $60,073,293 in sales income from its Wisconsin operation in the years 1965 through 1968. App. 799. The Wisconsin assessed taxable income for the four years in question represented 0.22 percent of total company net income adjusted to the Wisconsin basis, and Exxon’s Wisconsin sales for those years represented 0.41 percent of total company sales. 90 Wis. 2d, at 729, 281 N. W. 2d, at 110. This is hardly a case where the State has used its formula to attribute income “out of all appropriate proportion to the business transacted... in that State,” Hans Rees’ Sons v. North Carolina ex rel. Maxwell, 283 U. S., at 135, and application of the formula has not “led to a grossly distorted result,” Norfolk & Western R. Co. v. State Tax Comm’n, 390 U. S., at 326. See also Moorman Mfg. Co. v. Bair, 437 U. S., at 274. That Exxon’s Wisconsin marketing operation, through the use of separate geographic accounting, failed to show a net profit for the years in question does not change this rational relationship. Butler Bros. v. McColgan, 315 U. S., at 507-508; Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton, Ltd. v. State Tax Comm’n, 266 U. S., at 284. Cf. Underwood Typewriter Co. v. Chamberlain, 254 U. S., at 120. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s application of Wis. Stat. §§71.07(1) and (2) (1967) in this case does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Ill Appellant also contends that the Commerce Clause requires allocation of all income derived from its exploration and production function to the situs State rather than inclusion of such income in the apportionment formula. The Court must therefore examine the “practical effect” of the tax to determine whether it “ 'is applied to an activity with a substantial nexus with the taxing State, is fairly apportioned, does not discriminate against interstate commerce, and is fairly related to the services provided by the State.’ ” Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes, 445 U. S., at 443, quoting Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, 430 U. S. 274, 279 (1977). See also Japan Line, Ltd. v. County of Los Angeles, 441 U. S. 434, 414 445 (1979); Washington Revenue Dept. v. Association of Wash. Stevedoring Cos., 435 U. S. 734, 750 (1978). It has already been demonstrated that the necessary nexus is present and that the tax is fairly apportioned. Similarly, appellant does not contest the conclusion that the tax is fairly related to the services rendered by Wisconsin, which include police and fire protection, the benefit of a trained work force, and “the advantages of a civilized society.” Japan Line, Ltd. v. County of Los Angeles, supra, at 445. Exxon asserts, however, that Wisconsin’s taxing statute, as applied, subjects interstate business to an unfair burden of multiple taxation. We were faced with a very similar argument in Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes, supra, and we reject it now for the same reasons we rejected it in that case. Here, as in that prior case, the State seeks to tax income, not property ownership. Similarly, it is the risk of multiple taxation that is being asserted; actual multiple taxation has not been shown. While of course “the constitutionality of a [Wisconsin] tax should not depend on the vagaries of [another State’s] tax policy,” nonetheless “the absence of any existing duplicative tax does alter the nature of appellant’s claim.” Id., at 444. Exxon asserts, in essence, that the Commerce Clause requires allocation of exploration and production income to the situs State rather than apportionment among the States, regardless of the situs State’s actual tax policy. Cf. ibid, (dividend income). We do not agree. As was the case with income from intangibles, there is nothing “talismanic” about the concept of situs for income from exploration and production of crude oil and gas. Id., at 445. Presumably, the States in which appellant’s crude oil and gas production is located are permitted to tax in some manner the income derived from that production, there being an obvious nexus between the taxpayer and those States. However, “there is no reason in theory why that power should be exclusive when the [exploration and production income as distinguished through separate functional accounting] reflect[s].income from a unitary business, part of which is conducted in other States. In that situation, the income bears relation to benefits and privileges conferred by several States. These are the circumstances in which apportionment is ordinarily the accepted method.” Id., at 445-446. In short, the Commerce Clause does not require that any income which a taxpayer is able to separate through accounting methods and attribute to exploration and production of crude oil and gas be allocated to the States in which those production centers are located. The geographic location of such raw materials does not alter the fact that such income is part of the unitary business of the interstate enterprise and is subject to fair apportionment among all States to which there is a sufficient nexus with the interstate activities of the business. The judgment of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin is Affirmed. Me. Justice Stewart took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. The original taxpayer during the years in question was Humble Oil and Refining Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey. In 1956, Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey organized as a wholly owned subsidiary Pate Oil Co., a Delaware corporation. Pate acquired all of the assets and liabilities of Saxon Corp., a Wisconsin company which marketed petroleum products and accessory products in that State. Pate continued those marketing operations. In 1960, Pate was merged into Humble Oil and Refining Co., and the Wisconsin marketing operations were continued by that company under the brand name “Eneo.” In early 1973, Humble was merged into Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, and the corporate name was changed to Exxon Corp. Exxon is the legal successor to Humble Oil and Refining Co. The taxpayer will be referred to throughout this opinion by its present name, Exxon. The corporate staff departments which were part of Coordination and Services Management, and which were not considered profit centers for accounting purposes by appellant, included: Corporate Planning Department, Secretary’s Department, Supply Department, Treasury Department, Comptroller’s Department, Tax Department, Law Department, Public Relations Department, Government Relations Department, Employee Relations Department, General Services Department, Medical Department, and Aviation Department. App. 189-192. Wisconsin Stat. § 71.07 (2) (1967) during this period provided in relevant part: “Persons engaged in business within and without the state shall be taxed only on such income as is derived from business transacted and property located within the state. The amount of such income attributable to Wisconsin may be determined by an allocation and separate accounting thereof, when the business of such person within the state is not an integral part of a unitary business, provided, however, that the department of taxation may permit an allocation and separate accounting in any case in which it is satisfied that the use of such method will properly reflect the income taxable by this state. In all cases in which allocation and separate accounting is not permissible, the determination shall be made in the following manner: There shall first be deducted from the total net income of the taxpayer such part thereof (less related expenses, if any) as follows the situs of the property.... The remaining net income shall be apportioned to Wisconsin on the basis of the ratio obtained by taking the arithmetical average of the following 3 ratios: “(a) The ratio of the tangible property, real, personal and mixed, owned and used by the taxpayer in Wisconsin in connection with his trade or business during the income year to the total of such property of the taxpayer owned and used by him in connection with his trade or business everywhere.... “(b)... the ratio of the total cost of manufacturing, collecting, assembling or processing within this state to the total cost of manufacturing, or assembling or processing everywhere.... “(c)... the ratio of the total sales made through or by offices, agencies or branches located in Wisconsin during the income year to the total net sales made everywhere during said income year.” The additional net income was determined to be: 1965. $759,371 Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Chief Justice Burger delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioner was convicted of passing forged money orders and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. While appeal was pending in the Court of Appeals, defense counsel discovered new evidence indicating that the Government had failed to disclose an alleged promise made to its key-witness that he would not be prosecuted if he testified for the Government. We granted certiorari to determine whether the evidence not disclosed was such as to require a new trial under the due process criteria of Napue v. Illinois, 360 U. S. 264 (1959), and Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (1963). The controversy in this case centers around the testimony of Robert Taliento, petitioner’s alleged cocon-spirator in the offense and the only witness linking petitioner with the crime. The Government’s evidence at trial showed that in June 1966 officials at the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. discovered that Taliento, as teller at the bank, had cashed several forged money orders. Upon questioning by FBI agents, he confessed supplying petitioner with one of the bank’s customer signature cards used by Giglio to forge $2,300 in money orders; Taliento then processed these money orders through the regular channels of the bank. Taliento related this story to the grand jury and petitioner was indicted; thereafter, he was named as a coconspirator with petitioner but was not indicted. Trial commenced two years after indictment. Taliento testified, identifying petitioner as the instigator of the scheme. Defense counsel vigorously cross-examined, seeking to discredit his testimony by revealing possible agreements or arrangements for prosecutorial leniency: “[Counsel.] Did anybody tell you at any time that if you implicated somebody else in this case that you yourself would not be prosecuted? “[Taliento.] Nobody told me I wouldn’t be prosecuted. “Q. They told you you might not be prosecuted? “A. I believe I still could be prosecuted. “Q. Were you ever arrested in this case or charged with anything in connection with these money orders that you testified to? “A. Not at that particular time. “Q. To this date, have you been charged with any crime? “A. Not that I know of, unless they are still going to prosecute.” In summation, the Government attorney stated, “[Tali-ento] received no promises that he would not be indicted.” The issue now before the Court arose on petitioner’s motion for new trial based on newly discovered evidence. An affidavit filed by the Government as part of its opposition to a new trial confirms petitioner’s claim that a promise was made to Taliento by one assistant, DiPaola, that if he testified before the grand jury and at trial he would not be prosecuted. DiPaola presented the Government’s case to the grand jury but did not try the case in the District Court, and Golden, the assistant who took over the case for trial, filed an affidavit stating that DiPaola assured him before the trial that no promises of immunity had been made to Taliento. The United States Attorney, Hoey, filed an affidavit stating that he had personally consulted with Taliento and his attorney shortly before trial to emphasize that Taliento would definitely be prosecuted if he did not testify and that if he did testify he would be obliged to rely on the “good judgment and conscience of the Government” as to whether he would be prosecuted. The District Court did not undertake to resolve the apparent conflict between the two Assistant United States Attorneys, DiPaola and Golden, but proceeded on the theory that even if a promise had been made by DiPaola it was not authorized and its disclosure to the jury would not have affected its verdict. We need not concern ourselves with the differing versions of the events as described by the two assistants in their affidavits. The heart of the matter is that one Assistant United States Attorney — the first one who dealt with Taliento— now states that he promised Taliento that he would not be prosecuted if he cooperated with the Government. As long ago as Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U. S. 103, 112 (1935), this Court made clear that deliberate deception of a. court and jurors by the presentation of known false evidence \s> incompatible with “rudimentary demands of justice.” This was reaffirmed in Pyle v. Kansas, 317 U. S. 213 (1942). In Napue v. Illinois, 360 U. S. 264 (1959), we said, “[t]he same result obtains when the State, although not soliciting false evidence, allows it to go uncorrected when it appears.” Id., at 269. Thereafter Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S., at 87, held that suppression of material evidence justifies a new trial “irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution.” See American Bar Association, Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Prosecution Function and the Defense Function §3.11 (a). When the “reliability of a given witness may well be determinative of guilt or innocence,” nondisclosure of evidence affecting credibility falls within this general rule. Napue, supra, at 269. We do not, however, automatically require a new trial whenever “a combing of the prosecutors’ files after the trial has disclosed evidence possibly useful to the defense but not likely to have changed the verdict . . . .” United States v. Keogh, 391 F. 2d 138, 148 (CA2 1968). A finding of materiality of the evidence is required under Brady, supra, at 87. A new trial is required if “the false testimony could ... in any reasonable likelihood have affected the judgment of the jury . . . .” Napue, supra, at 271. In the circumstances shown by this record, neither DiPaola’s authority nor his failure to inform his superiors or his associates is controlling. Moreover, whether the nondisclosure was a result of negligence or design, it is the responsibility of the prosecutor. The prosecutor’s office is an entity and as such it is the spokesman for the Government. A promise made by one attorney must be attributed, for these purposes, to the Government. See Restatement (Second) of Agency § 272. See also American Bar Association, Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Discovery and Procedure Before Trial §2.1 (d). To the extent this places a burden on the large prosecution offices, procedures and regulations can be established to carry that burden and to insure communication of all relevant information on each case to every lawyer who deals with it. Here the Government’s case depended almost entirely on Taliento’s testimony; without it there could have been no indictment and no evidence to carry the case to the jury. Taliento’s credibility as a witness was therefore an important issue in the case, and evidence of any-understanding or agreement as to a future prosecution would be relevant to his credibility and the jury was entitled to know of it. For these reasons, the due process requirements enunciated in Napue and the other cases cited earlier require a new trial, and the judgment of conviction is therefore reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Reversed and remanded. Mr. Justice Powell and Mr. Justice Rehnquist took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. During oral argument in this Court it was stated that DiPaola was on the staff of the United States Attorney when he made the affidavit in 1969 and remained on that staff until recently. DiPaola’s affidavit reads, in part, as follows : “It was agreed that if ROBERT EDWARD TALIENTO would testify before the Grand Jury as a witness for the Government, . . . he would not be . . . indicted. ... It was further agreed and understood that he, ROBERT EDWARD TALIENTO, would sign a Waiver of Immunity from prosecution before the Grand Jury, and that if he eventually testified as a witness for the Government at the trial of the defendant, JOHN GIGLIO, he would not be prosecuted.” Golden’s affidavit reads, in part, as follows: “Mr. DiPaola . . . advised that Mr. Taliento had not been granted immunity but that he had not indicted him because Robert Taliento was very young at the time of the alleged occurrence and obviously had been overreached by the defendant Giglio.” The Hoey affidavit, standing alone, contains at least an implication that the Government would reward the cooperation of the witness, and hence tends to confirm rather than refute the existence of some understanding for leniency. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
D
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Clark delivered the opinion of the Court. At issue is the legality under the Sherman Act of the Times-Picayune Publishing Company’s contracts for the sale of newspaper classified and general display advertising space. The Company in New Orleans owns and publishes the morning Times-Picayune and the evening States. Buyers of space for general display and classified advertising in its publications may purchase only combined insertions appearing in both the morning and evening papers, and not in either separately. The United States filed a civil suit under the Sherman Act, challenging these “unit” or “forced combination” contracts as unreasonable restraints of interstate trade, banned by § 1, and as tools in an attempt to monopolize a segment of interstate commerce, in violation of § 2. After intensive trial of the facts, the District Court found violations of both sections of the law and entered a decree enjoining the Publishing Company’s use of these unit contracts and related arrangements for the marketing of advertising space. In No. 374, the Publishing Company appeals the merits of the District Court’s holding under the Sherman Act; the Government, in No. 375, seeks relief broader than the District Court’s decree. Both appeals come directly here under the Expediting Act. Testimony in a voluminous record retraces a history of over twenty-five years. Prior to 1933, four daily newspapers served New Orleans. The Item Company, Ltd., published the Morning Tribune and the evening Item. The morning Times-Picayune was published by its present owners, and the Daily States Publishing Company, Ltd., an independent organization, distributed the evening States. In 1933, the Times-Picayune Publishing Company purchased the name, good will, circulation, and advertising contracts of the States, and continued to publish it evenings. The Morning Tribune of the Item Co., Ltd., suspended publication in 1941. Today the Times-Picayune, Item, and States remain the sole significant newspaper media for the dissemination of news and advertising to the residents of New Orleans. The Times-Picayune Publishing Company distributes the leading newspaper in the area, the Times-Picayune. The 1933 acquisition of the States did not include its plant and other physical assets; since the States’ absorption the Publishing Company has utilized facilities at a single plant for printing and distributing the Times-Picayune and the States. Unified financial, purchasing, and sales administration, in addition to a substantial segment of personnel servicing both publications, results in further joint operation. Although both publications adhere to a single general editorial policy, distinct features and format differentiate the morning Times-Picayune from the evening States. 1950 data reveal a daily average circulation of 188,402 for the Times-Picayune, 114,660 for the Item, and 105,235 for the States. The Times-Picayune thus sold nearly as many copies as the circulation of the Item and States together. Each of these New Orleans publications sells advertising in various forms. Three principal classes of advertising space are sold: classified, general, and local display. Classified advertising, known as “want ads,” includes individual'insertions under various headings; general, also called national, advertising typically comprises displays by national manufacturers or wholesale distributors of brand-name goods; local, or retail, display generally publicizes bargains by local merchants selling directly to the public. From 1924 until the Morning Tribune’s demise in 1941, the Item Company sold classified advertising space solely on the unit plan by which advertisers paid a single rate for identical insertions appearing in both the morning and evening papers and could not purchase space in either alone. After the Times-Picayune Publishing Company acquired the States in 1933, it offered general advertisers an optional plan by which space combined in both publications could be bought for less than the sum of the separate rates for each. Two years later it adopted the unit plan of its competitor, the Item Co., Ltd., in selling space for classified ads. General advertisers in the Publishing Company’s newspapers were also availed volume discounts since 1940, but had to combine insertions in both publications in order to qualify for the substantial discounts on purchases of more than 10,000 lines per year. Local display ads as early as 1935 were marketed under a still effective volume discount system which for determining the discount bracket in the States permitted cumulation of linage placed in the Times-Picayune as well. In 1950, however, the Publishing Company eliminated all optional plans for general advertisers, and instituted the unit plan theretofore applied solely to classified ads. As a result, since 1950 general and classified advertisers cannot buy space in either the Times-Picayune or the States alone, but must insert identical copy in both or none. Against that practice the Government levels its attack grounded on §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. After the District Court at the outset denied the Government’s motion for partial summary judgment holding the unit contracts per se violations of § 1, the case went to trial and eventuated in comprehensive and detailed findings of fact: The Times-Picayune and the States, though published by a single publisher, were two distinct newspapers with individual format, news and feature content, reaching separate reader groups in New Orleans. The Times-Picayune, the sole local morning daily which for twenty years outdistanced the States and Item in circulation, published pages, and advertising linage, was the “dominant” newspaper in New Orleans; insertions in that paper were deemed essential by advertisers desiring to cover the local market. Although the local publishing field permits entry by additional competitors, the Item today is the sole effective daily competition which the Times-Picayune Publishing Company’s two newspapers must meet. On the other hand, their quest for advertising linage encounters the competition of other media, such as radio, television, and magazines. Nevertheless, the District Court determined, the adoption of unit selling caused a substantial rise in classified and general advertising linage placed in the States, enabling it to enhance its comparative position toward the Item. The District Court found, moreover, that the defendants had instituted the unit system, economically enforceable against buyers solely because of the Times-Picayune’s “dominant” or “monopoly position,” in order to “restrain general and classified advertisers from making an untrammeled choice between the States and the Item in purchasing advertising space, and also to substantially diminish the competitive vigor of the Item.” On the basis of these findings, the District Judge held the unit contracts in violation of the Sherman Act. The contracts were viewed as tying arrangements which the Publishing Company because of the Times-Picayune’s “monopoly position” could force upon advertisers. Postulating that contracts foreclosing competitors from a substantial part of the market restrain trade within the meaning of § 1 of the Act, and that effect on competition tests the reasonableness of a restraint, the court deemed a substantial percentage of advertising accounts in the New Orleans papers unlawfully “restrained.” Further, a violation of § 2 was found: defendants by use of the unit plan “attempted to monopolize that segment of the afternoon newspaper general and classified advertising field which was represented by those advertisers who also required morning newspaper space and who could not because of budgetary limitations or financial inability purchase space in both afternoon newspapers.” Injunctive relief was accordingly decreed. The District Court enjoined the Times-Picayune Publishing Company from (A) selling advertising space in any newspaper published by it “upon the condition, expressed or implied, that the purchaser of such space will contract for or purchase advertising, space in any other newspaper published by it”; (B) refusing to sell advertising space separately in each newspaper which it publishes; (C) using its “dominant position” in the morning field “to sell any newspaper advertising at rates lower than those approximating either (1) the cost of producing and selling such advertising or (2) comparable newspaper advertising rates in New Orleans.” Hence these appeals. The daily newspaper, though essential to the effective functioning of our political system, has in recent years suffered drastic economic decline. A vigorous and dauntless press is a chief source feeding the flow of democratic expression and controversy which maintains the institutions of a free society. Associated Press v. United States, 326 U. S. 1, 20 (1945); cf. Wieman v. Updegraff, 344 U. S. 183, 191 (1952); Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U. S. 495, 501 (1952). By interpreting to the citizen the policies of his government and vigilantly scrutinizing the official conduct of those who administer the state, an independent press stimulates free discussion and focuses public opinion on issues and officials as a potent check on arbitrary action or abuse. Cf. Grosjean v. American Press Co., 297 U. S. 233, 250 (1936); Near v. Minnesota, 283 U. S. 697, 716-718 (1931). The press, in fact, “serves one of the most vital of all general interests: the dissemination of news from as many different sources, and with as many different facets and colors as is possible. That interest is closely akin to, if indeed it is not the same as, the interest protected by the First Amendment; it presupposes that right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues, than through any kind of authoritative selection. To many this is, and always will be, folly; but we have staked upon it our all.” Yet today, despite the vital task that in our society the press performs, the number of daily newspapers in the United States is at its lowest point since the century’s turn: in 1951,1,773 daily newspapers served 1,443 American cities, compared with 2,600 dailies published in 1,207 cities in the year 1909. Moreover, while 598 new dailies braved the field between 1929 and 1950, 373 of these suspended publication during that period — less than half of the new entrants survived. Concurrently, daily newspaper competition within individual cities has grown nearly extinct: in 1951, 81% of all daily newspaper cities had only one daily paper; 11% more had two or more publications, but a single publisher controlled both or all. In that year, therefore, only 8% of daily newspaper cities enjoyed the clash of opinion which competition among publishers of their daily press could provide. Advertising is the economic mainstay of the newspaper business. Generally, more than two-thirds of a newspaper’s total revenues flow from the sale of advertising space. Local display advertising brings in about 44% of revenues; general — 14%; classified — 13%; circulation, almost the rest. Obviously, newspapers must sell advertising to survive. And while newspapers in 1929 garnered 79% of total national advertising expenditures, by 1951 other mass media had cut newspapers’ share down to 34.7%. When the Times-Picayune Publishing Company in 1949 announced its forthcoming institution of unit selling to general advertisers, about 180 other publishers of morning-evening newspapers had previously adopted the unit plan. Of the 598 daily newspapers which broke into publication between 1929 and 1950, 38% still published when that period closed. Forty-six of these entering dailies, however, encountered the competition of established dailies which utilized unit rates; significantly, by 1950, of these 46, 41 had collapsed. Thus a newcomer in the daily newspaper business could calculate his chances of survival as 11% in cities where unit plans had taken hold. Viewed against the background of rapidly declining competition in the daily newspaper business, such a trade practice becomes suspect under the Sherman Act. Tying arrangements, we may readily agree, flout the Sherman Act’s policy that competition rule the marts of trade. Basic to the faith that a free economy best promotes the public weal is that goods must stand the cold test of competition; that the public, acting through the market’s impersonal judgment, shall allocate the Nation’s resources and thus direct the course its economic development will take. Yet “[t]ying agreements serve hardly any purpose beyond the suppression of competition.” Standard Oil Co. of California v. United States, 337 U. S. 293, 305 (1949). By conditioning his sale of one commodity on the purchase of another, a seller coerces the abdication of buyers’ independent judgment as to the “tied” product’s merits and insulates it from the competitive stresses of the open market. But any intrinsic superiority of the “tied” product would convince freely choosing buyers to select it over others, anyway. Thus “[i]n the usual case only the prospect of reducing competition would persuade a seller to adopt such a contract and only his control of the supply of the tying device, whether conferred by patent monopoly or otherwise obtained, could induce a buyer to enter one.” Id., at 306. Conversely, the effect on competing sellers attempting to rival the “tied” product is drastic: to the extent the enforcer of the tying arrangement enjoys market control, other existing or potential sellers are foreclosed from offering up their goods to a free competitive judgment; they are effectively excluded from the marketplace. For that reason, tying agreements fare harshly under the laws forbidding restraints of trade. Federal Trade Commission v. Gratz, 253 U. S. 421 (1920), decided that a complaint which charged a seller with conditioning his sale of steel ties on purchases of jute bagging did not, because it failed to allege his monopolistic purpose or market control, state an actionable “unfair method of competition” within the meaning of § 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. United Shoe Machinery Corp. v. United States, 258 U. S. 451 (1922), held, however, that a seller occupying a “dominant position” in the shoe machinery industry, without more, violated § 3 of the Clayton Act by contracts tying to the lease of his machines the purchase of other types of machinery and incidental supplies. Potential lessening of competition, requisite to' illegality under § 3, was automatically inferred from the seller’s “dominating position.” Id., at 457-458. Federal Trade Commission v. Sinclair Refining Co., 261 U. S. 463 (1923), extended the principles of Gratz to the Clayton Act; purchases of gasoline were tied to the lease of pumps at nominal rates, but neither monopolistic purpose or power nor potential harm to competition was shown. And, in any event, the “tie” was voluntary since buyers could take the gasoline without taking the pumps. Id., at 474-475. Indeed, the arrangement merely prevented lessees from dispensing other types of gasoline through the lessor’s brand pumps and was thus viewed as a means of protecting the goodwill of the lessor’s branded gas. See also Pick Mfg. Co. v. General Motors Corp., 299 U. S. 3 (1936). The bounds of that doctrine were drawn by International Business Machines Corp. v. United States, 298 U. S. 131 (1936). When competing sellers could meet the specifications of the “tied” product, in that ease tabulating cards hitched by contract to the sale of computing machines, § 3 of the Clayton Act outlawed the tying arrangement because the “substantial” amount of commerce'in the “tied” product indicated potential lessening of competition as a result. Id., at 136, 139. With its decision in International Salt Co. v. United States, 332 U. S. 392 (1947), this Court wove the strands of past cases into the law’s present pattern. There leases of patented machines for dispensing industrial salt were conditioned on the lessees’ purchase of the lessor’s salt. A unanimous Court affirmed summary judgment adjudicating the arrangement unlawful under § 3 of the Clayton Act and § 1 of the Sherman Act as well. The patents on their face conferred monopolistic, albeit lawful, market control, and the volume of salt affected by the tying practice was not “insignificant or insubstantial.” Id., at 396. Clayton Act violation followed as a matter of course from the doctrines evolved in prior “tying” cases. See also Standard Oil Co. of California v. United States, 337 U. S. 293, 304-306, 305, nn. 7-8. And since the Court deemed it “unreasonable, per se, to foreclose competitors from any substantial market,” neither could the tying arrangement survive § 1 of the Sherman Act. 332 U. S., at 396. That principle underpinned the decisions in the Movie cases, holding unlawful the “block-booking” of copyrighted films by lessors, United States v. Paramount Pictures, 334 U. S. 131, 156-159 (1948), as well as a buyer’s wielding of lawful monopoly power in one market to coerce concessions that handicapped competition facing him in another. United States v. Griffith, 334 U. S. 100, 106-108 (1948). From the “tying” cases a perceptible pattern of illegality emerges: When the seller enjoys a monopolistic position in the market for the “tying” product, or if a substantial volume of commerce in the “tied” product is restrained, a tying arrangement violates the narrower standards expressed in § 3 of the Clayton Act because from either factor the requisite potential lessening of competition is inferred. And because for even a lawful monopolist it is “unreasonable, per se, to foreclose competitors from any substantial market,” a tying arrangement is banned by § 1 of the Sherman Act whenever both conditions are met. In either case, the arrangement transgresses § 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, since minimally that section registers violations of the Clayton and Sherman Acts. Federal Trade Commission v. Motion Picture Advertising Service Co., 344 U. S. 392, 395 (1953); Federal Trade Commission v. Cement Institute, 333 U. S. 683, 690-694 (1948); Fashion Originators’ Guild v. Federal Trade Commission, 312 U. S. 457, 463 (1941). In this case, the rule of International Salt can apply only if both its ingredients are met. The Government at the outset elected to proceed not under the Clayton but the Sherman Act. While the Clayton Act’s more specific standards illuminate the public policy which the Sherman Act was designed to subserve, e. g., United States v. Columbia Steel Co., 334 U. S. 495, 507, n. 7 (1948); Fashion Originators’ Guild v. Federal Trade Commission, 312 U. S. 457, 463 (1941), the Government here must measure up to the criteria of the more stringent law. See Standard Oil Co. of California v. United States, 337 U. S. 293, 297, 311-314 (1949); United Shoe Machinery Corp. v. United States, 258 U. S. 451, 459-460 (1922). Once granted that the volume of commerce affected was not “insignificant or insubstantial,” the Times-Picayune’s market position becomes critical to the case. The District Court found that the Times-Picayune occupied a “dominant position” in New Orleans; the sole morning daily in the area, it led its competitors in circulation, number of pages and advertising linage. But every newspaper is a dual trader in separate though interdependent markets; it sells the paper’s news and advertising content to its readers; in effect that readership is in turn sold to the buyers of advertising space. This case concerns solely one of these markets. The Publishing Company stands accused not of tying sales to its readers but only to buyers of general and classified space in its papers. For this reason, dominance in the advertising market, not in readership, must be decisive in gauging the legality of the Company’s unit plan. Cf. Lorain Journal v. United States, 342 U. S. 143, 149-150, 152-153 (1951); United States v. Paramount Pictures, supra, at 166-167; Indiana Farmer’s Guide Pub. Co. v. Prairie Farmer Pub. Co., 293 U. S. 268, 278-279 (1934). The “market,” as most concepts in law or economics, cannot be measured by metes and bounds. Nor does the substance of Sherman Act violations typically depend on so flexible a guide. Section 2 outlaws monopolization of any “appreciable part” of interstate commerce, and by § 1 unreasonable restraints are banned irrespective of the amount of commerce involved. Lorain Journal v. United States, supra, at 151, n. 6; United States v. Paramount Pictures, supra, at 173; United States v. Yellow Cab Co., 332 U. S. 218, 225-226 (1947). But the essence of illegality in tying agreements is the wielding of monopolistic leverage; a seller exploits his dominant position in one market to expand his empire into the next. Solely for testing the strength of that lever, the whole and not part of a relevant market must be assigned controlling weight. Cf. United States v. Columbia Steel Co., supra, at 524. We do not think that the Times-Picayune occupied a “dominant” position in the newspaper advertising market in New Orleans. Unlike other “tying” cases where patents or copyrights supplied the requisite market control, any equivalent market “dominance” in this case must rest on comparative marketing data. Excluding advertising placed through other communications media and including general and classified linage inserted in all New Orleans dailies, as we must since the record contains no evidence which could circumscribe a broader or narrower “market” defined by buyers’ habits or mobility of' demand, the Times-Picayune’s sales of both general and classified linage over the years hovered around 40%. Obviously no magic inheres in numbers; “the relative effect of percentage command of a market varies with the setting in which that factor is placed.” United States v. Columbia Steel Co., supra, at 528; cf. United States v. National Lead Co., 332 U. S. 319, 352-353 (1947). If each of the New Orleans publications shared equally in the total volume of linage, the Times-Picayune would have sold 33%%; in the absence of patent or copyright control, the small existing increment in the circumstances here disclosed cannot confer that market “dominance” which, in conjunction with a “not insubstantial” volume of trade in the “tied” product, would result in a Sherman Act offense under the rule of International Salt. Yet another consideration vitiates the applicability of International Salt. The District Court determined that the Times-Picayune and the States were separate and distinct newspapers, though published under single ownership and control. But that readers consciously distinguished between these two publications does not necessarily imply that advertisers bought separate and distinct products when insertions were placed in the Times-Picayune and the States. So to conclude here would involve speculation that advertisers bought space motivated by considerations other than customer coverage; that their media selections, in effect, rested on generic qualities differentiating morning from evening readers in New Orleans. Although advertising space in the Times-Picayune, as the sole morning daily, was doubtless essential to blanket coverage of the local newspaper readership, nothing in the record suggests that advertisers viewed the city’s newspaper readers, morning or evening, as other than fungible customer potential. We must assume, therefore, that the readership “bought” by advertisers in the Times-Picayune was the selfsame “product” sold by the States and, for that matter, the Item. The factual departure from the “tying” cases then becomes manifest. The common core of the adjudicated unlawful tying arrangements is the forced purchase of a second distinct commodity with the desired purchase of a dominant “tying” product, resulting in economic harm to competition in the “tied” market. Here, however, two newspapers under single ownership at the same place, time, and terms sell indistinguishable products to advertisers; no dominant “tying” product exists (in fact, since space in neither the Times-Picayune nor the States can be bought alone, one may be viewed as “tying” as the other); no leverage in one market excludes sellers in the second, because for present purposes the products are identical and the market the same. Cf. Standard Oil Co. (Indiana) v. United States, 283 U. S. 163, 176-178 (1931); United States v. Aluminum Co. of America, 148 F. 2d 416, 424 (1945); compare Indiana Farmer’s Guide Pub. Co. v. Prairie Farmer Pub. Co., 293 U. S. 268, 278-280 (1934). In short, neither the rationale nor the doctrines evolved by the “tying” cases can dispose of the Publishing Company’s arrangements challenged here. The Publishing Company’s advertising contracts must thus be tested under the Sherman Act’s general prohibition on unreasonable restraints of trade. For purposes of § 1, “[a] restraint may be unreasonable either because a restraint otherwise reasonable is accompanied with a specific intent to accomplish a forbidden restraint or because it falls within the class of restraints that are illegal per se.” United States v. Columbia Steel Co., 334 U. S. 495, 522 (1948). Since the requisite intent is inferred whenever unlawful effects are found, United States v. Griffith, 334 U. S. 100, 105, 108 (1948); United States v. Patten, 226 U. S. 525, 543 (1913), and the rule of International Salt is out of the way, the contracts may yet be banned by § 1 if unreasonable restraint was either their object or effect. Although these unit contracts do not in express terms preclude buyers from purchasing additional space in competing newspapers, the Act deals with competitive realities, not words. United States v. Masonite Corp., 316 U. S. 265, 280 (1942). Thus, while we “do not think this concession relieves the contract of being a restraint of trade, albeit a less harsh one” than otherwise, International Salt Co. v. United States, 332 U. S. 392, 397 (1947); see United States v. Paramount Pictures, 334 U. S. 131, 156-158 (1948), the “open end” feature of the contracts here minimizes the restraint. For our inquiry to determine reasonableness under § 1 must focus on “the percentage of business controlled, the strength of the remaining competition [and] whether the action springs from business requirements or purpose to monopolize.” 334 U. S., at 527; compare Standard Oil Co. of California v. United States, 337 U. S. 293, 312-313 (1949). The record is replete with relevant statistical data. The volume discounts available to local display buyers were not held unlawful by the District Court, and the Government does not assail the practice here. That segment of advertising linage, by far the largest revenue producer of the three linage classes sold by all New Orleans newspapers, is thus eliminated from consideration. Consequently, only classified and display linage data can be scrutinized for possible forbidden effects. Classified. — The Item Company, then publishing the Morning Tribune and the evening Item, utilized unit rates for classified advertising in its papers in the year the Times-Picayune Company absorbed the evening States. In 1933, the Item Company’s classified linage totaled 2.72 million, compared with the Times-Picayune Company’s total of 2.12 million. Equalizing the competitive relationship, the Times-Picayune Company in 1935 countered by adopting the unit-rate system of its rival. In that year the Times-Picayune sold 2.84 million, to the Item Company’s 2.35 million, lines. While thus evenly matched, the Times-Picayune over the years steadily increased its lead. That Company sold 3.52 million lines in 1938, and 3.76 in 1939; the Item Company totaled 2.23 and 2.18, respectively. In fact the Times-Picayune Publishing Company in every year but 1938 advanced its linage total; since 1936 the Item Company’s totals declined yearly, solely excepting 1940. At the end of that year the Item Company’s Morning Tribune suspended publication; a new local competitive structure took form. In that first year the Item, as sole competitor of the Times-Picayune Company’s two dailies, sold 1.23 million lines of classified linage, compared with 2.09 million for the Times-Picayune and 2.08 for the States; the Item’s share thus accounted for roughly 23% of the total. Ten years later the Item’s share had declined to approximately 20%: in 1950 it sold 2.17 million lines, compared with the Times-Picayune Publishing Company’s total linage of 8.91 million, comprising 4.36 million for the Times-Picayune and 4.55 for the States. Measured against the evening States alone, the Item’s percentage attrition is comparable. In 1941 it sold 37 % of the two evening papers’ total linage; by 1950 that share had declined to 32%. Thus, over a period of ten years’ competition while facing its morning-evening rival’s compulsory unit rate the New Orleans Item’s share of the New Orleans classified linage market declined 3%; viewed solely in relation to its evening competitor, its percentage loss amounted to 5%. General Display. — Because the unit rate applicable to general display linage was instituted to become effective 1950, only one year’s comparative data are in the record. In 1949, general display linage in all New Orleans dailies totaled 6.84 million, comprising 3.04 million lines in the Times-Picayune, 1.93 million in the States, and 1.87 million in the Item; the Publishing Company ran 73% of the total. One year’s experience with the unit rate for general display advertising showed a New Orleans total volume of 7.37 million lines, roughly apportioned as 2.96 million in the Times-Picayune, 2.55 million in the States, and 1.85 million in the Item; the Publishing Company’s share had risen to 75%. Compared with the States alone, the Item in 1949 accounted for 49% of the two evening papers’ total; in 1950, that had declined to 42%. In that year, a reallocation of advertising accounts also took place. In 1949, 23.7% of general display advertisers utilized the Times-Picayune Publishing Company’s publications exclusively; one year later that percentage had risen to 41%. Concurrently, however, accounts advertising solely in the Times-Picayune declined from 22.7% to 5.8%, and sole advertisers in the States dropped from 2% to.4%. On the other hand, in 1950 10.6%, compared with 9.6% the year before, of general display accounts inserted solely in the Item; and the segment of advertising accounts inserting in all three publications rose from 30.4% in 1949 to 39% in the following year. In fact, while in 1949 only 51.6% of general display accounts utilized the Item either exclusively or in conjunction with other New Orleans dailies, one year later 52.8% of the accounts so patronized the Item. The record’s factual data, in sum, do not demonstrate that the Publishing Company’s advertising contracts unduly handicapped its extant competitor, the Item. In the early years when four-cornered newspaper competition for classified linage prevailed in New Orleans, the ascendancy of the Publishing Company’s papers over their morning-evening competitor soon became manifest. With unit plan pitted on even terms against unit plan, over the years the local market pattern steadily evolved from the Times-Picayune Company’s rise and the Item Company’s decline. With the Morning Tribune’s demise in 1940, the market shrank but the pattern remained. The Item continued its gradually declining share of the market, though in fact the Times-Picayune’s unit rate for “classified” between 1940 and 1950 coincided with a reversal of the trend marking the Item’s absolute volume decline. Even less competitive hurt is discernible from the Publishing Company’s unit rate for general display linage. True, in the single recorded year of its existence the combination plan did diminish by 7% the Item’s share of linage if measured solely against the States. Versus the linage sold by the Publishing Company in its two newspapers, however, the Item’s share of the total market declined but 2%. That apparent incongruity is simply explained: Compared with 1949 monthly volume data, the unit rate in each of the 11 months of its operation in 1950 drew linage away from the Times-Picayune and toward the States. In effect, the Publishing Company’s unit plan merely reallocated the linage sold by its two constituent papers. And not only did the unit plan take from the Times-Picayune and give to the States. Apparently it also led more advertisers to insert in the Item, which sold general display space to a proportionately greater number of accounts in 1950 than in 1949. Meanwhile the Item flourishes. The ten years preceding this trial marked its more than 75% growth in classified linage. Between 1946 and 1950 its general display volume increased almost 25%. The Item’s local display linage is twice the equivalent linage in the States. And 1950, the Item’s peak year for total linage comprising all three classes of advertising, marked its greatest circulation in history as well. In fact, since in newspapers of the Item’s circulation bracket general display and classified linage typically provide no more than 32% of total revenues, the demonstrated diminution of its New Orleans market shares in these advertising classes might well not have resulted in revenue losses exceeding 1 %. Moreover, between 1943 and 1949 the Item earned over $1.4 million net before taxes, enabling its then publisher in the latter year to transfer his equity at a net profit of $600,000. The Item, the alleged victim of the Times-Picayune Company’s challenged trade practices, appeared, in short, to be doing well. The record in this case thus does not disclose evidence from which demonstrably deleterious effects on competition may be inferred. To be sure, economic statistics are easily susceptible to legerdemain, and only the organized context of all relevant factors can validly translate raw data into logical cause and effect. But we must take the record as we find it, and hack through the jungle as best we can. It may well be that any enhancement of the Times-Picayune’s market position during the period of the assailed arrangements resulted from better service or lower prices, or was due to superior planning initiative or managerial skills; conversely, it is equally possible that but for the adoption of the unit contracts its market position might have turned for the worse. Nor can we be certain that the challenged practice, though not destructive of existing competition, did not abort yet unborn competitors equally within the concern of the Sherman Act. See United States v. Griffith, 334 U. S. 100, 107 (1948); American Tobacco Co. v. United States, 328 U. S. 781, 814 (1946); Associated Press v. United States, 326 U. S. 1, 13 (1945). But this suit was not brought to adjudicate a trade practice as banned by specific statutory prohibitions which by a clearly defined public policy dispense with difficult standards of economic proof. Compare Standard Oil Co. of California v. United States, 337 Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. On April 24, 1980, petitioner John Anderson announced that he was an independent candidate for the office of President of the United States. Thereafter, his supporters — by gathering the signatures of registered voters, filing required documents, and submitting filing fees — were able to meet the substantive requirements for having his name placed on the ballot for the general election in November 1980 in all 50 States and the District of Columbia. On April 24, however, it was already too late for Anderson to qualify for a position on the ballot in Ohio and certain other States because the statutory deadlines for filing a statement of candidacy had already passed. The question presented by this case is whether Ohio’s early filing deadline placed an unconstitutional burden on the voting and associational rights of Anderson’s supporters. The facts are not in dispute. On May 16, 1980, Anderson’s supporters tendered a nominating petition containing approximately 14,500 signatures and a statement of candidacy to respondent Celebrezze, the Ohio Secretary of State. These documents would have entitled Anderson to a place on the ballot if they had been filed on or before March 20, 1980. Respondent refused to accept the petition solely because it had not been filed within the time required by §3513.25.7 of the Ohio Revised Code. Three days later Anderson and three voters, two registered in Ohio and one in New Jersey, commenced this action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, challenging the constitutionality of Ohio’s early filing deadline for independent candidates. The District Court granted petitioners’ motion for summary judgment and ordered respondent to place Anderson’s name on the general election ballot. 499 F. Supp. 121 (1980). The District Court held that the statutory deadline was unconstitutional on two grounds. It imposed an impermissible burden on the First Amendment rights of Anderson and his Ohio supporters and diluted the potential value of votes that might be cast for him in other States. Moreover, by requiring an independent to declare his candidacy in March without mandating comparable action by the nominee of a political party, the State violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The District Court noted that the State did not advance any administrative reasons for the early deadline and rejected the State’s asserted justification that the deadline promoted “political stability.” Not only did that interest have diminished importance in a Presidential campaign; it also was adequately vindicated by another statute prohibiting a defeated candidate in a party primary from running as an independent. The Secretary of State promptly appealed and unsuccessfully requested expedited review in both the Court of Appeals and this Court, but apparently did not seek to stay the District Court’s order. The election was held while the appeal was pending. In Ohio Anderson received 254,472 votes, or 5.9 percent of the votes cast; nationally, he received 5,720,060 votes or approximately 6.6 percent of the total. The Court of Appeals reversed. It first inferred that the Court’s summary affirmances in Sweetenham v. Rhodes, 318 F. Supp. 1262 (SD Ohio 1970), summarily aff’d, 409 U. S. 942 (1972), and Pratt v. Begley, 352 F. Supp. 328 (ED Ky. 1970), summarily aff’d, 409 U. S. 943 (1972), had implicitly sustained the validity of early filing deadlines. Then, correctly recognizing the limited precedential effect to be accorded summary dispositions, the Court of Appeals independently reached the same conclusion. It held that Ohio’s early deadline “ensures that voters making the important choice of their next president have the opportunity for a careful look at the candidates, a chance to see how they withstand the close scrutiny of a political campaign.” 664 F. 2d 554, 563 (CA6 1981). In other litigation brought by Anderson challenging early filing deadlines in Maine and Maryland, the Courts of Appeals for the First and Fourth Circuits affirmed District Court judgments ordering Anderson’s name placed on the ballot. See Anderson v. Quinn, 495 F. Supp. 730 (Me.), affirmance order, 634 F. 2d 616 (CA1 1980); Anderson v. Morris, 500 F. Supp. 1095 (Md.), aff’d, 636 F. 2d 55 (CA4 1980). The conflict among the Circuits on an important question of constitutional law led us to grant certiorari. 456 U. S. 960 (1982). We now reverse. I After a date toward the end of March, even if intervening events create unanticipated political opportunities, no independent candidate may enter the Presidential race and seek to place his name on the Ohio general election ballot. Thus the direct impact of Ohio’s early filing deadline falls upon aspirants for office. Nevertheless, as we have recognized, “the rights of voters and the rights of candidates do not lend themselves to neat separation; laws that affect candidates always have at least some theoretical, correlative effect on voters.” Bullock v. Carter, 405 U. S. 134, 143 (1972). Our primary concern is with the tendency of ballot access restrictions “to limit the field of candidates from which voters might choose.” Therefore, “[i]n approaching candidate restrictions, it is essential to examine in a realistic light the extent and nature of their impact on voters.” Ibid. The impact of candidate eligibility requirements on voters implicates basic constitutional rights. Writing for a unanimous Court in NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U. S. 449, 460 (1958), Justice Harlan stated that it “is beyond debate that freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of the ‘liberty’ assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which embraces freedom of speech.” In our first review of Ohio’s electoral scheme, Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U. S. 23, 30-31 (1968), this Court explained the interwoven strands of “liberty” affected by ballot access restrictions: “In the present situation the state laws place burdens on two different, although overlapping, kinds of rights — the right of individuals to associate for the advancement of political beliefs, and the right of qualified voters, regardless of their political persuasion, to cast their votes effectively. Both of these rights, of course, rank among our most precious freedoms.” As we have repeatedly recognized, voters can assert their preferences only through candidates or parties or both. “It is to be expected that a voter hopes to find on the ballot a candidate who comes near to reflecting his policy preferences on contemporary issues.” Lubin v. Panish, 415 U. S. 709, 716 (1974). The right to vote is “heavily burdened” if that vote may be cast only for major-party candidates at a time when other parties or other candidates are “clamoring for a place on the ballot.” Ibid.; Williams v. Rhodes, supra, at 31. The exclusion of candidates also burdens voters’ freedom of association, because an election campaign is an effective platform for the expression of views on the issues of the day, and a candidate serves as a rallying point for like-minded citizens. Although these rights of voters are fundamental, not all restrictions imposed by the States on candidates’ eligibility for the ballot impose constitutionally suspect burdens on voters’ rights to associate or to choose among candidates. We have recognized that, “as a practical matter, there must be a substantial regulation of elections if they are to be fair and honest and if some sort of order, rather than chaos, is to accompany the democratic processes.” Storer v. Brown, 415 U. S. 724, 730 (1974). To achieve these necessary objectives, States have enacted comprehensive and sometimes complex election codes. Each provision of these schemes, whether it governs the registration and qualifications of voters, the selection and eligibility of candidates, or the voting process itself, inevitably affects — at least to some degree— the individual’s right to vote and his right to associate with others for political ends. Nevertheless, the State’s important regulatory interests are generally sufficient to justify reasonable, nondiscriminatory restrictions. Constitutional challenges to specific provisions of a State’s election laws therefore cannot be resolved by any “litmus-paper test” that will separate valid from invalid restrictions. Stover, swpra, at 730. Instead, a court must resolve such a challenge by an analytical process that parallels its work in ordinary litigation. It must first consider the character and magnitude of the asserted injury to the rights protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments that the plaintiff seeks to vindicate. It then must identify and evaluate the precise interests put forward by the State as justifications for the burden imposed by its rule. In passing judgment, the Court must not only determine the legitimacy and strength of each of those interests, it also must consider the extent to which those interests make it necessary to burden the plaintiff’s rights. Only after weighing all these factors is the reviewing court in a position to decide whether the challenged provisionis unconstitutional. See Williams v. Rhodes, supra, at 30-31; Bullock v. Carter, 405 U. S., at 142-143; American Party of Texas v. White, 415 U. S. 767, 780-781 (1974); Illinois Elections Bd. v. Socialist Workers Party, 440 U. S. 173, 183 (1979). The results of this evaluation will not be automatic; as we have recognized, there is “no substitute for the hard judgments that must be made.” Storer v. Brown, supra, at 730. II An early filing deadline may have a substantial impact on independent-minded voters. In election campaigns, particularly those which are national in scope, the candidates and the issues simply do not remain static over time. Various candidates rise and fall in popularity; domestic and international developments bring new issues to center stage and may affect voters’ assessments of national problems. Such developments will certainly affect the strategies of candidates who have already entered the race; they may also create opportunities for new candidacies. See A. Bickel, Reform and Continuity 87-89 (1971). Yet Ohio’s filing deadline prevents persons who wish to be independent candidates from entering the significant political arena established in the State by a Presidential election campaign — and creating new political coalitions of Ohio voters — at any time after mid to late March. At this point developments in campaigns for the major-party nominations have only begun, and the major parties will not adopt their nominees and platforms for another five months. Candidates and supporters within the major parties thus have the political advantage of continued flexibility; for independents, the inflexibility imposed by the March filing deadline is a correlative disadvantage because of the competitive nature of the electoral process. If the State’s filing deadline were later in the year, a newly emergent independent candidate could serve as the focal point for a grouping of Ohio voters who decide, after mid-March, that they are dissatisfied with the choices within the two major parties. As we recognized in Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U. S., at 33, “[sjince the principal policies of the major parties change to some extent from year to year, and since the identity of the likely major party nominees may not be known until shortly before the election, this disaffected ‘group’ will rarely if ever be a cohesive or identifiable group until a few months before the election.” Indeed, several important third-party candidacies in American history were launched after the two major parties staked out their positions and selected their nominees at national conventions during the summer. But under §3513.25.7, a late-emerging Presidential candidate outside the major parties, whose positions on the issues could command widespread community support, is excluded from the Ohio general election ballot. The “Ohio system thus denies the ‘disaffected’ not only a choice of leadership but a choice on the issues as well.” Williams v. Rhodes, supra, at 33. Not only does the challenged Ohio statute totally exclude any candidate who makes the decision to run for President as an independent after the March deadline, it also burdens the signature-gathering efforts of independents who decide to run in time to meet the deadline. When the primary campaigns are far in the future and the election itself is even more remote, the obstacles facing an independent candidate’s organizing efforts are compounded. Volunteers are more difficult to recruit and retain, media publicity and campaign contributions are more difficult to secure, and voters are less interested in the campaign. It is clear, then, that the March filing deadline places a particular burden on an identifiable segment of Ohio’s independent-minded voters. Seeswpra,at791. As ourcases have held, it is especially difficult for the State to justify a restriction that limits political participation by an identifiable political group whose members share a particular viewpoint, associational preference, or economic status. “Our ballot access cases... focus on the degree to which the challenged restrictions operate as a mechanism to exclude certain classes of candidates from the electoral process. The inquiry is whether the challenged restriction unfairly or unnecessarily burdens the ‘availability of political opportunity.’” Clements v. Fashing, 457 U. S. 957, 964 (1982) (plurality opinion), quoting Lubin v. Panish, 415 U. S., at 716. A burden that falls unequally on new or small political parties or on independent candidates impinges, by its very nature, on associational choices protected by the First Amendment. It discriminates against those candidates and — of particular importance — against those voters whose political preferences lie outside the existing political parties. Clements v. Fashing, supra, at 964-965 (plurality opinion). By limiting the opportunities of independent-minded voters to associate in the electoral arena to enhance their political effectiveness as a group, such restrictions threaten to reduce diversity and competition in the marketplace of ideas. Historically political figures outside the two major parties have been fertile sources of new ideas and new programs; many of their challenges to the status quo have in time made their way into the political mainstream. Illinois Elections Bd. v. Socialist Workers Party, 440 U. S., at 186; Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U. S. 234, 250-251 (1957) (opinion of Warren, C. J.). In short, the primary values protected by the First Amendment — “a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open,” New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, 270 (1964) — are served when election campaigns are not monopolized by the existing political parties. Furthermore, in the context of a Presidential election, state-imposed restrictions implicate a uniquely important national interest. For the President and the Vice President of the United States are the only elected officials who represent all the voters in the Nation. Moreover, the impact of the votes cast in each State is affected by the votes cast for the various candidates in other States. Thus in a Presidential election a State’s enforcement of more stringent ballot access requirements, including filing deadlines, has an impact beyond its own borders. Similarly, the State has a less important interest in regulating Presidential elections than statewide or local elections, because the outcome of the former will be largely determined by voters beyond the State’s boundaries. This Court, striking down a state statute unduly restricting the choices made by a major party’s Presidential nominating convention, observed that such conventions serve “the pervasive national interest in the selection of candidates for national office, and this national interest is greater than any interest of an individual State.” Cousins v. Wigoda, 419 U. S. 477, 490 (1975). The Ohio filing deadline challenged in this case does more than burden the associational rights of independent voters and candidates. It places a significant state-imposed restriction on a nationwide electoral process. hH 1 — I The State identifies three separate interests that it seeks to further by its early filing deadline for independent Presidential candidates: voter education, equal treatment for partisan and independent candidates, and political stability. We now examine the legitimacy of these interests and the extent to which the March filing deadline serves them. Voter Education There can be no question about the legitimacy of the State’s interest in fostering informed and educated expressions of the popular will in a general election. Moreover, the Court of Appeals correctly identified that interest as one of the concerns that motivated the Framers’ decision not to provide for direct popular election of the President. We are persuaded, however, that the State’s important and legitimate interest in voter education does not justify the specific restriction on participation in a Presidential election that is at issue in this case. The passage of time since the Constitutional Convention in 1787 has brought about two changes that are relevant to the reasonableness of Ohio’s statutory requirement that independents formally declare their candidacy at least seven months in advance of a general election. First, although it took days and often weeks for even the most rudimentary information about important events to be transmitted from one part of the country to another in 1787, today even trivial details about national candidates are instantaneously communicated nationwide in both verbal and visual form. Second, although literacy was far from universal in 18th-century America, today the vast majority of the electorate not only is literate but also is informed on a day-to-day basis about events and issues that affect election choices and about the ever-changing popularity of individual candidates. In the modern world it is somewhat unrealistic to suggest that it takes more than seven months to inform the electorate about the qualifications of a particular candidate simply because he lacks a partisan label. Our cases reflect a greater faith in the ability of individual voters to inform themselves about campaign issues. In Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U. S. 330 (1972), the Court considered the validity of a Tennessee statute requiring residence in the State for one year and in the county for three months as a prerequisite for registration to vote. The Court held the statute unconstitutional, specifically rejecting the argument that the requirements were justified by the State’s interest in voter education. “Given modern communications, and given the clear indication that campaign spending and voter education occur largely during the month before an election, the State cannot seriously maintain that it is ‘necessary’ to reside for a year in the State and three months in the county in order to be knowledgeable about congressional, state, or even purely local elections.” Id., at 358 (footnotes omitted). This reasoning applies with even greater force to a Presidential election, which receives more intense publicity. Nor are we persuaded by the State’s assertion that, unless a candidate actually files a formal declaration of candidacy in Ohio by the March deadline, Ohio voters will not realize that they should pay attention to his candidacy. Brief for Respondent 38. The validity of this asserted interest is undermined by the State’s willingness to place major-party nominees on the November ballot even if they never campaigned in Ohio. It is also by no means self-evident that the interest in voter education is served at all by a requirement that independent candidates must declare their candidacy before the end of March in order to be eligible for a place on the ballot in November. Had the requirement been enforced in Ohio, petitioner Anderson might well have determined that it would be futile for him to allocate any of his time and money to campaigning in that State. The Ohio electorate might thereby have been denied whatever benefits his participation in local debates could have contributed to an understanding of the issues. A State’s claim that it is enhancing the ability of its citizenry to make wise decisions by restricting the flow of information to them must be viewed with some skepticism. As we observed in another First Amendment context, it is often true “that the best means to that end is to open the channels of communication rather than to close them.” Virginia Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425 U. S. 748, 770 (1976). Equal Treatment We also find no merit in the State’s claim that the early filing deadline serves the interest of treating all candidates alike. Brief for Respondent 33. It is true that a candidate participating in a primary election must declare his candidacy on the same date as an independent. But both the burdens and the benefits of the respective requirements are materially different, and the reasons for requiring early filing for a primary candidate are inapplicable to independent candidates in the general election. The consequences of failing to meet the statutory deadline are entirely different for party primary participants and independents. The name of the nominees of the Democratic and Republican Parties will appear on the Ohio ballot in November even if they did not decide to run until after Ohio’s March deadline had passed, but the independent is simply denied a position on the ballot if he waits too long. Thus, under Ohio’s scheme, the major parties may include all events preceding their national conventions in the calculus that produces their respective nominees and campaign platforms, but the independent’s judgment must be based on a history that ends in March. The early filing deadline for a candidate in a party’s primary election is adequately justified by administrative concerns. Seventy-five days appears to be a reasonable time for processing the documents submitted by candidates and preparing the ballot. 499 F. Supp., at 134. The primary date itself must be set sufficiently in advance of the general election; furthermore, a Presidential preference primary must precede the national convention, which is regularly held during the summer. Finally, the successful participant in a party primary generally acquires the automatic support of an experienced political organization; in the Presidential contest he obtains the support of convention delegates. Neither the administrative justification nor the benefit of an early filing deadline is applicable to an independent candidate. Ohio does not suggest that the March deadline is necessary to allow petition signatures to be counted and verified or to permit November general election ballots to be printed. In addition, the early deadline does not correspond to a potential benefit for the independent, as it does for the party candidate. After filing his statement of candidacy, the independent does not participate in a structured intra-party contest to determine who will receive organizational support; he must develop support by other means. In short, “equal treatment” of partisan and independent candidates simply is not achieved by imposing the March filing deadline on both. As we have written, “[sjometimes the grossest discrimination can lie in treating things that are different as though they were exactly alike.” Jenness v. Fortson, 403 U. S. 431, 442 (1971). Political Stability Although the Court of Appeals did not discuss the State’s interest in political stability, that was the primary justification advanced by respondent in the District Court, 499 F. Supp., at 134, and it is again asserted in this Court. Respondent’s brief explains that the State has a substantial interest in protecting the two major political parties from “damaging intraparty feuding.” Brief for Respondent 41. According to respondent, a candidate’s decision to abandon efforts to win the party primary and to run as an independent “can be very damaging to state political party structure.” Anderson’s decision to run as an independent, respondent argues, threatened to “splinter” the Ohio Republican Party “by drawing away its activists to work in his ‘independent’ campaign.” Id., at 37; see id., at 44. Ohio’s asserted interest in political stability amounts to a desire to protect existing political parties from competition— competition for campaign workers, voter support, and other campaign resources — generated by independent candidates who have previously been affiliated with the party. Our evaluation of this interest is guided by two of our prior cases, Williams v. Rhodes and Storer v. Brown. In Williams v. Rhodes we squarely held that protecting the Republican and Democratic Parties from external competition cannot justify the virtual exclusion of other political aspirants from the political arena. Addressing Ohio’s claim that it “may validly promote a two-party system in order to encourage compromise and political stability,” we wrote: “The fact is, however, that the Ohio system does not merely favor a ‘two-party system’; it favors two particular parties — the Republicans and the Democrats — and in effect tends to give them a complete monopoly. There is, of course, no reason why two parties should retain a permanent monopoly on the right to have people vote for or against them. Competition in ideas and governmental policies is at the core of our electoral process and of the First Amendment freedoms. New parties struggling for their place must have the time and opportunity to organize in order to meet reasonable requirements for ballot position, just as the old parties have had in the past.” Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U. S., at 31-32. Thus in Williams v. Rhodes we concluded that First Amendment values outweighed the State’s interest in protecting the two major political parties. On the other hand, in Storer v. Brown we upheld two California statutory provisions that restricted access by independent candidates to the general election ballot. Under California law, a person could not run as an independent in November if he had been defeated in a party primary that year or if he had been registered with a political party within one year prior to that year’s primary election. We stated that “California apparently believes with the Founding Fathers that splintered parties and unrestrained factionalism may do significant damage to the fabric of government,” and that destruction of “the political stability of the system of the State” could have “profound consequences for the entire citizenry.” 415 U. S., at 736. Further, we approved the State’s goals of discouraging “independent candidacies prompted by short-range political goals, pique, or personal quarrel.” Id., at 735. Thus in Storer we recognized the legitimacy of the State’s interest in preventing “splintered parties and unrestrained factionalism.” But we did not suggest that a political party could invoke the powers of the State to assure monolithic control over its own members and supporters. Political competition that draws resources away from the major parties cannot, for that reason alone, be condemned as “unrestrained factionalism.” Instead, in Storer we examined the two challenged provisions in the context of California’s electoral system. By requiring a candidate to remain in the intraparty competition once the disaffiliation deadline had passed, and by giving conclusive effect to the winnowing process performed by party members in the primary election, the challenged provisions were an essential part of “a general state policy aimed at maintaining the integrity of the various routes to the ballot.” Moreover, we pointed out that the policy “involves no discrimination against independents.” Storer, supra, at 733. Ohio’s challenged restriction is substantially different from the California provisions upheld in Storer. As we have noted, the early filing deadline does discriminate against independents. And the deadline is neither a “sore loser” provision nor a disaffiliation statute. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that Storer upheld the State’s interest in avoiding political fragmentation in the context of elections wholly within the boundaries of California. The State’s interest in regulating a nationwide Presidential election is not nearly as strong; no State could singlehandedly assure “political stability” in the Presidential context. The Ohio deadline does not serve any state interest in “maintaining the integrity of the various routes to the ballot” for the Presidency, because Ohio’s Presidential preference primary does not serve to narrow the field for the general election. A major party candidate who loses the Ohio primary, or who does not even run in Ohio, may nonetheless appear on the November general election ballot as the party’s nominee. In addition, the national scope of the competition for delegates at the Presidential nominating conventions assures that “intraparty feuding” will continue until August. More generally, the early filing deadline is not precisely drawn to protect the parties from “intraparty feuding,” whatever legitimacy that state goal may have in a Presidential election. If the deadline is designed to keep intraparty competition within the party structure, its coverage is both too broad and too narrow. It is true that in this case § 3513.25.7 was applied to a candidate who had previously competed in party primaries and then sought to run as an independent. But the early deadline applies broadly to independent candidates who have not been affiliated in the recent past with any political party. On the other hand, as long as the decision to run is made before the March deadline, Ohio does not prohibit independent candidacies by persons formerly affiliated with a political party, or currently participating in intraparty competition in other States — regardless of the effect on the political party structure. Moreover, the early deadline for filing as an independent may actually impair the State’s interest in preserving party harmony. As Professor Bickel perceptively observed: “The characteristic American third party, then, consists of a group of people who have tried to exert influence within one of the major parties, have failed, and later decide to work on the outside. States in which there is an early qualifying date tend to force such groups to create minor parties without first attempting to influence the course taken by a major one. For a dissident group is put to the choice of foregoing major-party primary and other prenomination activity by organizing separately early on in an election year, or losing all opportunity for action as a third party later.” Bickel, supra n. 11, at 87-88. The same analysis, of course, is applicable to a “dissident group” that coalesces around an independent candidate rather than attempting to form a new political party. We conclude that Ohio’s March filing deadline for independent candidates for the office of President of the United States cannot be justified by the State’s asserted interest in protecting political stability. “For even when pursuing a legitimate interest, a State may not choose means that unnecessarily restrict constitutionally protected liberty. Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U. S., at 343. ‘Precision of regulation must be the touchstone in an area so closely touching our most precious freedoms.’ NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. [415], 438 [(1963)]. If the State has open to it a less drastic way of satisfying its legitimate interests, it may not choose a legislative scheme that broadly stifles the exercise of fundamental personal liberties.” Kusper v. Pontikes, 414 U. S. 51, 58-59 (1973). > I — I We began our inquiry by noting that our primary concern is not the interest of candidate Anderson, but rather, the interests of the voters who chose to associate together to express their support for Anderson’s candidacy and the views he espoused. Under any realistic appraisal, the “extent and nature” of the burdens Ohio has placed on the voters’ freedom of choice and freedom of association, in an election of nationwide importance, unquestionably outweigh the State’s minimal interest in imposing a March deadline. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is Reversed. Section 3513.25.7 provides, in pertinent part: “Each person desiring to become an independent candidate for an office for which candidates may be nominated at a primary election, except persons desiring to become independent joint candidates for the offices of governor and lieutenant governor, shall file no later than four p.m. of the seventy-fifth day before the day of the primary election immediately preceding the general election at which such candidacy is to be voted for by the voters, a statement of candidacy and nominating petition as provided in section 3513.261 [3513.26.1] of the Revised Code....” Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 3513.25.7 (Supp. 1982). The Code sets the first Tuesday after the first Monday in June as the date of the primary election, § 3501.01(E), a date that fell on June 3, 1980. Thus the filing deadline for independent candidates was March 20, 1980, a date 229 days in advance of the general election. Section 3513.25.7(A) requires independent candidates in statewide elections, including Presidential primaries, to submit nominating petitions signed by no less than 5,000 and no more than 15,000 qualified voters. Anderson’s name had been entered in the Republican primary in Ohio and 26 other States before he made his decision to run as an independent, and he actually competed unsuccessfully in nine Republican primaries. Nevertheless, the parties agree that his timely withdrawal from the Ohio primary avoided the application of the State’s “sore loser” statute, Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 3513.04 (Supp. 1982), which disqualifies a candidate who ran unsuccessfully in a party primary from running as an independent in the general election. See 499 F. Supp. 121, 135, 140 (SD Ohio 1980); 664 F. 2d 554, 556, n. 3 (CA6 1981). After the Court of Appeals denied a motion for expedited appeal, respondent filed a petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment in this Court, together with a motion to expedite consideration of the petition. The motion and the petition were both denied before the election in November 1980. 448 U. S. 914 and 918 (1980). Even though the 1980 election is over, the case is not moot. See Storer v. Brown, 415 U. S. 724, 737, n. 8 (1974). 14 America Votes, A Handbook of Contemporary American Election Statistics 18-19, 312, 317 (1981). The Court of Appeals quite properly concluded that our summary affirm-ances in Sweetenham v. Gilligan and Pratt v. Begley were “a rather slender reed” on which to rest its decision. 664 F. 2d, at 560. We have often recognized that the precedential effect of a summary affirmance extends no further than “the precise issues presented and necessarily decided by those actions.” A summary disposition affirms only the judgment of the court below, and no more may be read into our action than was essential to sustain that judgment. Illinois Elections Bd. v. Socialist Workers Party, 440 U. S. 173, 182-183 (1979); Mandel v. Bradley, 432 U. S. 173, 176 (1977); see Fusari v. Steinberg, 419 U. S. 379, 391-392 (1975) (BURGER, C. J., concurring). Neither Sweetenham nor Pratt involved state-imposed filing deadlines for Presidential candidates. See Juris. Statement in Pratt v. Begley, O. T. 1972, No. 70-48, p. 4 (independent candidates for U. S. House of Representatives); Juris. Statement in Sweetenham v. Rhodes, O. T. 1972, No. 70-15, p. 5 (independent candidates for Governor of Ohio and U. S. House of Representatives). Further, Sweetenham arose on review of the District Court’s refusal to grant injunctive relief placing appellants on the ballot. The court relied at least in part on appellants’ failure to take steps to become candidates before the primary, a date 90 days after the challenged filing deadline, or indeed to tender nominating petitions at any time before filing suit. See id, at 30. In Pratt, the District Court dismissed a complaint seeking declaratory as well as injunctive relief, concluding that the early filing deadline was reasonable, but it could have refused to place appellants on the ballot on the equitable ground that they had not submitted nominating petitions until more than two and a half months after the party nominees were chosen in the primary. 352 F. Supp., at 329. As the Court of Appeals acknowledged, our remand in Mandel v. Bradley, swpra, does not control this case. Plaintiff, who had sought to run as an independent candidate for United States Senator from Maryland, challenged a Maryland code provision imposing both an early filing deadline and a numerical signature requirement. Neither of the parties addressed the constitutionality of the filing date standing alone. The District Court improperly relied on a prior summary affirmance by this Court to strike down the restriction, and failed to undertake an independent examination of the merits. We remanded for factual findings. Id., at 177-178. On remand, the District Court found that the early filing deadline imposed unconstitutional burdens on the plaintiff. Bradley v. Mandel, 449 F. Supp. 983, 986-989 (Md. 1978). Anderson also prevailed on First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause grounds in Anderson v Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 10b-5 prohibit undisclosed trading on inside corporate information by individuals who are under a duty of trust and confidence that prohibits them from secretly using such information for their personal advantage. 48 Stat. 891, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b) (prohibiting the use, "in connection with the purchase or sale of any security," of "any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance in contravention of such rules as the [Securities and Exchange Commission] may prescribe"); 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 (2016) (forbidding the use, "in connection with the sale or purchase of any security," of "any device, scheme or artifice to defraud," or any "act, practice, or course of business which operates ... as a fraud or deceit"); see United States v. O'Hagan, 521 U.S. 642, 650-652, 117 S.Ct. 2199, 138 L.Ed.2d 724 (1997). Individuals under this duty may face criminal and civil liability for trading on inside information (unless they make appropriate disclosures ahead of time). These persons also may not tip inside information to others for trading. The tippee acquires the tipper's duty to disclose or abstain from trading if the tippee knows the information was disclosed in breach of the tipper's duty, and the tippee may commit securities fraud by trading in disregard of that knowledge. In Dirks v. SEC, 463 U.S. 646, 103 S.Ct. 3255, 77 L.Ed.2d 911 (1983), this Court explained that a tippee's liability for trading on inside information hinges on whether the tipper breached a fiduciary duty by disclosing the information. A tipper breaches such a fiduciary duty, we held, when the tipper discloses the inside information for a personal benefit. And, we went on to say, a jury can infer a personal benefit-and thus a breach of the tipper's duty-where the tipper receives something of value in exchange for the tip or "makes a gift of confidential information to a trading relative or friend." Id., at 664, 103 S.Ct. 3255. Petitioner Bassam Salman challenges his convictions for conspiracy and insider trading. Salman received lucrative trading tips from an extended family member, who had received the information from Salman's brother-in-law. Salman then traded on the information. He argues that he cannot be held liable as a tippee because the tipper (his brother-in-law) did not personally receive money or property in exchange for the tips and thus did not personally benefit from them. The Court of Appeals disagreed, holding that Dirks allowed the jury to infer that the tipper here breached a duty because he made a " 'gift of confidential information to a trading relative.' " 792 F.3d 1087, 1092 (C.A.9 2015) (quoting Dirks, supra, at 664, 103 S.Ct. 3255 ). Because the Court of Appeals properly applied Dirks, we affirm the judgment below. I Maher Kara was an investment banker in Citigroup's healthcare investment banking group. He dealt with highly confidential information about mergers and acquisitions involving Citigroup's clients. Maher enjoyed a close relationship with his older brother, Mounir Kara (known as Michael). After Maher started at Citigroup, he began discussing aspects of his job with Michael. At first he relied on Michael's chemistry background to help him grasp scientific concepts relevant to his new job. Then, while their father was battling cancer, the brothers discussed companies that dealt with innovative cancer treatment and pain management techniques. Michael began to trade on the information Maher shared with him. At first, Maher was unaware of his brother's trading activity, but eventually he began to suspect that it was taking place. Ultimately, Maher began to assist Michael's trading by sharing inside information with his brother about pending mergers and acquisitions. Maher sometimes used code words to communicate corporate information to his brother. Other times, he shared inside information about deals he was not working on in order to avoid detection. See, e.g., App. 118, 124-125. Without his younger brother's knowledge, Michael fed the information to others-including Salman, Michael's friend and Maher's brother-in-law. By the time the authorities caught on, Salman had made over $1.5 million in profits that he split with another relative who executed trades via a brokerage account on Salman's behalf. Salman was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, see 18 U.S.C. § 371, and four counts of securities fraud, see 15 U.S.C. §§ 78j(b), 78ff ; 18 U.S.C. § 2 ; 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5. Facing charges of their own, both Maher and Michael pleaded guilty and testified at Salman's trial. The evidence at trial established that Maher and Michael enjoyed a "very close relationship." App. 215. Maher "love[d] [his] brother very much," Michael was like "a second father to Maher," and Michael was the best man at Maher's wedding to Salman's sister. Id ., at 158, 195, 104-107. Maher testified that he shared inside information with his brother to benefit him and with the expectation that his brother would trade on it. While Maher explained that he disclosed the information in large part to appease Michael (who pestered him incessantly for it), he also testified that he tipped his brother to "help him" and to "fulfil[l] whatever needs he had." Id ., at 118, 82. For instance, Michael once called Maher and told him that "he needed a favor." Id., at 124. Maher offered his brother money but Michael asked for information instead. Maher then disclosed an upcoming acquisition. Ibid. Although he instantly regretted the tip and called his brother back to implore him not to trade, Maher expected his brother to do so anyway. Id., at 125. For his part, Michael told the jury that his brother's tips gave him "timely information that the average person does not have access to" and "access to stocks, options, and what have you, that I can capitalize on, that the average person would never have or dream of." Id., at 251. Michael testified that he became friends with Salman when Maher was courting Salman's sister and later began sharing Maher's tips with Salman. As he explained at trial, "any time a major deal came in, [Salman] was the first on my phone list." Id ., at 258. Michael also testified that he told Salman that the information was coming from Maher. See, e.g., id ., at 286 (" 'Maher is the source of all this information' "). After a jury trial in the Northern District of California, Salman was convicted on all counts. He was sentenced to 36 months of imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and over $730,000 in restitution. After his motion for a new trial was denied, Salman appealed to the Ninth Circuit. While his appeal was pending, the Second Circuit issued its opinion in United States v. Newman, 773 F.3d 438 (2014), cert. denied, 577 U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 242, 193 L.Ed.2d 133 (2015). There, the Second Circuit reversed the convictions of two portfolio managers who traded on inside information. The Newman defendants were "several steps removed from the corporate insiders" and the court found that "there was no evidence that either was aware of the source of the inside information." 773 F.3d, at 443. The court acknowledged that Dirks and Second Circuit case law allow a factfinder to infer a personal benefit to the tipper from a gift of confidential information to a trading relative or friend. 773 F.3d, at 452. But the court concluded that, "[t]o the extent" Dirks permits "such an inference," the inference "is impermissible in the absence of proof of a meaningfully close personal relationship that generates an exchange that is objective, consequential, and represents at least a potential gain of a pecuniary or similarly valuable nature." 773 F.3d, at 452. Pointing to Newman, Salman argued that his conviction should be reversed. While the evidence established that Maher made a gift of trading information to Michael and that Salman knew it, there was no evidence that Maher received anything of "a pecuniary or similarly valuable nature" in exchange-or that Salman knew of any such benefit. The Ninth Circuit disagreed and affirmed Salman's conviction. 792 F.3d 1087. The court reasoned that the case was governed by Dirks 's holding that a tipper benefits personally by making a gift of confidential information to a trading relative or friend. Indeed, Maher's disclosures to Michael were "precisely the gift of confidential information to a trading relative that Dirks envisioned." 792 F.3d, at 1092 (internal quotation marks omitted). To the extent Newman went further and required additional gain to the tipper in cases involving gifts of confidential information to family and friends, the Ninth Circuit "decline [d] to follow it." 792 F.3d, at 1093. We granted certiorari to resolve the tension between the Second Circuit's Newman decision and the Ninth Circuit's decision in this case. 577 U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 899, 193 L.Ed.2d 788 (2016). II A In this case, Salman contends that an insider's "gift of confidential information to a trading relative or friend," Dirks, 463 U.S., at 664, 103 S.Ct. 3255 is not enough to establish securities fraud. Instead, Salman argues, a tipper does not personally benefit unless the tipper's goal in disclosing inside information is to obtain money, property, or something of tangible value. He claims that our insider-trading precedents, and the cases those precedents cite, involve situations in which the insider exploited confidential information for the insider's own "tangible monetary profit." Brief for Petitioner 31. He suggests that his position is reinforced by our criminal-fraud precedents outside of the insider-trading context, because those cases confirm that a fraudster must personally obtain money or property. Id ., at 33-34. More broadly, Salman urges that defining a gift as a personal benefit renders the insider-trading offense indeterminate and overbroad: indeterminate, because liability may turn on facts such as the closeness of the relationship between tipper and tippee and the tipper's purpose for disclosure; and overbroad, because the Government may avoid having to prove a concrete personal benefit by simply arguing that the tipper meant to give a gift to the tippee. He also argues that we should interpret Dirks 's standard narrowly so as to avoid constitutional concerns. Brief for Petitioner 36-37. Finally, Salman contends that gift situations create especially troubling problems for remote tippees-that is, tippees who receive inside information from another tippee, rather than the tipper-who may have no knowledge of the relationship between the original tipper and tippee and thus may not know why the tipper made the disclosure. Id ., at 43, 48, 50. The Government disagrees and argues that a gift of confidential information to anyone, not just a "trading relative or friend," is enough to prove securities fraud. See Brief for United States 27 ("Dirks 's personal-benefit test encompasses a gift to any person with the expectation that the information will be used for trading, not just to 'a trading relative or friend' " (quoting 463 U.S., at 664, 103 S.Ct. 3255 ; emphasis in original)). Under the Government's view, a tipper personally benefits whenever the tipper discloses confidential trading information for a noncorporate purpose. Accordingly, a gift to a friend, a family member, or anyone else would support the inference that the tipper exploited the trading value of inside information for personal purposes and thus personally benefited from the disclosure. The Government claims to find support for this reading in Dirks and the precedents on which Dirks relied. See, e.g., id., at 654, 103 S.Ct. 3255 ("fraud" in an insider-trading case "derives 'from the inherent unfairness involved where one takes advantage' of 'information intended to be available only for a corporate purpose and not for the personal benefit of anyone' " (quoting In re Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., 43 S.E.C. 933, 936 (1968) )). The Government also argues that Salman's concerns about unlimited and indeterminate liability for remote tippees are significantly alleviated by other statutory elements that prosecutors must satisfy to convict a tippee for insider trading. The Government observes that, in order to establish a defendant's criminal liability as a tippee, it must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the tipper expected that the information being disclosed would be used in securities trading. Brief for United States 23-24; Tr. of Oral Arg. 38. The Government also notes that, to establish a defendant's criminal liability as a tippee, it must prove that the tippee knew that the tipper breached a duty-in other words, that the tippee knew that the tipper disclosed the information for a personal benefit and that the tipper expected trading to ensue. Brief for United States 43; Tr. of Oral Arg. 36-37, 39. B We adhere to Dirks, which easily resolves the narrow issue presented here. In Dirks, we explained that a tippee is exposed to liability for trading on inside information only if the tippee participates in a breach of the tipper's fiduciary duty. Whether the tipper breached that duty depends "in large part on the purpose of the disclosure" to the tippee. 463 U.S., at 662, 103 S.Ct. 3255. "[T]he test," we explained, "is whether the insider personally will benefit, directly or indirectly, from his disclosure." Ibid. Thus, the disclosure of confidential information without personal benefit is not enough. In determining whether a tipper derived a personal benefit, we instructed courts to "focus on objective criteria, i.e., whether the insider receives a direct or indirect personal benefit from the disclosure, such as a pecuniary gain or a reputational benefit that will translate into future earnings." Id., at 663, 103 S.Ct. 3255. This personal benefit can "often" be inferred "from objective facts and circumstances," we explained, such as "a relationship between the insider and the recipient that suggests a quid pro quo from the latter, or an intention to benefit the particular recipient." Id., at 664, 103 S.Ct. 3255. In particular, we held that "[t]he elements of fiduciary duty and exploitation of nonpublic information also exist when an insider makes a gift of confidential information to a trading relative or friend ." Ibid. (emphasis added). In such cases, "[t]he tip and trade resemble trading by the insider followed by a gift of the profits to the recipient." Ibid. We then applied this gift-giving principle to resolve Dirks itself, finding it dispositive that the tippers "received no monetary or personal benefit" from their tips to Dirks, "nor was their purpose to make a gift of valuable information to Dirks ." Id., at 667, 103 S.Ct. 3255 (emphasis added). Our discussion of gift giving resolves this case. Maher, the tipper, provided inside information to a close relative, his brother Michael. Dirks makes clear that a tipper breaches a fiduciary duty by making a gift of confidential information to "a trading relative," and that rule is sufficient to resolve the case at hand. As Salman's counsel acknowledged at oral argument, Maher would have breached his duty had he personally traded on the information here himself then given the proceeds as a gift to his brother. Tr. of Oral Arg. 3-4. It is obvious that Maher would personally benefit in that situation. But Maher effectively achieved the same result by disclosing the information to Michael, and allowing him to trade on it. Dirks appropriately prohibits that approach, as well. Cf. 463 U.S., at 659, 103 S.Ct. 3255 (holding that "insiders [are] forbidden" both "from personally using undisclosed corporate information to their advantage" and from "giv[ing] such information to an outsider for the same improper purpose of exploiting the information for their personal gain"). Dirks specifies that when a tipper gives inside information to "a trading relative or friend," the jury can infer that the tipper meant to provide the equivalent of a cash gift. In such situations, the tipper benefits personally because giving a gift of trading information is the same thing as trading by the tipper followed by a gift of the proceeds. Here, by disclosing confidential information as a gift to his brother with the expectation that he would trade on it, Maher breached his duty of trust and confidence to Citigroup and its clients-a duty Salman acquired, and breached himself, by trading on the information with full knowledge that it had been improperly disclosed. To the extent the Second Circuit held that the tipper must also receive something of a "pecuniary or similarly valuable nature" in exchange for a gift to family or friends, Newman, 773 F.3d, at 452, we agree with the Ninth Circuit that this requirement is inconsistent with Dirks . C Salman points out that many insider-trading cases-including several that Dirks cited-involved insiders who personally profited through the misuse of trading information. But this observation does not undermine the test Dirks articulated and applied. Salman also cites a sampling of our criminal-fraud decisions construing other federal fraud statutes, suggesting that they stand for the proposition that fraud is not consummated unless the defendant obtains money or property. Sekhar v. United States, 570 U.S. ----, 133 S.Ct. 2720, 186 L.Ed.2d 794 (2013) (Hobbs Act); Skilling v. United States, 561 U.S. 358, 130 S.Ct. 2896, 177 L.Ed.2d 619 (2010) (honest-services mail and wire fraud); Cleveland v. United States, 531 U.S. 12, 121 S.Ct. 365, 148 L.Ed.2d 221 (2000) (wire fraud); McNally v. United States, 483 U.S. 350, 107 S.Ct. 2875, 97 L.Ed.2d 292 (1987) (mail fraud). Assuming that these cases are relevant to our construction of § 10(b) (a proposition the Government forcefully disputes), nothing in them undermines the commonsense point we made in Dirks. Making a gift of inside information to a relative like Michael is little different from trading on the information, obtaining the profits, and doling them out to the trading relative. The tipper benefits either way. The facts of this case illustrate the point: In one of their tipper-tippee interactions, Michael asked Maher for a favor, declined Maher's offer of money, and instead requested and received lucrative trading information. We reject Salman's argument that Dirks 's gift-giving standard is unconstitutionally vague as applied to this case. Dirks created a simple and clear "guiding principle" for determining tippee liability, 463 U.S., at 664, 103 S.Ct. 3255 and Salman has not demonstrated that either § 10(b) itself or the Dirks gift-giving standard "leav[e] grave uncertainty about how to estimate the risk posed by a crime" or are plagued by "hopeless indeterminacy," Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. ----, ----, ----, 135 S.Ct. 2551, 2557, 2558, 192 L.Ed.2d 569 (2015). At most, Salman shows that in some factual circumstances assessing liability for gift-giving will be difficult. That alone cannot render "shapeless" a federal criminal prohibition, for even clear rules "produce close cases." Id., at ----, ----, 135 S.Ct., at 2560. We also reject Salman's appeal to the rule of lenity, as he has shown "no grievous ambiguity or uncertainty that would trigger the rule's application." Barber v. Thomas, 560 U.S. 474, 492, 130 S.Ct. 2499, 177 L.Ed.2d 1 (2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). To the contrary, Salman's conduct is in the heartland of Dirks 's rule concerning gifts. It remains the case that "[d]etermining whether an insider personally benefits from a particular disclosure, a question of fact, will not always be easy for courts." 463 U.S., at 664, 103 S.Ct. 3255. But there is no need for us to address those difficult cases today, because this case involves "precisely the 'gift of confidential information to a trading relative' that Dirks envisioned." 792 F.3d, at 1092 (quoting 463 U.S., at 664, 103 S.Ct. 3255 ). III Salman's jury was properly instructed that a personal benefit includes "the benefit one would obtain from simply making a gift of confidential information to a trading relative." App. 398-399. As the Court of Appeals noted, "the Government presented direct evidence that the disclosure was intended as a gift of market-sensitive information." 792 F.3d, at 1094. And, as Salman conceded below, this evidence is sufficient to sustain his conviction under our reading of Dirks . Appellant's Supplemental Brief in No. 14-10204(CA9), p. 6 ("Maher made a gift of confidential information to a trading relative [Michael] ... and, if [Michael's] testimony is accepted as true (as it must be for purposes of sufficiency review), Salman knew that Maher had made such a gift" (internal quotation marks, brackets, and citation omitted)). Accordingly, the Ninth Circuit's judgment is affirmed. It is so ordered. The Second Circuit also reversed the Newman defendants' convictions because the Government introduced no evidence that the defendants knew the information they traded on came from insiders or that the insiders received a personal benefit in exchange for the tips. 773 F.3d, at 453-454. This case does not implicate those issues. Dirks v. SEC, 463 U.S. 646, 103 S.Ct. 3255, 77 L.Ed.2d 911 (1983), established the personal-benefit framework in a case brought under the classical theory of insider-trading liability, which applies "when a corporate insider" or his tippee "trades in the securities of [the tipper's] corporation on the basis of material, nonpublic information." United States v. O'Hagan, 521 U.S. 642, 651-652, 117 S.Ct. 2199, 138 L.Ed.2d 724 (1997). In such a case, the defendant breaches a duty to, and takes advantage of, the shareholders of his corporation. By contrast, the misappropriation theory holds that a person commits securities fraud "when he misappropriates confidential information for securities trading purposes, in breach of a duty owed to the source of the information" such as an employer or client. Id., at 652, 117 S.Ct. 2199. In such a case, the defendant breaches a duty to, and defrauds, the source of the information, as opposed to the shareholders of his corporation. The Court of Appeals observed that this is a misappropriation case, 792 F.3d, 1087, 1092, n. 4 (C.A.9 2015), while the Government represents that both theories apply on the facts of this case, Brief for United States 15, n. 1. We need not resolve the question. The parties do not dispute that Dirks 's personal-benefit analysis applies in both classical and misappropriation cases, so we will proceed on the assumption that it does. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Pee Curiam. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 255, as amended, 42 U. S. C. §2000e-3(a), it is unlawful “for an employer to discriminate against any of his employees . . . because [the employee] has opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by [Title VII], or because [the employee] has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under [Title VII].” In 1997, respondent filed a §2000e-3(a) retaliation claim against petitioner Clark County School District. The claim as eventually amended alleged that petitioner had taken two separate adverse employment actions against her in response to two different protected activities in which she had engaged. The District Court granted summary judgment to petitioner, No. CV-S-97-365-DWH(RJJ) (D. Nev., Feb. 9, 1999), but a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed over the dissent of Judge Fernandez, No. 99-15522,2000 WL 991821 (July 19, 2000) (per curiam) (unpublished), judgt. order reported at 232 F. 3d 893. We grant the writ of certio-rari and reverse. On October 21, 1994, respondent’s male supervisor met with respondent and another male employee to review the psychological evaluation reports of four job applicants. The report for one of the applicants disclosed that the applicant had once commented to a co-worker, “I hear making love to you is like making love to the Grand Canyon.” Brief in Opposition 3. At the meeting respondent’s supervisor read the comment aloud, looked at respondent and stated, “I don’t know what that means.” Ibid. The other employee then said, “Well, I’ll tell you later,” and both men chuckled. Ibid. Respondent later complained about the comment to the offending employee, to Assistant Superintendent George Ann Rice, the employee’s supervisor, and to another assistant superintendent of petitioner. Her first claim of retaliation asserts that she was punished for these complaints. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has applied §2000e-3(a) to protect employee “opposition]” not just to practices that are actually “made... unlawful” by Title VII, but also to practices that the employee could reasonably believe were unlawful. 2000 WL 991821, at *1 (stating that respondent’s opposition was protected “if she had a reasonable, good faith belief that the incident involving the sexually explicit remark constituted unlawful sexual harassment”); Trent v. Valley Electric Assn. Inc., 41 F. 3d 524, 526 (CA9 1994). We have no occasion to rule on the propriety of this interpretation, because even assuming it is correct, no one could reasonably believe that the incident recounted above violated Title VII. Title VII forbids actions taken on the basis of sex that “discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment.” 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-2(a)(l). Just three Terms ago, we reiterated, what was plain from our previous decisions, that sexual harassment is actionable under Title VII only if it is “so ‘severe or pervasive’ as to ‘alter the conditions of [the victim’s] employment and create an abusive working environment.’” Faragher v. Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 786 (1998) (quoting Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57, 67 (1986) (some internal quotation marks omitted)). See also Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 752 (1998) (Only harassing conduct that is “severe or pervasive” can produce a “constructive alteratio[n] in the terms or conditions of employment”); Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75, 81 (1998) (Title VII “forbids only behavior so objectively offensive as to alter the ‘conditions’ of the victim’s employment”). Workplace conduct is not measured in isolation; instead, “whether an environment is sufficiently hostile or abusive” must be judged “by ‘looking at all the circumstances,’ including the ‘frequency of the discriminatory conduct; its severity; whether it is physically threatening or humiliating, or a mere offensive utterance; and whether it unreasonably interferes with an employee's work performance."' Faragher v. Boca Raton, supra, at 787-788 (quoting Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 23 (1998)). Hence, “[a] recurring point in [our] opinions is that simple teasing, offhand comments, and isolated incidents (unless extremely serious) will not amount to discriminatory changes in the ‘terms and conditions of employment.' ” Faragher v. Boca Raton, supra, at 788 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). No reasonable person could have believed that the single incident recounted above violated Title VII’s standard. The ordinary terms and conditions of respondent’s job required her to review the sexually explicit statement in the course of screening job applicants. Her co-workers who participated in the hiring process were subject to the same requirement, and indeed, in the District Court respondent “conceded that it did not bother or upset her” to read the statement in the file. App. to Pet. for Cert. 15 (District Court opinion). Her supervisor’s comment, made at a meeting to review the application, that he did not know what the statement meant; her co-worker’s responding comment; and the chuckling of both are at worst an “isolated inciden[t]” that cannot remotely be considered “extremely serious,” as our eases require, Faragher v. Boca Raton, supra, at 788. The holding of the Court of Appeals to the contrary must be reversed. Besides claiming that she was punished for complaining to petitioner’s personnel about the alleged sexual harassment, respondent also claimed that she was punished for filing charges against petitioner with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and for filing the present suit. Respondent filed her lawsuit on April 1,1997; on April 10,1997, respondent’s supervisor, Assistant Superintendent Rice, “mentioned to Allin Chandler, Executive Director of plaintiff’s union, that she was contemplating transferring plaintiff to the position of Director of Professional Development Education,” App. to Pet. for Cert. 11-12 (District Court opinion); and this transfer was “carried through” in May, Brief in Opposition 8. In order to show, as her defense against summary judgment required, the existence of a causal connection between her protected activities and the transfer, respondent “relie[d] wholly on the temporal proximity of the filing of her complaint on April 1,1997 and Rice’s statement to plaintiff’s union representative on April 10,1997 that she was considering transferring plaintiff to the [new] position.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 21-22 (District Court opinion). The District Court, however, found that respondent did not serve petitioner with the summons and complaint until April 11,1997, one day after Rice had made the statement, and Rice filed an affidavit stating that she did not become aware of the lawsuit until after April 11, a claim that respondent did not challenge. Hence, the court concluded, respondent “ha[d] not shown that any causal connection exists between her protected activities and the adverse employment decision.” Id., at 21. The Court of Appeals reversed, relying on two facts: The EEOC had issued a right-to-sue letter to respondent three months before Rice announced she was contemplating the transfer, and the actual transfer occurred one month after Rice learned of respondent’s suit. 2000 WL 991821, at *3. The latter fact is immaterial in light of the fact that petitioner coneededly was contemplating the transfer before it learned of the suit. Employers need not suspend previously planned transfers upon discovering that a Title VII suit has been filed, and their proceeding along lines previously contemplated, though not yet definitively determined, is no evidence whatever of causality. As for the right-to-sue letter: Respondent did not rely on that letter in the District Court and did not mention it in her opening brief on appeal. Her demonstration of causality all along had rested upon the connection between the transfer and the filing of her lawsuit — to which connection the letter was irrelevant. When, however, petitioner’s answering brief in the Court of Appeals demonstrated conclusively the lack of causation between the filing of respondent’s lawsuit and Rice’s decision, respondent mentioned the letter for the first time in her reply brief, Reply Brief in No. 99-15522 (CA9) pp. 9-10. The Ninth Circuit’s opinion did not adopt respondent’s utterly implausible suggestion that the EEOC’s issuance of a right-to-sue letter — an action in which the employee takes no part — is a protected activity of the employee, see 42 U. S. C. §2000e-3(a). Rather, the opinion suggests that the letter provided petitioner with its first notice of respondent’s charge before the EEOC, and hence allowed the inference that the transfer proposal made three months later was petitioner’s reaction to the charge. See 2000 WL 991821, at *3. This will not do. First, there is no indication that Rice even knew about the right-to-sue letter when she proposed transferring respondent. And second, if one presumes she knew about it, one must also presume that she (or her predecessor) knew almost two years earlier about the protected action (filing of the EEOC complaint) that the letter supposedly disclosed. (The complaint had been filed on August 23, 1995, and both Title VII and its implementing regulations require that an employer be given notice within 10 days of filing, 42 U. S. C. §§ 2000e-5(b), (e)(1); 29 CFR §1601.14 (2000).) The cases that accept mere temporal proximity between an employer’s knowledge of protected activity and an adverse employment action as sufficient evidence of causality to establish a prima facie case uniformly hold that the temporal proximity must be “very close,” O’Neal v. Ferguson Constr. Co., 237 F. 3d 1248, 1253 (CA10 2001). See, e. g., Richmond v. Oneok, Inc., 120 F. 3d 205, 209 (CA10 1997) (3-month period insufficient); Hughes v. Derwinski, 967 F. 2d 1168, 1174-1175 (CA7 1992) (4-month period insufficient). Action taken (as here) 20 months later suggests, by itself, no causality at all. In short, neither the grounds that respondent presented to the District Court, nor the ground she added on appeal, nor even the ground the Court of Appeals developed on its own, sufficed to establish a dispute substantial enough to withstand the motion for summary judgment. The District Court’s granting of that motion was correct. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed. It is so ordered. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioner is an alien who has been ordered deported by virtue of § 22 of the Internal Security Act of 1950, 64 Stat. 987, 1006, for past membership in the Communist Party. He attacks the judgment below on the ground — the only claim we need to consider — that he was not a “member” of the Communist Party within the scope of that section. Petitioner is an alien who entered the United States in 1914 and, except for a short interval in Canada, has resided here continuously. The finding of “membership” by the hearing officer rested on petitioner’s own testimony. He stated that he joined the Communist Party in “the spring or summer of 1935,” paid dues, attended meetings, and remained a member “until I got arrested [in deportation proceedings] and that was at the end of 1935. When I was arrested, I finished the Communist Party membership . . . At a later point in his testimony, petitioner stated that he was probably a member for approximately one year. He then explained his reasons for joining the Communist Party: “The purpose was probably this — it seemed to me that it came hand in hand — the Communist Party and the fight for bread. It seemed to me like this— let’s put it this way — that the Communist Party and the Workers’ Alliance had one aim — to get something to eat for the people. I didn’t know it was against the law for aliens to join the Communist Party and the Workers’ Alliance. . . .” In response to a question whether his joining the Communist Party was “motivated by dissatisfaction in living under a democracy,” the following colloquy took place: “A. No, not by that. Just a matter of having no jobs at that time. Everybody around me had the idea that we had to fight for something to eat and clothes and shelter. We were not thinking then— anyways the fellows around me, of overthrowing anything. We wanted something to eat and something to crawl into. “Q. You say 'fight for something to eat and crawl into.’ What do you mean by that term? “A. We had to go and ask those who had it — that was the courthouse at that time. We petitioned city, state and national government. We did and we succeeded. We finally got unemployment laws and a certain budget. Even at the few communist meetings I attended, nothing was ever said about overthrowing anything. All they talked about was fighting for the daily needs. That is why we never thought much of joining those parties in those days.” The other activity bearing on petitioner’s membership in the Communist Party was discussed in the following colloquy: “Q. Were you an active worker in the Communist Party? “A. The only active work I did was running the bookstore for a while. “Q. What sort of bookstore was it? “A. Oh, all kinds of literature — all kinds of writers in the whole world — Strachey, Marx, Lenin’s writing and others. Socialism and all that stuff. “Q. Did you own the bookstore? “A. No. I didn’t get a pennyjthere. “Q. What was the arrangement there? “A. I was kind of a salesman in there, but the Communist Party ran it. “Q. You secured this employment through your membership in the Communist Party? “A. Yes. “Q. Was this store an official outlet for communist literature? “A. Yes.” Petitioner testified that he never advocated change of government by force or violence and he also gave his unilluminating understanding of, and beliefs about, the principles of communism. His account of the circumstances and motives that led him to join the Communist Party stood unchallenged and was evidently accepted at face value. This testimony was all given during an examination of petitioner by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1947. At the hearing below, in 1951, petitioner refused to answer whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party on the ground that the answers might incriminate him. The hearing officer found, from the evidence in the record, that petitioner “was a member of the Communist Party of the United States in 1935.” On appeal, to both the Assistant Commissioner, Adjudications Division of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and subsequently the Board of Immigration Appeals, this finding was held supported by the record. Petitioner then sought a writ of habeas corpus from the District Court for the District of Minnesota. Both the District Court and, on appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that the evidence produced at the hearing was sufficient to sustain the finding that petitioner was a “member” of the Communist Party. 228 F. 2d 109. As the case involves an application of Galvan v. Press, 347 U S. 522, we granted certiorari. 350 U. S. 993. The authority for the order deporting petitioner derives from the Internal Security Act of 1950, as amended by the Act of March 28, 1951, 65 Stat. 28. As indicated, its evidentiary support rests entirely on petitioner’s testimony before an immigration inspector in 1947. The transcript of that hearing was the foundation of the administrative proceedings that resulted in the order now under review. The adequacy of that testimony to sustain the order must be judged by the Internal Security Act of 1950, which was amended by § 1 of the Act of March 28, 1951, 65 Stat. 28, set forth in the margin. As pointed out in Galvan v. Press, supra, at 527, the legislative history of this amendatory statute shows that the three specified qualifications are not to be applied as narrow exceptions but are to be considered as illustrative of the spirit in which the rigorous provisions regarding deportability of § 22 (2) are to be construed. There must be a substantial basis for finding that an alien committed himself to the Communist Party in consciousness that he was “joining an organization known as the Communist Party which operates as a distinct and active political organization . . . .” 347 U. S., at 528. Bearing in mind the solidity of proof that is required for a judgment entailing the consequences of deportation, particularly in the case of an old man who has lived in this country for forty years, cf. Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U. S. 276, 284, we cannot say that the unchallenged account given by petitioner of his relations to the Communist Party establishes the kind of meaningful association required by the alleviating Amendment of 1951 as expounded by its sponsor, Senator McCarran, and his legislative collaborator, Senator Ferguson. (See 97 Cong. Rec. 2368 and 2387.) All that the Immigration authorities went on is what the petitioner himself said, for his truthfulness was not called into question. From his own testimony in 1947, which is all there is, the dominating impulse to his “affiliation” with the Communist Party may well have been wholly devoid of any “political” implications. To be sure, he was a “salesman” in a Communist book store, but he “didn’t get a penny there.” Presumably he had to live on something and further inquiry might have elicited that he was getting the necessities of life for his work in the book store. Nor is there a hint in the record that this was not a bona fide book shop. Accordingly, we are of the opinion that the record before us is all too insubstantial to support the order of deportation. The differences on the facts between Gal-van v. Press, supra, and this case are too obvious to be detailed. Judgment reversed. That section amended the Act of October 16, 1918, 40 Stat. 1012, as amended, to provide: “[See. 1] That any alien who is a member of any one of the following classes shall be excluded from admission into the United States: “(2) Aliens who, at any time, shall be or shall have been members of any of the following classes: “(C) Aliens who are members of or affiliated with (i) the Communist Party of the United States .... “Sec. 4. (a) Any alien who was at the time of entering the United States, or has been at any time thereafter, ... a member of any one of the classes of aliens enumerated in section 1 (2) of this Act, shall, upon the warrant of the Attorney General, be taken into custody and deported in the manner provided in the Immigration Act of February 5, 1917. The provisions of this section shall be applicable to the classes of aliens mentioned in this Act, irrespective of the time of their entry into the United States.” The substance of the relevant portion of this provision was incorporated in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 66 Stat. 163, 205, 8 U. S. C. § 1251 (a) (6) (C). “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Attorney General is hereby authorized and directed to provide by regulations that the terms ‘members of’ and ‘affiliated with’ where used in the Act of October 16, 1918, as amended, shall include only membership or affiliation which is or was voluntary, and shall not include membership or affiliation which is or was solely (a) when under sixteen years of age, (b) by operation of law, or (c) for purposes of obtaining employment, food rations, or other essentials of living, and where necessary for such purposes.” See 16 Fed. Reg. 2907. These three exclusions from the substantive provision were, so far as deportations are concerned, repealed by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 66 Stat. 163, 280; however, as the text of this opinion makes clear, we are not deciding this case on the basis of (c), supra. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
C
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. The question in this case concerns the procedure that is available for a defendant in a civil case who seeks to enforce a forum-selection clause. We reject petitioner's argument that such a clause may be enforced by a motion to dismiss under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a) or Rule 12(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Instead, a forum-selection clause may be enforced by a motion to transfer under § 1404(a) (2006 ed., Supp. V), which provides that "[f]or the convenience of parties and witnesses, in the interest of justice, a district court may transfer any civil action to any other district or division where it might have been brought or to any district or division to which all parties have consented." When a defendant files such a motion, we conclude, a district court should transfer the case unless extraordinary circumstances unrelated to the convenience of the parties clearly disfavor a transfer. In the present case, both the District Court and the Court of Appeals misunderstood the standards to be applied in adjudicating a § 1404(a) motion in a case involving a forum-selection clause, and we therefore reverse the decision below. I Petitioner Atlantic Marine Construction Co., a Virginia corporation with its principal place of business in Virginia, entered into a contract with the United States Army Corps of Engineers to construct a child-development center at Fort Hood in the Western District of Texas. Atlantic Marine then entered into a subcontract with respondent J-Crew Management, Inc., a Texas corporation, for work on the project. This subcontract included a forum-selection clause, which stated that all disputes between the parties "'shall be litigated in the Circuit Court for the City of Norfolk, Virginia, or the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division.' " In re Atlantic Marine Constr. Co., 701 F.3d 736, 737-738 (C.A.5 2012). When a dispute about payment under the subcontract arose, however, J-Crew sued Atlantic Marine in the Western District of Texas, invoking that court's diversity jurisdiction. Atlantic Marine moved to dismiss the suit, arguing that the forum-selection clause rendered venue in the Western District of Texas "wrong" under § 1406(a) and "improper" under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(3). In the alternative, Atlantic Marine moved to transfer the case to the Eastern District of Virginia under § 1404(a). J-Crew opposed these motions. The District Court denied both motions. It first concluded that § 1404(a) is the exclusive mechanism for enforcing a forum-selection clause that points to another federal forum. The District Court then held that Atlantic Marine bore the burden of establishing that a transfer would be appropriate under § 1404(a) and that the court would "consider a nonexhaustive and nonexclusive list of public and private interest factors," of which the "forum-selection clause [was] only one such factor." United States ex rel. J-Crew Management, Inc. v. Atlantic Marine Constr. Co., 2012 WL 8499879, at *5 (W.D.Tex., Apr. 6, 2012). Giving particular weight to its findings that "compulsory process will not be available for the majority of J-Crew's witnesses" and that there would be "significant expense for those willing witnesses," the District Court held that Atlantic Marine had failed to carry its burden of showing that transfer "would be in the interest of justice or increase the convenience to the parties and their witnesses." Id., at *7-*8; see also 701 F.3d, at 743. Atlantic Marine petitioned the Court of Appeals for a writ of mandamus directing the District Court to dismiss the case under § 1406(a) or to transfer the case to the Eastern District of Virginia under § 1404(a). The Court of Appeals denied Atlantic Marine's petition because Atlantic Marine had not established a " 'clear and indisputable' " right to relief. Id., at 738; see Cheney v. United States Dist. Court for D.C., 542 U.S. 367, 381, 124 S.Ct. 2576, 159 L.Ed.2d 459 (2004) (mandamus "petitioner must satisfy the burden of showing that [his] right to issuance of the writ is clear and indisputable" (internal quotation marks omitted; brackets in original)). Relying on Stewart Organization, Inc. v. Ricoh Corp., 487 U.S. 22, 108 S.Ct. 2239, 101 L.Ed.2d 22 (1988), the Court of Appeals agreed with the District Court that § 1404(a) is the exclusive mechanism for enforcing a forum-selection clause that points to another federal forum when venue is otherwise proper in the district where the case was brought. See 701 F.3d, at 739-741.1 The court stated, however, that if a forum-selection clause points to a nonfederal forum, dismissal under Rule 12(b)(3) would be the correct mechanism to enforce the clause because § 1404(a) by its terms does not permit transfer to any tribunal other than another federal court. Id., at 740. The Court of Appeals then concluded that the District Court had not clearly abused its discretion in refusing to transfer the case after conducting the balance-of-interests analysis required by § 1404(a). Id., at 741-743; see Cheney, supra, at 380, 124 S.Ct. 2576 (permitting mandamus relief to correct "a clear abuse of discretion" (internal quotation marks omitted)). That was so even though there was no dispute that the forum-selection clause was valid. See 701 F.3d, at 742; id., at 744 (concurring opinion). We granted certiorari. 569 U.S. ----, 133 S.Ct. 1748, 185 L.Ed.2d 784 (2013). II Atlantic Marine contends that a party may enforce a forum-selection clause by seeking dismissal of the suit under § 1406(a) and Rule 12(b)(3). We disagree. Section 1406(a) and Rule 12(b)(3) allow dismissal only when venue is "wrong" or "improper." Whether venue is "wrong" or "improper" depends exclusively on whether the court in which the case was brought satisfies the requirements of federal venue laws, and those provisions say nothing about a forum-selection clause. A Section 1406(a) provides that "[t]he district court of a district in which is filed a case laying venue in the wrong division or district shall dismiss, or if it be in the interest of justice, transfer such case to any district or division in which it could have been brought." Rule 12(b)(3) states that a party may move to dismiss a case for "improper venue." These provisions therefore authorize dismissal only when venue is "wrong" or "improper" in the forum in which it was brought. This question-whether venue is "wrong" or "improper"-is generally governed by 28 U.S.C. § 1391 (2006 ed., Supp. V).2 That provision states that "[e]xcept as otherwise provided by law... this section shall govern the venue of all civil actions brought in district courts of the United States." § 1391(a)(1) (emphasis added). It further provides that "[a] civil action may be brought in-(1) a judicial district in which any defendant resides, if all defendants are residents of the State in which the district is located; (2) a judicial district in which a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred, or a substantial part of property that is the subject of the action is situated; or (3) if there is no district in which an action may otherwise be brought as provided in this section, any judicial district in which any defendant is subject to the court's personal jurisdiction with respect to such action." § 1391(b). 3 When venue is challenged, the court must determine whether the case falls within one of the three categories set out in § 1391(b). If it does, venue is proper; if it does not, venue is improper, and the case must be dismissed or transferred under § 1406(a). Whether the parties entered into a contract containing a forum-selection clause has no bearing on whether a case falls into one of the categories of cases listed in § 1391(b). As a result, a case filed in a district that falls within § 1391 may not be dismissed under § 1406(a) or Rule 12(b)(3). Petitioner's contrary view improperly conflates the special statutory term "venue" and the word "forum." It is certainly true that, in some contexts, the word "venue" is used synonymously with the term "forum," but § 1391 makes clear that venue in "all civil actions" must be determined in accordance with the criteria outlined in that section. That language cannot reasonably be read to allow judicial consideration of other, extrastatutory limitations on the forum in which a case may be brought. The structure of the federal venue provisions confirms that they alone define whether venue exists in a given forum. In particular, the venue statutes reflect Congress' intent that venue should always lie in some federal court whenever federal courts have personal jurisdiction over the defendant. The first two paragraphs of § 1391(b) define the preferred judicial districts for venue in a typical case, but the third paragraph provides a fallback option: If no other venue is proper, then venue will lie in " any judicial district in which any defendant is subject to the court's personal jurisdiction" (emphasis added). The statute thereby ensures that so long as a federal court has personal jurisdiction over the defendant, venue will always lie somewhere. As we have previously noted, "Congress does not in general intend to create venue gaps, which take away with one hand what Congress has given by way of jurisdictional grant with the other." Smith v. United States, 507 U.S. 197, 203, 113 S.Ct. 1178, 122 L.Ed.2d 548 (1993) (internal quotation marks omitted). Yet petitioner's approach would mean that in some number of cases-those in which the forum-selection clause points to a state or foreign court-venue would not lie in any federal district. That would not comport with the statute's design, which contemplates that venue will always exist in some federal court. The conclusion that venue is proper so long as the requirements of § 1391(b) are met, irrespective of any forum-selection clause, also follows from our prior decisions construing the federal venue statutes. In Van Dusen v. Barrack, 376 U.S. 612, 84 S.Ct. 805, 11 L.Ed.2d 945 (1964), we considered the meaning of § 1404(a), which authorizes a district court to "transfer any civil action to any other district or division where it might have been brought." The question in Van Dusen was whether § 1404(a) allows transfer to a district in which venue is proper under § 1391 but in which the case could not have been pursued in light of substantive state-law limitations on the suit. See id., at 614-615, 84 S.Ct. 805. In holding that transfer is permissible in that context, we construed the phrase "where it might have been brought" to refer to "the federal laws delimiting the districts in which such an action'may be brought,' " id., at 624, 84 S.Ct. 805, noting that "the phrase'may be brought' recurs at least 10 times" in §§ 1391-1406, id., at 622, 84 S.Ct. 805. We perceived "no valid reason for reading the words 'where it might have been brought' to narrow the range of permissible federal forums beyond those permitted by federal venue statutes." Id., at 623, 84 S.Ct. 805. As we noted in Van Dusen, § 1406(a) "shares the same statutory context" as § 1404(a) and "contain[s] a similar phrase." Id., at 621, n. 11, 84 S.Ct. 805. It instructs a court to transfer a case from the "wrong" district to a district "in which it could have been brought." The most reasonable interpretation of that provision is that a district cannot be "wrong" if it is one in which the case could have been brought under § 1391. Under the construction of the venue laws we adopted in Van Dusen, a "wrong" district is therefore a district other than "those districts in which Congress has provided by its venue statutes that the action'may be brought.' " Id., at 618, 84 S.Ct. 805 (emphasis added). If the federal venue statutes establish that suit may be brought in a particular district, a contractual bar cannot render venue in that district "wrong." Our holding also finds support in Stewart, 487 U.S. 22, 108 S.Ct. 2239. As here, the parties in Stewart had included a forum-selection clause in the relevant contract, but the plaintiff filed suit in a different federal district. The defendant had initially moved to transfer the case or, in the alternative, to dismiss for improper venue under § 1406(a), but by the time the case reached this Court, the defendant had abandoned its § 1406(a) argument and sought only transfer under § 1404(a). We rejected the plaintiff's argument that state law governs a motion to transfer venue pursuant to a forum-selection clause, concluding instead that "federal law, specifically 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), governs the District Court's decision whether to give effect to the parties' forum-selection clause." Id., at 32, 108 S.Ct. 2239. We went on to explain that a "motion to transfer under § 1404(a)... calls on the district court to weigh in the balance a number of case-specific factors" and that the "presence of a forum-selection clause... will be a significant factor that figures centrally in the district court's calculus." Id., at 29, 108 S.Ct. 2239. The question whether venue in the original court was "wrong" under § 1406(a) was not before the Court, but we wrote in a footnote that "[t]he parties do not dispute that the District Court properly denied the motion to dismiss the case for improper venue under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a) because respondent apparently does business in the Northern District of Alabama. See 28 U.S.C. § 1391(c) (venue proper in judicial district in which corporation is doing business)." Id., at 28, n. 8, 108 S.Ct. 2239. In other words, because § 1391 made venue proper, venue could not be "wrong" for purposes of § 1406(a). Though dictum, the Court's observation supports the holding we reach today. A contrary view would all but drain Stewart of any significance. If a forum-selection clause rendered venue in all other federal courts "wrong," a defendant could always obtain automatic dismissal or transfer under § 1406(a) and would not have any reason to resort to § 1404(a). Stewart's holding would be limited to the presumably rare case in which the defendant inexplicably fails to file a motion under § 1406(a) or Rule 12(b)(3). B Although a forum-selection clause does not render venue in a court "wrong" or "improper" within the meaning of § 1406(a) or Rule 12(b)(3), the clause may be enforced through a motion to transfer under § 1404(a). That provision states that "[f]or the convenience of parties and witnesses, in the interest of justice, a district court may transfer any civil action to any other district or division where it might have been brought or to any district or division to which all parties have consented." Unlike § 1406(a), § 1404(a) does not condition transfer on the initial forum's being "wrong." And it permits transfer to any district where venue is also proper ( i.e., "where [the case] might have been brought") or to any other district to which the parties have agreed by contract or stipulation. Section 1404(a) therefore provides a mechanism for enforcement of forum-selection clauses that point to a particular federal district. And for the reasons we address in Part III, infra, a proper application of § 1404(a) requires that a forum-selection clause be "given controlling weight in all but the most exceptional cases." Stewart, supra, at 33, 108 S.Ct. 2239 (KENNEDY, J., concurring). Atlantic Marine argues that § 1404(a) is not a suitable mechanism to enforce forum-selection clauses because that provision cannot provide for transfer when a forum-selection clause specifies a state or foreign tribunal, see Brief for Petitioner 18-19, and we agree with Atlantic Marine that the Court of Appeals failed to provide a sound answer to this problem. The Court of Appeals opined that a forum-selection clause pointing to a nonfederal forum should be enforced through Rule 12(b)(3), which permits a party to move for dismissal of a case based on "improper venue." 701 F.3d, at 740. As Atlantic Marine persuasively argues, however, that conclusion cannot be reconciled with our construction of the term "improper venue" in § 1406 to refer only to a forum that does not satisfy federal venue laws. If venue is proper under federal venue rules, it does not matter for the purpose of Rule 12(b)(3) whether the forum-selection clause points to a federal or a nonfederal forum. Instead, the appropriate way to enforce a forum-selection clause pointing to a state or foreign forum is through the doctrine of forum non conveniens. Section 1404(a) is merely a codification of the doctrine of forum non conveniens for the subset of cases in which the transferee forum is within the federal court system; in such cases, Congress has replaced the traditional remedy of outright dismissal with transfer. See Sinochem Int'l Co. v. Malaysia Int'l Shipping Corp., 549 U.S. 422, 430, 127 S.Ct. 1184, 167 L.Ed.2d 15 (2007) ("For the federal court system, Congress has codified the doctrine..."); see also notes following § 1404 (Historical and Revision Notes) (Section 1404(a) "was drafted in accordance with the doctrine of forum non conveniens, permitting transfer to a more convenient forum, even though the venue is proper"). For the remaining set of cases calling for a nonfederal forum, § 1404(a) has no application, but the residual doctrine of forum non conveniens "has continuing application in federal courts." Sinochem, 549 U.S., at 430, 127 S.Ct. 1184 (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted); see also ibid. (noting that federal courts invoke forum non conveniens "in cases where the alternative forum is abroad, and perhaps in rare instances where a state or territorial court serves litigational convenience best" (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). And because both § 1404(a) and the forum non conveniens doctrine from which it derives entail the same balancing-of-interests standard, courts should evaluate a forum-selection clause pointing to a nonfederal forum in the same way that they evaluate a forum-selection clause pointing to a federal forum. See Stewart, 487 U.S., at 37, 108 S.Ct. 2239 (SCALIA, J., dissenting) (Section 1404(a) "did not change 'the relevant factors' which federal courts used to consider under the doctrine of forum non conveniens" (quoting Norwood v. Kirkpatrick, 349 U.S. 29, 32, 75 S.Ct. 544, 99 L.Ed. 789 (1955))). C An amicus before the Court argues that a defendant in a breach-of-contract action should be able to obtain dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6) if the plaintiff files suit in a district other than the one specified in a valid forum-selection clause. See Brief for Stephen E. Sachs as Amicus Curiae. Petitioner, however, did not file a motion under Rule 12(b)(6), and the parties did not brief the Rule's application to this case at any stage of this litigation. We therefore will not consider it. Even if a defendant could use Rule 12(b)(6) to enforce a forum-selection clause, that would not change our conclusions that § 1406(a) and Rule 12(b)(3) are not proper mechanisms to enforce a forum-selection clause and that § 1404(a) and the forum non conveniens doctrine provide appropriate enforcement mechanisms.4 III Although the Court of Appeals correctly identified § 1404(a) as the appropriate provision to enforce the forum-selection clause in this case, the Court of Appeals erred in failing to make the adjustments required in a § 1404(a) analysis when the transfer motion is premised on a forum-selection clause. When the parties have agreed to a valid forum-selection clause, a district court should ordinarily transfer the case to the forum specified in that clause.5 Only under extraordinary circumstances unrelated to the convenience of the parties should a § 1404(a) motion be denied. And no such exceptional factors appear to be present in this case. A In the typical case not involving a forum-selection clause, a district court considering a § 1404(a) motion (or a forum non conveniens motion) must evaluate both the convenience of the parties and various public-interest considerations.6 Ordinarily, the district court would weigh the relevant factors and decide whether, on balance, a transfer would serve "the convenience of parties and witnesses" and otherwise promote "the interest of justice." § 1404(a). The calculus changes, however, when the parties' contract contains a valid forum-selection clause, which "represents the parties' agreement as to the most proper forum." Stewart, 487 U.S., at 31, 108 S.Ct. 2239. The "enforcement of valid forum-selection clauses, bargained for by the parties, protects their legitimate expectations and furthers vital interests of the justice system." Id., at 33, 108 S.Ct. 2239 (KENNEDY, J., concurring). For that reason, and because the overarching consideration under § 1404(a) is whether a transfer would promote "the interest of justice," "a valid forum-selection clause [should be] given controlling weight in all but the most exceptional cases." Id., at 33, 108 S.Ct. 2239 (same). The presence of a valid forum-selection clause requires district courts to adjust their usual § 1404(a) analysis in three ways. First, the plaintiff's choice of forum merits no weight. Rather, as the party defying the forum-selection clause, the plaintiff bears the burden of establishing that transfer to the forum for which the parties bargained is unwarranted. Because plaintiffs are ordinarily allowed to select whatever forum they consider most advantageous (consistent with jurisdictional and venue limitations), we have termed their selection the "plaintiff's venue privilege." Van Dusen, 376 U.S., at 635, 84 S.Ct. 805.7 But when a plaintiff agrees by contract to bring suit only in a specified forum-presumably in exchange for other binding promises by the defendant-the plaintiff has effectively exercised its "venue privilege" before a dispute arises. Only that initial choice deserves deference, and the plaintiff must bear the burden of showing why the court should not transfer the case to the forum to which the parties agreed. Second, a court evaluating a defendant's § 1404(a) motion to transfer based on a forum-selection clause should not consider arguments about the parties' private interests. When parties agree to a forum-selection clause, they waive the right to challenge the preselected forum as inconvenient or less convenient for themselves or their witnesses, or for their pursuit of the litigation. A court accordingly must deem the private-interest factors to weigh entirely in favor of the preselected forum. As we have explained in a different but " 'instructive' " context, Stewart, supra, at 28, 108 S.Ct. 2239, "[w]hatever 'inconvenience' [the parties] would suffer by being forced to litigate in the contractual forum as [they] agreed to do was clearly foreseeable at the time of contracting." The Bremen v. Zapata Off-Shore Co., 407 U.S. 1, 17-18, 92 S.Ct. 1907, 32 L.Ed.2d 513 (1972); see also Stewart,supra, at 33, 108 S.Ct. 2239 (KENNEDY, J., concurring) (stating that Bremen's "reasoning applies with much force to federal courts sitting in diversity"). As a consequence, a district court may consider arguments about public-interest factors only. See n. 6, supra. Because those factors will rarely defeat a transfer motion, the practical result is that forum-selection clauses should control except in unusual cases. Although it is "conceivable in a particular case" that the district court "would refuse to transfer a case notwithstanding the counterweight of a forum-selection clause," Stewart, supra, at 30-31, 108 S.Ct. 2239, such cases will not be common. Third, when a party bound by a forum-selection clause flouts its contractual obligation and files suit in a different forum, a § 1404(a) transfer of venue will not carry with it the original venue's choice-of-law rules-a factor that in some circumstances may affect public-interest considerations. See Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno, 454 U.S. 235, 241, n. 6, 102 S.Ct. 252, 70 L.Ed.2d 419 (1981) (listing a court's familiarity with the "law that must govern the action" as a potential factor). A federal court sitting in diversity ordinarily must follow the choice-of-law rules of the State in which it sits. See Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Elec. Mfg. Co., 313 U.S. 487, 494-496, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 85 L.Ed. 1477 (1941). However, we previously identified an exception to that principle for § 1404(a) transfers, requiring that the state law applicable in the original court also apply in the transferee court. See Van Dusen, 376 U.S., at 639, 84 S.Ct. 805. We deemed that exception necessary to prevent "defendants, properly subjected to suit in the transferor State," from "invok[ing] § 1404(a) to gain the benefits of the laws of another jurisdiction...." Id., at 638, 84 S.Ct. 805; see Ferens v. John Deere Co., 494 U.S. 516, 522, 110 S.Ct. 1274, 108 L.Ed.2d 443 (1990) (extending the Van Dusen rule to § 1404(a) motions by plaintiffs). The policies motivating our exception to the Klaxon rule for § 1404(a) transfers, however, do not support an extension to cases where a defendant's motion is premised on enforcement of a valid forum-selection clause. See Ferens, supra, at 523, 110 S.Ct. 1274. To the contrary, those considerations lead us to reject the rule that the law of the court in which the plaintiff inappropriately filed suit should follow the case to the forum contractually selected by the parties. In Van Dusen, we were concerned that, through a § 1404(a) transfer, a defendant could "defeat the state-law advantages that might accrue from the exercise of [the plaintiff's] venue privilege." 376 U.S., at 635, 84 S.Ct. 805. But as discussed above, a plaintiff who files suit in violation of a forum-selection clause enjoys no such "privilege" with respect to its choice of forum, and therefore it is entitled to no concomitant "state-law advantages." Not only would it be inequitable to allow the plaintiff to fasten its choice of substantive law to the venue transfer, but it would also encourage gamesmanship. Because "§ 1404(a) should not create or multiply opportunities for forum shopping," Ferens, supra, at 523, 110 S.Ct. 1274, we will not apply the Van Dusen rule when a transfer stems from enforcement of a forum-selection clause: The court in the contractually selected venue should not apply the law of the transferor venue to which the parties waived their right.8 When parties have contracted in advance to litigate disputes in a particular forum, courts should not unnecessarily disrupt the parties' settled expectations. A forum-selection clause, after all, may have figured centrally in the parties' negotiations and may have affected how they set monetary and other contractual terms; it may, in fact, have been a critical factor in their agreement to do business together in the first place. In all but the most unusual cases, therefore, "the interest of justice" is served by holding parties to their bargain. B The District Court's application of § 1404(a) in this case did not comport with these principles. The District Court improperly placed the burden on Atlantic Marine to prove that transfer to the parties' contractually preselected forum was appropriate. As the party acting in violation of the forum-selection clause, J-Crew must bear the burden of showing that public-interest factors overwhelmingly disfavor a transfer. The District Court also erred in giving weight to arguments about the parties' private interests, given that all private interests, as expressed in the forum-selection clause, weigh in favor of the transfer. The District Court stated that the private-interest factors "militat[e] against a transfer to Virginia" because "compulsory process will not be available for the majority of J-Crew's witnesses" and there will be "significant expense for those willing witnesses." 2012 WL 8499879, at *6-*7; see 701 F.3d, at 743 (noting District Court's "concer[n] with J-Crew's ability to secure witnesses for trial"). But when J-Crew entered into a contract to litigate all disputes in Virginia, it knew that a distant forum might hinder its ability to call certain witnesses and might impose other burdens on its litigation efforts. It nevertheless promised to resolve its disputes in Virginia, and the District Court should not have given any weight to J-Crew's current claims of inconvenience. The District Court also held that the public-interest factors weighed in favor of keeping the case in Texas because Texas contract law is more familiar to federal judges in Texas than to their federal colleagues in Virginia. That ruling, however, rested in part on the District Court's belief that the federal court sitting in Virginia would have been required to apply Texas' choice-of-law rules, which in this case pointed to Texas contract law. See 2012 WL 8499879, at *8 (citing Van Dusen, supra, at 639, 84 S.Ct. 805). But for the reasons we have explained, the transferee court would apply Virginia choice-of-law rules. It is true that even these Virginia rules may point to the contract law of Texas, as the State in which the contract was formed. But at minimum, the fact that the Virginia court will not be required to apply Texas choice-of-law rules reduces whatever weight the District Court might have given to the public-interest factor that looks to the familiarity of the transferee court with the applicable law. And, in any event, federal judges routinely apply the law of a State other than the State in which they sit. We are not aware of any exceptionally arcane features of Texas contract law that are likely to defy comprehension by a federal judge sitting in Virginia. * * * We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Although no public-interest factors that might support the denial of Atlantic Marine's motion to transfer are apparent on the record before us, we remand the case for the courts below to decide that question. It is so ordered. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U.S. 321, 337, 26 S.Ct. 282, 50 L.Ed. 499. Venue was otherwise proper in the Western District of Texas because the subcontract at issue in the suit was entered into and was to be performed in that district. See United States ex rel. J-Crew Management, Inc. v. Atlantic Marine Constr. Co., 2012 WL 8499879, at *5 (W.D.Tex., Apr. 6, 2012) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2)). .Section 1391 governs "venue generally," that is, in cases where a more specific venue provision does not apply. Cf., e.g., § 1400 (identifying proper venue for copyright and patent suits). Other provisions of § 1391 define the requirements for proper venue in particular circumstances. We observe, moreover, that a motion under Rule 12(b)(6), unlike a motion under § 1404(a) or the forum non conveniens doctrine, may lead to a jury trial on venue if issues of material fact relating to the validity of the forum-selection clause arise. Even if Professor Sachs is ultimately correct, therefore, defendants would have sensible reasons to invoke § 1404(a) or the forum non conveniens doctrine in addition to Rule 12(b)(6). Our analysis presupposes a contractually valid forum-selection clause. Factors relating to the parties' private interests include "relative ease of access to sources of proof; availability of compulsory process for attendance of unwilling, and the cost of obtaining attendance of willing, witnesses; possibility of view of premises, if view would be appropriate to the action; and all other practical problems that make trial of a case easy, expeditious and inexpensive." Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno, 454 U.S. 235, 241, n. 6, 102 S.Ct. 252, 70 L.Ed.2d 419 (1981) (internal quotation marks omitted). Public-interest factors may include "the administrative difficulties flowing from court congestion; the local interest in having localized controversies decided at home; [and] the interest in having the trial of a diversity case in a forum that is at home with the law." Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted). The Court must also give some weight to the plaintiffs' choice of forum. See Norwood v. Kirkpatrick, 349 U.S. 29, 32, 75 S.Ct. 544, 99 L.Ed. 789 (1955). We note that this "privilege" exists within the confines of statutory limitations, and "[i]n most instances, the purpose of statutorily specified venue is to protect the defendant against the risk that a plaintiff will select an unfair or inconvenient place of trial." Leroy v. Great Western United Corp., 443 U.S. 173, 183-184, 99 S.Ct. 2710, 61 L.Ed.2d 464 (1979). For the reasons detailed above, see Part II-B, supra, the same standards should apply to motions to dismiss for forum non conveniens in cases involving valid forum-selection clauses pointing to state or foreign forums. We have noted in contexts unrelated to forum-selection clauses that a defendant "invoking forum non conveniens ordinarily bears a heavy burden in opposing the plaintiff's chosen forum." Sinochem Int'l Co. v. Malaysia Int'l Shipping Co., 549 U.S Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. Police officers responded to a complaint of a disturbance near Allen Road in Brownstown, Michigan. Officer Christopher Goolsby later testified that, as he and his partner approached the area, a couple directed them to a residence where a man was “going crazy.” Docket No. 276439, 2008 WL 786515, *1 (Mich. App., Mar. 25, 2008) (per curiam) (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted). Upon their arrival, the officers found a household in considerable chaos: a pickup truck in the driveway with its front smashed, damaged fenceposts along the side of the property, and three broken house windows, the glass still on the ground outside. The officers also noticed blood on the hood of the pickup and on clothes inside of it, as well as on one of the doors to the house. (It is disputed whether they noticed this immediately upon reaching the house, but undisputed that they noticed it before the allegedly unconstitutional entry.) Through a window, the officers could see respondent, Jeremy Fisher, inside the house, screaming and throwing things. The back door was locked, and a couch had been placed to block the front door. The officers knocked, but Fisher refused to answer. They saw that Fisher had a cut on his hand, and they asked him whether he needed medical attention. Fisher ignored these questions and demanded, with accompanying profanity, that the officers go to get a search warrant. Officer Goolsby then pushed the front door partway open and ventured into the house. Through the window of the open door he saw Fisher pointing a long gun at him. Officer Goolsby withdrew. Fisher was charged under Michigan law with assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The trial court concluded that Officer Goolsby violated the Fourth Amendment when he entered Fisher’s house, and granted Fisher’s motion to suppress the evidence obtained as a result — that is, Officer Goolsby’s statement that Fisher pointed a rifle at him. The Michigan Court of Appeals initially remanded for an evidentiary hearing, see Docket No. 256027, 2005 WL 3481454 (Dec. 20, 2005) (per curiam), after which the trial court reinstated its order. The Court of Appeals then affirmed over a dissent by Judge Talbot. See 2008 WL 786515, at *2; id., at *2-*5. The Michigan Supreme Court granted leave to appeal, but, after hearing oral argument, it vacated its prior order and denied leave instead; three justices, however, would have taken the case and reversed on the ground that the Court of Appeals misapplied the Fourth Amendment. See 483 Mich. 1007, 765 N. W. 2d 19 (2009). Because the decision of the Michigan Court of Appeals is indeed contrary to our Fourth Amendment ease law, particularly Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U. S. 398 (2006), we grant the State’s petition for certiorari and reverse. “[T]he ultimate touchstone of the Fourth Amendment,” we have often said, “is ‘reasonableness.’ ” Id., at 403. Therefore, although “searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable,” Groh v. Ramirez, 540 U. S. 551, 559 (2004) (internal quotation marks omitted), that presumption can be overcome. For example, “the exigencies of the situation [may] make the needs of law enforcement so compelling that the warrantless search is objectively reasonable.” Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U. S. 385, 393-394 (1978) (internal quotation marks omitted). Brigham City identified one such exigency: “the need to assist persons who are seriously injured or threatened with such injury.” 547 U. S., at 403. Thus, law enforcement officers “may enter a home without a warrant to render emergency assistance to an injured occupant or to protect an occupant from imminent injury.” Ibid. This “emergency aid exception” does not depend on the officers’ subjective intent or the seriousness of any crime they are investigating when the emergency arises. Id., at 404-405. It requires only “an objectively reasonable basis for believing,” id., at 406, that “a person within [the house] is in need of immediate aid,” Mincey, supra, at 392. Brigham City illustrates the application of this standard. There, police officers responded to a noise complaint in the early hours of the morning. “As they approached the house, they could hear from within an altercation occurring, some kind of fight.” 547 U. S., at 406 (internal quotation marks omitted). Following the tumult to the back of the house whence it came, the officers saw juveniles drinking beer in the backyard and a fight unfolding in the kitchen. They watched through the window as a juvenile broke free from the adults restraining him and punched another adult in the face, who recoiled to the sink, spitting blood. Ibid. Under these circumstances, we found it “plainly reasonable” for the officers to enter the house and quell the violence, for they had “an objectively reasonable basis for believing both that the injured adult might need help and that the violence in the kitchen was just beginning.” Ibid. A straightforward application of the emergency aid exception, as in Brigham, City, dictates that the officer’s entry was reasonable. Just as in Brigham City, the police officers here were responding to a report of a disturbance. Just as in Brigham City, when they arrived on the scene they encountered a tumultuous situation in the house — and here they also found signs of a recent injury, perhaps from a car accident, outside. And just as in Brigham City, the officers could see violent behavior inside. Although Officer Goolsby and his partner did not see punches thrown, as did the officers in Brigham City, they did see Fisher screaming and throwing things. It would be objectively reasonable to believe that Fisher’s projectiles might have a human target (perhaps a spouse or a child), or that Fisher would hurt himself in the course of his rage. In short, we find it as plain here as we did in Brigham City that the officer’s entry was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The Michigan Court of Appeals, however, thought the situation “did not rise to a level of emergency justifying the warrantless intrusion into a residence.” 2008 WL 786515, at *2. Although the Court of Appeals conceded that “there was evidence an injured person was on the premises,” it found it significant that “the mere drops of blood did not signal a likely serious, life-threatening injury.” Ibid. The court added that the cut Officer Goolsby observed on Fisher’s hand “likely explained the trail of blood” and that Fisher “was very much on his feet and apparently able to see to his own needs.” Ibid. Even a casual review of Brigham City reveals the flaw in this reasoning. Officers do not need ironclad proof of “a likely serious, life-threatening” injury to invoke the emergency aid exception. The only injury police could confirm in Brigham City was the bloody lip they saw the juvenile inflict upon the adult. Fisher argues that the officers here could not have been motivated by a perceived need to provide medical assistance, since they never summoned emergency medical personnel. This would have no bearing, of course, upon their need to ensure that Fisher was not endangering someone else in the house. Moreover, even if the failure to summon medical personnel conclusively established that Goolsby did not subjectively believe, when he entered the house, that Fisher or someone else was seriously injured (which is doubtful), the test, as we have said, is not what Goolsby believed, but whether there was “an objectively reasonable basis for believing” that medical assistance was needed, or persons were in danger, Brigham City, supra, at 406; Mincey, supra, at 392. It was error for the Michigan Court of Appeals to replace that objective inquiry into appearances with its hindsight determination that there was in fact no emergency. It does not meet the needs of law enforcement or the demands of public safety to require officers to walk away from a situation like the one they encountered here. Only when an apparent threat has become an actual harm can officers rule out innocuous explanations for ominous circumstances. But “[t]he role of a peace officer includes preventing violence and restoring order, not simply rendering first aid to casualties.” Brigham City, supra, at 406. It sufficed to invoke the emergency aid exception that it was reasonable to believe that Fisher had hurt himself (albeit nonfatally) and needed treatment that in his rage he was unable to provide, or that Fisher was about to hurt, or had already hurt, someone else. The Michigan Court of Appeals required more than what the Fourth Amendment demands. * * * The petition for certiorari is granted. The judgment of the Michigan Court of Appeals is reversed, and the ease is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. We have taken the facts from the opinion of the Michigan Court of Appeals. Except where indicated, the parties do not dispute the facts. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The question presented by this petition is whether the Court of Appeals followed our mandate on remand of the cause in 335 U. S. 355. The case when it was here earlier this Term appeared in the following posture: A condemnation proceeding was instituted by the United States under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (52 Stat. 1040, 1044, 21 U. S. C. § 334). Sixteen machines with alleged diagnostic and curative capabilities had been shipped in interstate commerce. Leaflets describing the uses of the machine had been shipped at a separate time. The Court of Appeals had held that the separate shipments of the machines and leaflets precluded a conclusion that the leaflets had accompanied the device in interstate commerce, and therefore the transaction was outside the reach of the Act. We reversed the Court of Appeals and held that the separate shipment of the machines and leaflets constituted a single interrelated activity. On remand the Court of Appeals concluded that because there were several shipments of machines and a single shipment of advertising matter, it was not clear which shipments might be considered a single interrelated activity. Therefore, it remanded the case to the District Court for a determination of this fact. 172 F. 2d 386. When the case was here before, we decided that the fact of separate shipments of machines and leaflets was immaterial. The controlling factors were whether the leaflets were designed for use with the machine and whether they were so used. Since the function of the leaflets and the purpose of their shipment were established, nothing more was needed to show that the movements of the machines and leaflets constituted a single interrelated activity. Moreover, the case is not complicated by shipments of machines and leaflets to different persons. One Kelsch was the recipient of both. On remand the Court of Appeals adhered to its former ruling that the District Court erroneously excluded evidence as to the therapeutic or curative value of the machines. When the case was here before we did not disturb that ruling. But we did leave to the Court of Appeals for consideration a further question — whether the evidence as respects the falsity of the representations regarding the diagnostic capabilities of the machines was adequate to sustain the condemnation even though error in exclusion of the other evidence were conceded. The United States is entitled to a hearing on that question. The petition for certiorari is granted and the judgment is Reversed. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. In most lawsuits seeking relief under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 88 Stat. 829, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 1001 et seq., “a reasonable attorney’s fee and costs” are available “to either party” at the court’s “discretion.” § 1132(g)(1). The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has interpreted § 1132(g)(1) to require that a fee claimant be a “prevailing party” before he may seek a fees award. We reject this interpretation as contrary to § 1132(g)(l)’s plain text. We hold instead that a court “in its discretion” may award fees and costs “to either party,” ibid., as long as the fee claimant has achieved “some degree of success on the merits,” Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, 463 U. S. 680, 694 (1983). I In 2000, while working as an executive assistant to the president of textile manufacturer Dan River, Inc., petitioner Bridget Hardt began experiencing neck and shoulder pain. Her doctors eventually diagnosed her with carpal tunnel syndrome. Because surgeries on both her wrists failed to alleviate her pain, Hardt stopped working in January 2003. In August 2003, Hardt sought long-term disability benefits from Dan River’s Group Long-Term Disability Insurance Program Plan (Plan). Dan River administers the Plan, which is subject to ERISA, but respondent Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company decides whether a claimant qualifies for benefits under the Plan and underwrites any benefits awarded. Reliance provisionally approved Hardt’s claim, telling her that final approval hinged on her performance in a functional capacities evaluation intended to assess the impact of her carpal tunnel syndrome and neck pain on her ability to work. Hardt completed the functional capacities evaluation in October 2003. The evaluator summarized Hardt’s medical history, observed her resulting physical limitations, and ultimately found that Hardt could perform some amount of sedentary work. Based on this finding, Reliance concluded that Hardt was not totally disabled within the meaning of the Plan and denied her claim for disability benefits. Hardt filed an administrative appeal. Reliance reversed itself in part, finding that Hardt was totally disabled from her regular occupation, and was therefore entitled to temporary disability benefits for 24 months. While her administrative appeal was pending, Hardt began experiencing new symptoms in her feet and calves, including tingling, pain, and numbness. One of her physicians diagnosed her with small-fiber neuropathy, a condition that increased her pain and decreased her physical capabilities over the ensuing months. Hardt eventually applied to the Social Security Administration for disability benefits under the Social Security Act. Her application included questionnaires completed by two of her treating physicians, which described Hardt’s symptoms and stated the doctors’ conclusion that Hardt could not return to full gainful employment because of her neuropathy and other ailments. In February 2005, the Social Security Administration granted Hardt’s application and awarded her disability benefits. About two months later, Reliance told Hardt that her Plan benefits would expire at the end of the 24-month period. Reliance explained that under the Plan’s terms, only individuals who are “totally disabled from all occupations” were eligible for benefits beyond that period, App. to Pet. for Cert. 36a, and adhered to its conclusion that, based on its review of Hardt’s records, Hardt was not “totally disabled” as defined by the Plan. Reliance also demanded that Hardt pay Reliance $14,913.23 to offset the disability benefits she had received from the Social Security Administration. (The Plan contains a provision coordinating benefits with Social Security payments.) Hardt paid Reliance the offset. Hardt then filed another administrative appeal. She gave Reliance all of her medical records, the questionnaires she had submitted to the Social Security Administration, and an updated questionnaire from one of her physicians. Reliance asked Hardt to supplement this material with another functional capacities evaluation. When Reliance referred Hardt for the updated evaluation, it did not ask the evaluator to review Hardt for neuropathic pain, even though it knew that Hardt had been diagnosed with neuropathy after her first evaluation. Hardt appeared for the updated evaluation in December 2005, and appeared for another evaluation in January 2006. The evaluators deemed both evaluations invalid because Hardt’s efforts were “submaximal.” Id., at 37a. One evaluator recorded that Hardt “refused multiple tests ... for fear of nausea/illness/further pain complaints.” Ibid, (internal quotation marks omitted). Lacking an updated functional capacities evaluation, Reliance hired a physician and a vocation rehabilitation counselor to help it resolve Hardt’s administrative appeal. The physician did not examine Hardt; instead, he reviewed some, but not all, of Hardt's medical records. Based on that review, the physician produced a report in which he opined that Hardt’s health was expected to improve. His report, however, did not mention Hardt’s pain medications or the questionnaires that Hardt’s attending physicians had completed as part of her application for Social Security benefits. The vocational rehabilitation counselor, in turn, performed a labor market study (based on Hardt’s health in 2003) that identified eight employment opportunities suitable for Hardt. After reviewing the physician’s report, the labor market study, and the results of the 2003 functional capacities evaluation, Reliance concluded that its decision to terminate Hardt’s benefits was correct. It advised Hardt of this decision in March 2006. After exhausting her administrative remedies, Hardt sued Reliance in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. She alleged that Reliance violated ERISA by wrongfully denying her claim for long-term disability benefits. See § 1132(a)(1)(B). The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, both of which the District Court denied. The court first rejected Reliance’s request for summary judgment affirming the denial of benefits, finding that “Reliance’s decision to deny benefits was based on incomplete information.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 42a. Most prominently, none of the functional capacities evaluations to which Hardt had submitted had “assessed the impact of neuropathy and neuropathic pain on Ms. Hardt.” Ibid. In addition, the reviewing physician’s report “was itself incomplete”; the basis for the physician’s “medical conclusions [wa]s extremely vague and conelusory," ibid., and the physician had “failed to cite any medical evidence to support his conclusions,” id., at 43a, or “to address the treating physicians’ contradictory medical findings,” id., at 44a. The court also found that Reliance had “improperly rejected much of the evidence that Ms. Hardt submitted,” id., at 45a, and had “further ignored the substantial amount of pain medication Ms. Hardt’s treating physicians had prescribed to her,” id., at 46a. Accordingly, the court thought it “clear that Reliance’s decision to deny Ms. Hardt long-term disability benefits was not based on substantial evidence.” Id., at 47a. The District Court then denied Hardt's motion for summary judgment, which contended that Reliance’s decision to deny benefits was unreasonable as a matter of law. In so doing, however, the court found “compelling evidence” in the record that “Ms. Hardt [wa]s totally disabled due to her neu-ropathy.” Id., at 48a. Although it was “inclined to rule in Ms. Hardt’s favor,” the court concluded that “it would be unwise to take this step without first giving Reliance the chance to address the deficiencies in its approach.” Ibid. In the District Court’s view, a remand to Reliance was warranted because “[t]his case presents one of those scenarios where the plan administrator has failed to comply with the ERISA guidelines,” meaning “Ms. Hardt did not get the kind of review to which she was entitled under applicable law.” Ibid. Accordingly, the court instructed “Reliance to act on Ms. Hardt’s application by adequately considering all the evidence” within 30 days; “[otherwise, ” it warned, “judgment will be issued in favor of Ms. Hardt.” Id., at 49a. Reliance did as instructed. After conducting that review, Reliance found Hardt eligible for long-term disability benefits and paid her $55,250 in accrued, past-due benefits. Hardt then moved for attorney’s fees and costs under § 1132(g)(1). The District Court assessed her motion under the three-step framework that governed fee requests in ERISA cases under Circuit precedent. At step one of that framework, a district court asks whether the fee claimant is a “‘prevailing party.’” Id., at 15a-16a (quoting Martin v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Virginia, Inc., 115 F. 3d 1201, 1210 (CA4 1997), and citing Buckhannon Board & Care Home, Inc. v. West Virginia Dept. of Health and Human Resources, 532 U. S. 598, 603 (2001)). If the fee claimant qualifies as a prevailing party, the court proceeds to step two and “determin[es] whether an award of attorneys’ fees is appropriate” by examining “five factors.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 16a. Finally, if those five factors suggest that a fees award is appropriate, the court “must review the attorneys’ fees and costs requested and limit them to a reasonable amount.” Id., at 17a (citing Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U. S. 424, 433 (1983)). Applying that framework, the District Court granted Hardt’s motion. It first concluded that Hardt was a prevailing party because the court’s remand order “sanctioned a material change in the legal relationship of the parties by ordering [Reliance] to conduct the type of review to which [Hardt] was entitled.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 22a. The court recognized that the order did not “sanctio[n] a certain result on remand,” but found that it “quite clearly expressed the consequences to [Reliance] were it to fail to complete its reconsideration in an expeditious manner.” Id., at 19a. Accordingly, the remand order “signif [ied] that the court was displeased with the cursory review that [Reliance] had initially given to [Hardt’s] claim, but was inclined to reserve judgment and permit [Reliance] to conduct a proper review of all of the medical evidence.” Ibid. The court next concluded that a fees award was appropriate under the five-factor test, see id., at 22a-25a, and awarded $39,149 in fees and costs, id., at 25a-30a. Reliance appealed the fees award, and the Court of Appeals vacated the District Court’s order. According to the Court of Appeals, Hardt failed to satisfy the step-one inquiry — i. e., she failed to establish that she was a “prevailing party.” In reaching that conclusion, the Court of Appeals relied on this Court’s decision in Buckhannon, under which a fee claimant qualifies as a “prevailing party” only if he has obtained an “‘enforceable judgmen[t] on the merits’” or a “ ‘court-ordered consent decre[e].’ ” 336 Fed. Appx. 332, 335 (CA4 2009) (per curiam) (quoting 532 U. S., at 604). The Court of Appeals reasoned that because the remand order “did not require Reliance to award benefits to Hardt,” it did “not constitute an ‘enforceable judgment on the merits’ as Buckhannon requires,” thus precluding Hardt from establishing prevailing party status. 336 Fed. Appx., at 336 (brackets omitted). Hardt filed a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of two aspects of the Court of Appeals’ judgment. First, did the Court of Appeals correctly conclude that § 1132(g)(1) permits courts to award attorney’s fees only to a “prevailing party”? Second, did the Court of Appeals correctly identify the circumstances under which a fee claimant is entitled to attorney’s fees under § 1132(g)(1)? We granted certiorari. 558 U. S. 1142 (2010). II Whether § 1132(g)(1) limits the availability of attorney’s fees to a “prevailing party” is a question of statutory construction. As in all such cases, we begin by analyzing the statutory language, “assuming] that the ordinary meaning of that language accurately expresses the legislative purpose.” Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., 557 U. S. 167, 175 (2009) (internal quotation marks omitted). We must enforce plain and unambiguous statutory language according to its terms. Carcieri v. Salazar, 555 U. S. 379, 387 (2009); Jimenez v. Quarterman, 555 U. S. 113, 118 (2009). Section 1132(g)(1) provides: “In any action under this subchapter (other than an action described in paragraph (2)) by a participant, beneficiary, or fiduciary, the court in its discretion may allow a reasonable attorney’s fee and costs of action to either party.” The words “prevailing party” do not appear in this provision. Nor does anything else in § 1132(g)(l)’s text purport to limit the availability of attorney’s fees to a “prevailing party.” Instead, § 1132(g)(1) expressly grants district courts “discretion” to award attorney’s fees “to either party.” (Emphasis added.) That language contrasts sharply with § 1132(g)(2), which governs the availability of attorney’s fees in ERISA actions under § 1145 (actions to recover delinquent employer contributions to a multiemployer plan). In such cases, only plaintiffs who obtain “a judgment in favor of the plan” may seek attorney’s fees. § 1132(g)(2)(D). The contrast between these two paragraphs makes clear that Congress knows how to impose express limits on the availability of attorney’s fees in ERISA cases. Because Congress failed to include in § 1132(g)(1) an express “prevailing party” limit on the availability of attorney’s fees, the Court of Appeals’ decision adding that term of art to a fee-shifting statute from which it is conspicuously absent more closely resembles “inventing] a statute rather than interpreting] one.” Pasquantino v. United States, 544 U. S. 349, 359 (2005) (internal quotation marks omitted). We see no reason to dwell any longer on this question, particularly given Reliance’s concessions. See Brief for Respondent 9-10 (“On its face,” § 1132(g)(1) “does not expressly demand, like so many statutes, that a claimant be a ‘prevailing party' before receiving attorney’s fees”). We therefore hold that a fee claimant need not be a “prevailing party” to be eligible for an attorney’s fees award under § 1132(g)(1). Ill We next consider the circumstances under which a court may award attorney’s fees pursuant to § 1132(g)(1). “Our basic point of reference” when considering the award of attorney’s fees is the bedrock principle known as the “ ‘American Rule’ Each litigant pays his own attorney’s fees, win or lose, unless a statute or contract provides otherwise. Ruckelshaus, 463 U. S., at 683; see id., at 683-686; Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U. S. 240, 247 (1975); Buckhannon, 532 U. S., at 602-603; see also Perdue v. Kenny A., 559 U. S. 542, 550 (2010). Statutory changes to this rule take various forms. Most fee-shifting provisions permit a court to award attorney’s fees only to a “prevailing party.”* * Others permit a “substantially prevailing” party or a “successful” litigant to obtain fees. Still others authorize district courts to award attorney’s fees where “appropriate,” or simply vest district courts with “discretion” to award fees. Of those statutory deviations from the American Rule, we have most often considered statutes containing an express “prevailing party” requirement. See, e. g., Texas State Teachers Assn. v. Garland Independent School Dist., 489 U. S. 782, 792-793 (1989); Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U. S. 103, 109-114 (1992); Buckhannon, supra, at 602-606; Sole v. Wyner, 551 U. S. 74, 82-86 (2007). Our “prevailing party” precedents, however, do not govern the availability of fees awards under § 1132(g)(1), because this provision does not limit the availability of attorney’s fees to the “prevailing party.” Supra, at 252; see also Gross, supra, at 174 (cautioning courts “conducting statutory interpretation ... ‘not to apply rules applicable under one statute to a different statute without careful and critical examination’ ” (quoting Federal Express Corp. v. Holowecki, 552 U. S. 389, 393 (2008))). Instead, we interpret § 1132(g)(1) in light of our precedents addressing statutory deviations from the American Rule that do not limit attorney’s fees awards to the “prevailing party.” In that line of precedents, Ruckelshaus is the principal case. There, the Court interpreted § 307(f) of the Clean Air Act, which authorizes a court to award fees “whenever it determines that such an award is appropriate.” 42 U. S. C. § 7607(f). We began by noting that because nothing in §307(f)’s text “clear[ly] show[ed]” that Congress meant to abandon the American Rule, 463 U. S., at 685, fee claimants must have achieved some litigating success to be eligible for a fees award under that section, id., at 686. We then concluded that by using the less stringent “whenever... appropriate” standard instead of the traditional “prevailing party” standard, Congress had “expand[ed] the class of parties eligible for fees awards from prevailing parties to partially prevailing parties — parties achieving some success, even if not major success.” Id., at 688. We thus held “that, absent some degree of success on the merits by the claimant, it is not ‘appropriate’ for a federal court to award attorney’s fees under § 307(f).” Id., at 694. Applying the interpretive approach we employed in Ruck-elshaus to § 1132(g)(1), we first look to “the language of the section,” id., at 682, which unambiguously allows a court to award attorney’s fees “in its discretion ... to either party,” § 1132(g)(1). Statutes vesting judges with such broad discretion are well known in the law, particularly in the attorney’s fees context. See, e. g., n. 7, supra; see also Perdue, 559 U. S., at 558. Equally well known, however, is the fact that a “judge’s discretion is not unlimited.” Ibid. Consistent with Circuit precedent, the District Court applied five factors to guide its discretion in deciding whether to award attorney’s fees under § 1132(g)(1). See supra, at 249, and n. 1. Because these five factors bear no obvious relation to § 1132(g)(l)’s text or to our fee-shifting jurisprudence, they are not required for channeling a court’s discretion when awarding fees under this section. Instead, Ruckelskaus lays down the proper markers to guide a court in exercising the discretion that § 1132(g)(1) grants. As in the statute at issue in Ruckelskaus, Congress failed to indicate clearly in § 1132(g)(1) that it “meant to abandon historic fee-shifting principles and intuitive notions of fairness.” 463 U. S., at 686. Accordingly, a fees claimant must show “some degree of success on the merits” before a court may award attorney’s fees under § 1132(g)(1), id., at 694. A claimant does not satisfy that requirement by achieving “trivial success on the merits” or a “purely procedural victor[y],” but does satisfy it if the court can fairly call the outcome of the litigation some success on the merits without conducting a “lengthy inquir[y] into the question whether a particular party’s success was ‘substantial’ or occurred on a ‘central issue.’ ” Id., at 688, n. 9. Reliance essentially agrees that this standard should govern fee requests under § 1132(g)(1), see Brief for Respondent 13-31, but argues that Hardt has not satisfied it. Specifically, Reliance contends that a court order remanding an ERISA claim for further consideration can never constitute “some success on the merits,” even if such a remand results in an award of benefits. See id., at 34-50. Reliance’s argument misses the point, given the facts of this case. Hardt persuaded the District Court to find that “the plan administrator has failed to comply with the ERISA guidelines” and “that Ms. Hardt did not get the kind of review to which she was entitled under applicable law.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 48a; see 29 U. S. C. § 1133(2), 29 CFR §2560.503-l(h) (2009). Although Hardt failed to win summary judgment on her benefits claim, the District Court nevertheless found “compelling evidence that Ms. Hardt is totally disabled due to her neuropathy,” and stated that it was “inclined to rule in Ms. Hardt’s favor” on her benefits claim, but declined to do so before “first giving Reliance the chance to address the deficiencies in its” statutorily mandated “full and fair review” of that claim. App. to Pet. for Cert. 48a; 29 U. S. C. § 1133(2). Hardt thus obtained a judicial order instructing Reliance “to act on Ms. Hardt’s application by adequately considering all the evidence” within 30 days; “Otherwise, judgment will be issued in favor of Ms. Hardt.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 49a. After Reliance conducted that court-ordered review, and consistent with the District Court’s appraisal, Reliance reversed its decision and awarded Hardt the benefits she sought. App. 120a-123a. These facts establish that Hardt has achieved far more than “trivial success on the merits” or a “purely procedural victory.” Accordingly, she has achieved “some success on the merits,” and the District Court properly exercised its discretion to award Hardt attorney’s fees in this case. Because these conclusions resolve this case, we need not decide today whether a remand order, without more, constitutes “some success on the merits” sufficient to make a party eligible for attorney’s fees under § 1132(g)(1). * * * We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and remand this case for proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. These factors are: ‘“(1) the degree of opposing parties’ culpability or bad faith; (2) ability of opposing parties to satisfy an award of attorneys’ fees; (3) whether an award of attorneys’ fees against the opposing parties would deter other persons acting under similar circumstances; (4) whether the parties requesting attorneys’ fees sought to benefit all participants and beneficiaries of an ERISA plan or to resolve a significant legal question regarding ERISA itself; and (5) the relative merits of the parties’ positions.’ ” App. to Pet. for Cert. 16a (quoting Quesinberry v. Life Ins. Co. of North Am., 987 F. 2d 1017, 1029 (CA4 1993)). The Courts of Appeals are divided on this issue. Some (a few only tentatively) agree with the Court of Appeals’ conclusion here that only prevailing parties are entitled to fees under § 1132(g)(1). See, e. g., Cottrill v. Sparrow, Johnson & Ursillo, Inc., 100 F. 3d 220, 225 (CA1 1996) (“Congress declared that, in any ERISA claim advanced by a ‘participant, beneficiary, or fiduciary, the court in its discretion may allow a reasonable attorney’s fee’ to the prevailing party” (emphasis added)); Tate v. Long Term Disability Plan for Salaried Employees of Champion Int’l Corp. #506, 545 F. 3d 555, 564 (CA7 2008) (“In analyzing whether attorney’s fees should be awarded to a ‘prevailing party’ in an ERISA case, a court should consider whether the losing party’s position was justified and taken in good faith. However, we have held that a claimant who is awarded a remand in an ERISA case generally is not a prevailing party in the truest sense of the term” (some internal quotation marks and citation omitted)); Graham v. Hartford Life & Accident Ins. Co., 501 F. 3d 1153, 1162 (CA10 2007) (“We also afford certain weight to prevailing party status, even though we acknowledge that the ERISA attorney’s fees provision is not expressly directed at prevailing parties”). Other Courts of Appeals have rejected or disavowed that position. See, e. g., Miller v. United Welfare Fund, 72 F. 3d 1066, 1074 (CA2 1995); Gibbs v. Gibbs, 210 F. 3d 491, 503 (CA5 2000); Freeman v. Continental Ins. Co., 996 F. 2d 1116, 1119 (CA11 1993). See, e.g., Buckhannon Board & Care Home, Inc. v. West Virginia Dept. of Health and Human Resources, 532 U. S. 598, 601-603 (2001) (citing examples); Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, 463 U. S. 680, 684, n. 3 (1983) (same). See ibid., n. 4 (citing examples). See, e. g., 18 U. S. C. § 2707(c); Ruckelshaus, supra, at 684, n. 5 (citing examples). See Ruckelshaus, supra, at 682, n. 1 (citing examples). See, e.g., 15 U.S.G. §§77k(e), 77www(a), 78i(e), 78r(a), 7706(g)(4); 20 U. S. C. § 1415(i)(3)(B)(i); 42 U. S. C. §2000aa-6(f). We do not foreclose the possibility that once a claimant has satisfied this requirement, and thus becomes eligible for a fees award under § 1132(g)(1), a court may consider the five factors adopted by the Court of Appeals, see n. 1, supra, in deciding whether to award attorney’s fees. Reliance has not preserved any separate objection to the reasonableness of the amount of fees awarded. See Perdue v. Kenny A., 559 U. S. 542, 552-553, 558-559 (2010). Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
F
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court, except as to Part III-C. In this case we consider whether the exhaustion rule in 28 U. S. C. §§ 2254(b), (c) requires a federal district court to dismiss a petition for a writ of habeas corpus containing any claims that have not been exhausted in the state courts. Because a rule requiring exhaustion of all claims furthers the purposes underlying the habeas statute, we hold that a district court must dismiss such “mixed petitions,” leaving the prisoner with the choice of returning to state court to exhaust his claims or of amending or resubmitting the habeas petition to present only exhausted claims to the district court. HH Following a jury trial, respondent Noah Lundy was convicted on charges of rape and crime against nature, and sentenced to the Tennessee State Penitentiary. After the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the convictions and the Tennessee Supreme Court denied review, the respondent filed an unsuccessful petition for postconviction relief in the Knox County Criminal Court. The respondent subsequently filed a petition in Federal District Court for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U. S. C. § 2254, alleging four grounds for relief: (1) that he had been denied the right to confrontation because the trial court limited the defense counsel’s questioning of the victim; (2) that he had been denied the right to a fair trial because the prosecuting attorney stated that the respondent had a violent character; (3) that he had been denied the right to a fair trial because the prosecutor improperly remarked in his closing argument that the State’s evidence was uncontradicted; and (4) that the trial judge improperly instructed the jury that every witness is presumed to swear the truth. After reviewing the state-court records, however, the District Court concluded that it could not consider claims three and four “in the constitutional framework” because the respondent had not exhausted his state remedies for those grounds. The court nevertheless stated that “in assessing the atmosphere of the cause taken as a whole these items may be referred to collaterally.” Apparently in an effort to assess the “atmosphere” of the trial, the District Court reviewed the state trial transcript and identified 10 instances of prosecutorial misconduct, only 5 of which the respondent had raised before the state courts. In addition, although purportedly not ruling on the respondent’s fourth ground for relief — that the state trial judge improperly charged that “every witness is presumed to swear the truth” — the court nonetheless held that the jury instruction, coupled with both the restriction of counsel’s cross-examination of the victim and the prosecutor’s “personal testimony” on the weight of the State’s evidence, see n. 3, supra, violated the respondent’s right to a fair trial. In conclusion, the District Court stated: “Also, subject to the question of exhaustion of state remedies, where there is added to the trial atmosphere the comment of the Attorney General that the only story presented to the jury was by the state’s witnesses there is such mixture of violations that one cannot be separated from and considered independently of the others. “. . . Under the charge as given, the limitation of cross examination of the victim, and the flagrant prosecutorial misconduct this court is compelled to find that petitioner did not receive a fair trial, his Sixth Amendment rights were violated and the jury poisoned by the prosecutorial misconduct.” In short, the District Court considered several instances of prosecutorial misconduct never challenged in the state trial or appellate courts, or even raised in the respondent’s habeas petition. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the judgment of the District Court, 624 F. 2d 1100 (1980), concluding in an unreported order that the court properly found that the respondent’s constitutional rights had been “seriously impaired by the improper limitation of his counsel’s cross-examination of the prosecutrix- and by the prosecutorial misconduct.” The court specifically rejected the State’s argument that the District Court should have dismissed the petition because it included both exhausted and unexhausted claims. HH f — t The petitioner urges this Court to apply a “total exhaustion” rule requiring district courts to dismiss every habeas corpus petition that contains both exhausted and unex-hausted claims. The petitioner argues at length that such a rule furthers the policy of comity underlying the exhaustion doctrine because it gives the state courts the first opportunity to correct federal constitutional errors and minimizes federal interference and disruption of state judicial proceedings. The petitioner also believes that uniform adherence to a total exhaustion rule reduces the amount of piecemeal ha-beas litigation. Under the petitioner’s approach, a district court would dismiss a petition containing both exhausted and unexhausted claims, giving the prisoner the choice of returning to state court to litigate his unexhausted claims, or of proceeding with only his exhausted claims in federal court. The petitioner believes that a prisoner would be reluctant to choose the latter route since a district court could, in appropriate circumstances under Habeas Corpus Rule 9 (b), dismiss subsequent federal habeas petitions as an abuse of the writ. In other words, if the prisoner amended the petition to delete the unexhausted claims or immediately refiled in federal court a petition alleging only his exhausted claims, he could lose the opportunity to litigate his presently unexhausted claims in federal court. This argument is addressed in Part III-C of this opinion. In order to evaluate the merits of the petitioner’s arguments, we turn to the habeas statute, its legislative history, and the policies underlying the exhaustion doctrine. Ill A The exhaustion doctrine existed long before its codification by Congress in 1948. In Ex parte Royall, 117 U. S. 241, 251 (1886), this Court wrote that as a matter of comity, federal courts should not consider a claim in a habeas corpus petition until after the state courts have had an opportunity to act: “The injunction to hear the case summarily, and thereupon ‘to dispose of the party as law and justice require’ does not deprive the court of discretion as to the time and mode in which it will exert the powers conferred upon it. That discretion should be exercised in the light of the relations existing, under our system of government, between the judicial tribunals of the Union and of the States, and in recognition of the fact that the public good requires that those relations be not disturbed by unnecessary conflict between courts equally bound to guard and protect rights secured by the Constitution.” Subsequent cases refined the principle that state remedies must be exhausted except in unusual circumstances. See, e. g., United States ex rel. Kennedy v. Tyler, 269 U. S. 13, 17-19 (1925) (holding that the lower court should have dismissed the petition because none of the questions had been raised in the state courts. “In the regular and ordinary course of procedure, the power of the highest state court in respect of such questions should first be exhausted”). In Ex parte Hawk, 321 U. S. 114, 117 (1944), this Court reiterated that comity was the basis for the exhaustion doctrine: “it is a principle controlling all habeas corpus petitions to the federal courts, that those courts will interfere with the administration of justice in the state courts only ‘in rare cases where exceptional circumstances of peculiar urgency are shown to exist.’” None of these cases, however, specifically applied the exhaustion doctrine to habeas petitions containing both exhausted and unexhausted claims. In 1948, Congress codified the exhaustion doctrine in 28 U. S. C. §2254, citing Ex parte Hawk as correctly stating the principle of exhaustion. Section 2254, however, does not directly address the problem of mixed petitions. To be sure, the provision states that a remedy is not exhausted if there exists a state procedure to raise “the question presented,” but we believe this phrase to be too ambiguous to sustain the conclusion that Congress intended to either permit or prohibit review of mixed petitions. Because the legislative history of § 2254, as well as the pre-1948 cases, contains no reference to the problem of mixed petitions, in all likelihood Congress never thought of the problem. Consequently, we must analyze the policies underlying the statutory provision to determine its proper scope. Philbrook v. Glodgett, 421 U. S. 707, 713 (1975) (“‘In expounding a statute, we must. . . look to the provisions of the whole law, and to its object and policy’ ” (citations omitted)); United States v. Bacto-Unidisk, 394 U. S. 784, 799 (1969) (“where the statute’s language seem[s] insufficiently precise, the ‘natural way’ to draw the line ‘is in light of the statutory purpose’ ” (citation omitted)); United States v. Sisson, 399 U. S. 267, 297-298 (1970) (“The axiom that courts should endeavor to give statutory language that meaning that nurtures the policies underlying legislation is one that guides us when circumstances not plainly covered by the terms of a statute are subsumed by the underlying policies to which Congress was committed”); Unexcelled Chemical Corp. v. United States, 345 U. S. 59, 64 (1953) (“Arguments of policy are relevant when for example a statute has an hiatus that must be filled or there are ambiguities in the legislative language that must be resolved”). B The exhaustion doctrine is principally designed to protect the state courts’ role in the enforcement of federal law and prevent disruption of state judicial proceedings. See Braden v. 30th Judicial Circuit Court of Kentucky, 410 U. S. 484, 490-491 (1973). Under our federal system, the federal and state “courts [are] equally bound to guard and protect rights secured by the Constitution.” Ex parte Royall, 117 U. S., at 251. Because “it would be unseemly in our dual system of government for a federal district court to upset a state court conviction without an opportunity to the state courts to correct a constitutional violation,” federal courts apply the doctrine of comity, which “teaches that one court should defer action on causes properly within its jurisdiction until the courts of another sovereignty with concurrent powers, and already cognizant of the litigation, have had' an opportunity to pass upon the matter.” Darr v. Burford, 339 U. S. 200, 204 (1950). See Duckworth v. Serrano, 454 U. S. 1, 2 (1981) (per curiam) (noting that the exhaustion requirement “serves to minimize friction between our federal and state systems of justice by allowing the State an initial opportunity to pass upon and correct alleged violations of prisoners’ federal rights”). A rigorously enforced total exhaustion rule will encourage state prisoners to seek full relief first from the state courts, thus giving those courts the first opportunity to review all claims of constitutional error. As the number of prisoners who exhaust all of their federal claims increases, state courts may become increasingly familiar with and hospitable toward federal constitutional issues. See Braden v. 30th Judicial Circuit Court of Kentucky, supra, at 490. Equally as important, federal claims that have been fully exhausted in state courts will more often be accompanied by a complete factual record to aid the federal courts in their review. Cf. 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d) (requiring a federal court reviewing a ha-beas petition to presume as correct factual findings made by a state court). The facts of the present case underscore the need for a rule encouraging exhaustion of all federal claims. In his opinion, the District Court Judge wrote that “there is such mixture of violations that one cannot be separated from and considered independently of the others.” Because the two unexhausted claims for relief were intertwined with the exhausted ones, the judge apparently considered all of the claims in ruling on the petition. Requiring dismissal of petitions containing both exhausted and unexhausted claims will relieve the district courts of the difficult if not impossible task of deciding when claims are related, and will reduce the temptation to consider unexhausted claims. In his dissent, Justice Stevens suggests that the District Court properly evaluated the respondent’s two exhausted claims “in the context of the entire trial.” Post, at 541. Unquestionably, however, the District Court erred in considering unexhausted claims, for § 2254(b) expressly requires the prisoner to exhaust “the remedies available in the courts of the State.” See n. 9, supra. Moreover, to the extent that exhausted and unexhausted claims are interrelated, the general rule among the Courts of Appeals is to dismiss mixed ha-beas petitions for exhaustion of all such claims. See, e. g., Triplett v. Wyrick, 549 F. 2d 57 (CA8 1977); Miller v. Hall, 536 F. 2d 967 (CA1 1976); Hewett v. North Carolina, 415 F. 2d 1316 (CA4 1969). Rather than an “adventure in unnecessary lawmaking” (Stevens, J., post, at 539), our holdings today reflect our interpretation of a federal statute on the basis of its language and legislative history, and consistent with its underlying policies. There is no basis to believe that today’s holdings will “complicate and delay” the resolution of habeas petitions (Stevens, J., post, at 550), or will serve to “trap the unwary pro se prisoner.” (Blackmun, J., post, at 530.) On the contrary, our interpretation of §§ 2254(b), (c) provides a simple and clear instruction to potential litigants: before you bring any claims to federal court, be sure that you first have taken each one to state court. Just as pro se petitioners have managed to use the federal habeas machinery, so too should they be able to master this straightforward exhaustion requirement. Those prisoners who misunderstand this requirement and submit mixed petitions nevertheless are entitled to resubmit a petition with only exhausted claims or to exhaust the remainder of their claims. Rather than increasing the burden on federal courts, strict enforcement of the exhaustion requirement will encourage habeas petitioners to exhaust all of their claims in state court and to present the federal court with a single habeas petition. To the extent that the exhaustion requirement reduces piecemeal litigation, both the courts and the prisoners should benefit, for as a result the district court will be more likely to review all of the prisoner’s claims in a single proceeding, thus providing for a more focused ánd thorough review. C The prisoner’s principal interest, of course, is in obtaining speedy federal relief on his claims. See Braden v. 30th Judicial Circuit Court of Kentucky, supra, at 490. A total exhaustion rule will not impair that interest since he can always amend the petition to delete the unexhausted claims, rather than returning to state court to exhaust all of his claims. By invoking this procedure, however, the prisoner would risk forfeiting consideration of his unexhausted claims in federal court. Under 28 U. S. C. §2254 Rule 9(b), a district court may dismiss subsequent petitions if it finds that “the failure of the petitioner to assert those [new] grounds in a prior petition constituted an abuse of the writ.” See n. 6, supra. The Advisory Committee to the Rules notes that Rule 9(b) incorporates the judge-made principle governing the abuse of the writ set forth in Sanders v. United States, 373 U. S. 1, 18 (1963), where this Court stated: “[I]f a prisoner deliberately withholds one of two grounds for federal collateral relief at the time of filing his first application, in the hope of being granted two hearings rather than one or for some other such reason, he may be deemed to have waived his right to a hearing on a second application presenting the withheld ground. The same may be true if, as in Wong Doo, the prisoner deliberately abandons one of his grounds at the first hearing. Nothing in the traditions of habeas corpus requires the federal courts to tolerate needless piecemeal litigation, or to entertain collateral proceedings whose only purpose is to vex, harass, or delay.” See Advisory Committee Note to Habeas Corpus Rule 9(b), 28 U. S. C., p. 273. Thus a prisoner who decides to proceed only with his exhausted claims and deliberately sets aside his unexhausted claims risks dismissal of subsequent federal petitions. IV In sum, because a total exhaustion rule promotes comity and does not unreasonably impair the prisoner’s right to relief, we hold that a district court must dismiss habeas petitions containing both unexhausted and exhausted claims. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. The court sentenced the respondent to consecutive terms of 120 years on the rape charge and from 5 to 15 years on the crime against nature charge. The Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals had ruled specifically on grounds one and two, holding that although the trial court erred in restricting cross-examination of the victim and the prosecuting attorney improperly alluded to the respondent’s violent nature, the respondent was not prejudiced by these errors. Lundy v. State, 521 S. W. 2d 591, 595-596 (1974). In particular, the District Court found that the prosecutor improperly: (1) misrepresented that the defense attorney was guilty of illegal and unethical misconduct in interviewing the victim before trial; (2) “testified” that the victim was telling the truth on the stand; (3) stated his view of the proper method for the defense attorney to interview the victim; (4) misrepresented the law regarding interviewing government witnesses; (5) misrepresented that the victim had a right for both private counsel and the prosecutor to be present when interviewed by the defense counsel; (6) represented that because an attorney was not present, the defense counsel’s conduct was inexcusable; (7) represented that he could validly file a grievance with the Bar Association on the basis of the defense counsel’s conduct; (8) objected to defense counsel’s cross-examination of the victim; (9) commented that the defendant had a violent nature; (10) gave his personal evaluation of the State’s proof. The petitioner concedes that the state appellate court considered instances 1, 3, 4, 5, and 9, but states without contradiction that the respondent did not object to the prosecutor’s statement that the victim was telling the truth (#2) or to any of the several instances where the prosecutor, in summation, gave his opinion on the weight of the evidence (#10). The petitioner also notes that the conduct identified in #6 and #7 did not occur in front of the jury, and that the conduct in #8, which was only an objection to cross-examination, can hardly be labeled as misconduct. The court granted the writ and ordered the respondent discharged from custody unless within 90 days the State initiated steps to bring about a new trial. The Fifth and Ninth Circuits have adopted a “total exhaustion” rule. See Galtieri v. Wainwright, 582 F. 2d 348, 355-360 (CA5 1978) (en banc), and Gonzales v. Stone, 546 F. 2d 807, 808-810 (CA9 1976). A majority of the Courts of Appeals, however, have permitted the District Courts to review the exhausted claims in a mixed petition containing both exhausted and unexhausted claims. See, e. g., Katz v. King, 627 F. 2d 568, 574 (CA1 1980); Cameron v. Fastoff, 543 F. 2d 971, 976 (CA2 1976); United States ex rel. Trantino v. Hatrack, 563 F. 2d 86, 91-95 (CA3 1977), cert. denied, 435 U. S. 928 (1978); Hewett v. North Carolina, 415 F. 2d 1316, 1320 (CA4 1969); Meeks v. Jago, 548 F. 2d 134, 137 (CA6 1976), cert. denied, 434 U. S. 844 (1977); Brown v. Wisconsin State Dept. of Public Welfare, 457 F. 2d 257, 259 (CA7), cert. denied, 409 U. S. 862 (1972); Tyler v. Swenson, 483 F. 2d 611, 614 (CA8 1973); Whiteley v. Meacham, 416 F. 2d 36, 39 (CA10 1969), rev’d on other grounds, 401 U. S. 560 (1971). In Gooding v. Wilson, 405 U. S. 518 (1972), this Court reviewed the merits of an exhausted claim after expressly acknowledging that the prisoner had not exhausted his state remedies for all of the claims presented in his habeas petition. Gooding does not control the present case, however, since the question of total exhaustion was not before the Court. Two years later, in Francisco v. Gathright, 419 U. S. 59, 63-64 (1974) (per curiam), the Court expressly reserved the question of whether § 2254 requires total exhaustion of claims. Rule 9 (b) provides that “[a] second or successive petition may be dismissed if the judge finds that it fails to allege new or different grounds for relief and the prior determination was on the merits or, if new and different grounds are alleged, the judge finds that the failure of the petitioner to assert those grounds in a prior petition constituted an abuse of the writ.” The Court also made clear, however, that the exhaustion doctrine does not bar relief where the state remedies are inadequate or fail to “afford a full and fair adjudication of the federal contentions raised.” 321 U. S., at 118. The Reviser’s Notes in the appendix of the House Report state: “This new section [§ 2254] is declaratory of existing law as affirmed by the Supreme Court. (See Ex parte Hawk, 1944, ... 321 U. S. 114 . . .).” H. R. Rep. No. 308, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., A180 (1947); Historical and Revision Notes following 28 U. S. C. § 2254. See also Darr v. Burford, 339 U. S. 200, 210 (1950) (“In § 2254 of the 1948 recodification of the Judicial Code, Congress gave legislative recognition to the Hawk rule for'the exhaustion of remedies in the state courts and this Court”); Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443, 447-450 (1953); Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 434 (1963). Section 2254 in part provides: “(b) An application for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted unless it appears that the applicant has exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State, or that there is either an absence of available State corrective process or the existence of circumstances rendering such process ineffective to protect the rights of the prisoner. “(c) An applicant shall not be deemed to have exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State, within the meaning of this section, if he has the right under the law of the State to raise, by any available procedure, the question presented.” Section 2254 was one small part of a comprehensive revision of the Judicial Code. The original version of § 2254, as passed by the House, provided that “[a]n application for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court or authority of a State officer shall not be granted unless it appears that the applicant has exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State, or that there is no adequate remedy available in such courts or that such courts have denied him a fair adjudication of the legality of his detention under the Constitution and laws of the United States.” H. R. 3214, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. (1947). The Senate amended the House bill, changing the House version of § 2254 to its present form. The Senate Report accompanying the bill states that one purpose of the amendment was “to substitute detailed and specific language for the phrase ‘no adequate remedy available.’ That phrase is not sufficiently specific and precise, and its meaning should, therefore, be spelled out in more detail in the section as is done by the amendment.” S. Rep. No. 1559, 80th Cong., 2d Sess., 10 (1948). The House accepted the Senate version of the Judicial Code without further amendment. In 1966, Congress amended § 2254 to add subsection (a) and redesignate the existing paragraphs as subsections (b) and (c). See Pub. L. 89-711, § 2 (c), 80 Stat. 1105. See Note, Habeas Petitions with Exhausted and Unexhausted Claims: Speedy Release, Comity and Judicial Efficiency, 57 B. U. L. Rev. 864, 867, n. 30 (1977) (suggesting that before 1948 habeas petitions did not contain multiple claims). See also Developments, Federal Habeas Corpus, 83 Harv. L. Rev. 1038, 1094 (1970) (cited favorably in Braden). In Wong Doo v. United States, 265 U. S. 239 (1924), the petitioner brought two habeas corpus petitions to obtain release from the custody of a deportation order. The ground for relief contained in the second petition was also contained in the first petition, but had not been pursued in the first habeas proceeding. The Court held that because the petitioner “had full opportunity to offer proof’ in the first hearing, the lower court should not consider the second petition. Id., at 241. The present case, of course, is not controlled by Wong Doo because the respondent could not have litigated his unexhausted claims in federal court. Nonetheless, the case provides some guidance for the situation in which a prisoner deliberately decides not to exhaust his claims in state court before filing a habeas corpus petition. Because of our disposition of this case, we do not reach the petitioner’s claims that the grounds offered by the respondent do not merit habeas relief. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. We consider whether the United States may offset Social Security benefits to collect a student loan debt that has been outstanding for over 10 years. I A Petitioner James Lockhart failed to repay federally rein-sured student loans that he had incurred between 1984 and 1989 under the Guaranteed Student Loan Program. These loans were eventually reassigned to the Department of Education, which certified the debt to the Department of the Treasury through the Treasury Offset Program. In 2002, the Government began withholding a portion of petitioner’s Social Security payments to offset his debt, some of which was more than 10 years delinquent. Petitioner sued in Federal District Court, alleging that under the Debt Collection Act’s 10-year statute of limitations, the offset was time barred. The District Court dismissed the complaint, and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed. 376 F. 3d 1027 (2004). We granted certiorari, 544 U. S. 998 (2005), to resolve the conflict between the Ninth Circuit and the Eighth Circuit, see Lee v. Paige, 376 F. 3d 1179 (CA8 2004), and now affirm. B The Debt Collection Act of 1982, as amended, provides that, after pursuing the debt collection channels set out in 31 U. S. C. § 3711(a), an agency head can collect an outstanding debt “by administrative offset.” § 3716(a). The availability of offsets against Social Security benefits is limited, as the Social Security Act, 49 Stat. 620, as amended, makes Social Security benefits, in general, not “subject to execution, levy, attachment, garnishment, or other legal process.” 42 U. S. C. § 407(a). The Social Security Act purports to protect this anti-attachment rule with an express-reference provision: “No other provision of law, enacted before, on, or after April 20, 1983, may be construed to limit, supersede, or otherwise modify the provisions of this section except to the extent that it does so by express reference to this section.” § 407(b). Moreover, the Debt Collection Act’s offset provisions generally do not authorize the collection of claims which, like petitioner’s debts at issue here, are over 10 years old. 31 U. S. C. § 3716(e)(1). In 1991, however, the Higher Education Technical Amendments, 105 Stat. 123, sweepingly eliminated time limitations as to certain loans: “Notwithstanding any other provision of statute ... no limitation shall terminate the period within which suit may be filed, a judgment may be enforced, or an offset, garnishment, or other action initiated or taken,” 20 U. S. C. § 1091a(a)(2), for the repayment of various student loans, including the loans at issue here, § 1091a(a)(2)(D). The Higher Education Technical Amendments, by their terms, did not make Social Security benefits subject to offset; these were still protected by the Social Security Act’s anti-attachment rule. Only in 1996 did the Debt Collection Improvement Act — in amending and recodifying the Debt Collection Act — provide that, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law (including [§407] . . .),” with a limited exception not relevant here, “all payment due an individual under ... the Social Security Act . . . shall be subject to offset under this section.” 31 U. S. C. § 3716(e)(3)(A)(i). II The Government does not contend that the “notwithstanding” clauses in both the Higher Education Technical Amendments and the Debt Collection Improvement Act trump the Social Security Act’s express-reference provision. Cf. Marcello v. Bonds, 349 U. S. 302, 310 (1955) (“Exemptions from the terms of the . . . Act are not lightly to be presumed in view of the statement . . . that modifications must be express[.] But.. . [u]nless we are to require the Congress to employ magical passwords in order to effectuate an exemption from the ... Act, we must hold that the present statute expressly supersedes the .. . provisions of that Act”); Great Northern R. Co. v. United States, 208 U. S. 452, 465 (1908). We need not decide the effect of express-reference provisions such as § 407(b) to resolve this case. Because the Debt Collection Improvement Act clearly makes Social Security benefits subject to offset, it provides exactly the sort of express reference that the Social Security Act says is necessary to supersede the anti-attachment provision. It is clear that the Higher Education Technical Amendments remove the 10-year limit that would otherwise bar offsetting petitioner’s Social Security benefits to pay off his student loan debt. Petitioner argues that Congress could not have intended in 1991 to repeal the Debt Collection Act’s statute of limitations as to offsets against Social Security benefits — since debt collection by Social Security offset was not authorized until five years later. Therefore, petitioner continues, the Higher Education Technical Amendments’ abrogation of time limits in 1991 only applies to then-valid means of debt collection. We disagree. “The fact that Congress may not have foreseen all of the consequences of a statutory enactment is not a sufficient reason for refusing to give effect to its plain meaning.” Union Bank v. Wolas, 502 U. S. 151, 158 (1991). Petitioner points out that the Higher Education Technical Amendments, unlike the Debt Collection Improvement Act, do not explicitly mention §407. But § 407(b) only requires an express reference to authorize attachment in the first place — which the Debt Collection Improvement Act has already provided. III Nor does the Debt Collection Improvement Act’s 1996 re-codification of the Debt Collection Act help petitioner. The Debt Collection Improvement Act, in addition to adding offset authority against Social Security benefits, retained the Debt Collection Act’s general 10-year bar on offset authority. But the mere retention of this previously enacted time bar does not make the time bar apply in all contexts — a result that would extend far beyond Social Security benefits, since it would imply that the Higher Education Technical Amendments’ abrogation of time limits was now a dead letter as to any kind of administrative offset. Rather, the Higher Education Technical Amendments retain their effect as a limited exception to the Debt Collection Act time bar in the student loan context. Finally, we decline to read any meaning into the failed 2004 effort to amend the Debt Collection Act to explicitly authorize offset of debts over 10 years old. See H. R. 5025, 108th Cong., 2d Sess., §642 (Sept. 8, 2004); S. 2806, 108th Cong., 2d Sess., §642 (Sept. 15, 2004). “[F]ailed legislative proposals are ‘a particularly dangerous ground on which to rest an interpretation of a prior statute.’” United States v. Craft, 535 U. S. 274, 287 (2002) (quoting Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation v. LTV Corp., 496 U. S. 633, 650 (1990)). In any event, it is unclear what meaning we could read into this effort even if we were inclined to do so, as the failed amendment — which was not limited to offsets against Social Security benefits — would have had a different effect than the interpretation we advance today. Therefore, we affirm the judgment of the Ninth Circuit. It is so ordered. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a suit for tax refund which the District Court allowed. 62 F. Supp. 338. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. 155 F. 2d 577. We granted certiorari because of an apparent conflict with Century Electric Co. v. Commissioner, 144 F. 2d 983. The respondent, Ogilvie Hardware Co., Inc., was incorporated in Louisiana in 1907 with a paid-in capital of $100,000. In 1924 it increased its capitalization to $200,000 by declaration of a $100,000 stock dividend out of past earnings. Depressed business conditions during the 1930’s brought heavy operating losses so that by 1937 the company’s assets were about $71,000 less than the $200,000 capitalization. The company books accordingly showed a deficit in this amount. By 1938 this deficit was reduced to about $61,000. In this financial posture the corporation could not declare dividends without impairing its then capital structure (which included capitalization of the $100,000 stock dividend) and Louisiana law prohibited payment of a dividend under such circumstances. Section 14 of the governing Revenue Act of 1936 imposed a surtax on certain corporate net income earned during the tax year but not distributed as dividends. It provided no exemption from that surtax because a corporation had an accumulated deficit at the beginning of the tax year, or because state law prohibited payments of dividends. Acting under this 1936 law, the Commissioner, on examination of respondent’s 1937 and 1938 tax returns, determined that respondent was subject to the undistributed profits tax, despite the deficit and the state prohibition against payment of dividends. The Commissioner’s interpretation and application of the 1936 Act was in accord with our holding in Helvering v. Northwest Steel Rolling Mills, 311 U. S. 46, and Crane-Johnson Co. v. Helvering, 311 U. S. 54. The taxpayers in those cases claimed exemption from the surtax on the ground that they could not distribute dividends “without violating a provision of a written contract executed by the corporation prior to May 1, 1936, which provision expressly deals with the payment of dividends.” Section 26 (c) (1) of the 1936 Act relieved corporations from the tax if such contracts existed. 49 Stat. 1648, 1664. The question we had to decide in those cases was whether a state constitution, corporate charter, or state statute, which prohibited payment of dividends, was a “written contract” within the meaning of the § 26 (c) (1) exemption provision. We held that we could not so expand the provision’s language, relying in part upon previous statements of this Court “that provisions granting special tax exemptions are to be strictly construed.” Helvering v. Northwest Steel Rolling Mills, supra, 49. Since the respondent here had no “written contract” against payment of dividends, it had no exemption from the surtax imposed by the original 1936 Act. But this suit is not brought to determine the company’s tax liability under the 1936 Act as it stood in the taxable years 1937 and 1938. It is an action for a refund under a 1942 relief amendment to the 1936 Act specifically designed to authorize corporations to obtain repayments of taxes they had been forced to pay under the 1936 Act as we had interpreted it. That amendment, as enacted, provided for complete or partial retroactive immunity from the 1936 undistributed profits tax under the following circumstances: “Deficit corporations.—In the ease of a corporation having a deficit in accumulated earnings and profits as of the close of the preceding taxable year, the amount of such deficit, if the corporation is prohibited by a provision of a law or of an order of a public regulatory body from paying dividends during the existence of a deficit in accumulated earnings and profits, and if such provision was in effect prior to May 1, 1936.” § 501 (a) (3), Revenue Act of 1942, 56 Stat. 798, 954. This amendment was designed to grant corporations a refund on account of payments of undistributed profits taxes for tax years in which they had an accumulated deficit, and where, for that reason, state law, federal law, or public regulatory orders of either prohibited distribution of dividends. It therefore authorized refunds to the very taxpayers who had been lawfully required to pay taxes by the 1936 Act as we had interpreted it in the two cases cited above. Furthermore, in order to make sure that taxpayers who had paid under our interpretation might recover refunds, § 501 (c) of the same amendment specifically authorized claims for repayment to be filed within one year after its passage, without regard to any statute of limitations or other designated statutory bars. 56 Stat. 798, 955. The Government’s contention is that we should construe the word “deficit” and the phrase “accumulated earnings and profits” according to their established meaning under federal tax law; that so construed the $100,000 allotted for stock dividends remained a part of earnings and profits for tax purposes; therefore, there was no deficit in the federal tax sense, and consequently the tax payments should not have been refunded here despite the state prohibition against distribution. We may assume that the Government is correct in contending that if Congress intended in the 1942 amendment to use the words “deficit” and “earnings and profits” in this federal tax sense, the stock dividend did not reduce “earnings,” there was no “deficit,” and the refund should be denied. See § 115, Revenue Act of 1936, 49 Stat. 1648, 1687-1689; Commissioner v. Bedford, 325 U. S. 283, 292. This construction would greatly limit the scope of the relief granted by the 1942 amendment. To determine whether Congress intended so to limit the relief it granted, we must look to the whole 1942 amendment in its relationship to the 1936 Act and the legislative and judicial history intervening between the two. The 1936 undistributed profits tax law was a novelty in the field of federal taxation. Its chief novel feature was that it was designed to compel corporations to distribute current earnings to shareholders by imposing a surtax on corporations which failed to make such distributions. It had detailed provisions for defining the net income which would be reached by this tax. Its application, therefore, raised new and sometimes wholly unexpected problems. Widespread opposition developed to the tax. Since 1938, only a token of it has survived. See Revenue Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 447. But even after the 1936 undistributed profits tax was no longer in effect, complaints about its prior application from corporations which had been required to pay an undistributed profits tax continued to reach and to concern Congress. Representatives of these corporations appeared before the House and Senate Committees in 1942, and Congress responded to their complaints by enacting the several provisions of § 501—the retroactive relief legislation now under consideration. One subject of complaint was that under the income tax definitions only a fraction of capital losses was deductible from taxable net income. Corporations which had suffered large capital losses in a given year were required to pay undistributed profits taxes in that year as though they had made a profit. The 1942 amendment, as reported by the House Committee, met this complaint by recommending that refunds be authorized for corporations who had paid under this 1936 definition of net income. This authorization, subsequently approved by the Senate Committee, clearly shows that Congress intended to provide for this phase of the refund without regard to tax definitions, and did not intend its authorized refund to be restricted by the application of established tax terminology. When the bill reached the Senate Committee, insistent complaints related to the fact that corporations with deficits in accumulated earnings and profits had been compelled to pay taxes for non-distribution of dividends although state or federal law prohibited dividend payments. A deficit railroad corporation had been taxed over its objection that payment of dividends would have rendered its officers subject to punishment for a misdemeanor under federal law and a money penalty under state law. The Board of Tax Appeals had overruled objections on these grounds, relying on our decisions in the Crane-Johnson and Northwest Steel cases, supra. Paris & Mt. Pleasant R. Co. v. Comm’r, 47 B. T. A. 439. The counsel who had represented Crane-Johnson before this Court also appeared on their behalf before the Senate Committee and made a plea for relief for deficit corporations which had been compelled to pay the undistributed profits tax. He urged that such corporations had been “caught in a trap,” and that they were justly entitled to have a refund for that reason. It was apparently in response to the foregoing complaints that the relief provision before us, not part of the House bill as it came to the Senate, was introduced by the Senate Committee. We think Congress was moved to relieve those corporations which it considered to be “caught in a trap” whereby they were taxed by the Federal Government if they did not pay dividends and subject to prosecution and penalties by the Federal Government or the states if they did. Some of the language Congress used, considered tax-wise only, provides plausible support for the interpretation urged by the Government which would give the relief amendment more limited scope. But the provision before us is not a general tax exemption to be interpreted in the framework of a currently operating general revenue law. It is a special retroactive relief measure to authorize repayment of taxes collected in previous years under a revenue law which had already been substantially abandoned. The language of this extraordinary relief measure and the circumstances which prompted its passage convince us that Congress intended to provide refunds to corporate taxpayers, with possible minor exceptions, who had paid undistributed profits taxes as a choice between conflicting state and federal compulsions. Furthermore, the very mechanics of the 1942 amendment require that determination of rights to refund under it be based on consideration of something other than the tax meaning of the 1936 Act or other tax terminology. The right to recovery in every case depends ultimately upon whether federal law or federal regulatory bodies, or state law or state regulatory bodies, prohibit payments of dividends. In this case the ultimate right to refund depends upon state law. Cf. Lyeth v. Hoey, 305 U. S. 188, 193. Before that right can be finally established, courts must examine state law at least to the extent of determining (1) what is a “deficit”; (2) what are “accumulated earnings and profits”; (3) what was the state law on these questions prior to May 1, 1936; (4) whether payments of dividends under these circumstances were prohibited by state law. Acceptance of the Government’s contention would mean that courts administering the 1942 Act must first determine whether a deficit exists under federal law; if such a federal deficit exists, they must then turn to state law to decide whether under it a deficit exists such as prohibits the payment of dividends. We do not think that Congress intended the courts so to administer the 1942 amendment. The Government’s argument that it does relies heavily upon the Senate Committee Report. We think the Senate Committee Report, as a whole, leans toward the view we have taken of the purpose of the law. But in one of the six illustrative examples of application of the new tax relief provisions of the amendment, and in the subsequent Treasury Regulations, it was indicated that no tax credit should be allowed where a tax deficit resulted from “prior capitalization of surplus in the course of a nontaxable reorganization.” Aside from the fact that corporate reorganizations and simple stock dividends are quite different things, we find this one illustrative example insufficient to outweigh the considerations which have governed our interpretation of the 1942 amendment. We are persuaded that Congress at least intended by the amendment to refund taxes imposed on corporations which had failed to distribute dividends when distribution, in violation of state law, would have impaired long-existing state-approved corporate capitalizations. See United States v. Byron Sash & Door Co., 150 F. 2d 44, 46. In order that this purpose may be effected, the judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals is Affirmed. “I. No corporation shall pay dividends in cash or property, (a) except from the surplus of the aggregate of its assets over the aggregate of its liabilities, plus the amount of its capital stock; or (b) out of any surplus due or arising from (1) any profit on treasury shares before resale; or (2) any unrealized appreciation in value or revaluation of fixed assets; or (3) any unrealized appreciation in value or revaluation of inventories before sale; or (4) the unaccrued portion of unrealized profit on notes, bonds or obligations for the payment of money, purchased or otherwise acquired, unless such notes, bonds or obligations are readily marketable, in which case they may be taken at their actual market value; or (5) the unaccrued or unearned portion of any unrealized profit in any form whatever, whether in the form of notes, bonds, obligations for the payment of money, installment sales, credits or otherwise, except as provided in the preceding sub-paragraph (4). "III. No corporation shall pay dividends in shares of the corporation, except from the surplus of the aggregate of its assets . . . over the aggregate of its liabilities, plus the amount of its capital stock.” La. Acts 1928, No. 250, § 26, I, III, 1 La. Gen. Stat. § 1106. 49 Stat. 1648, 1655-1657. The House Ways and Means Committee reported that § 501 of the 1942 Act allowed corporations to deduct capital losses from their capital assets for purposes of the undistributed profits tax even though only $2,000 of such capital loss was deductible from gross income for other purposes. Another amendment provided a stock redemption credit deductible from gross income taxable for undistributed profits tax purposes. And the breadth of the refund provision is illustrated by the provisions making the amendment effective as of the date the 1936 Act was enacted, and extending the Statute of Limitations to permit refunds for all overpayments since that date. H. R. Rep. 2333, 77th Cong., 2d Sess., 170 (1942). Sen. Rep. No. 1631, 77th Cong., 2d Sess., 244, 245 (1942). Hearings before Senate Committee on Finance on Revenue Act of 1942, 77th Cong., 2d Sess., 2343-2345 (1942). Counsel for another deficit railroad corporation pointed out that under governing state law that railroad’s officers would have been liable for a penalty of double the damages to anyone harmed. Id. at 1422. Statement of Mr. John E. Hughes: “Next I have a statement on behalf of Crane Johnson Co. that section 501 of the House bill should be simplified. That point is this: If a corporation was forbidden by State law to declare a dividend because its capital stock was impaired, it could not avoid the undistributed profits tax enacted in 1936 and was caught in a trap. A rich corporation could. It could declare a dividend and avoid it. Surely you would not discriminate against a poor one. “Furthermore, if it had an impairment of capital stock and was organized under the laws of about one-third of the States where corporations in such condition are allowed to declare dividends, a dividend would be a return of capital to the shareholder and no credit for the undistributed profits tax would be given. “There is no reason for granting relief retroactively in the limited eases which may be held to be covered by the vague and ambiguous language of section 501 of the House bill without granting relief in these cases also. “The language of section 501 is vague and ambiguous and ought to be simplified. In 1938 relief was granted as soon as this situation was brought to the attention of Congress, but unfortunately was not made retroactive to 1936. The House bill in section 501 properly makes it retroactive to 1936, but is not phrased in simple enough language.” Hearings, supra 1022. See also id. at 1306-1308. See H. R. Rep., note 3, supra. See Sen. Rep., note 4, supra. Sen. Rep. 1631, note 4, supra, outlining § 501 of the proposed Revenue Act of 1942 stated: “. . . [A] new paragraph . . . has been added, providing for an additional credit in cases of corporations having a deficit in accumulated earnings and profits and prohibited by law from paying dividends, and ... a new subsection has been added providing for a stock redemption credit. “Section 501 . . . grants relief from the undistributed-profits tax for taxable years beginning after December 31, 1935, and prior to January 1, 1938, by allowing as an additional credit in computing undistributed net income the portion of the adjusted net income which, in certain instances, could not be distributed as a taxable dividend. . . . “Under section 14 of the Revenue Act of 1936 corporations in general were subject to surtax at various rates from 7 to 27 percent of their undistributed net income. In some instances State law or an order of a public regulatory body prohibited payment of dividends during the existence of a deficit even though the corporation had current earnings and profits which would constitute undistributed net income under the definition thereof in section 14 (a) (2). Such corporations were, therefore, subject to undistributed profits surtax even though they were prohibited by law from paying dividends. The addition of the new paragraph 3 to subsection (c) of section 26 to provide an additional credit in the amount of the deficit in accumulated earnings and profits as of the close of the preceding taxable year is intended to give relief in certain of these cases. “Also under section 14 of the Revenue Act of 1936, it was possible that the undistributed net income of a corporation might exceed accumulated and current earnings and profits. In such case the tax could not be avoided even if distributions were made to shareholders.” The amendment was to provide relief in this situation also. Id. at 246. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
L
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. This case requires us to define the “sham” exception to the doctrine of antitrust immunity first identified in Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc., 365 U. S. 127 (1961), as that doctrine applies in the litigation context. Under the sham exception, activity “ostensibly directed toward influencing governmental action” does not qualify for Noerr immunity if it “is a mere sham to cover ... an attempt to interfere directly with the business relationships of a competitor.” Id., at 144. We hold that litigation cannot be deprived of immunity as a sham unless the litigation is objectively baseless. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit refused to characterize as sham a lawsuit that the antitrust defendant admittedly had probable cause to institute. We affirm. 1 Petitioners Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc., and Kenneth F. Irwin (collectively, PRE) operated La Mancha Private Club and Villas, a resort hotel in Palm Springs, California. Having installed videodisc players in the resort’s hotel rooms and assembled a library of more than 200 motion picture titles, PRE rented videodiscs to guests for in-room viewing. PRE also sought to develop a market for the sale of videodisc players to other hotels wishing to offer in-room viewing of prerecorded material. Respondents, Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., and seven other major motion picture studios (collectively, Columbia), held copyrights to the motion pictures recorded on the videodiscs that PRE purchased. Columbia also licensed the transmission of copyrighted motion pictures to hotel rooms through a wired cable system called Speetradyne. PRE therefore competed with Columbia not only for the viewing market at La Mancha but also for the broader market for in-room entertainment services in hotels. In 1983, Columbia sued PRE for alleged copyright infringement through the rental of videodiscs for viewing in hotel rooms. PRE counterclaimed, charging Columbia with violations of §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 26 Stat. 209, as amended, 15 U. S. C. §§ 1-2, and various state-law infractions. In particular, PRE alleged that Columbia’s copyright action was a mere sham that cloaked underlying acts of monopolization and conspiracy to restrain trade. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment on Columbia’s copyright claim and postponed further discovery on PRE’s antitrust counterclaims. Columbia did not dispute that PRE could freely sell or lease lawfully purchased videodiscs under the Copyright Act’s “first sale” doctrine, see 17 U. S. C. § 109(a), and PRE conceded that the playing of videodiscs constituted “performance” of motion pictures, see 17 U. S. C. § 101 (1988 ed. and Supp. III). As a result, summary judgment depended solely on whether rental of videodiscs for in-room viewing infringed Columbia’s exclusive right to “perform the copyrighted work[s] publicly.” § 106(4). Ruling that such rental did not constitute public performance, the District Court entered summary judgment for PRE. 228 USPQ 743 (CD Cal. 1986). The Court of Appeals affirmed on the grounds that a hotel room was not a “public place” and that PRE did not “transmit or otherwise communicate” Columbia’s motion pictures. 866 F. 2d 278 (CA9 1989). See 17 U. S. C. § 101 (1988 ed. and Supp. III). On remand, Columbia sought summary judgment on PRE’s antitrust claims, arguing that the original copyright infringement action was no sham and was therefore entitled to immunity under Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc., supra. Reasoning that the infringement action “was clearly a legitimate effort and therefore not a sham,” 1990-1 Trade Cases ¶ 68,971, p. 63,242 (CD Cal. 1990), the District Court granted the motion: “It was clear from the manner in which the ease was presented that [Columbia was] seeking and expecting a favorable judgment. Although I decided against [Columbia], the case was far from easy to resolve, and it was evident from the opinion affirming my order that the Court of Appeals had trouble with it as well. I find that there was probable cause for bringing the action, regardless of whether the issue was considered a question of fact or of law.” Id., at 63,243. The court then denied PRE’s request for further discovery on Columbia’s intent in bringing the copyright action and dismissed PRE’s state-law counterclaims without prejudice. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 944 F. 2d 1525 (CA9 1991). After rejecting PRE’s other allegations of anticompetitive conduct, see id., at 1528-1529, the court focused on PRE’s contention that the copyright action was indeed sham and that Columbia could not claim Noerr immunity. The Court of Appeals characterized “sham” litigation as one of two types of “abuse of . . . judicial processes”: either “ ‘misrepresentations ___in the adjudicatory process’ ” or the pursuit of “ ‘a pattern of baseless, repetitive claims’ ” instituted “‘without probable cause, and regardless of the merits.’” 944 F. 2d, at 1529 (quoting California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited, 404 U. S. 508, 513, 512 (1972)). PRE neither “allege[d] that the [copyright] lawsuit involved misrepresentations” nor “challenge^] the district court’s finding that the infringement action was brought with probable cause, i. e., that the suit was not baseless.” 944 F. 2d, at 1530. Rather, PRE opposed summary judgment solely by arguing that “the copyright infringement lawsuit [was] a sham because [Columbia] did not honestly believe that the infringement claim was meritorious.” Ibid. The Court of Appeals rejected PRE’s contention that “subjective intent in bringing the suit was a question of fact precluding entry of summary judgment.” Ibid. Instead, the court reasoned that the existence of probable cause “preelude[d] the application of the sham exception as a matter of law” because “a suit brought with probable cause does not fall within the sham exception to the Noerr-Pennington doctrine.” Id., at 1531, 1532. Finally, the court observed that PRE’s failure to show that “the copyright infringement action was baseless” rendered irrelevant any “evidence of [Columbia’s] subjective intent.” Id., at 1533. It accordingly rejected PRE’s request for further discovery on Columbia’s intent. The Courts of Appeals have defined “sham” in inconsistent and contradictory ways. We once observed that “sham” might become “no more than a label courts could apply to activity they deem unworthy of antitrust immunity.” Allied Tube & Conduit Corp. v. Indian Head, Inc., 486 U. S. 492, 508, n. 10 (1988). The array of definitions adopted by lower courts demonstrates that this observation was prescient. II PRE contends that “the Ninth Circuit erred in holding that an antitrust plaintiff must, as a threshold prerequisite ..., establish that a sham lawsuit is baseless as a matter of law.” Brief for Petitioners 14. It invites -us to adopt an approach under which either “indifference to . .. outcome,” ibid., or failure to prove that a petition for redress of grievances “would . . . have been brought but for [a] predatory-motive,” Tr. of Oral Arg. 10, would expose a defendant to antitrust liability under the sham exception. We decline PRE’s invitation. Those who petition government for redress are generally immune from antitrust liability. We first recognized in Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc., 365 U. S. 127 (1961), that “the Sherman Act does not prohibit... persons from associating together in an attempt to persuade the legislature or the executive to take particular action with respect to a law that would produce a restraint or a monopoly.” Id., at 136. Accord, Mine Workers v. Pennington, 381 U. S. 657, 669 (1965). In light of the government’s “power to act in [its] representative capacity” and “to take-actions ... that operate to restrain trade,” we reasoned that the Sherman Act does not punish “political activity” through which “the people ... freely inform the government of their wishes.” Noerr, 365 U. S., at 137. Nor did we “impute to Congress an intent to invade” the First Amendment right to petition. Id., at 138. Noerr, however, withheld immunity from “sham” activities because “application of the Sherman Act would be justified” when petitioning activity, “ostensibly directed toward influencing governmental action, is a mere sham to cover ... an attempt to interfere directly with the business relationships of a competitor.” Id., at 144. In Noerr itself, we found that a publicity campaign by railroads seeking legislation harmful to truckers was no sham in that the “effort to influence legislation” was “not only genuine but also highly successful.” Ibid. In California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited, 404 U. S. 508 (1972), we elaborated on Noerr in two relevant respects. First, we extended Noerr to “the approach of citizens ... to administrative agencies ... and to courts.” 404 U. S., at 510. Second, we held that the complaint showed a sham not entitled to immunity when it contained allegations that one group of highway carriers “sought to bar .. . competitors from meaningful access to adjudicatory tribunals and so to usurp that decisionmaking process” by “institut[ing]... proceedings and actions ... with or without probable cause, and regardless of the merits of the cases.” Id., at 512 (internal quotation marks omitted). We left unresolved the question presented by this case — whether litigation may be sham merely because a subjective expectation of success does not motivate the litigant. We now answer this question in the negative and hold that an objectively reasonable effort to litigate cannot be sham regardless of subjective intent. Our original formulation of antitrust petitioning immunity required that unprotected activity lack objective reasonableness. Noerr rejected the contention that an attempt “to influence the passage and enforcement of laws” might lose immunity merely because the lobbyists’ “sole purpose ... was to destroy [their] competitors.” 365 U. S., at 138. Nor were we persuaded by a showing that a publicity campaign “was intended to and did in fact injure [competitors] in their relationships with the public and. with their customers,” since such “direct injury” was merely “an incidental effect of the ... campaign to influence governmental action.” Id., at 143. We reasoned that “[t]he right of the people to inform their representatives in government of their desires with respect to the passage or enforcement of laws cannot properly be made to depend upon their intent in doing so.” Id., at 139. In short, “Noerr shields from the Sherman Act a concerted effort to influence public officials regardless of intent or purpose.” Pennington, 381 U. S., at 670. Nothing in California Motor Transport retreated from these principles. Indeed, we recognized that recourse to agencies and courts should not be condemned as sham until a reviewing court has “discern[ed] and draw[n]” the “difficult line” separating objectively reasonable claims from “a pattern of baseless, repetitive claims . . . which leads the factfinder to conclude that the administrative and judicial processes have been abused.” 404 U. S., at 513. Our recognition of a sham in that case signifies that the institution of legal proceedings “without probable eause” will give rise to a sham if such activity effectively “bar[s] . . . competitors from meaningful access to adjudicatory tribunals and so ... usurp[s] th[e] decisionmaking process.” Id., at 512. Since California Motor Transport, we have consistently assumed that the sham exception contains an indispensable objective component. We have described a sham as “evidenced by repetitive lawsuits carrying the hallmark of insubstantial claims.” Otter Tail Power Co. v. United States, 410 U. S. 366, 380 (1973) (emphasis added). We regard as sham “private action that is not genuinely aimed at procuring favorable government action,” as opposed to “a valid effort to influence government action.” Allied Tube & Conduit Corp. v. Indian Head, Inc., 486 U. S., at 500, n. 4. And we have explicitly observed that a successful “effort to influence governmental action . . . certainly cannot be characterized as a sham.” Id., at 502. See also Vendo Co. v. Lektro-Vend Corp., 433 U. S. 623, 645 (1977) (Blackmun, J., concurring in result) (describing a successful lawsuit as a “genuine attemp[t] to use the . . . adjudicative process legitimately” rather than “‘a pattern of baseless, repetitive claims’”). Whether'applying Noerr as an antitrust doctrine or invoking it in other contexts, we have repeatedly reaffirmed that evidence of anticompetitive intent or purpose alone cannot transform otherwise legitimate activity into a sham. See, e. g., FTC v. Superior Court Trial Lawyers Assn., 493 U. S. 411, 424 (1990); NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U. S. 886, 913-914 (1982). Cf. Vendo, supra, at 635-636, n. 6, 639, n. 9 (plurality opinion of Rehnquist, J.); id., at 644, n., 645 (Blackmun, J., concurring in result). Indeed, by analogy to Noerr’s sham exception, we held that even an “improperly motivated” lawsuit may not be enjoined under the National Labor Relations Act as an unfair labor practice unless such litigation is “baseless.” Bill Johnson’s Restaurants, Inc. v. NLRB, 461 U. S. 731, 743-744 (1983). Our decisions therefore establish that the legality of objectively reasonable petitioning “directed toward obtaining governmental action” is “not at all affected by any anticompetitive purpose [the actor] may have had.” Noerr, 365 U. S., at 140, quoted in Pennington, supra, at 669. Our most recent applications of Noerr immunity further demonstrate that neither Noerr immunity nor its sham exception turns on subjective intent alone. In Allied Tube, supra, at 503, and FTC v. Trial Lawyers, supra, at 424, 427, and n. 11, we refused to let antitrust defendants immunize otherwise unlawful restraints of trade by pleading a subjective intent to seek favorable legislation or to influence governmental action. Cf. National Collegiate Athletic Assn. v. Board of Regents of Univ. of Okla., 468 U. S. 85, 101, n. 23 (1984) (“[G]ood motives will not validate an otherwise anti-competitive practice”). In Columbia v. Omni Outdoor Advertising, Inc., 499 U. S. 365 (1991), we similarly held that challenges to allegedly sham petitioning activity must be resolved according to. objective criteria. We dispelled the notion that an antitrust plaintiff could prove a sham merely by showing that its competitor’s “purposes were to delay [the plaintiff’s] entry into the market and even to deny it a meaningful access to the appropriate... administrative and legislative fora.” Id., at 381 (internal quotation marks omitted). We reasoned that such inimical intent “may render the manner of lobbying improper or even unlawful, but does not necessarily render it a ‘sham.’” Ibid. Accord, id., at 398 (Stevens, J., dissenting). In sum, fidelity to precedent compels us to reject a purely subjective definition of “sham.” The sham exception so construed would undermine, if not vitiate, Noerr. And despite whatever “superficial certainty” it might provide, a subjective standard would utterly fail to supply “real ‘intelligible guidance.’ ” Allied Tube, supra, at 508, n. 10. Ill We now outline a two-part definition of “sham” litigation. First, the lawsuit must be objectively baseless in the sense that no reasonable litigant could realistically expect success on the merits. If an objective litigant could conclude that the suit is reasonably calculated to elicit a favorable outcome, the suit is immunized under Noerr, and an antitrust claim premised on the sham exception must fail. Only if challenged litigation is objectively meritless may a court examine the litigant’s subjective motivation. Under this second part of our definition of sham, the court should focus on whether the baseless lawsuit conceals “an attempt to interfere directly with the business relationships of a competitor,” Noerr, supra, at 144 (emphasis added), through the “use [of] the governmental process — as opposed to the outcome of that process — as an anticompetitive weapon,” Omni, 499 U. S., at 380 (emphasis in original). This two-tiered process requires the plaintiff to disprove the challenged lawsuit’s legal viability before the court will entertain evidence of the suit’s economic viability. Of course, even a plaintiff who defeats the defendant’s claim to Noerr immunity by demonstrating both the objective and the subjective components of a sham must still prove a substantive antitrust violation. Proof of a sham merely deprives the defendant of immunity; it does not relieve the plaintiff of the obligation to establish all other elements of his claim. Some of the apparent confusion over the meaning of “sham” may stem from our use of the word “genuine” to denote the opposite of “sham.” See Omni, supra, at 382; Allied Tube, 486 U. S., at 500, n. 4; Noerr, supra, at 144; Vendo Co. v. Lektro-Vend Corp., supra, at 645 (Blackmun, J., concurring in result). The word “genuine” has both objective and subjective connotations. On one hand, “genuine” means “actually having the reputed or apparent qualities or character.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 948 (1986). “Genuine” in this sense governs Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, under which a “genuine issue” is one “that properly can be resolved only by a finder of fact because [it] may reasonably be resolved in favor of either party.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U. S. 242, 250 (1986) (emphasis added). On the other hand, “genuine” also means “sincerely and honestly felt or experienced.” Webster’s Dictionary, supra, at 948. To be sham, therefore, litigation must fail to be “genuine” in both senses of the word. IV We conclude that the Court of Appeals properly affirmed summary judgment for Columbia on PRE’s antitrust counterclaim, Under the objective prong of the sham exception, the Court of Appeals correctly held that sham litigation must constitute the pursuit of claims so baseless that no reasonable litigant could realistically expect to secure favorable relief. See 944 F. 2d, at 1529. The existence of probable cause to institute legal proceedings precludes a finding that an antitrust defendant has engaged in sham litigation. The notion of probable cause, as understood and applied in the common-law tort of wrongful civil proceedings, requires the plaintiff to prove that the defendant lacked probable cause to institute an unsuccessful civil lawsuit and that the defendant pressed the action for an improper, malicious purpose. Stewart v. Sonneborn, 98 U. S. 187, 194 (1879); Wyatt v. Cole, 504 U. S. 158, 176 (1992) (Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting); T. Cooley, Law of Torts *181. Cf. Wheeler v. Nesbitt, 24 How. 544, 549-550 (1861) (related tort for malicious prosecution of criminal charges). Probable cause to institute civil proceedings requires no more than a “reasonable] belie[f] that there is a chance that [a] claim may be held valid upon adjudication” (internal quotation marks omitted). Hubbard v. Beatty & Hyde, Inc., 348 Mass. 258, 262, 178 N. E. 2d 485, 488 (1961); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 675, Comment e, pp. 454-455 (1977). Because the absence of probable cause is an essential element of the tort, the existence of probable cause is an absolute defense. See Crescent City Live Stock Co. v. Butchers’ Union Slaughter-House Co., 120 U. S. 141, 149 (1887); Wheeler, supra, at 551; Liberty Loan Corp. of Gadsden v. Mizell, 410 So. 2d 45, 48 (Ala. 1982). Just as evidence of anticompetitive intent cannot affect the objective prong of Noerr’s sham exception, a showing of malice alone will neither entitle the wrongful civil proceedings plaintiff to prevail nor permit the factfinder to infer the absence of probable cause. Stewart, supra, at 194; Wheeler, supra, at 551; 2 C. Addison, Law of Torts § 1, ¶ 853, pp. 67-68 (1876); T. Cooley, supra, at *184. When a court has found that an antitrust defendant claiming Noerr immunity had probable cause to sue, that finding compels the conclusion that a reasonable litigant in the defendant’s position could realistically expect success on the merits of the challenged lawsuit. Under our decision today, therefore, a proper probable-cause determination irrefutably demonstrates that an antitrust plaintiff has not proved the objective prong of the sham exception and that the defendant is accordingly entitled to Noerr immunity. The District Court and the Court of Appeals correctly found that Columbia had probable cause to sue PRE for copyright infringement. Where, as here, there is no dispute over the predicate facts of the underlying legal proceeding, a court may decide probable cause as a matter of law. Crescent, supra, at 149; Stewart, supra, at 194; Nelson v. Miller, 227 Kan. 271, 277, 607 P. 2d 438, 444 (1980); Stone v. Crocker, 41 Mass. 81, 84-85 (1831); J. Bishop, Commentaries on Non-Contract Law §240, p. 96 (1889). See also Director General of Railroads v. Kastenbaum, 263 U. S. 25, 28 (1923) (“The question is not whether [the defendant] thought the facts to constitute probable cause, but whether the court thinks they did”). Columbia enjoyed the “exclusive righ[t] ... to perform [its] copyrighted” motion pictures “publicly.” 17 U. S. C. § 106(4). Regardless of whether it intended any monopolistic or predatory use, Columbia acquired this statutory right for motion pictures as “original” audiovisual “works of authorship fixed” in a “tangible medium of expression.” § 102(a)(6). Indeed, to condition a copyright upon a demonstrated lack of anticompetitive intent would upset the notion of copyright as a “limited grant” of “monopoly privileges” intended simultaneously “to motivate the creative activity of authors” and “to give the public appropriate access to their work product.” Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U. S. 417, 429 (1984). When the District Court entered summary judgment for PRE on Columbia’s copyright claim in 1986, it was by no means clear whether PRE’s videodisc rental activities intruded on Columbia’s copyrights. At that time, the' Third Circuit and a District Court within the Third Circuit had held that the rental of video cassettes for viewing in on-site, private screening rooms infringed on the copyright owner’s right of public performance. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. v. Redd Horne, Inc., 749 F. 2d 154 (1984); Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. v. Aveco, Inc., 612 F. Supp. 315 (MD Pa. 1985), aff’d, 800 F. 2d 59 (1986). Although the District Court and the Ninth Circuit distinguished these decisions by reasoning that hotel rooms offered a degree of privacy more akin to the home than to a video rental store, see 228 USPQ, at 746; 866 F. 2d, at 280-281, copyright scholars criticized both the reasoning and the outcome of the Ninth Circuit’s decision, see 1 P. Goldstein, Copyright: Principles, Law and Practice §5.7.2.2, pp. 616-619 (1989); 2 M. Nimmer & D. Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright §8.14[C][3], pp. 8-168 to 8-173 (1992). The Seventh Circuit expressly “decline[d] to follow” the Ninth Circuit and adopted instead the Third Circuit’s definition of a “public place.” Video Views, Inc. v. Studio 21, Ltd., 925 F. 2d 1010, 1020, cert. denied, 502 U. S. 861 (1991). In light of the unsettled condition of the law, Columbia plainly had probable cause to sue. Any reasonable copyright owner in Columbia’s position could have believed that it had some chance of winning an infringement suit against PRE. Even though it did not survive PRE’s motion for summary judgment, Columbia’s copyright action was arguably “warranted by existing law” or at the very least was based on an objectively “good faith argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law.” Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 11. By the time the Ninth Circuit had reviewed all claims in this litigation, it became apparent that Columbia might have won its copyright suit in either the Third or the Seventh Circuit. Even in the absence of supporting authority, Columbia would have been entitled to press a novel copyright claim as long as a similarly situated reasonable litigant could have perceived some likelihood of success. A court could reasonably conclude that Columbia’s infringement action was an objectively plausible effort to enforce rights. Accordingly, we conclude that PRE failed to establish the objective prong of Noerr’s sham exception. Finally, the Court of Appeals properly refiised PRE’s request for further discovery on the economic circumstances of the underlying copyright litigation. As we have held, PRE could not pierce Columbia’s Noerr immunity without proof that Columbia’s infringement action was objectively baseless or frivolous. Thus, the District Court had no occasion to inquire whether Columbia was indifferent to the outcome on the merits of the copyright suit, whether any damages for infringement would be too low to justify Columbia’s investment in the suit, or whether Columbia had decided to sue primarily for the benefit of collateral injuries inflicted through the use of legal process. Contra, Grip-Pak, Inc. v. Illinois Tool Works, Inc., 694 F. 2d 466, 472 (CA7 1982), cert. denied, 461 U. S. 958 (1988). Such matters concern Columbia’s economic motivations in bringing suit, which were rendered irrelevant by the objective legal reasonableness of the litigation. The existence of probable cause eliminated any “genuine issue as to any material fact,” Fed. Rule Civ. Proe. 56(c), and summary judgment properly issued. We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals. So ordered. Section I of the Sherman Act prohibits “[e]very contract, combination ..., or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States.” 15 U. S. C. § 1. Section 2 punishes “[e]very person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States.” The Court of Appeals held that Columbia’s alleged refusal to grant copyright licenses was not “separate and distinct” from the prosecution of its infringement suit. 944 F. 2d, at 1528. The court also held that PRE had failed to establish how it could have suffered antitrust injury from Columbia’s other allegedly anticompetitive acts. Id., at 1529. Thus, whatever antitrust injury Columbia inflicted must have stemmed from the attempted enforcement of copyrights, and we do not consider whether Columbia could have made a valid claim of immunity for anticompetitive conduct independent of petitioning activity. Cf. Continental Ore Co. v. Union Carbide & Carbon Corp., 370 U. S. 690, 707-708 (1962). Several Courts of Appeals demand that an alleged sham be proved legally unreasonable. See McGuire Oil Co. v. Mapco, Inc., 958 F. 2d 1552, 1560, and n. 12 (CA11 1992); Litton Systems, Inc. v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 700 F. 2d 785, 809-812 (CA2 1983), cert. denied, 464 U. S. 1073 (1984); Hydro-Tech Corp. v. Sundstrand Corp., 673 F 2d 1171, 1177 (CA10 1982); Federal Prescription Service, Inc. v. American Pharmaceutical Assn., 214 U. S. App. D. C. 76, 85, 89, 663 F. 2d 253, 262, 266 (1981), cert. denied, 455 U. S. 928 (1982). Still other courts have held that successful litigation by definition cannot be sham. See, e. g., Eden Hannon & Co. v. Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., 914 F. 2d 556, 564-565 (CA4 1990), cert. denied, 499 U. S. 947 (1991); South Dakota v. Kansas City Southern Industries, Inc., 880 F. 2d 40, 54 (CA8 1989), cert. denied sub nom. South Dakota v. Kansas City Southern R. Co., 493 U. S. 1023 (1990); Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. v. Redd Horne, Inc., 749 F. 2d 154, 161 (CA3 1984). Other Courts of Appeals would regard some meritorious litigation as sham. The Sixth Circuit treats “genuine [legal] substance” as raising merely “a rebuttable presumption” of immunity. Westmac, Inc. v. Smith, 797 F. 2d 313, 318 (1986) (emphasis added), cert. denied, 479 U. S. 1035 (1987). The Seventh Circuit denies immunity for the pursuit of valid claims if “the stakes, discounted by the probability of winning, would be too low to repay the investment in litigation.” Grip-Pak, Inc. v. Illinois Tool Works, Inc., 694 F. 2d 466, 472 (1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 958 (1983). Finally, in the Fifth Circuit, “success on the merits does not... preclude” proof of a sham if the litigation was not “significantly motivated by a genuine desire for judicial relief” In re Burlington Northern, Inc., 822 F. 2d 518, 528 (1987), cert. denied sub nom. Union Pacific R. Co. v. Energy Transportation Systems, Inc., 484 U. S. 1007 (1988). California Motor Transport did refer to the antitrust defendants’ “purpose to deprive . . . competitors of meaningful access to the . . . courts.” 404 U. S., at 512. See also id., at 515 (noting a “purpose to eliminate ... a competitor by denying him free and meaningful access to the agencies and courts”); id., at 518 (Stewart, J., concurring in judgment) (agreeing that the antitrust laws could punish acts intended “to discourage and ultimately to prevent [a competitor] from invoking” administrative and judicial process). That a sham depends on the existence of anticompetitive intent, however, does not transform the sham inquiry into a purely subjective investigation. A winning lawsuit is by definition a reasonable effort at petitioning for redress and therefore not a sham. On the other hand, when the antitrust defendant has lost the underlying litigation, a court must “resist the understandable temptation to engage in post hoc reasoning by concluding” that an ultimately unsuccessful “action must have been unreasonable or without foundation.” Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U. S. 412, 421-422 (1978). Accord, Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U. S. 5, 14-15 (1980) (per curiam). The court must remember that “[e]ven when the law or the facts appear questionable or unfavorable at the outset, a party may have an entirely reasonable ground for bringing suit.” Christiansburg, supra, at 422. In surveying the “forms of illegal and reprehensible practice which may corrupt the administrative or judicial processes and which may result in antitrust violations,” we have noted that “unethical conduct in the setting of the adjudicatory process often results in sanctions” and that “[m]is-representations, condoned in the political arena, are not immunized when used in the adjudicatory process.” California Motor Transport, 404 U. S., at 512-513. We need not decide here whether and, if so, to what extent Noerr permits the imposition of antitrust liability for a litigant’s fraud or other misrepresentations. Cf. Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 60(b)(3) (allowing a federal court to “relieve a party... from a final judgment” for “fraud ..., misrepresentation, or other misconduct of an adverse party”); Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food Machinery & Chemical Corp., 382 U. S. 172, 176-177 (1965); id., at 179-180 (Harlan, J., concurring). This tort is frequently called “malicious prosecution,” which (strictly speaking) governs the malicious pursuit of criminal proceedings without probable cause. See W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton, & D. Owen, Prosser and Keeton on Torts § 120, p. 892 (5th ed. 1984). The threshold for showing probable cause is no higher in the civil context than in the criminal. See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 674, Comment e, pp. 454-455 (1977). Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondent-plaintiff in this case alleges that Government officials intentionally deceived her in concealing information that her husband, a foreign dissident, was being detained and tortured in his own country by military officers of his government, who were paid by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). One count of the complaint, brought after the husband’s death, charges that the official deception denied respondent access to the courts by leaving her without information, or reason to seek information, with which she could have brought a lawsuit that might have saved her husband’s life. The issue is whether this count states an actionable claim. We hold that it does not, for two reasons. As stated in the complaint, it fails to identify an underlying cause of action for relief that the plaintiff would have raised had it not been for the deception alleged. And even after a subsequent, informal amendment accepted by the Court of Appeals, respondent fails to seek any relief presently available for denial of access to courts that would be unavailable otherwise. r — H Respondent Jennifer Harbury, a United States citizen, is the widow of Efrain Bamaca-Velasquez, a Guatemalan rebel leader who vanished in his own country in March 1992. Since we are reviewing a ruling on motion to dismiss, we accept Harbury’s factual allegations and take them in the light most favorable to her. See Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit, 507 U. S. 163, 164 (1993). Bamaca was captured by Guatemalan army forces, including officers trained (in the United States), paid, and used as informants by the CIA. App. 27-28 (Respondent’s Second Amended Complaint ¶¶ 35-42, 46-47). He was detained and tortured for more than a year to obtain information of interest to the CIA, for which it paid. Id., at 28 (¶ ¶ 43, 46-47). Bamaca was summarily executed on orders of the same Guatemalan officers affiliated with the CIA, id., at 28-29 (¶¶ 48-49), sometime before September 1993, id., at 31 (¶ 66), 34 (¶ 84). The CIA knew as early as March 18,1992, that the Guatemalan army had captured Bamaca alive and shared this information with the White House and State Department. Id., at 27 (¶ 35). Officials there, however, “intentionally misled” Harbury, by “deceptive statements and omissions, into believing that concrete information about her husband’s fate did not exist because they did not want to threaten their ability to obtain information from Mr. Bamaca through his detention and torture.” Id., at 31 (¶ 67). Harbury makes three specific allegations of such Government deception, all involving State Department officials, while Bamaca was still alive. First, she says she contacted several unnamed State Department officials in March 1993 to express concerns about her husband, who, according to an eyewitness, was still alive. Id., at 29 (¶¶ 50, 55). They “promised to look into the matter and to assist her,” ibid., but they neither gave her nor made public any information about Bamaca, though CIA reports from as early as May 1998 confirmed he was still alive. Id., at 30 (¶¶ 56-59). Second, in August 1993, Marilyn McAfee, then Ambassador to Guatemala, advised Harbury to submit a written report to the effect that remains found in a grave purported to be her husband’s were not in fact his, as Harbury promptly did. Id., at 30-31 (¶¶ 60-63). Although McAfee promised that she would “investigate the matter immediately[,] report her findings,” and keep Harbury “properly informed regarding her husband’s situation,” ibid. (¶ 62), she gave Harbury no information, id., at 31 (¶ 64). Third, in September 1993 (the same month that the Government learned Bamaca was dead, ibid. (¶ 66)), Harbury engaged in a week-long hunger strike in Guatemala City to focus public attention on her husband’s plight, but the State Department told her nothing, id., at 31-32 (¶¶ 64-68). According to Harbury’s allegations, the Government’s deceptions and omissions continued and intensified after Ba-maca was killed. From October 1993 until March 1995, officials of the State Department and National Security Council (NSC) repeatedly met and communicated with Harbury, id., at 32 (¶¶ 70-71), 34 (¶¶80, 83), 35 (¶86), Conveying the impression that they knew nothing for sure but were seeking “concrete information” about her husband and would keep her informed, id:, at 33 (¶ 75). At one point, in November 1994, National Security Adviser Anthony Lake told Harbury that the Government had “'scraped the bottom of the barrel’ ” to no avail in seeking information about her husband, id., at 34 (¶ 83). All along, however, the Government officials knew that Bamaca had been killed by the Guatemalan army, ibid. (¶ 84), but engaged in misleading statements and omissions because they did not want their complicity in Ba-maca’s torture and death revealed, id., at 36 (¶ 92). Harbury learned that her husband was dead only in March 1995 when a congressman publicly announced that Bamaca had been killed on the orders of a Guatemalan army colonel who was also a paid agent of the CIA, ibid. (¶ 91). II A year later, in March 1996, Harbury filed suit in the District Court for the District of Columbia against the CIA, the State Department, the NSC, and members of each in their official and individual capacities. The complaint, as amended, listed 28 causes of action under federal, state, and international law. App. 38-62. Although only the access-to-courts counts directly concern us here, it is important to know Harbury’s other claims, in order to determine whether she has stated a tenable claim for denial of judicial access. A Harbury’s complaint sought relief in four categories other than access to courts. First, on behalf of Bamaca’s estate, she raised claims against the CIA defendants under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment for his imprisonment, torture, and execution, seeking declaratory and injunc-tive relief, and money damages against the officials in their individual capacities on the theory of Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S. 388 (1971). App. 38-42 (counts 1-5). Next, on her own behalf, Harbury sued all the Government defendants for declaratory and injunctive relief and money damages under Bivens for violating her “right to familial integrity” under the First, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments by imprisoning, torturing, and executing her husband. Id., at 42-48 (counts 6-13). Third, she alleged common law torts invoking the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U. S. C. §§ 2401(b) and 2676, App. 54, (1) on behalf of herself and her husband’s estate against the CIA defendants for intentional infliction of emotional distress by causing and conspiring to cause Bamaca’s imprisonment, torture, and execution, id., at 55 (counts 18-19); (2) on behalf of her husband’s estate against the CIA defendants for negligent supervision resulting in his false imprisonment, assault and battery, and wrongful death, id., at 56-58 (counts 20-22); and (3) on her own behalf against the State Department and NSC defendants for intentional and negligent misrepresentation, constructive fraud, interference with the right to possess a spouse’s dead body, id., at 58-62 (counts 24-27), and intentional infliction of emotional distress by making “intentionally deceptive statements and omissions... about her husband, including concealing whether or not he was alive” id., at 58 (count 23). Fourth, Harbury brought a tort claim said to arise under international law against the CIA defendants on behalf of herself and her husband’s estate. Id., at 62 (count 28). In addition to these counts for direct harm, Harbury relied on the First and Fifth Amendments in raising four claims that the deceptive statements and omissions of the State Department and NSC defendants had unconstitutionally impeded her access to courts, id., at 49-51 (counts 14-15), as well as her rights to speak freely and to petition the Government, id., at 51-54 (counts 16-17). The basic theory as to access to courts was that if the officials had shared what they knew or simply said “no comment” rather than affirmatively misleading Harbury into thinking they were doing something, she might have been able “to take appropriate actions to save her husband’s life.” Id., at 37 (¶ 98). Harbury alleged that she “was foreclosed from effectively seeking adequate legal redress.” Ibid. B For failure to state a claim, the District Court dismissed all counts for declaratory and injunctive relief (counts 1-3, 6-9, 14, 16). It also dismissed all the Bivens counts: those on behalf of Bamaca’s estate for his torture and execution said to have violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights (counts 4-5), and those brought on Harbury’s own behalf based on the claimed violation of her constitutional rights of familial association (counts 10-13), access to courts (count 15), and free speech and access to Government (count 17). But the District Court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the tort claims at common law (counts 18-27) and international law (count 28). With respect to the access-to-courts claims (including Har-bury’s Bivens claim on this theory), the District Court acknowledged that five Courts of Appeals “have held that conspiracies to destroy or cover-up evidence of a crime that render a plaintiff’s judicial remedies inadequate or ineffective violat[e] the right of access,” App. to Pet. for Cert. 43a, but held that Harbury had not stated a valid cause of action for two reasons. First, the court held that Harbury’s claim “would have to be dismissed” (without prejudice) because, having filed no prior suit, she had “nothing more than a guess” as to how the alleged coverup might “have prejudiced her rights to bring a separate action.” Id., at 46a. Second, the District Court reasoned that the defendants in any event would be entitled to qualified immunity in their individual capacities because, unlike officials in coverup cases who destroyed, manufactured, or hid evidence, the defendants here did not act contrary to “clearly established constitutional norms that a reasonable official would understand” in being less than “forthcoming in discussing the intelligence that they received about Bamaca.” Id., at 48a-49a. C Harbury did not pursue her claims for declaratory or in-junctive relief, and appealed only the dismissal of the Bivens causes of action. Harbury v. Deutch, 233 F. 3d 596, 600-601 (CADC 2000). The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the Bivens claims of violations of Bamaca’s due process rights, 233 F. 3d, at 604, Harbury’s rights of familial association, id., at 606-607, and her free speech and petition rights. It reversed the dismissal, however, of Harbury’s Bivens claim against the State Department and NSC defendants for denial of access to courts. Id., at 607-611. The Court of Appeals agreed with the District Court that a plaintiff who merely alleges without factual basis in the conduct of a prior lawsuit that “ ‘key witnesses... may now be dead or missing,... crucial evidence may have been destroyed, and... memories may have faded’ ” generally falls short of raising a claim for denial of access to courts. Id., at 609 (quoting the District Court). The court held, however, that Harbury’s allegations stated a valid access claim insofar as she alleged that the Government’s conduct had “effectively prevented her from seeking emergency injunc-tive relief in time to save her husband’s life.” Ibid. The District of Columbia Circuit went on to conclude that “[b]e-cause his death completely foreclosed this avenue of relief, nothing would be gained by requiring Harbury to postpone this aspect of her access to courts cause of action until she finishes prosecuting her tort claims.” Ibid. Nor did the court hold that qualified immunity would bar suit because, in its words, “we think it should be obvious to public officials that they may not affirmatively mislead citizens for the purpose of protecting themselves from suit.” Id., at 611. D Three categories of claims were left in the case after the Court of Appeals’s decision: the various common law tort claims including intentional infliction of emotional distress, the international law claim against the CIA defendants (neither of which the District Court had dismissed), and Har-bury’s Bivens claims against the State Department and NSC defendants for preventing access to courts (which the Court of Appeals reinstated). The defendant officials petitioned for review of the court’s holding as to the claim of denial of access to courts, but Harbury did not cross-petition on the other Bivens claims, leaving the Bivens access claim the sole matter before us. We granted certiorari, 534 U. S. 1064 (2001), because of the importance of this issue to the Government in its conduct of the Nation’s foreign affairs, and now reverse. Ill A This Court’s prior cases on denial of access to courts have not extended over the entire range of claims that have been brought under that general rubric elsewhere, but if we consider examples in the Courts of Appeals as well as our own, two categories emerge. In the first are claims that systemic official action frustrates a plaintiff or plaintiff class in preparing and filing suits at the present time. Thus, in the prison-litigation cases, the relief sought may be a law library for a prisoner’s use in preparing a case, Bounds v. Smith, 430 U. S. 817, 828 (1977); Lewis v. Casey, 518 U. S. 343, 346-348 (1996), or a reader for an illiterate prisoner, id., at 347-348, or simply a lawyer, ibid. In denial-of-access cases challenging filing fees that poor plaintiffs cannot afford to pay, the object is an order requiring waiver of a fee to open the courthouse door for desired litigation, such as direct appeals or federal habeas petitions in criminal cases, or civil suits asserting family-law rights, e. g., Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U. S. 371, 372 (1971) (divorce filing fee); M. L. B. v. S. L. J, 519 U. S. 102, 106-107 (1996) (record fee in parental-rights termination action). In cases of this sort, the essence of the access claim is that official action is presently denying an opportunity to litigate for a class of potential plaintiffs. The opportunity has not been lost for all time, however, but only in the short term; the object of the denial-of-access suit, and the justification for recognizing that claim, is to place the plaintiff in a position to pursue a separate claim for relief once the frustrating condition has been removed. The second category covers claims not in aid of a class of suits yet to be litigated, but of specific cases that cannot now be tried (or tried with all material evidence), no matter what official action may be in the future. The official acts claimed to have denied access may allegedly have caused the loss or inadequate settlement of a meritorious case, e. g., Foster v. Lake Jackson, 28 F. 3d 425, 429 (CA5 1994); Bell v. Milwaukee, 746 F. 2d 1205, 1261 (CA7 1984) (“[T]he cover-up and resistance of the investigating police officers rendered hollow [the plaintiff’s] right to seek redress”), the loss of an opportunity to sue, e. g., Swekel v. River Rouge, 119 F. 3d 1259, 1261 (CA6 1997) (police coverup extended throughout “time to file suit... under... statute of limitations”), or the loss of an opportunity to seek some particular order of relief, as Harbury alleges here. These cases do not look forward to a class of future litigation, but backward to a time when specific litigation ended poorly, or could not have commenced, or could have produced a remedy subsequently unobtainable. The ultimate object of these sorts of access claims, then, is not the judgment in a further lawsuit, but simply the judgment in the access claim itself, in providing relief obtainable in no other suit in the future. While the circumstances thus vary, the ultimate justification for recognizing each kind of claim is the same. Whether an access claim turns on a litigating opportunity yet to be gained or an opportunity already lost, the very point of recognizing any access claim is to provide some ef-feetive vindication for a separate and distinct right to seek judicial relief for some wrong. However unsettled the basis of the constitutional right of access to courts, our cases rest on the recognition that the right is ancillary to the underlying claim, without which a plaintiff cannot have suffered injury by being shut out of court. We indicated as much in our most recent case on denial of access, Lewis v. Casey, supra, where we noted that even in forward-looking prisoner class actions to remove roadblocks to future litigation, the named plaintiff must identify a “nonfrivolous,” “arguable” underlying claim, id., at 353, and n. 3, and we have been given no reason to treat backward-looking access claims any differently in this respect. It follows that the underlying cause of action, whether anticipated or lost, is an element that must be described in the complaint, just as much as allegations must describe the official acts frustrating the litigation. It follows, too, that when the access claim (like this one) looks backward, the complaint must identify a remedy that may be awarded as recompense but not otherwise available in some suit that may yet be brought. There is, after all, no point in spending time and money to establish the facts constituting denial of access when a plaintiff would end up just as well off after litigating a simpler case without the denial-of-access element. Like any other element of an access claim, the underlying cause of action and its lost remedy must be addressed by allegations in the complaint sufficient to give fair notice to a defendant. See generally Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N. A., 534 U. S. 506, 513-515 (2002). Although we have no reason here to try to describe pleading standards for the entire spectrum of access claims, this is the place to address a particular risk inherent in backward-looking claims. Characteristically, the action underlying this sort of access claim will not be tried independently, a fact that enhances the natural temptation on the part of plaintiffs to claim too much, by alleging more than might be shown in a full trial focused solely on the details of the predicate action. Hence the need for care in requiring that the predicate claim be described well enough to apply the “nonfrivolous” test and to show that the “arguable” nature of the underlying claim is more than hope. And because these backward-looking cases are brought to get relief unobtainable in other suits, the remedy sought must itself be identified to hedge against the risk that an access claim be tried all the way through, only to find that the court can award no remedy that the plaintiff could not have been awarded on a presently existing claim. The particular facts of this case underscore the need for care on the part of the plaintiff in identifying, and by the court in determining, the claim for relief underlying the access-to-courts plea. The action alleged on the part of all the Government defendants (the State Department and NSC defendants sued for denial of access and the CIA defendants who would have been timely sued on the underlying claim but for the denial) was apparently taken in the conduct of foreign relations by the National Government. Thus, if there is to be judicial enquiry, it will raise concerns for the separation of powers in trenching on matters committed to the other branches. See Department of Navy v. Egan, 484 U. S. 518, 529 (1988) (“ ‘[F]oreign policy [is] the province and responsibility of the Executive’ ”); Chicago & Southern Air Lines, Inc. v. Waterman S. S. Corp., 333 U. S. 103, 111 (1948) (“[T]he very nature of executive decisions as to foreign policy is political, not judicial”). Since the need to resolve such constitutional issues ought to be avoided where possible, cf. Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker, 535 U. S. 125, 134-135 (2002); Ashwander v. TVA, 297 U. S. 288, 345-348 (1936) (Brandéis, J., concurring), the trial court should be in a position as soon as possible in the litigation to know whether a potential constitutional ruling may be obviated because the allegations of denied access fail to state a claim on which relief could be granted. In sum, the right of a defendant in a backward-looking access suit to obtain early dismissal of a hopelessly incomplete claim for relief coincides in this case with the obligation of the Judicial Branch to avoid deciding constitutional issues needlessly. For the sake of each, the complaint should state the underlying claim in accordance with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a), just as if it were being independently pursued, and a like plain statement should describe any remedy available under the access claim and presently unique to it. B Under these standards, Harbury’s complaint did not come even close to stating a constitutional claim for denial of access upon which relief could be granted. While we cannot read the complaint without appreciating Harbury’s anguish, neither can we read it without appreciating the position of the District Judge who described Harbury’s various requests for relief as “nearly unintelligible.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 32a. Although the counts stating the Bivens claim for denial of judicial access seemed to confirm that Harbury intended to state a backward-looking claim, the complaint failed to identify the underlying cause of action that the alleged deception had compromised, going no further than the protean allegation that the State Department and NSC defendants’ “false and deceptive information and concealment foreclosed Plaintiff from effectively seeking adequate legal redress.” App. 50 (¶ 175). The District Court and the defendants were left to guess at the unstated cause of action supposed to have been lost, and at the remedy being sought independently of relief that might be available on the 24 other counts set out in the complaint. Nothing happened in the Court of Appeals to improve Harbury’s position. That court, too, was frustrated by the failure to identify the predicate claim and the need for relief otherwise unattainable, but it gave Harbury’s counsel an opportunity at oral argument to supply the missing allegations. Counsel responded that Harbury would have brought an action for intentional infliction of emotional distress as one wrong for which she could have sought the injunctive relief that might have saved her husband’s life: “[I]f defendants had disclosed the information they possessed about Bamaca, Harbury could have sought an emergency injunction based on an underlying tort claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Even if the NSC and State Department officials had simply said they could not discuss Bamaca’s situation, counsel explained, Harbury would have filed her FOIA requests immediately, thus perhaps obtaining the information necessary to seek an injunction in time to save her husband’s life. Instead, believing defendants’ reassurances, Harbury waited for the State Department and NSC officials to complete their ‘investigation.’” 233 F. 3d, at 609. The Court of Appeals adopted this theory in saying that the “adequate legal redress” alleged for purposes of Harbury’s access claims meant emergency injunctive relief in a now futile lawsuit for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and it accepted this amendment as a sufficient statement of an underlying cause of action. Ibid. We think, however, that treating the amendment as an adequate statement was error. For even on the assumption that Harbury could surmount all difficulties raised by treating the underlying claim as one for intentional infliction of emotional distress, she could not satisfy the requirement that a backward-looking denial-of-aceess claim provide a remedy that could not be obtained on an existing claim. We have no choice but to assume that what Harbury intends to claim as intentional infliction of emotional distress is set out in the counts of her complaint naming the “CIA defendants,” including the Guatemalan officer who allegedly tortured and killed her husband, App. 55 (counts 18-19). These are among the tort counts that survived the motion to dismiss under the portion of the District Court’s order not before us. If an intentional-infliction claim can be maintained at all, Harbury can seek damages and even conceivably some sort of injunctive relief for the demonstrated consequences of the infliction alleged. It is true that she cannot obtain in any present tort action the order she would have sought before her husband’s death, the order that might have saved her husband’s life. But neither can she obtain any such order on her access claim, which therefore cannot recompense Har-bury for the unique loss she claims as a consequence of her inability to bring an intentional-infliction action earlier. She has not explained, and it is not otherwise apparent, that she can get any relief on the access claim that she cannot obtain on her other tort claims, i. e., those that remain pending in the District Court. And it is just because the access claim cannot address any injury she has suffered in a way the presently surviving intentional-infliction claims cannot that Harbury is not entitled to maintain the access claim as a substitute, backward-looking action. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Harbury says in a footnote in her brief before this Court that “[n]ew evidence exists suggesting that Mr. Bamaca in fact survived well into 1994 if not longer,” Brief for Respondent 23, n. 3, but the factual allegations in her complaint unequivocally state that the Government knew that Bamaca had been killed by September 1993. The injunctive relief Harbury sought in these (and other) counts was disclosure of information “concerning her husband’s death and the location of his body” and an order to prevent “[djefendants from taking such actions in the future.” App. 63. Harbury did not allege that the State Department and NSC defendants had an affirmative duty to disclose or to provide information about her husband in response to her informal requests. The Court of Appeals did not explicitly say that this Bivens claim (count 17) was dismissed, but, in reversing the District Court, it spoke only of a single claim of “access to courts.” 233 F. 3d, at 611 (“[W]e reverse the district court’s dismissal of Harbury’s access to courts claim”). The District of Columbia Circuit denied rehearing, Harbury v. Deutch, 244 F. 3d 956, 957 (2001) (per curiam), and rehearing en banc, 244 F. 3d 960, 961 (2001), with two judges dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc. The petitioners did not challenge below the existence of a cause of action under Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S. 388 (1971), and we express no opinion on the matter in deciding this case. See, e.g., Delew v. Wagner, 143 F. 3d 1219, 1222-1223 (CA9 1998); Swekel v. River Rouge, 119 F. 3d 1259, 1263-1264 (CA6 1997); Vasquez v. Hernandez, 60 F. 3d 325, 329 (CA7 1995); Foster v. Lake Jackson, 28 F. 3d 425, 429-431 (CA5 1994); Williams v. Boston, 784 F. 2d 430, 435 (CA1 1986); Bell v. Milwaukee, 746 F. 2d 1205, 1260-1266 (CA7 1984); Ryland v. Shapiro, 708 F. 2d 967, 974-975 (CA5 1983). E. g., Smith v. Bennett, 365 U. S. 708, 713-714 (1961) (filing fee for ha-beas petitions); Burns v. Ohio, 360 U. S. 252, 255-258 (1959) (fee for direct appeal in a criminal case); Mayer v. Chicago, 404 U. S. 189, 195-196 (1971) (same, as to petty crime); Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U. S. 12, 16-20 (1956) (transcript fee for appellate review in a criminal case). All such cases have been decided in the Courts of Appeals, see n. 7, supra; we assume, without deciding, the correctness of the decisions. Some Courts of Appeals have held that an actual attempt to sue is a prerequisite to any such claim. See Delew, supra, at 1222-1228; Swekel, supra, at 1263-1264. See also App. to Pet. for Cert. 46a (District Court adopting this requirement). But cf. Swekel, supra, at 1264, n. 2 (“We recognize that in some instances it would be completely futile for a plaintiff to attempt to access the state court system. The Plaintiff, however, has not presented evidence that this is such a case”). Bifurcation into forward-looking and backward-looking access claims is a simplification, and not the only possible categorization, but it helps to focus the issues here. Decisions of this Court have grounded the right of access to courts in the Article IV Privileges and Immunities Clause, Chambers v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 207 U. S. 142, 148 (1907); Blake v. McClung, 172 U. S. 239, 249 (1898); Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. 36, 79 (1873), the First Amendment Petition Clause, Bill Johnson’s Restaurants, Inc. v. NLRB, 461 U. S. 731, 741 (1983); California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited, 404 U. S. 508, 513 (1972), the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause, Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U. S. 1, 11, n. 6 (1989) (plurality opinion); Walters v. National Assn, of Radiation Survivors, 473 U. S. 305, 335 (1985), and the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection, Pennsylvania v. Finley, 481 U. S. 551, 557 (1987), and Due Process Clauses, Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U. S. 539, 576 (1974); Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U. S. 371, 380-381 (1971). It may be the case that an underlying action has already been tried to an inadequate result due to missing or fabricated evidence in an official cover-up, see, e. g., Foster, 28 F. 3d, at 427; Bell, 746 F. 2d, at 1223, or the claim may still be timely and subject to trial, but for a different remedy than the one sought under the access claim, or against different defendants. The District of Columbia Circuit rejected the holding of some Circuits, see n. 10, supra, that a filed suit on the underlying claim is a prerequisite for a backward-looking access claim, 233 F. 3d 596, 608-610 (2000), because it would foreclose access claims in the most heinous cases where a cover-up was so pervasive that any timely attempt to litigate would have seemed futile. In essence, the Court of Appeals rejected a rule requiring an attempt to litigate, even if frivolous, as a condition of bringing a nonfrivolous backward-looking access claim. “A pleading which sets forth a claim for relief... shall contain.,. a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief_” The court repeatedly pressed counsel to identify the underlying claim. See Lodging for United States as Amicus Curiae Supporting Petitioners 7,19, 44, 47 (respectively, “Now what would that [predicate] lawsuit have looked like?... Can you explain what that lawsuit would look like?... [AJccess to do what[?]... And what would that lawsuit have looked like?” (Tr. of Proceedings in Harbury v. Deutch, No. 99-5307 (Sept. 8, 2000))). Whether the Court of Appeals should have extended that opportunity is not an issue before us. We see counsel’s answer as amounting to an amendment of pleadings that still fails to cure the inadequacy of the denial-of-access claim. In providing the clarification, Harbury’s counsel appears to have been referring to the intentional-infliction counts against the CIA defendants alleged elsewhere in her complaint, App. 55 (counts 18-19). See infra, at 422. Whatever latitude is allowed by federal notice pleading, no one says Harbury should be allowed to construe “adequate legal redress” to mean causes of action that were not even mentioned in her complaint. As for Harbury’s position here, suffice it to say that a brief to this Court, see Brief for Respondent at 22-33 (listing causes of action that Harbury could have brought in 1993), is not the place to supplement pleadings in response to a motion in the trial court to dismiss for failure to state a claim. Harbury does not argue, based on her counsel’s argument before the Court of Appeals, that the allegation that official deception delayed a Freedom of Information Act filing, which, presumably, might have involved a lawsuit down the road if the defendants obstructed compulsory disclosure, can independently serve as an underlying cause of action for purposes of her access claim. Because the access claim as “amended” by Harbury’s counsel at argument still fails to indicate any remedy that would be available in addition to potential relief on presently existing tort claims, see infra, at 422, it is unnecessary to resolve any of the claim’s other difficulties in satisfying the need for nonfrivolous and arguable underlying causes of action. For example, Harbury alleges no acts of concealment by NSC officials prior to her husband’s death; it would appear that the Bivens' access claim should have been dismissed as to them on this ground alone. Nor does Harbury allege a plausible causal link between an injunction that might have been issued by a United States court and the behavior of the Guatemalan Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The motion of petitioner for leave to proceed informa pau-peris and the petition for a writ of certiorari are granted. The judgment of the Supreme Court of South Carolina is reversed. Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586 (1978); Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U. S, 1 (1986). See also United States v. Johnson, 457 U. S. 537, 549 (1982). It is so ordered. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. The Tennessee Court of Appeals rejected respondent’s claim that his counsel rendered ineffective assistance during his sentencing hearing under principles announced in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984). The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit concluded that United States v. Cronic, 466 U. S. 648 (1984), should have controlled the state court’s analysis and granted him a conditional writ of habeas corpus. We hold that respondent’s claim was governed by Strickland, and that the state court’s decision neither was “contrary to,” nor involved “an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law” under the provisions of 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d)(1). I In 1982, respondent was convicted of, and sentenced to death for, the murder of an elderly couple in Memphis, Tennessee. The killings culminated a 2-day crime rampage that began when respondent robbed a Memphis jewelry store of approximately $112,000 in merchandise on a Saturday in August 1980. Shortly after the 12:45 p.m. robbery, a police officer in an unmarked vehicle spotted respondent driving at a normal speed and began to follow him. After a few blocks, respondent accelerated, prompting a high-speed chase through midtown Memphis and into a residential neighborhood where respondent abandoned his vehicle. Attempting to flee, respondent shot an officer who tried to apprehend him, shot a citizen who confronted him, and, at gunpoint, demanded that another hand over his car keys. As a police helicopter hovered overhead, respondent tried to shoot the fleeing car owner, but was frustrated because his gun was out of ammunition. Throughout the afternoon and into the next morning, respondent managed to elude detection as police combed the surrounding area. In the meantime, officers inventorying his ear found an array of illegal and prescription drugs, the stolen merchandise, and more than $2,400 in cash. Respondent reappeared early Sunday morning when he drew a gun on an elderly resident who refused to let him in to use her telephone. Later that afternoon, respondent broke into the home of Shipley and Cleopatra Todd, aged 93 and 79 years old, and killed them by repeatedly beating them about the head with a blunt instrument. He moved their bodies so that they would not be visible from the front and rear doors and ransacked the first floor of their home. After shaving his beard, respondent traveled to Florida. He was arrested there for robbing a drugstore in Pompano Beach. He admitted killing the Todds and shooting the police officer. A Tennessee grand jury charged respondent with two counts of first-degree murder in the perpetration of a burglary in connection with the Todds’ deaths, three counts of assault with intent to murder in connection with the shootings and attempted shooting of the car owner, and one count of robbery with a deadly weapon for the jewelry store theft. At a jury trial in the Criminal Court of Shelby County, the prosecution adduced overwhelming physical and testimonial evidence showing that respondent perpetrated the crimes and that he killed the Todds in a brutal and callous fashion. The defense conceded that respondent committed most of the acts in question, but sought to prove that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. A clinical psychologist testified that respondent suffered from substance abuse and posttrau-matic stress disorders related to his military service in Vietnam. A neuropharmacologist recounted at length respondent’s history of illicit drug use, which began after he joined the Army and escalated to the point where he was daily consuming “rather horrific” quantities. Tr. 1722-1763. That drug use, according to the expert, caused chronic amphetamine psychosis, hallucinations, and ongoing paranoia, which affected respondent’s mental capacity and ability to obey the law. Defense counsel also called respondent’s mother, who spoke of her son coming back from Vietnam in 1969 a changed person, his honorable discharge from service, his graduation with honors from college, and the deaths of his father and fiancée while he was in prison from 1972-1979 for robbery. Although respondent did not take the stand, defense counsel was able to elicit through other testimony that he had expressed remorse for the killings. Rejecting his insanity defense, the jury found him guilty on all charges. Punishment for the first-degree murder counts was fixed in a separate sentencing hearing that took place the next day and lasted about three hours. Under then-applicable Tennessee law, a death sentence was required if the jury found unanimously that the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of at least one statutory aggravating circumstance that was not outweighed by any mitigating circumstance. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-2-203 (1982). In making these determinations, the jury could (and was instructed that it could) consider evidence from both the guilt and punishment phases. Ibid.; Tr. 2219. During its opening statement, the State said .it would prove four aggravating factors: that (1) respondent had previously been convicted of one or more felonies involving the use or threat of violence to a person; (2) he knowingly created a great risk of death to two or more persons other than the victim during the act of murder; (3) the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel; and (4) the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding lawful arrest. In his opening statement, defense counsel called the jury’s attention to the mitigating evidence already before them. He suggested that respondent was under the influence of extreme mental disturbance or duress, that he was an addict whose drug and other problems stemmed from the stress of his military service, and that he felt remorse. Counsel urged the jury that there was a good reason for preserving his client’s life if one looked at “the whole man.” App. 26. He asked for mercy, calling it a blessing that would raise them above the State to the level of God. The prosecution then called a records custodian and fingerprint examiner to establish that respondent had three armed robbery convictions and two officers who said they tried unsuccessfully to arrest respondent for armed robbery after the jewelry store heist. Through cross-examination of the records custodian, respondent’s attorney brought out that his client had béen awarded the Bronze Star in Vietnam. After defense counsel successfully objected to the State’s proffer of photos of the Todds’ decomposing bodies, both sides rested. The junior prosecuting attorney on the case gave what the state courts described as a “low-key” closing. Defense counsel waived final argument, preventing the lead prosecutor, who by all accounts was an extremely effective advocate, from arguing in rebuttal. The jury found in both murder cases four aggravating factors and no mitigating circumstances substantial enough to outweigh them. The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed respondent’s convictions and sentence on appeal, State v. Cone, 665 S. W. 2d 87, and we denied certiorari, 467 U. S. 1210 (1984). Respondent then petitioned for state postconviction relief, contending that his counsel rendered ineffective assistance during the sentencing phase by failing to present mitigating evidence and by waiving final argument. After a hearing in which respondent’s trial counsel testified, a division of the Tennessee Criminal Court rejected this contention. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. Cone v. State, 747 S. W. 2d 353 (1987). The appellate court reviewed counsel’s explanations for his decisions concerning the calling of witnesses and the waiving of final argument. Id., at 356-357. Describing counsel’s representation as “very conscientious,” the court concluded that his performance was within the permissible range of competency, citing Baxter v. Rose, 523 S. W. 2d 930 (Tenn. 1975), a decision the Tennessee Supreme Court deems to have announced the same attorney performance standard as Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984). See, e. g., State v. Burns, 6 S. W. 3d 453, 461 (1999). The court also expressed its view that respondent received the death penalty based on the law and facts, not on the shortcomings of counsel. 747 S. W. 2d, at 357-358. The Tennessee Supreme Court denied respondent permission to appeal, and we denied further review, Cone v. Tennessee, 488 U. S. 871 (1988). In 1997, after his second application for state postconviction relief was dismissed, respondent sought a federal writ of habeas corpus under 28 U. S. C. § 2254 as amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. His petition alleged numerous grounds for relief including ineffective assistance at the sentencing phase. The District Court ruled that respondent did not meet § 2254(d)’s requirements and denied the petition. The Court of Appeals affirmed the refusal to issue a writ with respect to respondent’s conviction, but reversed with respect to his sentence. 243 F. 3d 961, 979 (CA6 2001). It held that respondent suffered a Sixth Amendment violation for which prejudice should be presumed under United States v. Cronic, 466 U. S. 648 (1984), because his counsel, by not asking for mercy after the prosecutor’s final argument, did not subject the State’s call for the death penalty to meaningful adversarial testing. 243 F. 3d, at 979. The state court’s adjudication of respondent’s Sixth Amendment claim, in the Court of Appeals’ analysis, was therefore an unreasonable application of the clearly established law announced in Strickland. 243 F. 3d, at 979. We granted certiorari, 534 U. S. 1064 (2001), and now reverse the Court of Appeals. II The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 modified a federal habeas court’s role in reviewing state prisoner applications in order to prevent federal habeas “retrials” and to ensure that state-court convictions are given effect to the extent possible under law. See Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S. 362, 403-404 (2000). To these ends, § 2254(d)(1) provides: “(d) An application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim— “(1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” As we stated in Williams, § 2254(d)(l)’s “contrary to” and “unreasonable application” clauses have independent meaning. 529 U. S., at 404-405. A federal habeas court may issue the writ under the “contrary to” clause if the state court applies a rule different from the governing law set forth in our cases, or if it decides a case differently than we have done on a set of materially indistinguishable facts. Id., at 405-406. The court may grant relief under the “unreasonable application” clause if the state court correctly identifies the governing legal principle from our decisions but unreasonably applies it to the facts of the particular case. Id., at 407-408. The focus of the latter inquiry is on whether the state court’s application of clearly established federal law is objectively unreasonable, and we stressed in Williams that an unreasonable application is different from an incorrect one. Id., at 409-410. See also id., at 411 (a federal habeas court may not issue a writ under the unreasonable application clause “simply because that court concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state-court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly”). Petitioner contends that the Court of Appeals exceeded its statutory authority to grant relief under § 2254(d)(1) because the decision of the Tennessee courts was neither contrary to nor an unreasonable application of the clearly established law of Strickland. Respondent counters that he is entitled to relief under § 2254(d)(l)’s “contrary to” clause because the state court applied the wrong legal rule. In his view, Cronic, not Strickland, governs the analysis of his claim that his counsel rendered ineffective assistance at the sentencing hearing. We address this issue first. In Strickland, which was decided the same day as Cronic, we announced a two-part test for evaluating claims that a defendant’s counsel, performed so incompetently in his or her representation of a defendant that the defendant’s sentence or conviction should be reversed. We reasoned that there would be a sufficient indication that counsel’s assistance was defective enough to undermine confidence in a proceeding’s result if the defendant proved two things: first, that counsel’s “representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness,” 466 U. S., at 688; and second, that “there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different,” id., at 694. Without proof of both deficient performance and prejudice to the defense, we concluded, it could not be said that the sentence or conviction “resulted from a breakdown in the adversary process that rendered the result of the proceeding unreliable,” id., at 687, and the sentence or conviction should stand. In Cronic, we considered whether the Court of Appeals was correct in reversing a defendant’s conviction under the Sixth Amendment without inquiring into counsel’s actual performance or requiring the defendant to show the effect it had on the trial. 466 U. S., at 650,658. We determined that the court had erred and remanded to allow the claim to be considered under Strickland’s test. 466 U. S., at 666-667, and n. 41. In the course of deciding this question, we identified three situations implicating the right to counsel that involved circumstances “so likely to prejudice the accused that the cost of litigating their effect in a particular case is unjustified.” Id., at 658-659. First and “[mjost obvious” was the “complete denial of counsel.” Id., at 659. A trial would be presumptively unfair, we said, where the accused is denied the presence of counsel at “a critical stage,” id., at 659,662, a phrase we used in Hamilton v. Alabama, 368 U. S. 52, 54 (1961), and White v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 59, 60 (1963) (per curiam), to denote a step of a criminal proceeding, such as arraignment, that held significant consequences for the accused. Second, we posited that a similar presumption was warranted if “counsel entirely fails to subject the prosecution’s case to meaningful adversarial testing.” Cronic, supra, at 659. Finally, we said that in cases like Powell v. Alabama, 287 U. S. 45 (1932), where counsel is called upon to render assistance under circumstances where competent counsel very likely could not, the defendant need not show that the proceedings were affected. Cronic, supra, at 659-662. Respondent argues that his claim fits within the second exception identified in Cronic because his counsel failed to “mount some case for life” after the prosecution introduced evidence in the sentencing hearing and gave a closing statement. Brief for Respondent 26. We disagree. When we spoke in Cronic of the possibility of presuming prejudice based on an attorney’s failure to test the prosecutor’s case, we indicated that the attorney’s failure must be complete. We said “if counsel entirely fails to subject the prosecution’s case to meaningful adversarial testing.” Cronic, supra, at 659 (emphasis added). Here, respondent’s argument is not that his counsel failed to oppose the prosecution throughout the sentencing proceeding as a whole, but that his counsel failed to do so at specific points. For purposes of distinguishing between the rule of Strickland and that of Cronic, this difference is not of degree but of kind. The aspects of counsel’s performance challenged by respondent — the failure to adduce mitigating evidence and the waiver of closing argument — are plainly of the same ilk as other specific attorney errors we have held subject to Strick land’s performance and prejudice components. In Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U. S. 168, 184 (1986), for example, we evaluated under Strickland a claim that counsel was ineffective for failing to put on any mitigating evidence at a capital sentencing hearing. In Burger v. Kemp, 483 U. S. 776, 788 (1987), we did the same when presented with a challenge to counsel’s decision at a capital sentencing hearing not to offer any mitigating evidence at all. We hold, therefore, that the state court correctly identified the principles announced in Strickland as those governing the analysis of respondent’s claim. Consequently, we find no merit in respondent’s contention that the state court’s adjudication was contrary to our clearly established law. Cf. Williams, 529 U. S., at 405 (“The word ‘contrary’ is commonly understood to mean ‘diametrically different,’ ‘opposite in character or nature,’ or ‘mutually opposed’ ” (quoting Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 495 (1976))). Ill The remaining issue, then, is whether respondent can obtain relief on the ground that the state court’s adjudication of his claim involved an “unreasonable application” of Strickland. In Strickland we said that “[jjudicial scrutiny of a counsel’s performance must be highly deferential” and that “every effort [must] be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel’s challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel’s perspective at the time.” 466 U. S., at 689. Thus, even when a court is presented with an ineffective-assistance claim not subject to § 2254(d)(1) deference, a defendant must overcome the “presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action ‘might be considered sound trial strategy.’” Ibid, (quoting Michel v. Louisiana, 350 U. S. 91, 101 (1955)). For respondent to succeed, however, he must do more than show that he would have satisfied Strickland’s test if his claim were being analyzed in the first instance, because under § 2254(d)(1), it is not enough to convince a federal ha-beas court that, in its independent judgment, the state-court decision applied Strickland incorrectly.. See Williams, supra, at 411. Rather, he must show that the Tennessee Court of Appeals applied Strickland to the facts of his case in an objectively unreasonable manner. This, we conclude, he cannot do. Respondent’s counsel was faced with the formidable task of defending a client who had committed a horribly brutal and senseless crime against two elderly persons in their home. He had just the day before shot a police officer and an unarmed civilian, attempted to shoot another person, and committed a robbery. The State had near conclusive proof of guilt on the murder charges as well as extensive evidence demonstrating the cruelty of the killings. Making the situation more onerous were the facts that respondent, despite his high intelligence and relatively normal upbringing, had turned into a drug addict and had a history of robbery convictions. Because the defense’s theory at the guilt phase was not guilty by reason of insanity, counsel was able to put before the jury extensive testimony about what he believed to be the most compelling mitigating evidence in the case— evidence regarding the change his client underwent after serving in Vietnam; his drug dependency, which apparently drove him to commit the robbery in the first place; and its effects. Before the state courts, respondent faulted his counsel for not recalling his medical experts during the sentencing hearing. But we think counsel reasonably could have concluded that the substance of their testimony was still fresh to the jury. Each had taken the stand not long before, and counsel focused on their testimony in his guilt phase closing argument, which took place the day before the sentencing hearing was held. Respondent’s suggestion that the jury could not fully consider the mental health proof as potentially mitigating because it was adduced during the guilt phase finds no support in the record. Defense counsel advised the jury that the testimony of the experts established the existence of mitigating circumstances, and the trial court specifically instructed the jury that evidence of a mental disease or defect insufficient to establish a criminal defense could be considered in mitigation. Tr. 2221. Respondent also assigned error in his counsel’s decision not to recall his mother. While counsel recognized that respondent’s mother could have provided further information about respondent’s childhood and spoken of her love for him, he concluded that she had not made a good witness at the guilt stage, and he did not wish to subject her to further cross-examination. Respondent advances no argument that would call his attorney’s assessment into question. In his trial preparations, counsel investigated the possibility of calling other witnesses. He thought respondent’s sister, who was closest to him, might make a good witness, but she did not want to testify. And even if she had agreed, putting her on the stand would have allowed the prosecutor to question her about the fact that respondent called her from the Todds’ house just after the killings. After consulting with his client, counsel opted not to call respondent himself as a witness. And we think counsel had sound tactical reasons for deciding against it. Respondent said he was very angry with the prosecutor and thought he might lash out if pressed on cross-examination, which could have only alienated him in the eyes of the jury. There was also the possibility of calling other witnesses from his childhood or days in the Army But counsel feared that the prosecution might elicit information about respondent’s criminal history. He further feared that testimony about respondent’s normal youth might, in the jury’s eyes, cut the other way. Respondent also focuses on counsel’s decision to waive final argument. He points out that counsel could have explained the significance of his Bronze Star decoration and argues that his counsel’s failure to advocate for life in closing necessarily left the jury with the impression that he deserved to die. The Court of Appeals “rejected] out of hand” the idea that waiving summation could ever be considered sound trial strategy. 243 F. 3d, at 979. In this case, we think at the very least that the state court’s contrary assessment was not “unreasonable.” After respondent’s counsel gave his opening statement discussing the mitigating evidence before them and urging that they choose life for his client, the prosecution did not put on any particularly dramatic or impressive testimony. The State’s witnesses testified rather briefly about the undisputed facts that respondent had prior convictions and was evading arrest. When the junior prosecutor delivered a very matter-of-fact closing that did not dwell on any of the brutal aspects of the crime, counsel was faced with a choice. He could make a closing argument and reprise for the jury, perhaps in greater detail than his opening, the primary mitigating evidence concerning his client’s drug dependency and posttraumatic stress from Vietnam. And he could plead again for life for his client and impress upon the jurors the importance of what he believed were less significant facts, such as the Bronze Star decoration or his client’s expression of remorse. But he knew that if he took this opportunity, he would give the lead prosecutor, who all agreed was very persuasive, the chance to depict his client as a heartless killer just before the jurors began deliberation. Alternatively, counsel could prevent the lead prosecutor from arguing by waiving his own summation and relying on the jurors’ familiarity with the case and his opening plea for life made just a few hours before. Neither option, it seems to us, so clearly outweighs the other that it was objectively unreasonable for the Tennessee Court of Appeals to deem counsel’s choice to waive argument a tactical decision about which competent lawyers might disagree. We cautioned in Strickland that a court must indulge a “strong presumption” that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance because it is all too easy to conclude that a particular act or omission of counsel was unreasonable in the harsh light of hindsight. 466 U. S., at 689. Given the choices available to respondent’s counsel and the reasons we have identified, we cannot say that the state court’s application of Strickland’s attorney-performance standard was objectively unreasonable. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is therefore reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. See Cone v. State, 747 S. W. 2d 353, 357 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1987). Justice Stevens’ dissent does not cite this statutory provision governing respondent’s ability to obtain federal habeas relief, much less explain how his claim meets its standards. In a footnote, we also cited other cases besides Hamilton v. Alabama and White v. Maryland where we found a Sixth Amendment error without requiring a showing of prejudice. Each involved criminal defendants who had actually or constructively been denied counsel by government action. See United States v. Cronic, 466 U. S. 648, 659, n. 25 (1984) (citing Geders v. United States, 425 U. S. 80, 91 (1976) (order preventing defendant from consulting his counsel “about anything” during a 17-hour overnight recess impinged upon his Sixth Amendment right to the assistance of counsel); Herring v. New York, 422 U. S. 853, 865 (1975) (trial judge’s order denying counsel the opportunity to make a summation at close of bench trial denied defendant assistance of counsel); Brooks v. Tennessee, 406 U. S. 605, 612-613 (1972) (law requiring defendant to testify first at trial or not at all deprived accused of “the ‘guiding hand of counsel’ in the timing of this critical element of his defense,” i. e., when and whether to take the stand); Ferguson v. Georgia, 365 U. S. 570, 596 (1961) (statute retaining common-law incompetency rule for criminal defendants, which denied the accused the right to have his counsel question him to elicit his statements before the jury, was inconsistent with Fourteenth Amendment); Williams v. Kaiser, 323 U. S. 471 (1945) (allegation that petitioner requested counsel but did not receive one at the time he was convicted and sentenced stated case for denial of due process)). In concluding that Cronic applies to respondent’s ineffective-assistance claim, the dissent relies in part on inferences it draws from evidence that his attorney sought treatment for a mental illness four years after respondent’s trial. See post, at 715-716 (opinion of Stevens, J.). While the dissent admits that counsel’s mental health problems “may have onset after [respondent’s] trial,” it speculates that counsel’s mental health problems began earlier based on its “complete reading of the trial transcript and an assessment of [counsel’s] actions at trial.” Post, at 716. But, as the dissent concedes, respondent did not present any evidence regarding his counsel’s mental health in the state-court proceedings. Before us, respondent does not argue that we could consider his attorney’s medical records obtained in the federal habeas proceedings in assessing his Sixth Amendment claim, nor does he suggest that his counsel suffered from mental health problems at the time of his trial. Furthermore, any implication that trial counsel was impaired during his representation is contradicted by the testimony of the two experts called during the state postconviction hearing. Both had extensive experience in prosecuting and defending criminal cases and were familiar with trial counsel’s abilities. Wayne Em-mons said that counsel was “not only fully capable, but one of the most conscientious lawyers [he] knew.” State Postconviction Tr. 73. And Stephen Shankman said he considered respondent’s counsel “to be one of the finest practitioners in [the] community in the area of criminal defense work,” id., at 182, and “an extremely experienced lawyer” whom he would be “hardpressed to second guess,” id., at 190. Respondent cites Cozzolino v. State, 584 S. W. 2d 765 (Tenn. 1979), to argue that calling additional witnesses would not have opened the door to evidence about his prior bad acts. We need not express any view as to Tennessee law on this issue except to point out that Cozzolino does not state such a broad, categorical rule. Cozzolino held that a trial court erred in admitting evidence that the defendant committed crimes after the murder because that evidence was not relevant to any aggravating factors or mitigating factors raised by the defense. Id., at 767-768. In this case, at a minimum, any evidence about respondent’s prior robbery convictions would have been relevant because the State relied on those convictions to prove an aggravating circumstance. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondent Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Virginia (C&P) was required to relocate some of its telephone transmission facilities by reason of a street realignment. It sought compensation from petitioner Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA), the local government agency responsible for the urban renewal plan which caused the street realignment. C&P claimed that it was a “displaced person” as that term is defined in the Uniform Relocation Act, passed by Congress in 1970. We hold that C&P is not a “displaced person” within the meaning of the Act. The Relocation Act provides that any person “displaced” from his home or place of business by a federal or federally funded project is entitled to relocation benefits, including reimbursement for the “actual reasonable expenses in moving himself, his family, business, farm operation, or other personal property.” 42 U. S. C. § 4622(a)(1). The Act by its terms binds only federal agencies; but a federal agency may not provide funds for state projects involving condemnation without first receiving “satisfactory assurances” that displaced persons will be given such relocation payments and assistance “as are required to be provided by a Federal agency” under the Act. 42 U. S. C. § 4630. In order to qualify for federal funds, therefore, many States, such as Virginia, see Va. Code §25-235 et seq. (1980 and Supp. 1983), have adopted legislation modeled on the Relocation Act. NRHA is a political subdivision of the State of Virginia, located in the city of Norfolk. During the 1960’s, NRHA began four redevelopment projects in Norfolk for which federal funds were provided under the urban renewal program contained in Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, 63 Stat. 414, 42 U. S. C. § 1450 et seq. (1976 ed. and Supp. V). The development plans approved by the city and carried out by NRHA required the reshaping of certain land parcels, which in turn required a realignment of street patterns. After acquiring the land on both sides of the streets in question, NRHA successfully petitioned the city to close off those streets or parts thereof. Stipulations of Fact Nos. 5, 6, App. 39-41. New streets were constructed in accordance with the development plans. C&P is a privately owned utility company engaged in the business of selling telephone and other telecommunication services in the city of Norfolk and throughout Virginia. To serve its customers, C&P had placed telephone transmission facilities, including manholes, conduits, cables, and accessory fittings, within the public rights-of-way of certain streets throughout Norfolk, including streets within the urban renewal project areas. When the streets were realigned, C&P was forced to relocate some of its facilities. The manholes and conduits, too massive to move, were simply abandoned in place. The telephone cables were withdrawn and, for the most part, sold for their scrap value, though some cable was stored for possible reuse. App. 100-101 (testimony of Mr. Tucker). Substitute facilities were installed beneath the new streets to prevent any interruption in service. C&P sought reimbursement from NRHA for the expenses it incurred in this relocation, claiming that it was a “displaced person” within the meaning of the Relocation Act. After a series of administrative rejections, C&P sued NRHA in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The District Court denied relief to C&P, but on appeal its decision was reversed by the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Virginia v. Landrieu, 674 F. 2d 298 (1982). That court held that the definitional provisions of the Relocation Act compelled the conclusion that a utility was not excluded from the definition of “displaced person” under the Act, and that C&P was entitled to compensation as a “displaced person” for the sort of expenses incurred here. We granted certiorari to review the judgment of the Court of Appeals. 459 U. S. 1145 (1983). We now reverse. Our analysis of the statute and its legislative history convinces us that in passing the Relocation Act Congress addressed the needs of residential and business tenants and owners, and did not deal with the separate problem posed by the relocation of utility service lines. We hold, therefore, that the Relocation Act did not change the long-established common-law principle that a utility forced to relocate from a public right-of-way must do so at its own expense; it is not a “displaced person” as that term is defined in the Act. There is no doubt that a utility company could, under certain circumstances, be a “displaced person” within the meaning of the Relocation Act. Businesses as well as natural persons are eligible for relocation benefits. Thus, for example, if a branch office of C&P were located in a building condemned by the NRHA, C&P might well be entitled to recover the cost of moving its office equipment and furnishings. C&P, just like any other legitimate business, would be “displaced” by the federally funded project. But whether C&P can be said to be “displaced” within the meaning of the Act when it relocates telephone lines because an urban renewal project calls for realignment of existing street patterns is a different question which requires more detailed analysis. When streets containing utility conduits are realigned, C&P is not “just like any other legitimate business”; it faces a problem unique to utilities. Under the traditional common-law rule, utilities have been required to bear the entire cost of relocating from a public right-of-way whenever requested to do so by state or local authorities. 12 E. McQuillin, Law of Municipal Corporations § 34.74a (3d ed. 1970); 4A J. Sackman, Nichols’ Law of Eminent Domain § 15.22 (rev. 3d ed. 1981). This rule was recognized and approved by this Court as long ago as New Orleans Gas Light Co. v. Drainage Comm’n of New Orleans, 197 U. S. 453, 462 (1905) (holding that the injury sustained by the utility is damnum absque injuria). It is a well-established principle of statutory construction that “[t]he common law . . . ought not to be deemed to be repealed, unless the language of a statute be clear and explicit for this purpose.” Fairfax’s Devisee v. Hunter’s Lessee, 7 Cranch 603, 623 (1813). Since the elements of the federal law of eminent domain are largely derived from the common law, see, e. g., United States v. Miller, 317 U. S. 369 (1943), this canon of construction has a force in this case that it might not have in other contexts of federal statutory construction. We must, therefore, be satisfied that Congress addressed the problem of utility relocation costs in the Relocation Act before we can conclude that C&P is entitled to the benefits it seeks. “As in all cases of statutory construction, our task is to interpret the words of th[e] statut[e] in light of the purposes Congress sought to serve.” Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Org., 441 U. S. 600, 608 (1979). The passage of the Relocation Act in 1970 ended a decade of close consideration of the problems faced by persons displaced by federal and federally funded projects. See Alexander v. United States Dept. of HUD, 441 U. S. 39, 49 (1979). The principal sponsor of the bill, Senator Muskie, noted that over 50 federal programs resulted in condemnation proceedings and that the victims of such proceedings received widely varying treatment. “Nearly all federally assisted programs have differing, if not conflicting, provisions for helping those displaced. They range from no assistance in some cases to liberal benefits and protection in others.” 115 Cong. Rec. 31533 (1969). In part, the Uniform Relocation Act was passed, as its name suggests, simply to ensure uniform treatment of persons displaced by condemnation. Another, equally important, purpose of the Act was to ensure that persons displaced by federal and federally funded programs would “not suffer disproportionate injuries as a result of programs designed for the benefit of the public as a whole.” 42 U. S. C. §4621. Under traditional concepts of eminent domain, a homeowner would receive only the market value of his condemned house. H. R. Rep. No. 91-1656, p. 8 (1970). A tenant at will, residing or doing business at condemned premises, received nothing. Id., at 12. Yet both would incur significant, perhaps devastating, expenses in moving personal property. S. Rep. No. 91-488, pp. 6-7 (1969); H. R. Rep. No. 91-1656, supra, at 2-3. The Relocation Act was intended to alleviate the “disproportionate injuries” suffered by such persons. In pursuit of both equity and uniformity, Congress relied heavily on prior legislation governing specific federal programs. For the relocation provisions at issue here, Congress adopted as its principal model the relocation provisions in §501 through §511 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968 (1968 Highway Act), Pub. L. 90-495, 82 Stat. 830-835. The legislative history is explicit that the Relocation Act was designed to extend the coverage of that pre-existing program to all federal agencies, with modifications “only as necessary to achieve a system of requirements and aids that can be applied uniformly in all Federal and federally assisted programs.” S. Rep. No. 91-488, supra, at 2. See also H. R. Rep. No. 91-1656, supra, at 2; 115 Cong. Rec. 31534 (1969) (remarks of Sen. Mundt). Much of the language of the Relocation Act, including the declaration of policy, the definitions of “person,” “business,” and “displaced person,” as well as the formula for calculating relocation benefits, is taken directly from the 1968 Highway Act. In divining congressional intent, therefore, it is instructive to note that the claims made by C&P in this case would not have been countenanced under the 1968 Highway Act. Utility relocation costs necessitated by federally funded highway projects were already specifically governed by a separate provision, 23 U. S. C. § 123, which predated and was left intact by the 1968 Act. Careful consideration of this provision demonstrates that Congress considered utility relocation as a problem separate and distinct from the plight of “displaced” persons dealt with in the 1968 Highway Act and later, more generally, in the Relocation Act. Title 23 U. S. C. § 123 had its origins in S. Rep. No. 1093, 83d Cong., 2d Sess., 12-13 (1954). In 1954, the Senate Committee on Public Works “heard considerable testimony from owners and operators of various public utilities concerning the heavy financial burden placed upon them when reconstruction or modernization of highways requires that their facilities be moved from their prior locations on the highway right-of-way.” Id., at 12. But the Committee tentatively concluded that, since the question was governed by long-established state law, it was “neither feasible nor desirable for the Federal Government to give direction to those local relationships by force of application of Federal funds.” Id., at 13. The Committee did, however, authorize a study of the problem, and this study led to the adoption of §111 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (1956 Highway Act), Pub. L. 84-627, 70 Stat. 383. Some States had, by statute or practice, altered the common law in order to reimburse utilities for the costs of relocation. Congress felt that such reimbursement should be considered a legitimate project expense for which the Federal Government would contribute its pro rata share. Thus, § 111 provided that when a State, in accordance with state law, pays the costs of relocation of a utility necessitated by a federally funded highway project, “Federal funds may be used to reimburse the State for such cost in the same proportion as Federal funds are expended on the project.” 23 U. S. C. § 123(a). The question of utility reimbursement was, thus, left to the laws of the individual States, with no congressional displacement of those laws. The House Report accompanying the 1956 Highway Act specifically stressed: “There is no requirement in this section, either expressed or implied, that a State must pay all or any part of utility relocation costs.” H. R. Rep. No. 2022, 84th Cong., 2d Sess., 14 (1956). In response to the 1956 Highway Act, a number of States passed legislation providing for reimbursement of the cost of relocating utility facilities for federal-aid highway projects. The Senate Committee on Public Works expressed concern over “this drastic change in existing practices,” noting that “the use of Federal funds for reimbursement to the States for this purpose will increase substantially, thereby reducing the amount of Federal funds available for construction of highways.” S. Rep. No. 1407, 85th Cong., 2d Sess., 28 (1958). In response, the Committee proposed to put a 70% cap on federal contributions to States for reimbursement of utilities. Ibid. This limitation was rejected in the final bill, however, and the only amendment to 23 U. S. C. § 123 was a proviso that reimbursement be made “only after evidence satisfactory to the Secretary shall have been presented to him substantiating the fact that the State has paid such cost from its own funds . . . .” Pub. L. 85-381, § 11(a), 72 Stat. 94-95. Thus, after careful consideration of the alternatives, the relations between utilities and the States were left, once again, to state law. No federal right to reimbursement was ever granted to utilities, although pro rata federal reimbursement remained available to the States if state law required reimbursement of utilities. As noted, the 1968 Highway Act did nothing to change this situation. Title 23 U. S. C. § 123 was left untouched. The relocation provisions in § 501 through § 511 of the 1968 Act were directed at a separate problem: the plight of those displaced from their homes or places of business. H. R. Rep. No. 1584, 90th Cong., 2d Sess., 20 (1968); S. Rep. No. 1340, 90th Cong., 2d Sess., 7 (1968). Utility relocation costs were never mentioned and, given 23 U. S. C. § 123, were clearly not intended to be covered by §501 through §511. The history of the Federal-Aid Highway Act from 1954 to 1968 shows, therefore, that Congress considered utility relocation costs and the expenses incurred by “displaced persons” to be separate and distinct problems calling for separate and distinct solutions. Congress showed that it was aware of the common-law rule that utilities must bear their own relocation expenses, and it proved unwilling, after extensive consideration and debate, to federalize the relations between utilities and state and local governments. In the Relocation Act, Congress chose to deal with only one of these two problems. In modifying and extending §501 through §511 of the 1968 Highway Act, Congress was addressing the needs of residential and business tenants and owners, living and working in buildings that would be bulldozed by federal and federally funded programs. 115 Cong. Rec. 31533 (1969) (remarks of Sen. Muskie) (expressing his concern at “the bulldozing of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and businesses annually”). Section 220 of the Relocation Act repealed those sections of prior law that had been superseded or rendered superfluous by the Relocation Act, including §501 through §511 of the 1968 Highway Act. See H. R. Rep. No. 91-1656, pp. 21, 32-38 (1970). Yet 23 U. S. C. § 123, governing utility relocation costs occasioned by federally funded highway projects, was left intact. It was neither contradicted nor rendered superfluous because it addressed a problem outside the scope of the Relocation Act. At no point in the extensive hearings, congressional debates, or Committee Reports was it ever suggested that the Relocation Act would alter the state rules governing utility relocation expenses. Given that Congress had hitherto expressly declined to alter those rules, after extensive consideration and debate, the conclusion seems inescapable that Congress did not do so in a fit of absentmindedness when it modified and extended the provisions of the 1968 Highway Act, provisions directed at a different problem. Virginia has continuously recognized the common-law rule that a utility forced to relocate from a public right-of-way must do so at its own expense. In Potomac Electric Power Co. v. Fugate, 211 Va. 745, 747-748, 180 S. E. 2d 657, 658-659 (1971), the Supreme Court of Virginia held that a franchise agreement, such as that between Norfolk and C&P, which allows a utility to place its facilities in public streets is revocable at will and confers no property right on the utility. Established practice under the franchise agreement between Norfolk and C&P was to the same effect. C&P has always in the past borne all costs of relocation and has included those expenses as part of its operating expenses within the rate structure approved by the State Corporation Commission. Stipulations of Fact Nos. 10, 11, App. 43-44. We hold that the Relocation Act did not grant utilities such as C&P a new, federal right to reimbursement for expenses of the sort incurred here. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is Reversed. Justice Powell took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. The full title of the Act is the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970, 84 Stat. 1894, 42 U. S. C. § 4601 et seq. Agreements were worked out between the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and NRHA for each of the four projects, providing that HUD would furnish two-thirds of the net project cost in cash, while the city of Norfolk would contribute the remaining one-third “in kind,” by means of public improvements such as streets, schools, and parks. See Stipulation of Fact No. 9, App. 42-43; App. 187-188, 194 (testimony of Mr. Rice). The facilities were placed under the streets pursuant to an 1898 franchise agreement between the city and C&P’s predecessor, Southern Bell Telephone Co. See Exhibit No. 1, App. 228-243. Under the terms of that agreement, the city could require C&P to move its facilities at any time, with all expenses of the move to be borne by C&P. Stipulations of Fact Nos. 10, 11, App. 43-44. Section 101(6) of the Relocation Act, as set forth in 42 U. S. C. § 4601(6), provides as follows: “The term ‘displaced person’ means any person who, on or after January 2, 1971, moves from real property, or moves his personal property from real property, as a result of the acquisition of such real property, in whole or in part, or as the result of the written order of the acquiring agency to vacate real property, for a program or project undertaken by a Federal agency, or with Federal financial assistance; and solely for the purposes of sections 4622(a) and (b) and 4625 of this title, as a result of the acquisition of or as the result of the written order of the acquiring agency to vacate other real property, on which such person conducts a business or farm operation, for such program or project.” After C&P was turned down by NRHA, it appealed to the Richmond office of HUD. That agency also rejected the claim and was joined as a defendant in this suit. The basis for C&P’s appeal from the local agency to the federal agency is contained in a regulation issued by HUD, 24 CFR § 42.707 (1983). The statutory authorization for such appeal is unclear, but neither party questions the validity of the regulation in question, and we proceed on the assumption that such review by HUD was authorized by the Act, and that the present litigation involves only the interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Relocation Act. “Person” is defined in the Act to include “any individual, partnership, corporation, or association.” 42 U. S. C. § 4601(5). The term “business” includes “any lawful activity, excepting a farm operation, conducted primarily ...(B) for the sale of services to the public . . . .” 42 U. S. C. §4601(7). See also, Robert C. Herd & Co. v. Krawill Machinery Corp., 359 U. S. 297, 304-305 (1959); Texas & Pacific R. Co. v. Abilene Cotton Oil Co., 204 U. S. 426, 437 (1907); Shaw v. Railroad Co., 101 U. S. 557, 565 (1880). See 42 U. S. C. §4621 (statement of purpose); S. Rep. No. 91-488, pp. 1-8 (1969); H. R. Rep. No. 91-1656, pp. 1-3 (1970). See S. Rep. No. 91-488, supra, at 4, 6-7, 9; H. R. Rep. No. 91-1656, supra, at 3 The same sources also indicate reliance on § 114 of the Housing Act of 1949, as amended by the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, Pub. L. 90-448, 82 Stat. 526. Section 114 made no mention of utility relocation costs, and HUD regulations promulgated under the Act specifically state that utilities have no right to reimbursement for expenses incurred when relocating to accommodate an urban renewal project. If, however, state law requires that such compensation be paid to the utility by the state or local agency involved in the project, then the amount paid is considered a legitimate project expenditure to which HUD will contribute its pro rata share. See HUD Urban Renewal Handbook, RHA 7209.1, ch. 2, pp. 4-5 (1969). Section 114 was repealed by § 220(a)(5) of the Relocation Act, and HUD regulations have been extensively revised to reflect the new law. The regulation governing utility relocation costs, however, remains unchanged. Compare § 501 of the 1968 Highway Act (“to insure that a few individuals do not suffer disproportionate injuries as a result of programs designed for the benefit of the public as a whole”) with § 201 of the Relocation Act, 42 U. S. C. § 4621 (“to establish a uniform policy for the fair and equitable treatment of persons displaced as a result of Federal and federally assisted programs in order that such persons shall not suffer disproportionate injuries as a result of programs designed for the benefit of the public as a whole”). Compare § 511(1) of the 1968 Highway Act (“The term ‘person’ means . . . any individual, partnership, corporation, or association which is the owner of a business . . .”) with § 101(5) of the Relocation Act, 42 U. S. C. § 4601(5), set out in n. 6, supra. Compare § 511(4) of the 1968 Highway Act (“The term ‘business’ means any lawful activity conducted primarily . . . (B) for the sale of services to the public . . .”) with § 101(7) of the Relocation Act, 42 U. S. C. § 4601(7), set out in n. 6, supra. Compare § 511(3) of the 1968 Highway Act (“any person who moves from real property ... as a result of the acquisition or reasonable expectation of acquisition of such real property, which is subsequently acquired, in whole or in part, for a Federal-aid highway . . .”) with § 101(6) of the Relocation Act, 42 U. S. C. § 4601(6), set out in n. 4, supra. Compare §505(a) of the 1968 Highway Act (“actual reasonable expenses in moving himself, his family, his business, or his farm operation, including personal property”) with § 202(a)(1) of the Relocation Act, 42 U. S. C. § 4622(a)(1) (“actual reasonable expenses in moving himself, his family, business, farm operation, or other personal property”). Public Utility Relocation Incident to Highway Improvement, H. R. Doc. No. 127, 84th Cong., 1st Sess. (1955). “During 1956 and 1957, legislation which would provide for payment by the State of the cost of relocating public-utility facilities was considered by the legislative assemblies in 40 States. Such legislation was passed in 22 States, but was vetoed in 6 States, so it became law in 16 States. Under these 16 State laws only 1 State will pay the cost of relocating utility facilities on all State-maintained highways, 5 relate to all Federal-aid projects, and 10 relate to the projects on the Interstate System only, where the Federal share of the cost is at least 90 percent.” S. Rep. No. 1407, 85th Cong., 2d Sess., 28 (1958). See also S. Rep. No. 91-488, pp. 4, 6, 9 (1969); H. R. Rep. No. 91-1656, pp. 2-3 (1970); 115 Cong. Rec. 31534 (1969) (remarks of Sen. Mundt); id,., at 31534-31535 (remarks of Sen. Tydings); 116 Cong. Rec. 40167 (1970) (remarks of Rep. Edmondson); id., at 40168 (remarks of Rep. Kluczynski); id., at 40170 (remarks of Rep. Mink). See Uniform Relocation Assistance and Land Acquisition Policies Act of 1969: Hearings on S. 1 before the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. (1969); Uniform Relocation Assistance and Land Acquisition Policies-1970: Hearings on H. R. 14898, H. R. 14899, S. 1, and related bills before the House Committee on Public Works, 91st Cong., 1st and 2d Sess. (1969-1970). See, e.g., 115 Cong. Rec. 31533-31535 (1969); 116 Cong. Rec. 40163-40172, 42132-42140 (1970). S. Rep. No. 91-488 (1969); H. R. Rep. No. 91-1656 (1970). Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Whittaker delivered the opinion of the Court. The question for decision in this cáse is whether “Employee Committees” established and supported by respondents at each of their several plants for the stated purposes of meeting regularly with management to consider and discuss problems of mutual interest, including grievances, and of handling “grievances at nonunion plants and departments,” are, in the light of their declared purposes and actual practices, “labor organizations” within the meaning of §2(5) of the National Labor Relations Act. Respondents are affiliated corporations under -the same general management and maintain their principal office at Pampa, Texas. They are, and for many years have been, engaged in operating a number of plants, principally. in Texas and Louisiana, primarily for the purposes of manufacturing and selling carbon black and oil field equipment. Pursuant to a suggestion of the War Production Board in 1943, respondents decided to establish an Employee Committee at each of their plants. To that end, respondents prepared, in collaboration with employee representatives from their several plants, a set of bylaws, stating the purposes, duties and functions of the proposed Employee Committees, for transmittal to and adoption by the employees in establishing such Committees. The bylaws were adopted by a majority of employees at each, plant and by respondents, and, thus, the Employee Committees were established. Those bylaws, and certain related company rules, were later published by respondents in a company manual called “The Guide,” and are still in effect. In essence, the bylaws state: that the purpose of the Committees is to provide a procedure for considering employees’ ideas and problems of mutual interest to employees and management; that-each plant Committee shall consist», of a stated number of employees (ranging from 2 to 3) whose terms shall be one year, and that retiring members, with the help of plant clerks, will conduct the nomination and election of their successors ; that each plant Committee shall meet with the plant management at regular, monthly meetings and at all special meetings called by management, shall assist the plant management in solving problems of mutual interést, and that'time so spent will be. considered time worked; and that “It shall be the Committee’s responsibility to: ... Handle grievances at nonunion plants and departments according to procedure set up for these, plants and departments.” In November 1954, International Chemical Workers Union, AFL-CIO, filed with the National Labor Relations Board, and later several times amended, an unfair labor practice charge against respondents, alleging, in part, that respondents-were unlawfully dominating, filterfering with and supporting labor organizations, called Employee Committees, at their several plants. Thereafter the Board, in Apiril 1956, issued a complaint against respondents under § 10 (b) of the Act (29 U. S. C. § 160 (b)) alleging, inter alia, that the Employee Committees were labor organizations within the meaning of §2 (5^ (see note 1), and that respondents, since May 1954, had dominated, interfered with, and supported the Committees in violation of § 8 (a) (2) of the Act. After a hearing, the trial examiner issued-his intermediate.report containing detailed findings of fact. The relevant findings, mainly based on undisputed evidence, may be summarized as follows: The Committees’ bylaws were prepared and adopted in the manner, and contáin the provisions, above stated. During the period here involved (from May 1954 to the date of the hearing before the Board in June 1956), the Employee Committees, in addition to considering and discussing with respondents’ plant officials problems of the nature covered by the bylaws, made and discussed proposals and requests respecting many other aspects of the employee relationship, including seniority, job classifications, job bidding, makeup time, overtime records, time cards, a merit system, wage corrections, working schedules, holidays, vacations, sick leave, and improvement of working facilities and conditions. Respondents’ plant officials participated in those discussions and in some instances granted the Committees’ .requests. Although not provided for in the bylaws, a “Central Committee,” consisting of the chairmen of the several plant Committees, met annually with respondents’ Director of Industrial Relations in Pampa, Texas, where, during the 1955 and 1956 meetings, the Central Committee made proposals and requests with respect to many matters covering nearly the whole scope of the employment relationship. The Director of Industrial Relations discussed those proposals.and requests, their feasibility and economic consequences from respondents’ point of view, and sought to reach some solution. In some instances he expressed approval of requests or promised to see what could be done toward meeting them, in other instances he suggested that the matter be taken up with local management, and in still other instances he rejected the proposals and requests and explained his reasons for doing so. The trial examiner also found that the Employee Committees have no membership requirements, collect no dues and havg no funds; that plant clerks assist the Committees in conducting their elections and do all of their clerical work; and that respondents pay all of the necessary expenses of the Committees. None of the Committees has ever attempted to negotiate a collective bargaining contract with respondents. From time to time the- Board has certified independent labor organizations as the exclusive bargaining agents for certain bargaining units of employees in approximately one-third of respondents’ plants, and, as such agents for those bargaining imite, the respective certified labor organizations have entered into collective bargaining contracts with respondents which, as they máy have been amended, are still in effect. Since the respective dates of those collective bargaining contracts the certified labor organizations and the Employee Committees have coexisted in those plants, but the functions of those Employee Committees have generally been reduced to plant efficiency, production promotion and the handling of grievances for employees who are not included in the bargaining units. o Upon these findings the trial examiner concluded in his intermediate report that the Employee Committees and the Central Committee are labor organizations within the meaning of § 2 (5), and that during the period here involved respondents dominated, interfered with, and supported those labor organizations in violation of § 8 (a) (2) (see note 4). He therefore recommended that respondents be ordered to cease such condúct, and to withdraw all recognition from, and completely disestablish, the Committees “as the representative of any of [their] employees for the purpose of dealing with Respondents concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work.” The Board adopted the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the.trial examiner and entered its order accordingly. 117 N. L. R. B. 1633. Respondents then petitioned the Court of Appeals to review and vacate the Board’s findings and order, and the Board’s answer sought enforcement of its order. The Court of Appeals denied enforcement of ’the Board’s order and set it aside. 256 F. 2d 281. It found that respondents dominated and supported the Committees but held that they were not “labor organizations” within the meaning of § 2 (5) (see note 1) because it thought (a) that the term “dealing with,” as used in that section, means “bargaining with,” ánd that these Committees “avoid[ed] the usual concept of collective bargaining,” and (b) that the provisions and legislative history of the 1947 amendment of § 9 (a) of the Act show that Congress, in effect, excluded such employee committees from the definition of “labor organization” contained in § 2 (5). 256 F. 2d, at 285-289. Because of an asserted conflict of that decision with the decisions of other Courts of Appeals, and of the importance of the matter to the proper administration of the National Labor Relations Act, we granted certiorari. 358 U. S. 863. We turn first to the Court of Appeals’ holding that an employee committee which does not “bargain with” employers in “the usual concept of collective bargaining” does not engage in “dealing with” employers, and is therefore not. a “labor organization” within the meaning of § 2 (5). Our study of the matter has convinced us that there is nothing in the plain words of § 2 (5), initsTegislative history, or in the decisions construing it, that supports that conclusion. Section 2 (5) includes in its definition of “labor organization” any, “employee representation committee or plan . . . which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work.” (Emphasis added.) Certainly nothing in that section indicates that the broad term “dealing with” is to be read as synonymous with the more limited term “bargaining with.” See, e. g., Labor Board v. Jas. H. Matthews & Co., 156 F. 2d 706, 708, and Indiana Metal Products Corp. v. Labor Board, 202 F. 2d 613, 620-621. The legislative history of § 2 (5) strongly confirms that Congress did not understand or intend those terms to be synonymous. When the original print of the 1935 Wagner bill (S. 1958) was being Considered in the Senate, the then Secretary of Labor proposed an amendment to § 2 (5) which, if adopted, would have given that section the meaning now ascribed to it by the Court of Appeals. The proposal was that the term “bargaining collectively” be substituted for the term “dealing.” But the proposal was not adopted. It is therefore quite clear that Congress, by adopting the broad term “dealing” and rejecting the more limited term “bargaining collectively,” did not intend that the broad term “dealing with” should be limited to and mean only “bargaining with” as held by the Court of Appeals. Construing § 2 (5) of the original Wagner Act, the Courts of Appeals uniformly held that employee committees or plans, under whatever name called, that functioned similarly to those here, were “labor organizations” as defined in that statute. With full knowledge of the terms of § 2 (5) of the original Wagner Act, and of its legislative history and judicial interpretation, Congress in the Taft-Hartley Act re-enacted the section without change. Since that time, as before, the several Courts of Appeals have uniformly held that employee committees or plans, functioning similarly to those here, were “labor organizations” within the definition of § 2 (5). The Court of Appeals was therefore in error in holding that company-dominated Employee Committees, which exist for the purpose, in part at least, “of dealing with employers concerning grievances ... or conditions of work,” are not “labor organizations,” within the meaning of § 2 (5), simply because' they do not “bargain with” employers in “the usual concept of collective bargaining.” (Emphasis added.) Consideration of the declared purposes and actual functions of these Committees shows that they existed for the purpose, in part at least, “of dealing with, employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of- employment, or conditions of work.” It cannot be, apd is not, disputed that, by "the terms of the bylaws, which were accepted both by the employees and by respondents, the Employee Committees undertook the “responsibility to,” and did, “[h]andle grievances [with respondents on behalf of employees] at nonunion plants and departments according to grievance procedure set up [by respondents] for these plants and departments” (see note 3). It is therefore as plain as words can express that these Committees existed, at least in part, for the purpose “of dealing with employers concerning grievances . . . .” This alone brings these Committees squarely within the statutory definition of “labor organizations.” Moreover, although none of the Employee Committees attempted to negotiate any formal bargaining contract with respondents, the Employee Committees, at the regu_lar Employee Committee-Management meetings held during the period here involved, made proposals and requests respecting such matters as seniority, job classification, job bidding, working schedules, holidays, vacations, sick leave, a merit system, wage corrections, and improvement of working facilities and conditions. Respondents’ plant officials participated in the discussion of these matters and frequently granted the Committees’ requests (see note 5). Also, .during the 1955 and 1956 meetings of the Central Committee with respondents’ Director of Industrial Relations in Pampa, Texas, the Central Committee made proposals and requests with respect to matters covering' nearly the whole scope, of the employment relationship and which are commonly considered and dealt with in collective bargaining (see note 6). The Director of Industrial Relations discussed those proposals and requests with the Central Committee, and sought to reach some solution. He granted some of them and rejected others, explaining his reasons for doing so. Respondents say that these activities by the Committees and respondents’ officials do not mean that the Committees were “dealing with” respondents in respect to those matters, because, they argue, the proposals and requests amounted only to recommendations and that final decision remained with respondents. But this is true of all such “dealing,” whether with an independent or a company-dominated “labor organization.” The principal distinction lies in the unfettered power of the former to insist upon its requests. Labor Board v. Jas. H. Matthews & Co., 156 F. 2d 706, 708. Whether those proposals and requests by the Committees, and respondents’ consideration of and action upon them, do or do not constitute “the usual concept of collective bargaining” (256 F. 2d, at 285), we think, that those activities establish that the Committees were “dealing with” respondents, with respect to those subjects, within the meaning of § 2 (5). We therefore conclude that under' the declared purposes and actual practices of these Committees they are labor organizations unless, as the Court of Appeals held and as respondents contend, Congress by the 1947 amendment of § 9 (a), in legal effect, eliminated such committees from the term “labor organization” as defined in §2(5) and used in §8 (a) (2) (see note 4). We now turn to that contention. In 1947 the House passed H. R. 3020, known as the “Hartley Bill,” which, among other things, proposed a new section, to be designated 8 (d)(3), providing: “(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the following shall not constitute or be evidence of- an unfair labor practice under any of the provisions of this Act: “(3) Forming or maintaining by an employer of a committee of employees and discussing with it matters of mutual interest, including grievances, wages, hours of employment, and other working conditions, . if the Board has not certified or the employer has not recognized a representative as their representative under section 9.” The Senate amended H. R. 3020 by substituting its own bill, S. 1126, known as the “Taft Bill.” The Senate bill contained no provision corresponding to the new § 8 (d) (3) proposed by the House, but it did propose an amendment to § 9 (a) of the original Wagner Act (49 Stat. 453) by adding to the proviso of that section which read: “Provided, That any individual employee or a group of employees shall have the right at any time to present grievances to their employer” the words “and to have such grievances adjusted, without the intervention of the bargaining representative, as long as the adjustment is not inconsistent with the terms of a collective-bargaining contract or agreement then in effect: Provided further, That the bargaining representative has been given opportunity to be present at such adjustment.” . Thereupon the Senate requested a conference. The conferees later reported a new measure, taken partly from the House bill and partly from the Senate bill and containing some, entirely new provisions. That bill as finally agreed upon by the conferees did not contain the House’s proposed new ■§ 8 (d) (3) or any similar language, but it did contain the .Senate’s proposed amendment to §9 (a). In reporting to the House, the House conferees stated with respect to the elimination of its proposed new §8 (d)(3) that: “Section 8 (d) (3) . . . in the House bill provided that nothing in the act was to be construed as prohibiting an employer from forming'or maintaining a committee of employees and discussing with it matters of mutual interest, if the employees did not have a bargaining representative. This provision is omitted from the conference agreement since the act by its terms permits individual employees and groups of employees to meet with the employer and section 9 (a) of the conference agreement permits employers to answer their grievances.” The bill so agreed upon by the conferees was passed by both Houses and eventually became the law-. Notwithstanding the fact that Congress rejected the House proposal of a new section, to be designated. § 8 (d)(3), which, if adopted, would have permitted an employer to form or maintain a committee of employees and to discuss with it matters of mutual interest, including grievances, wages, hours of employment, and other working conditions, if there was no employee representative, respondents contend that Congress intended to accomplish the same purposes by its amendment to § 9 (a), and that, in consequence, an employer, whose employees have no bargaining representative, may now legally form or maintain a committee of employees and discuss with it the matters referred to in the proposed § 8 (d) (3) advocated by the House. This argument treats the amendment to § 9 (a) as though Congress, had adopted, rather than rejected as-it did, the proposed §8 (d)(3) advocated by the House. And it overlooks thé facts that the Héuse Conference Report itself declared that “The conference agreement does not make any change” in the definition of “labor organization,” and that, as pointed out by Senator Taft, the conferees specifically rejected all attempts to “amend . . . the provisions in subsection 8’ (2) [of the original Wagner Act] relating to company-dominated unions” and had left its prohibitions “unchanged.” Thet&mendment to is 9 (a) does not say that an employer may form or maintain an employee committee for the purpose of “dealing with” the employer, on behalf of employees, concerning grievances. On the contrary the amendment to § 9 (a) simply provides, in substance, that' any individual employee or group of employees shall have the right personally to present their own grievances to their employer, and to have such grievances adjusted, without the intervention of any bargaining representative, as long as the adjustment is not inconsistent with the terms of any collective bargaining contract then in effect, provided that the bargaining representative, if there is one, has been given an opportunity to be present. It is thus evident that there is nothing in the amendment of § 9 (a) that authorizes an employer to engage in “dealing with” an employer-dominated “labor organization” as the representative bf his employees concerning their grievances. We therefore conclude that there is nothing in the amendment of § 9 (a), or in its legislative history, to indicate that Congress thereby eliminated or intended to eliminate such employee committees from the term “labor organization” as defined in § 2 (5) and used in § 8 (a) (2). Respondents argue that to hold these employee committees to be labor organizations would prevent employers and employees from discussing matters of mutual interest concerning the employment relationship, and would thus abridge freedom of speech in violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. But the Board’s order does not impose any such bar; it:merely precludes the employers from dominating, interfering with or supporting such employee committees which Congress has defined to be labor organizations. >The judgment of the Court of Appeals.is reversed arid the cause is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. Reversed and remanded. Section 2 (.5) of the National Labor Relations Act, 61 Stat. 138, 29 U. S. C. § 152 (5) provides: “The term ‘labor organization’ means any organization of any kind, or any agency or employee representation committee or plan, in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions bf work.” Examples of the problems of mutual interest to employees and management to be considered at the Committee-Management meetings were stated in the bylaws to be, but were not limited to, safety; increased efficiency and production; conservation of supplies, materials, and equipment; encouragement of ingenuity and initiative; and grievances at nonunion plants or departments. As published in The Guide the established grievance procedure applicable to nonunion plants and departments provides, in summary, that in handling an employee’s grievance it shall be the Committee’s duty to consult with the Foreman, the Assistant Plant Superintendent and the Plant Superintendent," and consider all the facts. .If, after having -done so, the Committee believes that the employee has a just grievance it shall prepare in writing, a formal statement of its supporting reasons and presfent it to the Plant Superintendent, who shall send copies of it, attaching his own report and recommendations, to the. District'Superintendent, the department head and Industrial Relations Department of the company. Within five days after receipt of such grievance the District Superintendent or the department head, or both, shall meet with the Committee and plant management and discuss the problem and announce their decision. If the Committee still feels that the grievance has not been, fairly settled it may appeal to the General Managér who, within five days, shall meet- with the Committee and plant management and announce his decision. • Section 8 (a) (2) of the Act, 61 Stat. 140, 29 U. S. C. § 158 (a) (2), provides: “(a) It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer— “ (2) to dominate or interfere with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribute financial or other support to it; Provided, That subject to rules and regulations made and published by' the Board pursuant to section 6, an employer shall not be prohibited, from permitting employees to confer with him during working hours without loss of time or pay. . . .” (Emphasis added.) Among other things, respondents’ plant officials agreed to Employee Committee requests to change from á company to a plant seniority system in several plants where employees desired the change; to provide longer notice periods concerning jobs up for bid; to permit employees to report early and leave early on week ends; to establish an annual basis for allocating overtime; and to install vents in the roofs of warehouses. The subjects discussed by the Central Committee with respondents’ Director of Industrial Relations at those meetings included Committee proposals and requests for: a vacation of 3 weeks for employees with 10 years’ service; annual sick leave; a disability benefit plan; amendments-in the practice of working on holidays; the establishment and financing by respondents of an employee educational program; the granting of leaves of absence to employees wishing to attend college; the furnishing to certain employees of work clothing; a change in policy to permit shiftmen to make up work days lost; the creation of more job classifications, with resulting higher wages; more opportunities for employees to transfer from one plant or department?"to another; payment of wages to employees while attending National Guard camps; making the working day of shift-workers the same as that of the gangs with which they work; and a general wage increase. “The term ‘labor organization’ is phrased very broadly in order that the independence of action guaranteed by section 7 . . . and protected by section 8 shall extend to all- organizations of employees that deal with employers in regard to ‘grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work.’ This definition includes employee-representation committees and plans in order that the employers’ activities in connection therewith shall be equally subject to the application of section 8.” S. Rep. No. 573, 74th Cong., 1st Sess. 7, reprinted in 2 Legislative History of the National Labor Relations Act, 1935, p. 2306. (The latter publication .will hereafter be cited, for example, as 2 Leg. Hist. (1935) 2306.) Hearings before Senate Committee on Education and Labor on S. 1958, 74th Cong., 1st Sess. 66-67, reprinted in 1 Leg. Hist. (1935) 1442-1443. S. 1958 (2d print), 74th Cong., 1st Sess. 4, reprinted in 2 Leg. Hist. (1935) 2287. See comparison of S. 2926 (73d Cong.) and S. 1958 (74th Cong.), pp. 1, 22-23, reprinted in 1 Leg. Hist. (1935) 1320, 1347. Labor Board v. American Furnace Co., 158 F. 2d 376, 378 (C. A. 7th Cir.); Labor Board v. Jas. H. Matthews & Co., 156 F. 2d 706, 707-708 (C. A. 3d Cir.); Labor Board v. C. Nelson Mfg. Co., 120 F. 2d 444, 445 (C. A. 8th Cir.). Compare Labor Board v. Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, 303 U. S. 261, 268-269; Labor Board v. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 308 U. S. 241, 246-248. 49 Stat. 450. 61 Stat. 138, 29 U. S. C. § 152 (5). Pacemaker Corp. v. Labor Board, 260 F. 2d 880, 883 (C. A. 7th Cir.) (where the Seventh Circuit expréssly disagreed with the ruling below); Labor Board v. Standard Coil Products Co., 224 F. 2d 465, 467-468 (C. A. 1st Cir.); Labor Board v. Stow Mfg. Co., 217 F. 2d 900, 903-904 (C. A. 2d Cir.); Labor Board v. Sharples Chemicals, Inc., 209 F. 2d 645, 651-652 (C. A. 6th Cir.); Indiana Metal Products Corp. v. Labor Board, 202 F. 2d 613, 621 (C. A. 7th Cir.); Harrison Sheet Steel Co. v. Labor Board, 194 F. 2d 407, 410 (C. A. 7th Cir.); Labor Board v. General Shoe Corp., 192 F. 2d 504, 507 (C. A. 6th Cir.). But see Labor Board v. Associated Machines, 219 F. 2d 433 (C. A. 6th Cir.). In Labor Board v. Jas. H. Matthews & Co., the court said: “Respondents say 'that this Junior Board did not deal, it only recommended and that final decision was with management. Final decision is always with management, although when a claim is made by a well organized, good sized union, management' is doubtless more strongly influenced in its decision than it would be by a recommendation of a board which it, itself, has selected and which has been provided with no fighting arms.” 156 F. 2d, at 708. H. R. 3020, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 26, reprinted in 1 Leg. Hist. (1947) 183. S. 1126, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., reprinted in 1 Leg. Hist. (1947) 99. H. R. 3020, as amended by the Senate, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 86, reprinted in 1 Leg. Hist. (1947) 244; now 61 Stat. 143, 29 U. S. C. § 159 (a). 93 Cong. Rec. 5298, reprinted in 2 Leg. Hist. (1947) 1522. H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., reprinted in 1 Leg. Hist. (1947) 505. H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 45, reprinted in 1 Leg. Hist. (1947) 549. 61 Stat. 136 et seq., 29 U. S. C. § 151 et seq. H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. 33, 1 Leg. Hist. (1947) 537. 93 Cong. Rec. 6600, reprinted in 2 Leg. Hist. (1947) 1539. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
G
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court. The United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (Leadership Act), 117 Stat. 711, as amended, 22 U.S.C. § 7601 et seq., outlined a comprehensive strategy to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS around the world. As part of that strategy, Congress authorized the appropriation of billions of dollars to fund efforts by nongovernmental organizations to assist in the fight. The Act imposes two related conditions on that funding: First, no funds made available by the Act "may be used to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking." § 7631(e). And second, no funds may be used by an organization "that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking." § 7631(f). This case concerns the second of these conditions, referred to as the Policy Requirement. The question is whether that funding condition violates a recipient's First Amendment rights. I Congress passed the Leadership Act in 2003 after finding that HIV/AIDS had "assumed pandemic proportions, spreading from the most severely affected regions, sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, to all corners of the world, and leaving an unprecedented path of death and devastation." 22 U.S.C. § 7601(1). According to congressional findings, more than 65 million people had been infected by HIV and more than 25 million had lost their lives, making HIV/AIDS the fourth highest cause of death worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, AIDS had claimed the lives of more than 19 million individuals and was projected to kill a full quarter of the population of that area over the next decade. The disease not only directly endangered those infected, but also increased the potential for social and political instability and economic devastation, posing a security issue for the entire international community. § 7601(2) - (10). In the Leadership Act, Congress directed the President to establish a "comprehensive, integrated" strategy to combat HIV/AIDS around the world. § 7611(a). The Act sets out 29 different objectives the President's strategy should seek to fulfill, reflecting a multitude of approaches to the problem. The strategy must include, among other things, plans to increase the availability of treatment for infected individuals, prevent new infections, support the care of those affected by the disease, promote training for physicians and other health care workers, and accelerate research on HIV/AIDS prevention methods, all while providing a framework for cooperation with international organizations and partner countries to further the goals of the program. §§ 7611(a)(1)-(29). The Act "make[s] the reduction of HIV/AIDS behavioral risks a priority of all prevention efforts." § 7611(a)(12); see also § 7601(15) ("Successful strategies to stem the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic will require... measures to address the social and behavioral causes of the problem"). The Act's approach to reducing behavioral risks is multifaceted. The President's strategy for addressing such risks must, for example, promote abstinence, encourage monogamy, increase the availability of condoms, promote voluntary counseling and treatment for drug users, and, as relevant here, "educat[e] men and boys about the risks of procuring sex commercially" as well as "promote alternative livelihoods, safety, and social reintegration strategies for commercial sex workers." § 7611(a)(12). Congress found that the "sex industry, the trafficking of individuals into such industry, and sexual violence" were factors in the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and determined that "it should be the policy of the United States to eradicate" prostitution and "other sexual victimization." § 7601(23). The United States has enlisted the assistance of nongovernmental organizations to help achieve the many goals of the program. Such organizations "with experience in health care and HIV/AIDS counseling," Congress found, "have proven effective in combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic and can be a resource in... provid[ing] treatment and care for individuals infected with HIV/AIDS." § 7601(18). Since 2003, Congress has authorized the appropriation of billions of dollars for funding these organizations' fight against HIV/AIDS around the world. § 2151b-2(c); § 7671. Those funds, however, come with two conditions: First, no funds made available to carry out the Leadership Act "may be used to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking." § 7631(e). Second, no funds made available may "provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking, except... to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Health Organization, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative or to any United Nations agency." § 7631(f). It is this second condition-the Policy Requirement-that is at issue here. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are the federal agencies primarily responsible for overseeing implementation of the Leadership Act. To enforce the Policy Requirement, the agencies have directed that the recipient of any funding under the Act agree in the award document that it is opposed to "prostitution and sex trafficking because of the psychological and physical risks they pose for women, men, and children." 45 CFR § 89.1(b) (2012) ; USAID, Acquisition & Assistance Policy Directive 12-04, p. 6 (AAPD 12-04). II Respondents are a group of domestic organizations engaged in combating HIV/AIDS overseas. In addition to substantial private funding, they receive billions annually in financial assistance from the United States, including under the Leadership Act. Their work includes programs aimed at limiting injection drug use in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission in Kenya, and promoting safer sex practices in India. Respondents fear that adopting a policy explicitly opposing prostitution may alienate certain host governments, and may diminish the effectiveness of some of their programs by making it more difficult to work with prostitutes in the fight against HIV/AIDS. They are also concerned that the Policy Requirement may require them to censor their privately funded discussions in publications, at conferences, and in other forums about how best to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among prostitutes. In 2005, respondents Alliance for Open Society International and Pathfinder International commenced this litigation, seeking a declaratory judgment that the Government's implementation of the Policy Requirement violated their First Amendment rights. Respondents sought a preliminary injunction barring the Government from cutting off their funding under the Act for the duration of the litigation, from unilaterally terminating their cooperative agreements with the United States, or from otherwise taking action solely on the basis of respondents' own privately funded speech. The District Court granted such a preliminary injunction, and the Government appealed. While the appeal was pending, HHS and USAID issued guidelines on how recipients of Leadership Act funds could retain funding while working with affiliated organizations not bound by the Policy Requirement. The guidelines permit funding recipients to work with affiliated organizations that "engage [ ] in activities inconsistent with the recipient's opposition to the practices of prostitution and sex trafficking" as long as the recipients retain "objective integrity and independence from any affiliated organization." 45 CFR § 89.3 ; see also AAPD 12-04, at 6-7. Whether sufficient separation exists is determined by the totality of the circumstances, including "but not... limited to" (1) whether the organizations are legally separate; (2) whether they have separate personnel; (3) whether they keep separate accounting records; (4) the degree of separation in the organizations' facilities; and (5) the extent to which signs and other forms of identification distinguish the organizations. 45 CFR § 89.3(b) (1)-(5) ; see also AAPD 12-04, at 6-7. The Court of Appeals summarily remanded the case to the District Court to consider whether the preliminary injunction was still appropriate in light of the new guidelines. On remand, the District Court issued a new preliminary injunction along the same lines as the first, and the Government renewed its appeal. The Court of Appeals affirmed, concluding that respondents had demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their First Amendment challenge under this Court's "unconstitutional conditions" doctrine. 651 F.3d 218 (C.A.2 2011). Under this doctrine, the court reasoned, "the government may not place a condition on the receipt of a benefit or subsidy that infringes upon the recipient's constitutionally protected rights, even if the government has no obligation to offer the benefit in the first instance." Id., at 231 (citing Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 597, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972) ). And a condition that compels recipients "to espouse the government's position" on a subject of international debate could not be squared with the First Amendment. 651 F.3d, at 234. The court concluded that "the Policy Requirement, as implemented by the Agencies, falls well beyond what the Supreme Court... ha[s] upheld as permissible funding conditions." Ibid. Judge Straub dissented, expressing his view that the Policy Requirement was an "entirely rational exercise of Congress's powers pursuant to the Spending Clause." Id., at 240. We granted certiorari. 568 U.S. ----, 133 S.Ct. 928, 184 L.Ed.2d 719 (2013). III The Policy Requirement mandates that recipients of Leadership Act funds explicitly agree with the Government's policy to oppose prostitution and sex trafficking. It is, however, a basic First Amendment principle that "freedom of speech prohibits the government from telling people what they must say." Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc., 547 U.S. 47, 61, 126 S.Ct. 1297, 164 L.Ed.2d 156 (2006) (citing West Virginia State Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed. 1628 (1943), and Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705, 717, 97 S.Ct. 1428, 51 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977) ). "At the heart of the First Amendment lies the principle that each person should decide for himself or herself the ideas and beliefs deserving of expression, consideration, and adherence." Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC, 512 U.S. 622, 641, 114 S.Ct. 2445, 129 L.Ed.2d 497 (1994) ; see Knox v. Service Employees, 567 U.S. ----, ---- - ----, 132 S.Ct. 2277, 2288, 183 L.Ed.2d 281 (2012) ("The government may not... compel the endorsement of ideas that it approves."). Were it enacted as a direct regulation of speech, the Policy Requirement would plainly violate the First Amendment. The question is whether the Government may nonetheless impose that requirement as a condition on the receipt of federal funds. A The Spending Clause of the Federal Constitution grants Congress the power "[t]o lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States." Art. I, § 8, cl. 1. The Clause provides Congress broad discretion to tax and spend for the "general Welfare," including by funding particular state or private programs or activities. That power includes the authority to impose limits on the use of such funds to ensure they are used in the manner Congress intends. Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U.S. 173, 195, n. 4, 111 S.Ct. 1759, 114 L.Ed.2d 233 (1991) ("Congress' power to allocate funds for public purposes includes an ancillary power to ensure that those funds are properly applied to the prescribed use."). As a general matter, if a party objects to a condition on the receipt of federal funding, its recourse is to decline the funds. This remains true when the objection is that a condition may affect the recipient's exercise of its First Amendment rights. See, e.g., United States v. American Library Assn., Inc., 539 U.S. 194, 212, 123 S.Ct. 2297, 156 L.Ed.2d 221 (2003) (plurality opinion) (rejecting a claim by public libraries that conditioning funds for Internet access on the libraries' installing filtering software violated their First Amendment rights, explaining that "[t]o the extent that libraries wish to offer unfiltered access, they are free to do so without federal assistance"); Regan v. Taxation With Representation of Wash., 461 U.S. 540, 546, 103 S.Ct. 1997, 76 L.Ed.2d 129 (1983) (dismissing "the notion that First Amendment rights are somehow not fully realized unless they are subsidized by the State" (internal quotation marks omitted)). At the same time, however, we have held that the Government "'may not deny a benefit to a person on a basis that infringes his constitutionally protected... freedom of speech even if he has no entitlement to that benefit.' " Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, supra, at 59, 126 S.Ct. 1297 (quoting American Library Assn., supra, at 210, 123 S.Ct. 2297). In some cases, a funding condition can result in an unconstitutional burden on First Amendment rights. See Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, supra, at 59, 126 S.Ct. 1297 (the First Amendment supplies "a limit on Congress' ability to place conditions on the receipt of funds"). The dissent thinks that can only be true when the condition is not relevant to the objectives of the program (although it has its doubts about that), or when the condition is actually coercive, in the sense of an offer that cannot be refused. See post, at 2325 - 2326 (opinion of SCALIA, J.). Our precedents, however, are not so limited. In the present context, the relevant distinction that has emerged from our cases is between conditions that define the limits of the government spending program-those that specify the activities Congress wants to subsidize-and conditions that seek to leverage funding to regulate speech outside the contours of the program itself. The line is hardly clear, in part because the definition of a particular program can always be manipulated to subsume the challenged condition. We have held, however, that "Congress cannot recast a condition on funding as a mere definition of its program in every case, lest the First Amendment be reduced to a simple semantic exercise." Legal Services Corporation v. Velazquez, 531 U.S. 533, 547, 121 S.Ct. 1043, 149 L.Ed.2d 63 (2001). A comparison of two cases helps illustrate the distinction: In Regan v. Taxation With Representation of Washington, the Court upheld a requirement that nonprofit organizations seeking tax-exempt status under 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3) not engage in substantial efforts to influence legislation. The tax-exempt status, we explained, "ha[d] much the same effect as a cash grant to the organization." 461 U.S., at 544, 103 S.Ct. 1997. And by limiting § 501(c)(3) status to organizations that did not attempt to influence legislation, Congress had merely "chose[n] not to subsidize lobbying." Ibid. In rejecting the nonprofit's First Amendment claim, the Court highlighted-in the text of its opinion, but see post, at 2326 -the fact that the condition did not prohibit that organization from lobbying Congress altogether. By returning to a "dual structure" it had used in the past-separately incorporating as a § 501(c)(3) organization and § 501(c)(4) organization-the nonprofit could continue to claim § 501(c)(3) status for its nonlobbying activities, while attempting to influence legislation in its § 501(c)(4) capacity with separate funds. Ibid. Maintaining such a structure, the Court noted, was not "unduly burdensome." Id., at 545, n. 6, 103 S.Ct. 1997. The condition thus did not deny the organization a government benefit "on account of its intention to lobby." Id., at 545, 103 S.Ct. 1997. In FCC v. League of Women Voters of California, by contrast, the Court struck down a condition on federal financial assistance to noncommercial broadcast television and radio stations that prohibited all editorializing, including with private funds. 468 U.S. 364, 399-401, 104 S.Ct. 3106, 82 L.Ed.2d 278 (1984). Even a station receiving only one percent of its overall budget from the Federal Government, the Court explained, was "barred absolutely from all editorializing." Id., at 400, 104 S.Ct. 3106. Unlike the situation in Regan, the law provided no way for a station to limit its use of federal funds to noneditorializing activities, while using private funds "to make known its views on matters of public importance." 468 U.S., at 400, 104 S.Ct. 3106. The prohibition thus went beyond ensuring that federal funds not be used to subsidize "public broadcasting station editorials," and instead leveraged the federal funding to regulate the stations' speech outside the scope of the program. Id., at 399, 104 S.Ct. 3106 (internal quotation marks omitted). Our decision in Rust v. Sullivan elaborated on the approach reflected in Regan and League of Women Voters. In Rust, we considered Title X of the Public Health Service Act, a Spending Clause program that issued grants to nonprofit health-care organizations "to assist in the establishment and operation of voluntary family planning projects [to] offer a broad range of acceptable and effective family planning methods and services." 500 U.S., at 178, 111 S.Ct. 1759 (internal quotation marks omitted). The organizations received funds from a variety of sources other than the Federal Government for a variety of purposes. The Act, however, prohibited the Title X federal funds from being "used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning." Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted). To enforce this provision, HHS regulations barred Title X projects from advocating abortion as a method of family planning, and required grantees to ensure that their Title X projects were " 'physically and financially separate' " from their other projects that engaged in the prohibited activities. Id., at 180-181, 111 S.Ct. 1759 (quoting 42 CFR § 59.9 (1989) ). A group of Title X funding recipients brought suit, claiming the regulations imposed an unconstitutional condition on their First Amendment rights. We rejected their claim. We explained that Congress can, without offending the Constitution, selectively fund certain programs to address an issue of public concern, without funding alternative ways of addressing the same problem. In Title X, Congress had defined the federal program to encourage only particular family planning methods. The challenged regulations were simply "designed to ensure that the limits of the federal program are observed," and "that public funds [are] spent for the purposes for which they were authorized." Rust, 500 U.S., at 193, 196, 111 S.Ct. 1759. In making this determination, the Court stressed that "Title X expressly distinguishes between a Title X grantee and a Title X project." Id., at 196, 111 S.Ct. 1759. The regulations governed only the scope of the grantee's Title X projects, leaving it "unfettered in its other activities." Ibid. "The Title X grantee can continue to... engage in abortion advocacy; it simply is required to conduct those activities through programs that are separate and independent from the project that receives Title X funds." Ibid. Because the regulations did not "prohibit[ ] the recipient from engaging in the protected conduct outside the scope of the federally funded program," they did not run afoul of the First Amendment. Id., at 197, 111 S.Ct. 1759. B As noted, the distinction drawn in these cases-between conditions that define the federal program and those that reach outside it-is not always self-evident. As Justice Cardozo put it in a related context, "Definition more precise must abide the wisdom of the future." Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548, 591, 57 S.Ct. 883, 81 L.Ed. 1279 (1937). Here, however, we are confident that the Policy Requirement falls on the unconstitutional side of the line. To begin, it is important to recall that the Leadership Act has two conditions relevant here. The first-unchallenged in this litigation-prohibits Leadership Act funds from being used "to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking." 22 U.S.C. § 7631 (e). The Government concedes that § 7631(e) by itself ensures that federal funds will not be used for the prohibited purposes. Brief for Petitioners 26-27. The Policy Requirement therefore must be doing something more-and it is. The dissent views the Requirement as simply a selection criterion by which the Government identifies organizations "who believe in its ideas to carry them to fruition." Post, at 2332. As an initial matter, whatever purpose the Policy Requirement serves in selecting funding recipients, its effects go beyond selection. The Policy Requirement is an ongoing condition on recipients' speech and activities, a ground for terminating a grant after selection is complete. See AAPD 12-04, at 12. In any event, as the Government acknowledges, it is not simply seeking organizations that oppose prostitution. Reply Brief 5. Rather, it explains, "Congress has expressed its purpose 'to eradicate' prostitution and sex trafficking, 22 U.S.C. § 7601(23), and it wants recipients to adopt a similar stance." Brief for Petitioners 32 (emphasis added). This case is not about the Government's ability to enlist the assistance of those with whom it already agrees. It is about compelling a grant recipient to adopt a particular belief as a condition of funding. By demanding that funding recipients adopt-as their own-the Government's view on an issue of public concern, the condition by its very nature affects "protected conduct outside the scope of the federally funded program." Rust, 500 U.S., at 197, 111 S.Ct. 1759. A recipient cannot avow the belief dictated by the Policy Requirement when spending Leadership Act funds, and then turn around and assert a contrary belief, or claim neutrality, when participating in activities on its own time and dime. By requiring recipients to profess a specific belief, the Policy Requirement goes beyond defining the limits of the federally funded program to defining the recipient. See ibid. ("our 'unconstitutional conditions' cases involve situations in which the Government has placed a condition on the recipient of the subsidy rather than on a particular program or service, thus effectively prohibiting the recipient from engaging in the protected conduct outside the scope of the federally funded program"). The Government contends that the affiliate guidelines, established while this litigation was pending, save the program. Under those guidelines, funding recipients are permitted to work with affiliated organizations that do not abide by the condition, as long as the recipients retain "objective integrity and independence" from the unfettered affiliates. 45 CFR § 89.3. The Government suggests the guidelines alleviate any unconstitutional burden on the respondents' First Amendment rights by allowing them to either: (1) accept Leadership Act funding and comply with Policy Requirement, but establish affiliates to communicate contrary views on prostitution; or (2) decline funding themselves (thus remaining free to express their own views or remain neutral), while creating affiliates whose sole purpose is to receive and administer Leadership Act funds, thereby "cabin[ing] the effects" of the Policy Requirement within the scope of the federal program. Brief for Petitioners 38-39, 44-49. Neither approach is sufficient. When we have noted the importance of affiliates in this context, it has been because they allow an organization bound by a funding condition to exercise its First Amendment rights outside the scope of the federal program. See Rust, supra, at 197-198, 111 S.Ct. 1759. Affiliates cannot serve that purpose when the condition is that a funding recipient espouse a specific belief as its own. If the affiliate is distinct from the recipient, the arrangement does not afford a means for the recipient to express its beliefs. If the affiliate is more clearly identified with the recipient, the recipient can express those beliefs only at the price of evident hypocrisy. The guidelines themselves make that clear. See 45 CFR § 89.3 (allowing funding recipients to work with affiliates whose conduct is "inconsistent with the recipient's opposition to the practices of prostitution and sex trafficking" (emphasis added)). The Government suggests that the Policy Requirement is necessary because, without it, the grant of federal funds could free a recipient's private funds "to be used to promote prostitution or sex trafficking." Brief for Petitioners 27 (citing Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, 561 U.S. 1, ---- - ----, 130 S.Ct. 2705, 2725-2726, 177 L.Ed.2d 355 (2010)). That argument assumes that federal funding will simply supplant private funding, rather than pay for new programs or expand existing ones. The Government offers no support for that assumption as a general matter, or any reason to believe it is true here. And if the Government's argument were correct, League of Women Voters would have come out differently, and much of the reasoning of Regan and Rust would have been beside the point. The Government cites but one case to support that argument, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project. That case concerned the quite different context of a ban on providing material support to terrorist organizations, where the record indicated that support for those organizations' nonviolent operations was funneled to support their violent activities. 561 U.S., at ----, 130 S.Ct., at 2725-2726. Pressing its argument further, the Government contends that "if organizations awarded federal funds to implement Leadership Act programs could at the same time promote or affirmatively condone prostitution or sex trafficking, whether using public or private funds, it would undermine the government's program and confuse its message opposing prostitution and sex trafficking." Brief for Petitioners 37 (emphasis added). But the Policy Requirement goes beyond preventing recipients from using private funds in a way that would undermine the federal program. It requires them to pledge allegiance to the Government's policy of eradicating prostitution. As to that, we cannot improve upon what Justice Jackson wrote for the Court 70 years ago: "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." Barnette, 319 U.S., at 642, 63 S.Ct. 1178. * * * The Policy Requirement compels as a condition of federal funding the affirmation of a belief that by its nature cannot be confined within the scope of the Government program. In so doing, it violates the First Amendment and cannot be sustained. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. It is so ordered. KAGAN, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. Justice SCALIA, with whom Justice THOMAS joins, dissenting. The Leadership Act provides that "any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking" may not receive funds appropriated under the Act. 22 U.S.C. § 7631(f). This Policy Requirement is nothing more than a means of selecting suitable agents to implement the Government's chosen strategy to eradicate HIV/AIDS. That is perfectly permissible under the Constitution. The First Amendment does not mandate a viewpoint-neutral government. Government must choose between rival ideas and adopt some as its own: competition over cartels, solar energy over coal, weapon development over disarmament, and so forth. Moreover, the government may enlist the assistance of those who believe in its ideas to carry them to fruition; and it need not enlist for that purpose those who oppose or do not support the ideas. That seems to me a matter of the most common common sense. For example: One of the purposes of America's foreign-aid programs is the fostering of good will towards this country. If the organization Hamas-reputed to have an efficient system for delivering welfare-were excluded from a program for the distribution of U.S. food assistance, no one could reasonably object. And that would remain true if Hamas were an organization of United States citizens entitled to the protection of the Constitution. So long as the unfunded organization remains free to engage in its activities (including anti-American propaganda) "without federal assistance," United States v. American Library Assn., Inc., 539 U.S. 194, 212, 123 S.Ct. 2297, 156 L.Ed.2d 221 (2003) (plurality), refusing to make use of its assistance for an enterprise to which it is opposed does not abridge its speech. And the same is true when the rejected organization is not affirmatively opposed to, but merely unsupportive of, the object of the federal program, which appears to be the case here. (Respondents do not promote prostitution, but neither do they wish to oppose it.) A federal program to encourage healthy eating habits need not be administered by the American Gourmet Society, which has nothing against healthy food but does not insist upon it. The argument is that this commonsense principle will enable the government to discriminate against, and injure, points of view to which it is opposed. Of course the Constitution does not prohibit government spending that discriminates against, and injures, points of view to which the government is opposed; every government program which takes a position on a controversial issue does that. Anti-smoking programs injure cigar aficionados, programs encouraging sexual abstinence injure free-love advocates, etc. The constitutional prohibition at issue here is not a prohibition against discriminating against or injuring opposing points of view, but the First Amendment's prohibition against the coercing of speech. I am frankly dubious that a condition for eligibility to participate in a minor federal program such as this one runs afoul of that prohibition even when the condition is irrelevant to the goals of the program. Not every disadvantage is a coercion. But that is not the issue before us here. Here the views that the Government demands an applicant forswear-or that the Government insists an applicant favor-are relevant to the program in question. The program is valid only if the Government is entitled to disfavor the opposing view (here, advocacy of or toleration of prostitution). And if the program can disfavor it, so can the selection of those who are to administer the program. There is no risk that this principle will enable the Government to discriminate arbitrarily against positions it disfavors. It would not, for example, permit the Government to exclude from bidding on defense contracts anyone who refuses to abjure prostitution. But here a central part of the Government's HIV/AIDS strategy is the suppression of prostitution, by which HIV is transmitted. It is entirely reasonable to admit to participation in the program only those who believe in that goal. According to the Court, however, this transgresses a constitutional line between conditions that operate inside a spending program and those that control speech outside of it. I am at a loss to explain what this central pillar of the Court's opinion-this distinction that the Court itself admits is "hardly clear" and "not always self-evident," ante, at 2328, 2330 -has to do with the First Amendment. The distinction was alluded to, to be sure, in Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U.S. 173, 111 S.Ct. 1759, 114 L.Ed.2d 233 (1991), but not as (what the Court now makes it) an invariable requirement for First Amendment validity. That the pro-abortion speech prohibition was limited to "inside the program" speech was relevant in Rust because the program itself was not an anti-abortion program. The Government remained neutral on that controversial issue, but did not wish abortion to be promoted within its family-planning-services program. The statutory objective could not be impaired, in other words, by "outside the program" pro-abortion speech. The purpose of the limitation was to prevent Government funding from providing the means of pro-abortion propaganda, which the Government did not wish (and had no constitutional obligation) to provide. The situation here is vastly different. Elimination of prostitution is an objective of the HIV/AIDS program, and any promotion of prostitution-whether made inside or outside the program-does harm the program. Of course the most obvious manner in which the admission to a program of an ideological opponent can frustrate the purpose of the program is by freeing up the opponent's funds for use in its ideological opposition. To use the Hamas example again: Subsidizing that organization's provision of social services enables the money that it would otherwise use for that purpose to be used, instead, for anti-American propaganda. Perhaps that problem does not exist in this case since the respondents do not affirmatively promote prostitution. But the Court's analysis categorically rejects that justification for ideological requirements in all cases, demanding "record indica[tion]" that "federal funding will simply supplant private funding, rather than pay for new programs." Ante, at 2331. This seems to me quite naive. Money is fungible. The economic reality is that when NGOs can conduct their AIDS work on the Government's dime, they can expend greater resources on policies that undercut the Leadership Act. The Government need not establish by record evidence that this will happen. To make it a valid consideration in determining participation in federal programs, it suffices that this is a real and obvious risk. None of the cases the Court cites for its holding provide support. I have already discussed Rust. As for Regan v. Taxation With Representation of Wash., 461 U.S. 540, 103 S.Ct. 1997, 76 L.Ed.2d 129 (1983), that case upheld rather than invalidated a prohibition against lobbying as a condition of receiving 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. The Court's holding rested on the conclusion that "a legislature's decision not to subsidize the exercise of a fundamental right does not infringe the right." 461 U.S., at 549, 103 S.Ct. 1997. Today's opinion, ante, at 2329, stresses the fact that these nonprofits were permitted to use a separate § 501(c)(4) affiliate for their lobbying-but that fact, alluded to in a footnote, Regan, 461 U.S., at 545, n. 6, 103 S.Ct. 1997, was entirely nonessential to the Court's holding. Indeed, that rationale prompted a separate concurrence precisely because the majority of the Court did not rely upon it. See id., at 551-554, 103 S.Ct. 1997 (Blackmun, J., concurring). As for FCC v. League of Women Voters of Cal., 468 U.S. 364, 104 S.Ct. 3106, 82 L.Ed.2d 278 (1984), the ban on editorializing at issue there was disallowed precisely because it did not further a relevant, permissible policy of the Federal Communications Act-and indeed was simply incompatible with the Act's "affirmativ[e] encourage[ment]" of the "vigorous expression of controversial opinions" by licensed broadcasters. Id., at 397, 104 S.Ct. 3106. The Court makes a head-fake at the unconstitutional conditions doctrine, ante, at 2330, but that doctrine is of no help. There is no case of ours in which a condition that is relevant to a statute's valid purpose and that is not Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
C
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. We granted certiorari to resolve whether the Nevada Supreme Court’s refusal to extend full faith and credit to California’s statute immunizing its tax collection agency from suit violates Article IV, §1, of the Constitution. We conclude it does not, and we therefore affirm the judgment of the Nevada Supreme Court. I Respondent Gilbert P. Hyatt (hereinafter respondent) filed a “part-year” resident income tax return in California for 1991. App. to Pet. for Cert. 54. In the return, respondent represented that as of October 1, 1991, he had ceased to be a California resident and had become a resident of Nevada. In 1993, petitioner California Franchise Tax Board (CFTB) commenced an audit to determine whether respondent had underpaid state income taxes. Ibid. The audit focused on respondent’s claim that he had changed residency shortly before receiving substantial licensing fees for certain patented inventions related to computer technology. At the conclusion of its audit, CFTB determined that respondent was a California resident until April 3, 1992, and accordingly issued notices of proposed assessments for income taxes for 1991 and 1992 and imposed substantial civil fraud penalties. Id., at 56-57, 58-59. Respondent protested the proposed assessments and penalties in California through CFTB’s administrative process. See Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code Ann. §§ 19041, 19044-19046 (West 1994). On January 6, 1998, with the administrative protest ongoing in California, respondent filed a lawsuit against CFTB in Nevada in Clark County District Court. Respondent alleges that CFTB directed “numerous and continuous contacts ... at Nevada” and committed several torts during the course of the audit, including invasion of privacy, outrageous conduct, abuse of process, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation. App. to Pet. for Cert. 51-52, 54. Respondent seeks punitive and compensatory damages. Id., at 51-52. He also sought a declaratory judgment “eonfirm[ing] [his] status as a Nevada resident effective as of September 26, 1991,” id., at 51, but the District Court dismissed the claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on April 16,1999, App. 93-95. During the discovery phase of the Nevada lawsuit, CFTB filed a petition in the Nevada Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus, or in the alternative, for a writ of prohibition, challenging certain of the District Court’s discovery orders. While that petition was pending, CFTB filed a motion in the District Court for summary judgment or, in the alternative, for dismissal for lack of jurisdiction. CFTB argued that the District Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because principles of sovereign immunity, full faith and credit, choice of law, comity, and administrative exhaustion all required that the District Court apply California law, under which: “Neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for an injury caused by: “(a) Instituting any judicial or administrative proceeding or action for or incidental to the assessment or collection of a tax [or] “(b) An act or omission in the interpretation or application of any law relating to a tax.” Cal. Govt. Code Ann. §860.2 (West 1995). The District Court denied CFTB’s motion for summary judgment or dismissal, prompting CFTB to file a second petition in the Nevada Supreme Court. This petition sought a writ of mandamus ordering the dismissal of the case, or in the alternative, a writ of prohibition and mandamus limiting the scope of the suit to claims arising out of conduct that occurred in Nevada. On June 13, 2001, the Nevada Supreme Court granted CFTB’s second petition, dismissed the first petition as moot, and ordered the District Court to enter summary judgment in favor of CFTB. App. to Pet. for Cert. 38-43. On April 4, 2002, however, the court granted respondent’s petition for rehearing, vacated its prior ruling, granted CFTB’s second petition in part, and denied it in part. Id., at 5-18. The court held that the District Court “should have declined to exercise its jurisdiction over the underlying negligence claim under comity principles” but that the intentional tort claims could proceed to trial. Id., at 7. The Nevada Supreme Court noted that both Nevada and California have generally waived their sovereign immunity from suit in state court and “have extended the waivers to their state agencies or public employees except when state statutes expressly provide immunity.” Id., at 9-10 (citing Nev. Rev. Stat. §41.031 (1996); Cal. Const., Art. 3, §5; and Cal. Govt. Code Ann. §820 (West 1995)). Whereas Nevada has not conferred immunity on its state agencies for intentional torts committed within the course and scope of employment, the court acknowledged that “California has expressly provided [CFTB] with complete immunity.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 10 (citing Cal. Govt. Code Ann. §860.2 (West 1995) and Mitchell v. Franchise Tax Board, 183 Cal. App. 3d 1133, 228 Cal. Rptr. 750 (1986)). To determine which State’s law should apply, the court applied principles of comity. Though the Nevada Supreme Court recognized the doctrine of comity as “an accommodation policy, under which the courts of one state voluntarily give effect to the laws and judicial decisions of another state out of deference and respect, to promote harmonious interstate relations,” the court also recognized its duty to determine whether the application of California law “would contravene Nevada’s policies or interests,” giving “due regard to the duties, obligations, rights and convenience of Nevada’s citizens.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 11. “An investigation is generally considered to be a discretionary function,” the court observed, “and Nevada provides its [own] agencies with immunity for the performance of a discretionary function even if the discretion is abused.” Id., at 12. “[AJffording [CFTB] statutory immunity for negligent acts,” the court therefore concluded, “does not contravene any Nevada interest in this case.” Ibid. The court accordingly held that “the district court should have declined to exercise its jurisdiction” over respondent’s negligence claim under principles of comity. Id., at 7. With respect to the intentional torts, however, the court held that “affording [CFTB] statutory immunity . . . does contravene Nevada’s policies and interests in this case.” Id., at 12. Because Nevada “does not allow its agencies to claim immunity for discretionary acts taken in bad faith, or for intentional torts committed in the course and scope of employment,” the court held that “Nevada’s interest in protecting its citizens from injurious intentional torts and bad faith acts committed by sister states’ government employees” should be accorded greater weight “than California’s policy favoring complete immunity for its taxation agency.” Id., at 12-13. We granted certiorari to resolve whether Article IV, § 1, of the Constitution requires Nevada to give full faith and credit to California’s statute providing its tax agency with immunity from suit, 537 U. S. 946 (2002), and we now affirm. II The Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause provides: “Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.” Art. IV, § 1. As we have explained, “[o]ur precedent differentiates the credit owed to laws (legislative measures and common law) and to judgments.” Baker v. General Motors Corp., 522 U. S. 222, 232 (1998). Whereas the full faith and credit command “is exacting” with respect to “[a] final judgment . . . rendered by a court with adjudicatory authority over the subject matter and persons governed by the judgment,” id., at 233, it is less demanding with respect to choice of laws. We have held that the Full Faith and Credit Clause does not compel “ ‘a state to substitute the statutes of other states for its own statutes dealing with a subject matter concerning which it is competent to legislate.’” Sun Oil Co. v. Wortman, 486 U. S. 717, 722 (1988) (quoting Pacific Employers Ins. Co. v. Industrial Accident Comm’n, 306 U. S. 493, 501 (1939)). The State of Nevada is undoubtedly “competent to legislate” with respect to the subject matter of the alleged intentional torts here, which, it is claimed, have injured one of its citizens within its borders. “‘[F]or a State’s substantive law to be selected in a constitutionally permissible manner, that State must have a significant contact or significant aggregation of contacts, creating state interests, such that choice of its law is neither arbitrary nor fundamentally unfair.’ ” Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts, 472 U. S. 797, 818 (1985) (quoting Allstate Ins. Co. v. Hague, 449 U. S. 802, 312-313 (1981) (plurality opinion)); see 472 U. S., at 822-823. Such contacts are manifest in this case: the plaintiff claims to have suffered injury in Nevada while a resident there; and it is undisputed that at least some of the conduct alleged to be tortious occurred in Nevada, Brief for Petitioner 33-34, n. 16. See, e. g., Carroll v. Lanza, 349 U. S. 408, 413 (1955) (“The State where the tort occurs certainly has a concern in the problems following in the wake of the injury”); Pacific Employers Ins. Co. v. Industrial Accident Comm’n, supra, at 503 (“Few matters could be deemed more appropriately the concern of the state in which [an] injury occurs or more completely within its power”). CFTB does not contend otherwise. Instead, CFTB urges this Court to adopt a “new rule” mandating that a state court extend full faith and credit to a sister State’s statutorily recaptured sovereign immunity from suit when a refusal to do so would “interfer[e] with a State’s capacity to fulfill its own sovereign responsibilities.” Brief for Petitioner 13 (internal quotation marks omitted). We have, in the past, appraised and balanced state interests when invoking the Full Faith and Credit Clause to resolve conflicts between overlapping laws of coordinate States. See Bradford Elec. Light Co. v. Clapper, 286 U. S. 145 (1932) (holding that the Constitution required a federal •court sitting in New Hampshire to apply a Vermont workers’ compensation statute in a tort suit brought by the administrator of a Vermont worker killed in New Hampshire). This balancing approach quickly proved unsatisfactory. Compare Alaska Packers Assn. v. Industrial Accident Comm’n of Cal., 294 U. S. 532, 550 (1935) (holding that a forum State, which was the place of hiring but not of a claimant’s domicile, could apply its own law to compensate for an accident in another State, because “[njo persuasive reason” was shown for requiring application of the law of the State where the accident occurred), with Pacific Employers Ins. Co. v. Industrial Accident Comm’n, supra, at 504-505 (holding that the State where an accident occurred could apply its own workers’ compensation law and need not give hill faith and credit to that of the State of hiring and domicile of the employer and employee). As Justice Robert H. Jackson, recounting these cases, aptly observed, “it [is] difficult to point to any field in which the Court has more completely demonstrated or more candidly confessed the lack of guiding standards of a legal character than in trying to determine what choice of law is required by the Constitution.” Full Faith and Credit — The Lawyer’s Clause of the Constitution, 45 Colum. L. Rev. 1, 16 (1945). In light of this experience, we abandoned the balancing-of-interests approach to conflicts of law under the Full Faith and Credit Clause. Allstate Ins. Co. v. Hague, 449 U. S., at 308, n. 10 (plurality opinion); id., at 322, n. 6 (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment); id., at 339, n. 6 (Powell, J., dissenting). We have recognized, instead, that “it is frequently the case under the Full Faith and Credit Clause that a court can lawfully apply either the law of one State or the contrary law of another.” Sun Oil Co. v. Wortman, supra, at 727. We thus have held that a State need not “substitute the statutes of other states for its own statutes dealing with a subject matter concerning which it is competent to legislate.” Pacific Employers Ins. Co. v. Industrial Accident Comm’n, supra, at 501; see Baker v. General Motors Corp., supra, at 232; Sun Oil Co. v. Wortman, supra, at 722; Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts, supra, at 818-819. Acknowledging this shift, CFTB contends that this case demonstrates the need for a new rule under the Full Faith and Credit Clause that will protect “core sovereignty” interests as expressed in state statutes delineating the contours of the State’s immunity from suit. Brief for Petitioner 13. We disagree. We have confronted the question whether the Full Faith and Credit Clause requires a forum State to recognize a sister State’s legislatively recaptured immunity once before. In Nevada v. Hall, 440 U. S. 410 (1979), an employee of the University of Nevada was involved in an automobile accident with California residents, who filed suit in California and named Nevada as a defendant. The California courts refused to apply a Nevada statute that capped damages in tort suits against the State on the ground that “to surrender jurisdiction or to limit respondents’ recovery to the $25,000 maximum of the Nevada statute would be obnoxious to its statutorily based policies of jurisdiction over nonresident motorists and full recovery.” Id., at 424. We affirmed, holding, first, that the Constitution does not confer sovereign immunity on States in the courts of sister States. Id., at 414-421. Petitioner does not ask us to reexamine that ruling, and we therefore decline the invitation of petitioner’s amici States, see Brief for State of Florida et al. as Amici Curiae 2, to do so. See this Court’s Rule 14.1(a); Mazer v. Stein, 347 U. S. 201, 206, n. 5 (1954) (‘We do not reach for constitutional questions not raised by the parties”). The question presented here instead implicates Hall’s second holding: that the Full Faith and Credit Clause did not require California to apply Nevada’s sovereign immunity statutes where such application would violate California’s own legitimate public policy. 440 U. S., at 424. The Court observed in a footnote: “California’s exercise of jurisdiction in this case poses no substantial threat to our constitutional system of cooperative federalism. Suits involving traffic accidents occurring outside of Nevada could hardly interfere with Nevada’s capacity to fulfill its own sovereign responsibilities. We have no occasion, in this case, to consider whether different state policies, either of California or of Nevada, might require a different analysis or a different result.” Id., at 424, n. 24. CFTB asserts that an analysis of this lawsuit’s effects should lead to a different result: that the Full Faith and Credit Clause requires Nevada to apply California’s immunity statute to avoid interference with California’s “sovereign responsibility” of enforcing its income tax laws. Brief for Petitioner 13. Our past experience with appraising and balancing state interests under the Full Faith and Credit Clause counsels against adopting CFTB’s proposed new rule. Having recognized, in Hall, that a suit against a State in a sister State’s court “necessarily implicates the power and authority” of both sovereigns, 440 U. S., at 416, the question of which sovereign interest should be deemed more weighty is not one that can be easily answered. Yet petitioner’s rule would elevate California’s sovereignty interests above those of Nevada, were we to deem this lawsuit an interference with California’s “core sovereign responsibilities.” We rejected as “unsound in principle and unworkable in practice” a rule of state immunity from federal regulation under the Tenth Amendment that turned on whether a particular state government function was “integral” or “traditional.” Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U. S. 528, 546-547 (1985). CFTB has convinced us of neither the relative soundness nor the relative practicality of adopting a similar distinction here. Even were we inclined to embark on a course of balancing States’ competing sovereign interests to resolve conflicts of laws under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, this case would not present the occasion to do so. There is no principled distinction between Nevada’s interests in tort claims arising out of its university employee’s automobile accident, at issue in Hall, and California’s interests in the tort claims here arising out of its'tax collection agency’s residency audit. To be sure, the power to promulgate and enforce income tax laws is an essential attribute of sovereignty. See Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. v. Postal Service, 467 U. S. 512, 523 (1984) (“ ‘[Tjaxes are the life-blood of government’ ” (quoting Bull v. United States, 295 U. S. 247, 259-260 (1935))). But the university employee’s educational mission in Hall might also be so described. Cf. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483, 493 (1954) (“[Ejducation is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments”). If we were to compare the degree to which the allegedly tortious acts here and in Hall are related to a core sovereign function, we would be left to ponder the relationship between an automobile accident and educating, on one hand, and the intrusions alleged here and collecting taxes, on the other. We discern no constitutionally significant distinction between these relationships. To the extent CFTB complains of the burdens and expense of out-of-state litigation, and the diversion of state resources away from the performance of important state functions, those burdens do not distinguish this case from any other out-of-state lawsuit against California or one of its agencies. States’ sovereignty interests are not foreign to the full faith and credit command. But we are not presented here with a case in which a State has exhibited a “policy of hostility to the public Acts” of a sister State. Carroll v. Lanza, 349 U. S., at 413. The Nevada Supreme Court sensitively applied principles of comity with a healthy regard for California’s sovereign status, relying on the contours of Nevada’s own sovereign immunity from suit as a benchmark for its analysis. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 10-13. In short, we heed the lessons learned as a result of Bradford Elec. Light Co. v. Clapper, 286 U. S. 145 (1932), and its progeny. Without a rudder to steer us, we decline to embark on the constitutional course of balancing coordinate States’ competing sovereign interests to resolve conflicts of laws under the Full Faith and Credit Clause. The judgment of the Nevada Supreme Court is affirmed. It is so ordered. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
K
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mfi. Justice Harlan delivered the opinion of the Court. This case, involving the right of the petitioner, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to carry on activities in Alabama, reaches this Court for the fourth time. In 1956 the Attorney General of Alabama brought a suit in equity to oust the Association, a New York “membership” corporation, from the State. The basis of the proceeding was the Association’s alleged failure to comply with Alabama statutes requiring'foreign corporations to register with the Alabama Secretary of State and perform other acts in order to qualify to do business in the State; the complaint alleged also that certain of the petitioner’s activities in Alabama, detailed below, were inimical to the well-being of citizens of the State. On the day the complaint was filed, the Attorney General obtained an ex parte restraining order barring the Association, pendente lite, from conducting any business within the State and from taking any steps to qualify to do business under state law. Before the case was heard on the merits, the Association was adjudged in contempt for failing to comply with a court order directing it to produce various records, including membership lists. The Supreme Court of Alabama dismissed a petition for certiorari to review the final judgment of contempt on procedural grounds, 265 Ala. 349, 91 So. 2d 214, which this Court, on review, found inadequate to bar consideration of the Association’s constitutional claims. NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U. S. 449. Upholding those claims, we reversed the judgment of contempt without reaching the question of the validity of the underlying restraining order. In the second round of these proceedings, the Supreme Court of Alabama, on remand “for proceedings not inconsistent” with this Court’s opinion, 357 U. S., at 467, again affirmed the judgment of contempt which this Court had overturned. 268 Ala. 531, 109 So. 2d 138. This decision was grounded on belief that this Court’s judgment had rested on a “mistaken premise.” Id., at 532, 109 So. 2d, at 139. Observing that the premise of our prior decision had been one which the State had “plainly, accepted” throughout the prior proceedings here, this Court ruled that the State could not, for the first time on remand, change its stance. 360 U. S. 240, 243. We noted that the Supreme Court of Alabama “evidently was not acquainted with the detailed basis of the proceedings here” when it reaffirmed the judgment of contempt, id., at 243-244, and again remanded without considering the validity of the restraining order. In so doing, the Court said: “We assume that the State Supreme Court... will not fail to proceed promptly with the disposition of the matters left open under our mandate for further proceedings.. rendered in the prior case. Id., at 245. Our second decision was announced on June 8, 1959. Unable to obtain a hearing on the merits in the Alabama courts, the Association, in June 1960, commenced proceedings in the United States District Court to obtain a hearing there. Alleging that the restraining order and the failure of the Alabama courts to afford it a hearing on the validity of the order were depriving it of constitutional rights, the Association sought to enjoin enforcement of the order. Without passing on the merits, the District Court dismissed the action, because it would not assume that the executive and judicial officers of Alabama involved in the litigation would fail to protect “the constitutional rights of all citizens.” 190 F. Supp. 583, 586. The Court of Appeals agreed that the matter “should be litigated initially in the courts of the State.” 290 F. 2d 337, 343. It, however, vacated the judgment below and remanded the case to the District Court, with instructions “to permit the issues presented to be determined with expedition in the State courts,” but to retain jurisdiction and take steps necessary to protect the Association’s right to be heard on its constitutional claims. Ibid. The jurisdiction of this Court was invoked a third time. On October 23, 1961, we entered an order as follows: “... The judgment below is vacated, and the case is remanded to the, Court of Appeals with instructions to direct the District Court to proceed with the trial of the issues in this action unless within a reasonable time, no later than January 2, 1962, the State of Alabama shall have accorded to petitioner an opportunity to be heard on its motion to dissolve the state restraining order of June 1, 1956, and upon the merits of the action in which such order was issued. Pending the final determination of. all proceedings in the state action, the District Court is authorized to retain jurisdiction over the féderal action and to take such steps as may appear necessary and appropriate to assure a prompt disposition of all issues involved in, or connected with, the state action....” 368 U. S. 16-17. In December 1961, more than five years after it was “temporarily” ousted from Alabama, the Association obtained a hearing on the merits in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, the court which had issued the restraining order in 1956. On December 29, 1961, the Circuit Court entered a final decree in which the court found that the Association had continued to do business in Alabama “in violation of the Constitution and laws of the state relating to foreign corporations” and that the Association’s activities in the State were “in violation of other laws of the State of Alabama and are and have been a usurpation and abuse of its corporate functions and detrimental to the State of Alabama....” The decree permanently enjoined the Association and those affiliated with it from doing “any further business of any description or kind” in Alabama and from attempting to qualify to do business there. The Association appealed to the Supreme Court of Alabama, which, on February 28,1963, affirmed the judgment below without considering the merits. 274 Ala. 544, 150 So. 2d 677. The Supreme Court relied wholly on procedural grounds, detailed more fully below. This Court again granted certiorari, 375 U. S. 810. I. We consider first the nonfederal basis of the decision of the Alabama Supreme Court, which is asserted by the State as a barrier to consideration of the constitutionality of the Association’s ouster from Alabama. In its Assignment of Errors to the Supreme Court of Alabama, the Association specified 23 claimed errors in the proceedings in the trial court. Each claim of error was separately numbered and set off in a separate paragraph. Most of the claims alleged that the error involved deprived the Association and those connected with it of rights protected by the Federal Constitution. The brief filed by the Association in 'the State Supreme Court is divided into four sections: “Statement of Case,” “Statement of Facts,” “Propositions of Law” (containing 15 separately numbered and paragraphed propositions of law, with a separate list of cases supporting each), and “Argument.” The “Argument” section is subdivided into five parts by Roman numerals unaccompanied by any headings. There is a specific reference in the “Argument” to each assignment of error on which the Association relied. Only one assignment of error is mentioned more than once; that assignment is mentioned twice, both times in connection with the same substantive issue. In only two paragraphs is there a reference to more than one assigned error, one paragraph including a discussion of two related assignments and another including a discussion of four related assignments. The Supreme Court of Alabama based its decision entirely on the asserted failure of the Association’s brief to conform to rules of the court. Although it referred to Rule 9 of its Rules, which concerns the form of.an appellant’s brief, the Supreme Court gave no indication of any respect in which the Association’s brief fell short of the requirements of that Rule, and appears to have placed no reliance on it at all. See 274 Ala., at 546, 150 So. 2d, at 679. The basis of the decision below was rather “a rule of long standing and frequent application that where unrelated assignments of error are argued together and one is without merit, the others will not be considered.” Ibid. Proceeding to apply that rule to the Association’s brief, the Supreme Court held that at least one of the assignments of error contained in each of the five numbered subdivisions of the “Argument” section of the brief was without merit, and that it would therefore not consider the merit of any of the other assignments. The Attorney General of Alabama argues that this is a nonfederal ground of decision adequate to bar review in this Court of the serious constitutional claims which the Association presents. We find this position wholly unacceptable. Paying full respect to the state court's opinion, it seems to us crystal clear that the rule invoked by it cannot reasonably be deemed applicable to this case. In its brief, the Association referred to each of its assignments of error separately, and specified the argument pertaining thereto. A separate paragraph was devoted to each of the assignments of error except, as noted above, for two related assignments included in one paragraph and four other related assignments included in another paragraph. These six assignments, like all the others, were specified and explicitly tied to the argument relating to each. We are at a loss to understand how it could be concluded that the structure of the brief did not fully meet the requirement that unrelated assignments of error not be “argued together.” Had the petitioner simply omitted the Roman numerals which subdivide its “Argument” section, intended presumably as an organizational aid to understanding, there would have been no conceivable basis for the suggestion that the various errors were argued “in bulk”; and, indeed, the sole basis mentioned in the Alabama court’s opinion for the conclusion that these errors were grouped for argument is the numbering of subdivisions. The numbering was a mere stylistic device, which cannot well be regarded as detracting from the brief’s full conformity with the rule in question. The consideration of asserted constitutional rights may not be thwarted by simple recitation that there has not been observance of a procedural rule with which there has been compliance in both substance and form, in every real sense. Davis v. Wechsler, 263 U. S. 22, 24; Staub v. City of Baxley, 355 U. S. 313, 318-320. To the same effect, see this Court’s discussion of a similar aspect of prior proceedings in this case, 357 U. S., at 454-458. The Alabama courts have not heretofore applied their rules respecting the preparation of briefs with the pointless severity shown here. In the early case of Bell v. Fulgham, 202 Ala. 217, 218, 80 So. 39, 40, the court said: “The brief filed by appellant is characterized by a degree of informality and an apparent lack of attention to Rule 10... [predecessor to the present Rule 9]; but the rule is directory, and from the time of its adoption the court has exercised its discretion in the consideration of briefs which fairly and helpfully make the points upon which appellant relies. Agreeably with the practice thus established, the brief for appellant has been considered.” More recently, in Bolton v. Barnett Lumber & Supply Co., 267 Ala. 74, 75, 100 So. 2d 9, the court stated again that its rule governing the form of an appellant's brief was “directory” and said that “if appellant’s brief, even though not in compliance with the rule, fairly and helpfully makes the points upon which appellant relies, this court may, in its discretion, consider it.” The court noted that it saw “no reason why there should be any real difficulty in complying with these rules.” Ibid. Other cases are in accord. In Brothers v. Brothers, 208 Ala. 258, 259, 94 So. 175, 177, the Alabama Supreme Court said: “It is true that the brief for appellant does not refer, to the tenth and eleventh assignments of error by number, as it should in strictness have done. But, in view of the simplicity of the record, and of the facts that only four or five rulings are discussed, and that specific reference to the assignments was not necessary to our understanding of the argument, we have preferred to condone the fault in this instance.” In Madison Limestone Co. v. McDonald, 264 Ala. 295, 302, 87 So. 2d 539, 544, the court treated as sufficient three assignments of error which were “not properly expressed.” In City of Montgomery v. Mott, 266 Ala. 422, 96 So. 2d 766, there were 25 assignments of error, none of which was referred to by number in the appellant’s brief. The Alabama Supreme Court said that the brief did not “strictly conform” to the rules governing “the form and contents” of appellants’ briefs, but that it did “not feel that the defects in the brief warrant a dismissal of the appeal.” Id., at 424, 96 So. 2d, at 767. The court stated: “We have condoned noncompliance with the rule in question when the record is short and simple and when a strict compliance with the rule is not essential to an understanding of the assignments of error which are argued in appellant’s brief.” Ibid. Kendall Alabama Co. v. City of Fort Payne, 262 Ala. 465, 466, 79 So. 2d 801, 802, is to the same effect. In State v. Farabee, 268 Ala. 437, 439, 108 So. 2d 148, 149-150, the court said: “As pointed out by the appellee, appellant’s brief has not complied fully with the standards required by Supreme Court Rule 9.... A concise statement of so much of the record as fully presents every error and exception relied upon referring to the pages of the transcript did not appear under the heading; 'Statement of the Case.’ Only two general propositions of law were set out to sustain the seven assignments of error presented on appeal. And only one case was cited in appellant’s argument, which seemed to argue several assignments together. Nevertheless, we will exercise our discretion and give consideration to the points argued....” (Italics added.) The court thus regarded as too unimportant to prevent consideration of the merits the very ground on which it relies here, even though it was accompanied by other failures to comply with the rules. In Shelby County v. Baker, 269 Ala. 111, 116, 110 So. 2d 896, 900, the court said: “Appellant has assigned thirty separate grounds as error, but has argued them in groups, so as to make available to this Court application of the rule that where assignments of error not kindred in nature are argued together and one of them is without merit, the others in the group will not be examined.... However, many of the assignments seem to be somewhat kindred, and, in deference to counsel, we will consider them.” (Citations omitted.) In Brooks v. Everett, 271 Ala. 380, 124 So. 2d 100, the court considered assignments of error although there were 38 of them and none had been “specifically referred to in appellant’s brief.” Id., at 381, 124 So. 2d, at 102. The court said: “... [W]e have held that although appellant’s brief does not comply with the rule, if it fairly and helpfully makes the points upon which appellant relies this court may, in its discretion, consider those points on their merits.” Ibid. See also Stariha v. Hagood, 252 Ala. 158, 162, 40 So. 2d 85, 89; Quinn v. Hannon, 262 Ala. 630, 632-633, 80 So. 2d 239, 241; Thompson v. State, 267 Ala. 22, 25, 99 So. 2d 198, 200. The cases cited in the Alabama Supreme Court’s opinion and in the brief of the State Attorney General in this Court quite evidently do not support the State’s position. In some, there were no assignments of error, Dobson v. Deason, 258 Ala. 219, 61 So. 2d 764, or none was mentioned in the appellant’s brief, Bolton v. Barnett Lumber & Supply Co., supra; Pak-A-Sak of Alabama, Inc., v. Lauten, 271 Ala. 276, 279,123 So. 2d 122, 125. In another group of cases, several different allegations of error were joined in a single assignment of error. Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. Co. v. Bromberg, 141 Ala. 258, 273, 37 So. 395, 398; Alabama Chemical Co. v. Hall, 212 Ala. 8, 10, 101 So. 456, 458; Snellings v. Jones, 33 Ala. App. 301, 303, 33 So. 2d 371, 372. The remaining cases are the only ones which are at all related to the present case. In them, the Supreme Court of Alabama held that if any one of a group of unrelated assignments of error which had been argued together, or “in bulk,” was insufficient, all of them must fall. Ford v. Bradford, 218 Ala. 62, 65, 117 So. 429, 431; Taylor v. Taylor, 251 Ala. 374, 383, 37 So. 2d 645, 652-653; First National Bank of Birmingham v. Lowery, 263 Ala. 36, 41, 81 So. 2d 284, 287; Thompson v. State, 267 Ala. 22, 25, 99 So. 2d 198, 200; Bertolla v. Kaiser, 267 Ala. 435, 440, 103 So. 2d 736, 740; McElhaney v. Singleton, 270 Ala. 162, 167, 117 So. 2d 375, 380; Mize v. Mize, 273 Ala. 369, 370, 141 So. 2d 200, 201. While it does not always appear in the opinions how the assignments of error were argued; every indication is that, unlike the situation here, they were grouped together “for the purpose of argument,” First National Bank of Birmingham, supra, at 41, 81 So. 2d, at 287, and were in fact argued as a group, as the words used by the court suggest. In McElhaney, supra, at 166,117 So. 2d, at 380, for example, the court quoted the appellant’s brief, as follows: “Proposition No. 2 refers to and is covered by Assignments 2, 3 & 4....” In the remainder of the discussion of these Assignments in the brief, also quoted, ibid., they are never again mentioned or distinguished. In Taylor, supra, at 383, 37 So. 2d, at 652, 51 assignments of error were “grouped and argued together in brief.” None of these cases even approaches a ruling that when, as here, assignments of error are individually specified in connection with the argument relevant to each, they are to be regarded as “argued in bulk” because, forsooth, the argument as a whole is divided on the pages of the brief into numbered subdivisions. In sum, we think that what we said when this litigation was first here, with respect to the procedural point there asserted as a state ground of decision adequate to bar review on the merits, also fits the present situation: “Novelty in procedural requirements cannot be permitted to thwart review in this Court applied for by those who, in justified reliance upon prior decisions, seek vindication in state courts of their federal constitutional rights.” 357 U. S., at 457-458. The State has urged that if the nonfederal ground relied on below be found inadequate, as we find it to be, the case be remanded to the Supreme Court of Alabama for decision on the merits. While this might be well enough in other circumstances, in view of what has gone before, we reject that contention and proceed to the merits. II. The complaint against the Association, as finally-amended, alleged that it was a New York corporation maintaining an office and doing business in Alabama. The acts charged against the Association were: (1) that it had “employed or otherwise paid money” to Authurine Lucy and Polly Meyers Hudson to encourage them to enroll as students in the University of Alabama in order to test the legality of its policy against admitting Negroes; (2) that it had furnished legal counsel to represent Authurine Lucy in proceedings to obtain admission to the University; (3) that it had “engaged in organizing, supporting and financing an illegal boycott” to compel a bus line in Montgomery, Alabama, not to segregate passengers according to race; (4) that it had “falsely charged” officials of the State and the University of Alabama with acts in violation of state and federal law; (5) that it had “falsely charged” the Attorney General of Alabama and the Alabama courts with “arbitrary, vindictive, and collusive” acts intended to prevent it from contesting its ouster from the State “before an impartial judicial forum,” and had “falsely charged” the Circuit Court and Supreme Court of the State with deliberately denying it a hearing on the merits of its ouster; (6) that it had “falsely charged” the State and its Attorney General with filing contempt proceedings against it, knowing the charges therein to be false ; (7) that it had “willfully violated” the order restraining it from carrying on activities in the State; (8) that it attempted to “pressure” the mayor of Philadelphia, the Governor of Pennsylvania, and the Penn State football team into “a boycott of the Alabama football team” when the two teams were to play each other in the Liberty Bowl; (9) that it had “encouraged, aided, and abetted the unlawful breach of the peace in many cities in Alabama for the purpose of gaining national notoriety and attention to enable it to raise funds under a false claim that it is for the protection of alleged constitutional rights”; (10) that it had “encouraged, aided, and abetted a course of conduct within the State of Alabama, seeking to deny to the citizens of Alabama the constitutional right to voluntarily segregate”; and (11) that it had carried on its activities in Alabama without complying with state laws requiring foreign corporations to register and perform other acts in order to do business within the State. All of these acts were alleged to be “causing irreparable injury to the property and civil rights of the residents and citizens of the State of Alabama for which criminal prosecution and civil actions at law afford no adequate relief....” The complaint stated also that “the said conduct, procedure, false allegations, and methods used by Respondent render totally unacceptable to the State of Alabama and its people the said Respondent corporation and the activities and business it transacts in this State.” The last allegation, that the Association has failed to comply with the statutory requirements for a foreign corporation to do business in Alabama, furnishes no basis under Alabama law for its ouster. The requirements in question are set out in the Code of Alabama of 1940, Tit. 10, §§ 192-194. These provisions require that before doing business in Alabama a foreign corporation file with the Secretary of State its articles of incorporation and a written instrument designating a place of business within the State and an authorized agent residing there. There is a filing fee of $10. The corporation must file notice of amendments to its articles of incorporation and changes in its place of business or authorized agent. There is nothing in these sections which attaches the consequence of permanent ouster to a foreign corporation which fails to register. That this is not the effect of the statute is conclusively demonstrated by § 194, which provides the State with a different and complete remedy:.. [A]ny... [foreign] corporation that engages in or transacts any business in this state without complying with the provisions of the two preceding sections shall, for each offense, forfeit and pay to the state the sum of one thousand dollars.” Alabama cases confirm that the registration requirements are what they appear on their face to be: provisions ensuring that foreign corporations will be amenable to suit in Alabama courts. “They constitute a police regulation for the protection of the property interests of the citizens of the state.... The doing of a single act of business, if it be in the exercise of a corporate function, is prohibited. The policy of the Constitution and statute is to protect our citizens against the fraud and imposition of insolvent and unreliable corporations, and to place them in an attitude to be reached by legal process from our courts in favor of citizens having cause of complaint.” Alabama Western R. Co. v. Talley-Bates Const. Co., 162 Ala. 396, 402-403, 50 So. 341, 342. See Armour Packing Co. of La., Ltd., v. Vinegar Bend Lumber Co., 149 Ala. 205, 42 So. 866; George M. Muller Mfg. Co. v. First National Bank of Dothan, 176 Ala. 229, 57 So. 762. The Attorney General of Alabama has referred us to no case, and we have been able to find none, in which a foreign corporation. was ousted from. Alabama for failing to comply with the registration statute. The other asserted grounds for excluding the petitioner from Alabama furnish no better foundation for the action below. The first two grounds relied on are manifestly untenable. Before these proceedings were commenced, this Court had upheld the right of Authurine Lucy and Polly Anne Meyers to enroll at the University of Alabama. Lucy v. Adams, 350 U. S. 1. Neither furnishing them with financial assistance, in effect a scholarship, to attend the University, nor providing them with legal counsel to assist their efforts to gain admission was unlawful or could, consistently with the decisions of this Court, be inhibited because contrary to the University’s policy against admitting Negroes. NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415. The third charge listed above is scarcely more substantial. Even if we were to indulge the doubtful assumption that an organized refusal to ride on Montgomery’s buses in protest against a policy of racial segregation might, without more, in some circumstances violate a valid state law, such a violation could not constitutionally be the basis for a permanent denial of the right to associate for the advocacy of ideas by lawful means. As we said at a prior stage in this litigation: “It is beyond debate that freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of the 'liberty’ assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which embraces freedom of speech.” 357 U. S., at 460. This Court has repeatedly held that a governmental purpose to control or prevent activities constitutionally subject to state regulation may not be achieved by means which sweep unnecessarily broadly and thereby invade the area of protected freedoms. See id., at 463-464. “... [T]he power to regulate must be so exercised as not, in attaining a permissible end, unduly to infringe the protected freedom.” Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U. S. 296, 304. “... [E]ven though the governmental purpose be legitimate and substantial, that purpose cannot be pursued by means that broadly stifle fundamental personal liberties when the end can be more narrowly achieved.” Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U. S. 479, 488 (footnote omitted). For other cases elaborating this principle, see Lovell v. Griffin, 303 U. S. 444, 451; Schneider v. State, 308 U. S. 147, 161, 165; Martin v. Struthers, 319 U. S. 141, 146-149; Saia v. New York, 334 U. S. 558; American Communications Assn. v. Douds, 339 U. S. 382; Kunz v. New York, 340 U. S. 290, 294-295-; Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP, 366 U. S. 293. This principle is applicable here even though the ouster of the petitioner from Alabama has been accomplished solely by judicial act; “whether legislative or judicial, it is still the application of state power which we are asked to scrutinize.” 357 U. S., at 463. In the first proceedings in this case, we held that the compelled disclosure of the names of the petitioner's members would entail “the likelihood of a substantial restraint upon the exercise by petitioner’s members of their right to freedom of association.” 357 U. S., at 462. It is obvious that the complete suppression of the Association’s activities in Alabama which was accomplished by the order below is an even more serious abridgment of that right. The allegations of illegal conduct contained in the third charge against the petitioner suggest no legitimate governmental objective which requires such restraint. Compare Kunz v. New York, supra, at 294-295. The fourth, fifth, and sixth charges against the petitioner all involve alleged “false charges” made by the Association or its representatives against state oficiáis. Without speculating on other possible constitutional infirmities to which these allegations may be subject, cf. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, we conclude that, for the reasons discussed above, they furnish no basis for the restriction of the right of the petitioner’s members to associate in Alabama. So too with the seventh charge, which alleges violation of the “temporary” restraining order in effect from 1956 to 1961 (when it was made permanent). We dispose of this charge on the same basis as the others, without considering the sufficiency of the evidence to support the finding that there was a violation of the order or the serious constitutional questions raised by an order which restrained for so long a time the exercise of unquestionable constitutional rights on the grounds involved here. We pass the eighth charge without comment; by no stretch can it be considered germane to the present controversy. The ninth charge, involving alleged breaches of the peace, falls with the third. “There are appropriate public remedies to protect the peace and order of the community...,” Kunz, supra, at 294, which do not infringe constitutional rights. The tenth charge, if it adds anything to those which have gone before, simply challenges the right of the petitioner and its members to express their views, by words and lawful conduct, on a subject of vital constitutional concern. Such a challenge cannot stand. There is no occasion in this case for us to consider how much survives of the principle that a State can impose such conditions as it chooses on the right of a foreign corporation to do business within the State, or can exclude it from the State altogether. E. g., Crescent Cotton Oil Co. v. Mississippi, 257 U. S. 129, 137. This case, in truth, involves not the privilege of a corporation to do business in a State, but rather the freedom of individuals to associate for the collective advocacy of. ideas. “Freedoms such as... [this] are protected not only against heavy-handed frontal attack, but also from being stifled by more subtle governmental interference.” Bates v. City of Little Rock, 361 U. S. 516, 523. Nor is New York ex rel. Bryant v. Zimmerman, 278 U. S. 63, which involved New York’s application of a regulatory statute to the Ku Klux Klan, more relevant here than it was at the earlier stage of these proceedings where we said that it “involved markedly different considerations in terms of the interest of the State...,” 357 U. S., at 465. The Court noted inter alia, that the Bryant decision was “based on the particular character of the Klan’s activities, involving acts of unlawful intimidation and violence, which the Court assumed was before the state legislature when it enacted the statute, and of which the Court itself took judicial notice.” Ibid. The judgment below must be reversed. In view of the history of this case, we are asked to formulate a decree for entry in the state courts which will assure the Association’s right to conduct activities in Alabama without further delay. While such a course undoubtedly lies within this Court’s power, Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, 1 Wheat. 304, we prefer to follow our usual practice and remand the case to the Supreme Court of Alabama for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. Such proceedings should include the prompt entry of a decree, in accordance with state procedures, vacating in all respects the permanent injunction order issued by the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Alabama, and permitting the Association to take all steps necessary to qualify it to do business in Alabama. Should we unhappily be mistaken in our belief that the Supreme Court of Alabama will promptly implement this disposition, leave is given the Association to apply to this Court for further appropriate relief. Reversed and remanded. Code of Alabama of 1940, Tit. 10, §§ 192-194. See note 9, infra, p. 304. This was four days before the date on which, by this Court's order of October 23, 1961, the Federal District Court was to proceed with a trial on the merits if the Alabama courts had not yet granted the petitioner a hearing. See supra. The Assignment of Errors is part of the typewritten record filed with this Court. There is also a “Conclusion,” which requests reversal of the judgment below. The brief is reproduced in Appendix B to the petition for certiorari in this Court; the accuracy of the reproduction is not questioned by the State. One assignment of error was not mentioned in the Association’s brief at all, and was deemed waived by the Alabama Supreme Court. 274 Ala., at 549, 150 So. 2d, at 682. Rule 9 provides: “Appellant’s brief under separate headings shall contain: (a) under the heading ‘Statement of the Case,’ a concise statement of so much of the record as fully presents every error and exception relied upon referring to the pages of the transcript; (b) under the heading ‘Statement of the Facts,’ a condensed recital of the evidence in narrative form so as to present the substance clearly and concisely, referring to the pages of the transcript, and if the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict or finding, in fact or law, is assigned, then the statement shall contain a condensed recital of the evidence given by each witness in narrative form bearing on the points in issue so as to fully present the substance of the testimony of the witness clearly and concisely; (c) under the heading ‘Propositions of Law/ a concise statement, without argument, of each rule or proposition of law relied upon to sustain the errors assigned, together with the authorities relied upon in support of each, and in citing cases, the names of parties must be given, with the book and page where reported; (d) argument with respect to errors assigned which counsel desire to insist upon. Assignments of error not substantially argued in brief will be deemed waived and will not be considered by the court. The statements made by appellant under the headings 'Statement of the Case’ and 'Statement of the Facts’ will be taken to be accurate and sufficient for decision, unless the opposite party in his brief shall make the necessary corrections or additions.” 261 Ala. XXII. The fifth subdivision of the “Argument” section Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
C
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam: The judgment is affirmed. Patch v. Wabash R. Co., 207 U. S. 277; Memphis & Charleston R. Co. v. Alabama, 107 U. S. 581; Seavey v. Boston & Maine R. Co., 197 F. 2d 485. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. Doyle J. Williams is scheduled to be executed by the State of Missouri on April 10, 1996. On January 11, 1996, a Federal District Court denied Williams’ third federal habeas corpus petition, finding all of Williams’ claims to be abusive, successive, or procedurally defaulted. On March 8,1996, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit entered a summary order staying Williams’ execution. The Court of Appeals scheduled oral argument for May 13, 1996, and resolved that the stay would remain in effect pending submission of the case and that court’s further order. The summary order gives no explanation for the Court of Appeals’ conclusion that oral argument is necessary or that entry of a stay was appropriate. The Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing en banc, and we now have before us an application to vacate the stay. “A stay of execution pending disposition of a second or successive federal habeas petition should be granted only when there are ‘substantial grounds upon which relief might be granted.”’ Delo v. Stokes, 495 U. S. 320, 321 (1990) (per curiam) (quoting Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U. S. 880, 895 (1983)). Entry of a stay on a second or third habeas petition is a drastic measure, and we have held that it is “ ‘particularly egregious’ ” to enter a stay absent substantial grounds for relief. Delo v. Blair, 509 U. S. 823 (1993) (citation omitted). On the record before us, we can discern no such grounds. We are persuaded by the report prepared by Magistrate Judge Hays, which meticulously addresses each of Williams’ claims and finds each to be abusive, successive, procedurally defaulted, or meritless, and by the District Court’s order adopting that report, in which the District Court also denied Williams’ dilatory motion to amend the habeas petition. The Court of Appeals abused its discretion by entering a stay on this record. To the extent the Court of Appeals discerned substantial grounds for relief, it failed to reveal them in its summary order granting the stay. Although we hesitate to say that a court of appeals must, in every case, explain the basis for its entry of a stay, we see fit to remind the lower courts that entry of a stay without explanation is disfavored. Cf. Netherland, v. Tuggle, 515 U. S. 951 (1995) (per curiam). When a court of appeals fails to articulate its reasons for granting a stay, we lose the benefit of that court’s views and must resort to other portions of the record in evaluating whether to vacate the stay. In this case, the District Court’s careful treatment of Williams’ claims and the surface implausibility of those claims persuade us that the stay should not have been granted, and the Court of Appeals’ summary order does not convince us otherwise. Accordingly, the application to vacate the stay of execution is. granted. It is so ordered. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondent Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) alleges that petitioner Robert G. Holmes, Jr., conspired in a stock-manipulation scheme that disabled two broker-dealers from meeting obligations to customers, thus triggering SIPC’s statutory duty to advance funds to reimburse the customers. The issue is whether SIPC can recover from Holmes under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U. S. C. §§ 1961-1968 (1988 ed. and Supp. II). We hold that it cannot. ) — i <E The Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 (SIPA), 84 Stat. 1636, as amended, 15 U. S. C. §§ 78aaa-78III, authorized the formation of SIPC, a private nonprofit corporation, § 78ccc(a)(l), of which most broker-dealers registered under § 15(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, §78o(b), are required to be “members,” § 78ccc(a)(2)(A). Whenever SIPC determines that a member “has failed or is in danger of failing to meet its obligations to customers,” and finds certain other statutory conditions satisfied, it may ask for a “protective decree” in federal district court. § 78eee(a)(3). Once a court finds grounds for granting such a petition, § 78eee(b)(l), it must appoint a trustee charged with liquidating the member’s business, § 78eee(b)(3). After returning all securities registered in specific customers’ names, §§ 78fiff — 2(c)(2); 78fff(a)(l)(A); 78111(3), the trustee must pool securities not so registered together with cash found in customers’ accounts and divide this pool ratably to satisfy customers’ claims, §§ 78fff-2(b); 78fff(a)(l)(B). To the extent the pool of customer property is inadequate, SIPC must advance up to $500,000 per customer to the trustee for use in satisfying those claims. § 78fff-3(a). B On July 24, 1981, SIPC sought a decree from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida to protect the customers of First State Securities Corporation (FSSC), a broker-dealer and SIPC member. Three days later, it petitioned the United States District Court for the Central District of California, seeking to protect the customers of Joseph Sebag, Inc. (Sebag), also a broker-dealer and SIPC member. Each court issued the requested decree and appointed a trustee, who proceeded to liquidate the broker-dealer. Two years later, SIPC and the two trustees brought this suit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, accusing some 75 defendants of conspiracy in a fraudulent scheme leading to the demise of FSSC and Sebag. Insofar as they are relevant here, the allegations were that, from 1964 through July 1981, the defendants manipulated stock of six companies by making unduly optimistic statements about their prospects and by continually selling small numbers of shares to create the appearance of a liquid market; that the broker-dealers bought substantial amounts of the stock with their own funds; that the market’s perception of the fraud in July 1981 sent the stocks plummeting; and that this decline caused the broker-dealers’ financial difficulties resulting in their eventual liquidation and SIPC’s advance of nearly $13 million to cover their customers’ claims. The complaint described Holmes’ participation in the scheme by alleging that he made false statements about the prospects of one of the six companies, Aero Systems, Inc., of which he was an officer, director, and major shareholder; and that over an extended period he sold small amounts of stock in one of the other six companies, the Bunnington Corporation, to simulate a liquid market. The conspirators were said to have violated § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U. S. C. §78j(b), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 10b-5, 17 CFR §240.10b-5 (1991), and the mail and wire fraud statutes, 18 U. S. C. §§ 1341,1343 (1988 ed., Supp. II). Finally, the complaint concluded that their acts amounted to a “pattern of racketeering activity” within the meaning of the RICO statute, 18 U. S. C. §§ 1962, 1961(1), and (5) (1988 ed. and Supp. II), so as to entitle the plaintiffs to recover treble damages, § 1964(c). After some five years of litigation over other issues, the District Court entered summary judgment for Holmes on the RICO claims, ruling that SIPC “does not meet the ‘purchaser-seller’ requirements for standing to assert RICO claims which are predicated upon violation of Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5,” App. to Pet. for Cert. 45a, and that neither SIPC nor the trustees had satisfied the “proximate cause requirement under RICO,” id., at 39a; see id., at 37a. Although SIPC’s claims against many other defendants remained pending, the District Court under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b) entered a partial judgment for Holmes, immediately appealable. SIPC and the trustees appealed. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded after rejecting both of the District Court’s grounds. Securities Investor Protection Corporation v. Vigman, 908 F. 2d 1461 (1990). The Court of Appeals held first that, whereas a purchase or sale of a security is necessary for entitlement to sue on the implied right of action recognized under § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, see Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U. S. 723 (1975), the cause of action expressly provided by § 1964(c) of RICO imposes no such requirement limiting SIPC’s standing, 908 F. 2d, at 1465-1467. Second, the appeals court held the finding of no proximate cause to be error, the result of a mistaken focus on the causal relation between SIPC’s injury and the acts of Holmes alone; since Holmes could be held responsible for the acts of all his co-conspirators, the Court of Appeals explained, the District Court should have looked to the causal relation between SIPC’s injury and the acts of all conspirators. Id., at 1467-1469. Holmes’ ensuing petition to this Court for certiorari presented two issues, whether SIPC had a right to sue under RICO, and whether Holmes could be held responsible for the actions of his co-conspirators. We granted the petition on the former issue alone, 499 U. S. 974 (1991), and now reverse. II A RICO’s provision for civil actions reads that “[a]ny person injured in his business or property by reason of a violation of section 1962 of this chapter may sue therefor in any appropriate United States district court and shall recover threefold the damages he sustains and the cost of the suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee.” 18 U. S. C. § 1964(c). This language can, of course, be read to mean that a plaintiff is injured “by reason of” a RICO violation, and therefore may recover, simply on showing that the defendant violated § 1962, the plaintiff was injured, and the defendant’s violation was a “but for” cause of plaintiff’s injury. Cf. Associated General Contractors of Cal., Inc. v. Carpenters, 459 U. S. 519, 529 (1983). This construction is hardly compelled, however, and the very unlikelihood that Congress meant to allow all factually injured plaintiffs to recover persuades us that RICO should not get such an expansive reading. Not even SIPC seriously argues otherwise. The key to the better interpretation lies in some statutory history. We have repeatedly observed, see Agency Holding Corp. v. Malley-Duff & Associates, Inc., 483 U. S. 143, 150-151 (1987); Shearson/American Express Inc. v. McMahon, 482 U. S. 220, 241 (1987); Sedima, S. P. R. L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U. S. 479, 489 (1985), that Congress modeled § 1964(c) on the civil-action provision of the federal antitrust laws, § 4 of the Clayton Act, which reads in relevant part that “any person who shall be injured in his business or property by reason of anything forbidden in the antitrust laws may sue therefor... and shall recover threefold the damages by him sustained, and the cost of suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee.” 15 U. S. C. § 15. In Associated General Contractors, supra, we discussed how Congress enacted §4 in 1914 with language borrowed from § 7 of the Sherman Act, passed 24 years earlier. Before 1914, lower federal courts had read §7 to incorporate common-law principles of proximate causation, 459 U. S., at 533-534, and n. 29 (citing Loeb v. Eastman Kodak Co., 183 F. 704 (CA3 1910); Ames v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 166 F. 820 (CC Mass. 1909)), and we reasoned, as many lower federal courts had done before us, see Associated Gen eral Contractors, supra, at 536, n. 33 (citing cases), that congressional use of the § 7 language in § 4 presumably carried the intention to adopt “the judicial gloss that avoided a simple literal interpretation,” 459 U. S., at 534. Thus, we held that a plaintiff’s right to sue under § 4 required a showing that the defendant’s violation not only was a “but for” cause of his injury, but was the proximate cause as well. The reasoning applies just as readily to § 1964(c). We may fairly credit the 91st Congress, which enacted RICO, with knowing the interpretation federal courts had given the words earlier Congresses had used first in § 7 of the Sherman Act, and later in the Clayton Act’s § 4. See Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U. S. 677, 696-698 (1979). It used the same words, and we can only assume it intended them to have the same meaning that courts had already given them; See, e. g., Oscar Mayer & Co. v. Evans, 441 U. S. 750, 756 (1979); Northcross v. Memphis Bd. of Ed., 412 U. S. 427, 428 (1973). Proximate cause is thus required. B Here we use “proximate cause” to label generically the judicial tools used to limit a person’s responsibility for the consequences of that person’s own acts. At bottom, the notion of proximate cause reflects “ideas of what justice demands, or of what is administratively possible and convenient.” W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton, & D. Owen, Prosser and Keeton on Law of Torts §41, p. 264 (5th ed. 1984). Accordingly, among the many shapes this concept took at common law, see Associated General Contractors, supra, at 532-533, was a demand for some direct relation between the injury asserted and the injurious conduct alleged. Thus, a plaintiff who complained of harm flowing merely from the misfortunes visited upon a third person by the defendant’s acts was generally said to stand at too remote a distance to recover. See, e. g., 1 J. Sutherland, Law of Damages 55-56 (1882). Although such directness of relationship is not the sole requirement of Clayton Act causation, it has been one of its central elements, Associated General Contractors, 459 U. S., at 540, for a variety of reasons. First, the less direct an injury is, the more difficult it becomes to ascertain the amount of a plaintiff’s damages attributable to the violation, as distinct from other, independent, factors. Id., at 542-543. Second, quite apart from problems of proving factual causation, recognizing claims of the indirectly injured would force courts to adopt complicated rules apportioning damages among plaintiffs removed at different levels of injury from the violative acts, to obviate the risk of multiple recoveries. Id., at 543-544; Blue Shield of Virginia v. McCready, 457 U. S. 465, 473-475 (1982); Hawaii v. Standard Oil Co. of Cal., 405 U. S. 251, 264 (1972). And, finally, the need to grapple with these problems is simply unjustified by the general interest in deterring injurious conduct, since directly injured victims can generally be counted on to vindicate the law as private attorneys general, without any of the problems attendant upon suits by plaintiffs injured more remotely. Associated General Contractors, supra, at 541-542. We will point out in Part III-A below that the facts of the instant case show how these reasons apply with equal force to suits under § 1964(c). h — < H-i As we understand SIPC s argument, it claims entitlement to recover, first, because it is subrogated to the rights of those customers of the broker-dealers who did not purchase manipulated securities, and, second, because a SIPA provision gives it an independent right to sue. The first claim fails because the conspirators’ conduct did not proximately cause the nonpurchasing customers’ injury, the second because the provision relied on gives SIPC no right to sue for damages. A As a threshold matter, SIPC’s theory of subrogation is fraught with unanswered questions. In suing Holmes, SIPC does not rest its claimed subrogation to the rights of the broker-dealers’ customers on any provision of SIPA. See Brief for Respondent 38, and n. 181. SIPC assumes that SIPA provides for subrogation to the customers’ claims against the failed broker-dealers, see 15 U. S. C. §§78fff-3(a), 78fff-4(c); see also § 78fff-2(c)(l)(C); see generally Mishkin v. Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., 744 F. Supp. 531, 556-557 (SDNY 1990), but not against third parties like Holmes. As against him, SIPC relies rather on “common law rights of subrogation” for what it describes as “its money paid to customers for customer claims against third parties.” Brief for Respondent 38 (footnote omitted). At oral argument in this Court, SIPC narrowed its subrogation argument to cover only the rights of customers who never purchased manipulated securities. Tr. of Oral Arg. 29. But SIPC stops there, leaving us to guess at the nature of the “common law rights of subrogation” that it claims, and failing to tell us whether they derive from federal or state common law, or, if the latter, from common law of which State. Nor does SIPC explain why it declines to assert the rights of customers who bought manipulated securities. It is not these questions, however, that stymie SIPC’s sub-rogation claim, for even assuming, arguendo, that it may stand in the shoes of nonpurchasing customers, the link is too remote between the stock manipulation alleged and the customers’ harm, being purely contingent on the harm suffered by the broker-dealers. That is, the conspirators have allegedly injured these customers only insofar as the stock manipulation first injured the broker-dealers and left them without the wherewithal to pay customers’ claims. Although the customers’ claims are senior (in recourse to “customer property”) to those of the broker-dealers’ general creditors, see § 78fff-2(c)(l), the causes of their respective injuries are the same: The broker-dealers simply cannot pay their bills, and only that intervening insolvency connects the conspirators’ acts to the losses suffered by the nonpurchasing customers and general creditors. As we said, however, in Associated General Contractors, quoting Justice Holmes, “‘The general tendency.of the law, in regard to damages at least, is not to go beyond the first step.’ ” 459 U. S., at 534 (quoting Southern Pacific Co. v. Darnell-Taenzer Lumber Co., 245 U. S. 531, 533 (1918)), and the reasons that supported conforming Clayton Act causation to the general tendency apply just as readily to the present facts, underscoring the obvious congressional adoption of the Clayton Act direct-injury limitation among the requirements of § 1964(c). If the nonpurchasing customers were allowed to sue, the district court would first need to determine the extent to which their inability to collect from the broker-dealers was the result of the alleged conspiracy to manipulate, as opposed to, say, the broker-dealers' poor business practices or their failures to anticipate developments in the financial markets. Assuming that an appropriate assessment of factual causation could be made out, the district court would then have to find some way to apportion the possible respective recoveries by the broker-dealers and the customers, who would otherwise each be entitled to recover the full treble damages. Finally, the law would be shouldering these difficulties despite the fact that those directly injured, the broker-dealers, could be counted on to bring suit for the’ law’s vindication. As noted above, the broker-dealers have in fact sued in this case, in the persons of their SIPA trustees appointed on account of their insolvency. Indeed, the insolvency of the victim directly injured adds a further concern to those already expressed, since a suit by an indirectly injured victim could be an attempt to circumvent the relative priority its claim would have in the directly injured victim’s liquidation proceedings. See Mid-State Fertilizer Co. v. Exchange National Bank of Chicago, 877 F. 2d 1333, 1336 (CA7 1989). As against the force of these considerations of history and policy, SIPC’s reliance on the congressional admonition that RICO be “liberally construed to effectuate its remedial purposes,” § 904(a), 84 Stat. 947, does not deflect our analysis. There is, for that matter, nothing illiberal in our construction: We hold not that RICO cannot serve to right the conspirators’ wrongs, but merely that the nonpurchasing customers, or SIPC in their stead, are not proper plaintiffs. Indeed, we fear that RICO’s remedial purposes would more probably be hobbled than helped by SIPC’s version of liberal construction: Allowing suits by those injured only indirectly would open the door to “massive and complex damages litigation[, which would] not only burde[n] the courts, but [would] also undermin[e] the effectiveness of treble-damages suits.” Associated General Contractors, 469 U. S., at 545. In sum, subrogation to the rights of the manipulation conspiracy’s secondary victims does, and should, run afoul of proximate-causation standards, and SIPC must wait on the outcome of the trustees’ suit. If they recover from Holmes, SIPC may share according to the priority SIPA gives its claim. See 15 U. S. C. § 78fff-2(c). B SIPC also claims a statutory entitlement to pursue Holmes for funds advanced to the trustees for administering the liquidation proceedings. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 30. Its theory here apparently is not one of subrogation, to which the statute makes no reference in connection with SIPC’s obligation to make such advances. See 15 U. S. C. § 78fff-3(b)(2). SIPC relies instead, see Brief for Respondent 37, and n. 180, on this SIPA provision: “SIPC participation — SIPC shall be deemed to be a party in interest as to all matters arising in a liquidation proceeding, with the right to be heard on all such matters, and shall be deemed to have intervened with respect to all such matters with the same force and effect as if a petition for such purpose had been allowed by the court.” 15U.S.C. §78eee(d). The language is inapposite to the issue here, however. On its face, it simply qualifies SIPC as a proper party in interest in any “matter arising in a liquidation proceeding” as to which it “shall be deemed to have intervened.” By extending a right to be heard in a “matter” pending between other parties, however, the statute says nothing about the conditions necessary for SIPC’s recovery as a plaintiff. How the provision could be read, either alone or with § 1964(c), to give SIPC a right to sue Holmes for money damages simply eludes us. IV Petitioner urges us to go further and decide whether every RICO plaintiff who sues under § 1964(c) and claims securities fraud as a predicate offense must have purchased or sold a security, an issue on which the Circuits appear divided. We decline to do so. Given what we have said in Parts II and III, our discussion of the issue would be unnecessary to the resolution of this case. Nor do we think that leaving this question unanswered will deprive the lower courts of much-needed guidance. A review of the conflicting cases shows that all could have been resolved on proximate-causation grounds, and that none involved litigants like those in Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U. S. 723 (1975), persons who had decided to forgo securities transactions in reliance on misrepresentations. Thus, we think it inopportune to resolve the issue today. V We hold that, because the alleged conspiracy to manipulate did not proximately cause the injury claimed, SIPC’s allegations and the record before us fail to make out a right to sue petitioner under § 1964(c). We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Such “customer property,” see 15 U. S. C. § 78111(4), does not become part of the debtor’s general estate until all customers’ and SIPC’s claims have been paid. See § 78fff-2(c)(l). That is to say, the claim of a general creditor of the broker-dealer (say, its landlord) is subordinated to claims of customers and SIPC. With respect to a customer’s cash on deposit with the broker-dealer, SIPC is not obligated to advance more than $100,000 per customer. § 78fff — 3(a)(1). To cover these advances, SIPA provides for the establishment of a SIPC Fund. § 78ddd(a)(l). SIPC may replenish the fund from time to time by levying assessments, § 78ddd(c)(2), which members are legally obligated to pay, § 78jjj(a). See generally Securities Investor Protection Corporation v. Vigman, 803 F. 2d 1513 (CA9 1986) (Vigman II); Securities Investor Protection Corporation v. Vigman, 764 F. 2d 1309 (CA9 1985) (Vigman I). Two years earlier, the District Court had dismissed SIPC’s non-RICO securities action on the ground that SIPC’s claim to have been subrogated to the rights only of those customers who did not purchase any of the manipulated securities rendered the action a failure under the so-called Birnbaum test, which requires a plaintiff to be a purchaser or seller of a security. See Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U. S. 723 (1975); Birnbaum v. Newport Steel Corp., 193 F. 2d 461 (CA2), cert. denied, 343 U. S. 956 (1952). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed that ruling, Vigman II, supra, holding that the District Court should have permitted SIPC to proceed under the Birnbaum rule to the extent that FSSC and Sebag had made unauthorized use of those customers’ assets to buy manipulated securities, as SIPC had alleged they had. Id., at 1519— 1520. On remand, after discovery, the District Court ruled that no genuine issue of material fact existed on the question of unauthorized use and that Holmes was entitled to summary judgment. App. to Pet. for Cert. 27a. SIPC has not appealed that ruling. For purposes of this decision, we will assume without deciding that the Court of Appeals correctly held that Holmes can be held responsible for the acts of his co-conspirators. The petition phrased the question as follows: “Whether a party which was neither a purchaser nor a seller of securities, and for that reason lacked standing to sue under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, is free of that limitation on standing when presenting essentially the same claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (‘RICO’).” Pet. for Cert. i. Holmes does not contest the trustees’ right to sue under § 1964(c), and they took no part in the proceedings before this Court after we granted certiorari on the first question alone. Section 1962 lists “Prohibited activities.” Before this Court, SIPC invokes only subsections (c) and (d). See Brief for Respondent 15, and n. 58. Subsection (e) makes it “unlawful for any person... associated with any enterprise... to... participate... in the conduct of such enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity....” Insofar as it is relevant here, subsection (d) makes it unlawful to conspire to violate subsection (c). The RICO statute defines “pattern of racketeering activity” as “requiring] at least two acts of racketeering activity!,]... the last of which occurred within ten years... after the commission of a prior act of racketeering activity.” §1961(5). The predicate offenses here at issue are listed in 18 U. S. C. §§ 1961(1)(B) and (D) (1988 ed., Supp. II), which define “racketeering activity” to include “any act which is indictable under... section 1341 (relating to mail fraud), [or] section 1343 (relating to wire fraud),... or... any offense involving... fraud in the sale of securities....” “In a philosophical sense, the consequences of an act go forward to eternity, and the causes of an event go back to the dawn of human events, and beyond. But any attempt to impose responsibility upon such a basis would result in infinite liability for all wrongful acts, and would ‘set society on edge and fill the courts with endless litigation.’ ” W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton, & D. Owen, Prosser and Keeton on Law of Torts §41, p. 264 (6th ed. 1984) (quoting North v. Johnson, 68 Minn. 242, 245, 59 N. W. 1012 (1894)). As we put it in the antitrust context, “An antitrust violation may be expected to cause ripples of harm to flow through the Nation’s economy; but despite the broad wording of § 4 [of the Clayton Act, 15 U. S. C. § 15,] there is a point beyond which the wrongdoer should not be held liable.” Blue Shield of Virginia v. McCready, 457 U. S. 465, 476-477 (1982) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The Courts of Appeals have overwhelmingly held that not mere factual, but proximate, causation is required. See, e. g., Pelletier v. Zweifel, 921 F. 2d 1465, 1499-1500 (CA11), cert. denied, 502 U. S. 855 (1991); Ocean Energy II, Inc. v. Alexander & Alexander, Inc., 868 F. 2d 740, 744 (CA5 1989); Brandenburg v. Seidel, 859 F. 2d 1179, 1189 (CA4 1988); Sperber v. Boesky, 849 F. 2d 60 (CA2 1988); Haroco, Inc. v. American National Bank & Trust Co. of Chicago, 747 F. 2d 384, 398 (CA7 1984), aff’d, 473 U. S. 606 (1985) (per curiam). Indeed, the court below recognized a proximate-cause requirement. See Securities Investor Protection Corporation v. Vigman, 908 F. 2d 1461, 1468 (CA9 1990). SIPC does say that the question whether its claim must, and as alleged may, satisfy the standard of proximate causation is not within the question on which we granted certiorari. See Brief for Respondent 3, 33, 34, 38-39. However, the proximate-cause issue is “fairly included” within that question. See this Court’s Rule 14.1(a). SIPUs own restatement of the question presented reads: “Was the Ninth Circuit correct when it held that SIPC need not be a ‘purchaser or seller’ of securities to sue under Section 1964(c), which provides that ‘any person’ may sue for ‘injury to his business or property’ ‘by reason of’ ‘any offense... involving fraud in the sale of securities... punishable under any law of the United States,’ wire fraud, or mail fraud in violation of Section 1962?” Brief for Respondent i (ellipses in original). By thus restating the question presented (as was its right to do, see this Court’s Rule 24.2), SIPC properly set the enquiry in the key of the language of § 1964(c), which we hold today carries a proximate-cause requirement within it. What is more, SIPC briefed the proximate-cause issue, see Brief for Respondent 34-36, 38-39, and announced at oral argument that it recognized the Court might reach it, see Tr. of Oral Arg. 31. When Congress enacted § 4 of the Clayton Act, § 7 of the Sherman Act read in relevant part: “Any person who shall be injured in his business or property by any other person or corporation by reason of anything forbidden or declared to be unlawful by this act, may sue....” 26 Stat. 210. These lower courts had so held well before 1970, when Congress passed RICO. We have sometimes discussed the requirement that a § 4 plaintiff have suffered “antitrust injury” as a component of the proximate-cause enquiry. See Associated General Contractors of Cal., Inc. v. Carpenters, 459 U. S. 519, 538 (1983); Blue Shield of Virginia v. McCready, 457 U. S., at 481-484. We need not discuss it here, however, since “antitrust injury” has no analogue in the RICO setting. See Sedima, S. P. R. L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U. S. 479, 495-497 (1985). For the same reason, there is no merit in SIPC’s reliance on legislative history to the effect that it would be inappropriate to have a “private litigant... contend with a body of precedent — appropriate in a purely antitrust context — setting strict requirements on questions such as ‘standing to sue’ and ‘proximate cause.’” 115 Cong. Rec. 6995 (1969) (American Bar Association comments on S. 2048). That statement is rightly understood to refer only to the applicability of the concept of “antitrust injury” to RICO, which we rejected in Sedima, supra, at 495-497. See Brandenburg v. Seidel, 859 F. 2d, at 1189, n. 11. Besides, even if we were to read this statement to say what SIPC says it means, it would not amount to more than background noise drowned out by the statutory language. And, SIPC made no allegation that any of these customers failed to do so in reliance on acts or omissions of the conspirators. There is support for the proposition that SIPC can assert state-law subrogation rights against third parties. See Redington v. Touche Ross & Co., 692 F. 2d 617, 624 (CA2 1978), rev’d on other grounds, 442 U. S. 560 (1979). We express no opinion on this issue. The record reveals that those customers have brought their own suit against the conspirators. SIPC tries to avoid foundering on the rule that creditors generally may not sue for injury affecting their debtors’ solvency by arguing that those customers that owned manipulated securities themselves were victims of Holmes’ fraud. See Brief for Respondent 39, n. 185 (citing Ashland Oil, Inc. v. Arnett, 875 F. 2d 1271, 1280 (CA7 1989); Ocean Energy, 868 F. 2d, at 744-747; Bankers Trust Co. v. Rhoades, 859 F. 2d 1096, 1100-1101 (CA2 1988), cert. denied, 490 U. S. 1007 (1989)). While that may well be true, since SIPC does not claim subrogation to the rights of the customers that purchased manipulated securities, see supra, at 270-271, it gains nothing by the point. We further note that SIPC alleged in the courts below that, in late May 1981, Joseph Lugo, an officer of FSSC and one of the alleged conspirators, parked manipulated stock in the accounts of customers, among them Holmes, who actively participated in the parking transaction involving his account. See Statement of Background and Facts, 1 App. 223-225. Lugo “sold” securities owned by FSSC to customers at market price and “bought” back the same securities some days later at the same price plus interest. Under applicable regulations, a broker-dealer must discount the stock it holds in its own account, see 17 CFR §240.15c3-l(c)(2)(iv)(F)(l)(vi) (1991), and the sham transactions allowed FSSC to avoid the discount. But for the parking transactions, FSSC would allegedly have failed capital requirements sooner; would have been shut down by regulators; and would not have dragged Sebag with it in its demise. 1 App. 231. Thus, their customers would have been injured to a lesser extent. Id., at 229, 231. We do not rule out that, if, by engaging in the parking transactions, the conspirators committed mail fraud, wire fraud, or “fraud in the sale of securities,” see 18 U. S. C. §§ 196 Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns eligibility for federal trademark registration. Respondent Booking.com, an enterprise that maintains a travel-reservation website by the same name, sought to register the mark "Booking.com." Concluding that "Booking.com" is a generic name for online hotel-reservation services, the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) refused registration. A generic name-the name of a class of products or services-is ineligible for federal trademark registration. The word "booking," the parties do not dispute, is generic for hotel-reservation services. "Booking.com" must also be generic, the PTO maintains, under an encompassing rule the PTO currently urges us to adopt: The combination of a generic word and ".com" is generic. In accord with the first- and second-instance judgments in this case, we reject the PTO's sweeping rule. A term styled "generic.com" is a generic name for a class of goods or services only if the term has that meaning to consumers. Consumers, according to lower court determinations uncontested here by the PTO, do not perceive the term "Booking.com" to signify online hotel-reservation services as a class. In circumstances like those this case presents, a "generic.com" term is not generic and can be eligible for federal trademark registration. I A A trademark distinguishes one producer's goods or services from another's. Guarding a trademark against use by others, this Court has explained, "secure[s] to the owner of the mark the goodwill" of her business and "protect[s] the ability of consumers to distinguish among competing producers." Park 'N Fly, Inc. v. Dollar Park & Fly, Inc. , 469 U.S. 189, 105 S.Ct. 658, 83 L.Ed.2d 582, 198 (1985) ; see S. Rep. No. 1333, 79th Cong., 2d Sess., 3 (1946) (trademark statutes aim to "protect the public so it may be confident that, in purchasing a product bearing a particular trade-mark which it favorably knows, it will get the product which it asks for and wants to get"). Trademark protection has roots in common law and equity. Matal v. Tam , 582 U. S. ----, ----, 137 S.Ct. 1744, 1751, 198 L.Ed.2d 366 (2017). Today, the Lanham Act, enacted in 1946, provides federal statutory protection for trademarks. 60 Stat. 427, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq. We have recognized that federal trademark protection, supplementing state law, "supports the free flow of commerce" and "foster[s] competition." Matal , 582 U. S., at ----, ---- - ----, 137 S.Ct., at 1751-1752, 1752-1753 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Lanham Act not only arms trademark owners with federal claims for relief; importantly, it establishes a system of federal trademark registration. The owner of a mark on the principal register enjoys "valuable benefits," including a presumption that the mark is valid. Iancu v. Brunetti , 588 U. S. ----, ----, 139 S.Ct. 2294, 2297-2298, 204 L.Ed.2d 714 (2019) ; see §§ 1051, 1052. The supplemental register contains other product and service designations, some of which could one day gain eligibility for the principal register. See § 1091. The supplemental register accords more modest benefits; notably, a listing on that register announces one's use of the designation to others considering a similar mark. See 3 J. McCarthy, Trademarks and Unfair Competition § 19:37 (5th ed. 2019) (hereinafter McCarthy). Even without federal registration, a mark may be eligible for protection against infringement under both the Lanham Act and other sources of law. See Matal , 582 U. S., at ---- - ----, 137 S.Ct., at 1752-1753. Prime among the conditions for registration, the mark must be one "by which the goods of the applicant may be distinguished from the goods of others." § 1052 ; see § 1091(a) (supplemental register contains "marks capable of distinguishing ... goods or services"). Distinctiveness is often expressed on an increasing scale: Word marks "may be (1) generic; (2) descriptive; (3) suggestive; (4) arbitrary; or (5) fanciful." Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc. , 505 U.S. 763, 768, 112 S.Ct. 2753, 120 L.Ed.2d 615 (1992). The more distinctive the mark, the more readily it qualifies for the principal register. The most distinctive marks-those that are " 'arbitrary' ('Camel' cigarettes), 'fanciful' ('Kodak' film), or 'suggestive' ('Tide' laundry detergent)"-may be placed on the principal register because they are "inherently distinctive." Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Brothers, Inc. , 529 U.S. 205, 210-211, 120 S.Ct. 1339, 146 L.Ed.2d 182 (2000). "Descriptive" terms, in contrast, are not eligible for the principal register based on their inherent qualities alone. E.g. , Park 'N Fly, Inc. v. Dollar Park & Fly, Inc. , 718 F.2d 327, 331 (CA9 1983) ("Park 'N Fly" airport parking is descriptive), rev'd on other grounds, 469 U.S. 189, 105 S.Ct. 658, 83 L.Ed.2d 582 (1985). The Lanham Act, "liberaliz[ing] the common law," "extended protection to descriptive marks." Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co. , 514 U.S. 159, 171, 115 S.Ct. 1300, 131 L.Ed.2d 248 (1995). But to be placed on the principal register, descriptive terms must achieve significance "in the minds of the public" as identifying the applicant's goods or services-a quality called "acquired distinctiveness" or "secondary meaning." Wal-Mart Stores , 529 U.S. at 211, 120 S.Ct. 1339 (internal quotation marks omitted); see § 1052(e), (f). Without secondary meaning, descriptive terms may be eligible only for the supplemental register. § 1091(a). At the lowest end of the distinctiveness scale is "the generic name for the goods or services." §§ 1127, 1064(3), 1065(4). The name of the good itself (e.g. , "wine") is incapable of "distinguish[ing] [one producer's goods] from the goods of others" and is therefore ineligible for registration. § 1052 ; see § 1091(a). Indeed, generic terms are ordinarily ineligible for protection as trademarks at all. See Restatement (Third) of Unfair Competition § 15, p. 142 (1993); Otokoyama Co. v. Wine of Japan Import, Inc. , 175 F.3d 266, 270 (CA2 1999) ("[E]veryone may use [generic terms] to refer to the goods they designate."). B Booking.com is a digital travel company that provides hotel reservations and other services under the brand "Booking.com," which is also the domain name of its website. Booking.com filed applications to register four marks in connection with travel-related services, each with different visual features but all containing the term "Booking.com." Both a PTO examining attorney and the PTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board concluded that the term "Booking.com" is generic for the services at issue and is therefore unregistrable. "Booking," the Board observed, means making travel reservations, and ".com" signifies a commercial website. The Board then ruled that "customers would understand the term BOOKING.COM primarily to refer to an online reservation service for travel, tours, and lodgings." App. to Pet. for Cert. 164a, 176a. Alternatively, the Board held that even if "Booking.com" is descriptive, not generic, it is unregistrable because it lacks secondary meaning. Booking.com sought review in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, invoking a mode of review that allows Booking.com to introduce evidence not presented to the agency. See § 1071(b). Relying in significant part on Booking.com's new evidence of consumer perception, the District Court concluded that "Booking.com"-unlike "booking"-is not generic. The "consuming public," the court found, "primarily understands that BOOKING.COM does not refer to a genus, rather it is descriptive of services involving 'booking' available at that domain name." Booking.com B.V. v. Matal , 278 F.Supp.3d 891, 918 (2017). Having determined that "Booking.com" is descriptive, the District Court additionally found that the term has acquired secondary meaning as to hotel-reservation services. For those services, the District Court therefore concluded, Booking.com's marks meet the distinctiveness requirement for registration. The PTO appealed only the District Court's determination that "Booking.com" is not generic. Finding no error in the District Court's assessment of how consumers perceive the term "Booking.com," the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the court of first instance's judgment. In so ruling, the appeals court rejected the PTO's contention that the combination of ".com" with a generic term like "booking" "is necessarily generic." 915 F. 3d 171, 184 (2019). Dissenting in relevant part, Judge Wynn concluded that the District Court mistakenly presumed that "generic.com" terms are usually descriptive, not generic. We granted certiorari, 589 U. S. ----, 140 S.Ct. 489, 205 L.Ed.2d 290 (2019), and now affirm the Fourth Circuit's decision. II Although the parties here disagree about the circumstances in which terms like "Booking.com" rank as generic, several guiding principles are common ground. First, a "generic" term names a "class" of goods or services, rather than any particular feature or exemplification of the class. Brief for Petitioners 4; Brief for Respondent 6; see §§ 1127, 1064(3), 1065(4) (referring to "the generic name for the goods or services"); Park 'N Fly , 469 U.S. at 194, 105 S.Ct. 658 ("A generic term is one that refers to the genus of which the particular product is a species."). Second, for a compound term, the distinctiveness inquiry trains on the term's meaning as a whole, not its parts in isolation. Reply Brief 9; Brief for Respondent 2; see Estate of P. D. Beckwith, Inc. v. Commissioner of Patents , 252 U.S. 538, 545-546, 40 S.Ct. 414, 64 L.Ed. 705 (1920). Third, the relevant meaning of a term is its meaning to consumers. Brief for Petitioners 43-44; Brief for Respondent 2; see Bayer Co. v. United Drug Co. , 272 F. 505, 509 (SDNY 1921) (Hand, J.) ("What do the buyers understand by the word for whose use the parties are contending?"). Eligibility for registration, all agree, turns on the mark's capacity to "distinguis[h]" goods "in commerce." § 1052. Evidencing the Lanham Act's focus on consumer perception, the section governing cancellation of registration provides that "[t]he primary significance of the registered mark to the relevant public ... shall be the test for determining whether the registered mark has become the generic name of goods or services." § 1064(3). Under these principles, whether "Booking.com" is generic turns on whether that term, taken as a whole, signifies to consumers the class of online hotel-reservation services. Thus, if "Booking.com" were generic, we might expect consumers to understand Travelocity-another such service-to be a "Booking.com." We might similarly expect that a consumer, searching for a trusted source of online hotel-reservation services, could ask a frequent traveler to name her favorite "Booking.com" provider. Consumers do not in fact perceive the term "Booking.com" that way, the courts below determined. The PTO no longer disputes that determination. See Pet. for Cert. I; Brief for Petitioners 17-18 (contending only that a consumer-perception inquiry was unnecessary, not that the lower courts' consumer-perception determination was wrong). That should resolve this case: Because "Booking.com" is not a generic name to consumers, it is not generic. III Opposing that conclusion, the PTO urges a nearly per se rule that would render "Booking.com" ineligible for registration regardless of specific evidence of consumer perception. In the PTO's view, which the dissent embraces, when a generic term is combined with a generic top-level domain like ".com," the resulting combination is generic. In other words, every "generic.com" term is generic according to the PTO, absent exceptional circumstances. The PTO's own past practice appears to reflect no such comprehensive rule. See, e.g. , Trademark Registration No. 3,601,346 ("ART.COM" on principal register for, inter alia , "[o]nline retail store services" offering "art prints, original art, [and] art reproductions"); Trademark Registration No. 2,580,467 ("DATING.COM" on supplemental register for "dating services"). Existing registrations inconsistent with the rule the PTO now advances would be at risk of cancellation if the PTO's current view were to prevail. See § 1064(3). We decline to adopt a rule essentially excluding registration of "generic.com" marks. As explained below, we discern no support for the PTO's current view in trademark law or policy. A The PTO urges that the exclusionary rule it advocates follows from a common-law principle, applied in Goodyear's India Rubber Glove Mfg. Co. v. Goodyear Rubber Co. , 128 U.S. 598, 9 S.Ct. 166, 32 L.Ed. 535 (1888), that a generic corporate designation added to a generic term does not confer trademark eligibility. In Goodyear , a decision predating the Lanham Act, this Court held that "Goodyear Rubber Company" was not "capable of exclusive appropriation." Id. , at 602, 9 S.Ct. 166. Standing alone, the term "Goodyear Rubber" could not serve as a trademark because it referred, in those days, to "well-known classes of goods produced by the process known as Goodyear's invention." Ibid. "[A]ddition of the word 'Company' " supplied no protectable meaning, the Court concluded, because adding "Company" "only indicates that parties have formed an association or partnership to deal in such goods." Ibid. Permitting exclusive rights in "Goodyear Rubber Company" (or "Wine Company, Cotton Company, or Grain Company"), the Court explained, would tread on the right of all persons "to deal in such articles, and to publish the fact to the world." Id. , at 602-603, 9 S.Ct. 166. "Generic.com," the PTO maintains, is like "Generic Company" and is therefore ineligible for trademark protection, let alone federal registration. According to the PTO, adding ".com" to a generic term-like adding "Company"-"conveys no additional meaning that would distinguish [one provider's] services from those of other providers." Brief for Petitioners 44. The dissent endorses that proposition: "Generic.com" conveys that the generic good or service is offered online "and nothing more." Post , at 2309. That premise is faulty. A "generic.com" term might also convey to consumers a source-identifying characteristic: an association with a particular website. As the PTO and the dissent elsewhere acknowledge, only one entity can occupy a particular Internet domain name at a time, so "[a] consumer who is familiar with that aspect of the domain-name system can infer that BOOKING.COM refers to some specific entity." Brief for Petitioners 40. See also Tr. of Oral Arg. 5 ("Because domain names are one of a kind, a significant portion of the public will always understand a generic '.com' term to refer to a specific business ...."); post , at 2312 - 2313 (the "exclusivity" of "generic.com" terms sets them apart from terms like "Wine, Inc." and "The Wine Company"). Thus, consumers could understand a given "generic.com" term to describe the corresponding website or to identify the website's proprietor. We therefore resist the PTO's position that "generic.com" terms are capable of signifying only an entire class of online goods or services and, hence, are categorically incapable of identifying a source. The PTO's reliance on Goodyear is flawed in another respect. The PTO understands Goodyear to hold that "Generic Company" terms "are ineligible for trademark protection as a matter of law "-regardless of how "consumers would understand" the term. Brief for Petitioners 38. But, as noted, whether a term is generic depends on its meaning to consumers. Supra , at 2304. That bedrock principle of the Lanham Act is incompatible with an unyielding legal rule that entirely disregards consumer perception. Instead, Goodyear reflects a more modest principle harmonious with Congress' subsequent enactment: A compound of generic elements is generic if the combination yields no additional meaning to consumers capable of distinguishing the goods or services. The PTO also invokes the oft-repeated principle that "no matter how much money and effort the user of a generic term has poured into promoting the sale of its merchandise ..., it cannot deprive competing manufacturers of the product of the right to call an article by its name." Abercrombie & Fitch Co. v. Hunting World, Inc. , 537 F.2d 4, 9 (CA2 1976). That principle presupposes that a generic term is at issue. But the PTO's only legal basis for deeming "generic.com" terms generic is its mistaken reliance on Goodyear . While we reject the rule proffered by the PTO that "generic.com" terms are generic names, we do not embrace a rule automatically classifying such terms as nongeneric. Whether any given "generic.com" term is generic, we hold, depends on whether consumers in fact perceive that term as the name of a class or, instead, as a term capable of distinguishing among members of the class. B The PTO, echoed by the dissent, post , at 2314 - 2315, objects that protecting "generic.com" terms as trademarks would disserve trademark law's animating policies. We disagree. The PTO's principal concern is that trademark protection for a term like "Booking.com" would hinder competitors. But the PTO does not assert that others seeking to offer online hotel-reservation services need to call their services "Booking.com." Rather, the PTO fears that trademark protection for "Booking.com" could exclude or inhibit competitors from using the term "booking" or adopting domain names like "ebooking.com" or "hotel-booking.com." Brief for Petitioners 27-28. The PTO's objection, therefore, is not to exclusive use of "Booking.com" as a mark, but to undue control over similar language, i.e. , "booking," that others should remain free to use. That concern attends any descriptive mark. Responsive to it, trademark law hems in the scope of such marks short of denying trademark protection altogether. Notably, a competitor's use does not infringe a mark unless it is likely to confuse consumers. See §§ 1114(1), 1125(a)(1)(A) ; 4 McCarthy § 23:1.50 (collecting state law). In assessing the likelihood of confusion, courts consider the mark's distinctiveness: "The weaker a mark, the fewer are the junior uses that will trigger a likelihood of consumer confusion." 2 id. , § 11:76. When a mark incorporates generic or highly descriptive components, consumers are less likely to think that other uses of the common element emanate from the mark's owner. Ibid. Similarly, "[i]n a 'crowded' field of look-alike marks" (e.g. , hotel names including the word "grand"), consumers "may have learned to carefully pick out" one mark from another. Id. , § 11:85. And even where some consumer confusion exists, the doctrine known as classic fair use, see id. , § 11:45, protects from liability anyone who uses a descriptive term, "fairly and in good faith" and "otherwise than as a mark," merely to describe her own goods. 15 U.S.C. § 1115(b)(4) ; see KP Permanent Make-Up, Inc. v. Lasting Impression I, Inc. , 543 U.S. 111, 122-123, 125 S.Ct. 542, 160 L.Ed.2d 440 (2004). These doctrines guard against the anticompetitive effects the PTO identifies, ensuring that registration of "Booking.com" would not yield its holder a monopoly on the term "booking." Booking.com concedes that "Booking.com" would be a "weak" mark. Tr. of Oral Arg. 66. See also id. , at 42-43, 55. The mark is descriptive, Booking.com recognizes, making it "harder ... to show a likelihood of confusion." Id. , at 43. Furthermore, because its mark is one of many "similarly worded marks," Booking.com accepts that close variations are unlikely to infringe. Id. , at 66. And Booking.com acknowledges that federal registration of "Booking.com" would not prevent competitors from using the word "booking" to describe their own services. Id. , at 55. The PTO also doubts that owners of "generic.com" brands need trademark protection in addition to existing competitive advantages. Booking.com, the PTO argues, has already seized a domain name that no other website can use and is easy for consumers to find. Consumers might enter "the word 'booking' in a search engine," the PTO observes, or "proceed directly to 'booking.com' in the expectation that [online hotel-booking] services will be offered at that address." Brief for Petitioners 32. Those competitive advantages, however, do not inevitably disqualify a mark from federal registration. All descriptive marks are intuitively linked to the product or service and thus might be easy for consumers to find using a search engine or telephone directory. The Lanham Act permits registration nonetheless. See § 1052(e), (f). And the PTO fails to explain how the exclusive connection between a domain name and its owner makes the domain name a generic term all should be free to use. That connection makes trademark protection more appropriate, not less. See supra , at 2305 - 2306. Finally, even if "Booking.com" is generic, the PTO urges, unfair-competition law could prevent others from passing off their services as Booking.com's. Cf. Genesee Brewing Co. v. Stroh Brewing Co. , 124 F.3d 137, 149 (CA2 1997) ; Blinded Veterans Assn. v. Blinded Am. Veterans Foundation , 872 F.2d 1035, 1042-1048 (CADC 1989). But federal trademark registration would offer Booking.com greater protection. See, e.g. , Genesee Brewing , 124 F.3d at 151 (unfair-competition law would oblige competitor at most to "make more of an effort" to reduce confusion, not to cease marketing its product using the disputed term); Matal , 582 U. S., at ----, 137 S.Ct., at 1753 (federal registration confers valuable benefits); Brief for Respondent 26 (expressing intention to seek protections available to trademark owners under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d) ); Brief for Coalition of .Com Brand Owners as Amici Curiae 14-19 (trademark rights allow mark owners to stop domain-name abuse through private dispute resolution without resorting to litigation). We have no cause to deny Booking.com the same benefits Congress accorded other marks qualifying as nongeneric. * * * The PTO challenges the judgment below on a sole ground: It urges that, as a rule, combining a generic term with ".com" yields a generic composite. For the above-stated reasons, we decline a rule of that order, one that would largely disallow registration of "generic.com" terms and open the door to cancellation of scores of currently registered marks. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit regarding eligibility for trademark registration is Affirmed. A domain name identifies an address on the Internet. The rightmost component of a domain name-".com" in "Booking.com"-is known as the top-level domain. Domain names are unique; that is, a given domain name is assigned to only one entity at a time. For simplicity, this opinion uses the term "trademark" to encompass the marks whose registration Booking.com seeks. Although Booking.com uses the marks in connection with services, not goods, rendering the marks "service marks" rather than "trademarks" under 15 U.S.C. § 1127, that distinction is immaterial to the issue before us. The U. S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) suggests that the primary-significance test might not govern outside the context of § 1064(3), which subjects to cancellation marks previously registered that have "become" generic. See Reply Brief 11; Tr. of Oral Arg. 19. To so confine the primary-significance test, however, would upset the understanding, shared by Courts of Appeals and the PTO's own manual for trademark examiners, that the same test governs whether a mark is registrable in the first place. See, e.g. , In re Cordua Restaurants, Inc. , 823 F.3d 594, 599 (CA Fed. 2016) ; Nartron Corp. v. STMicroelectronics, Inc. , 305 F.3d 397, 404 (CA6 2002) ; Genesee Brewing Co. v. Stroh Brewing Co. , 124 F.3d 137, 144 (CA2 1997) ; Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure § 1209.01(c)(i), p. 1200-267 (Oct. 2018), http://tmep.uspto.gov. We need not address today the scope of the primary-significance test's application, for our analysis does not depend on whether one meaning among several is "primary." Sufficient to resolve this case is the undisputed principle that consumer perception demarcates a term's meaning. The PTO notes only one possible exception: Sometimes adding a generic term to a generic top-level domain results in wordplay (for example, "tennis.net"). That special case, the PTO acknowledges, is not presented here and does not affect our analysis. See Brief for Petitioners 25, n. 6; Tr. of Oral Arg. 25-26. In passing, the PTO urges us to disregard that a domain name is assigned to only one entity at a time. That fact, the PTO suggests, stems from "a functional characteristic of the Internet and the domain-name system," and functional features cannot receive trademark protection. Brief for Petitioners 32. "[A] product feature is functional, and cannot serve as a trademark," we have held, "if it is essential to the use or purpose of the article or if it affects the cost or quality of the article." TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc. , 532 U.S. 23, 32, 121 S.Ct. 1255, 149 L.Ed.2d 164 (2001) (internal quotation marks omitted); see § 1052(e) (barring from the principal registrar "any matter that, as a whole, is functional"). This case, however, does not concern trademark protection for a feature of the Internet or the domain-name system; Booking.com lays no claim to the use of unique domain names generally. Nor does the PTO contend that the particular domain name "Booking.com" is essential to the use or purpose of online hotel-reservation services, affects these services' cost or quality, or is otherwise necessary for competitors to use. In any event, we have no occasion to decide the applicability of § 1052(e) 's functionality bar, for the sole ground on which the PTO refused registration, and the sole claim before us, is that "Booking.com" is generic. Evidence informing that inquiry can include not only consumer surveys, but also dictionaries, usage by consumers and competitors, and any other source of evidence bearing on how consumers perceive a term's meaning. Surveys can be helpful evidence of consumer perception but require care in their design and interpretation. See Brief for Trademark Scholars as Amici Curiae 18-20 (urging that survey respondents may conflate the fact that domain names are exclusive with a conclusion that a given "generic.com" term has achieved secondary meaning). Moreover, difficult questions may be presented when a term has multiple concurrent meanings to consumers or a meaning that has changed over time. See, e.g. , 2 J. McCarthy, Trademarks and Unfair Competition § 12:51 (5th ed. 2019) (discussing terms that are "a generic name to some, a trademark to others"); id. , § 12:49 ("Determining the distinction between generic and trademark usage of a word ... when there are no other sellers of [the good or service] is one of the most difficult areas of trademark law."). Such issues are not here entailed, for the PTO does not contest the lower courts' assessment of consumer perception in this case. See Pet. for Cert. I; Brief for Petitioners 17-18. For the same reason, while the dissent questions the evidence on which the lower courts relied, post , at 2312 - 2313, 2313 - 2314, we have no occasion to reweigh that evidence. Cf. post , at 2309 (SOTOMAYOR, J., concurring). Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted and the judgment of the Appellate Term of the Supreme Court of New York, First Judicial Department, is reversed. Redrup v. New York, 386 U. S. 767. Mr. Justice Harlan adheres to the views expressed in his separate opinions in Roth v. United States, 354 U. S. 476, 496, and Memoirs v. Massachusetts, 383 U. S. 413, 455, and on the basis of the reasoning set forth therein would affirm. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
C
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case we consider whether the South Dakota Airline Flight Property Tax, S. D. Codified Laws, ch. 10-29 (1982), violates the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982, 49 U. S. C. App. § 1513(d). We conclude that because the South Dakota Airline Flight Property Tax is an “in lieu tax which is wholly utilized for airport and aeronautical purposes,” 49 U. S. C. App. § 1513(d)(3), the tax does not violate § 1513(d). I The federal provision at issue is part of a series of congressional actions dedicated to improving the Nation’s air transportation system. Aloha Airlines, Inc. v. Director of Taxation, 464 U. S. 7, 8-10 (1983). In 1970, following findings that “substantial expansion and improvement of the airport and airway system is [sic] required to meet the demands of interstate commerce, the postal service, and the national defense,” H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 91-1074, p. 29 (1970), Congress required the Secretary of Transportation to prepare a plan for the development of public airports, and authorized the Secretary to make grants to States and localities for airport development. Airport and Airway Development Act of 1970, Pub. L. 91-258, 84 Stat. 219. Congress also established an Airport and Airway Trust Fund, maintained by federal aviation taxes, to finance airport development projects. §208, 84 Stat. 250. Soon afterward, Congress acted to limit state taxation of air transportation. Concluding that state passenger use taxes placed “an unnecessary burden on interstate commerce,” and had “a stifling effect on air transportation,” H. R. Rep. No. 93-157, p. 4 (1973), Congress prohibited such taxes in the Airport Development Acceleration Act of 1973, Pub. L. 93-44, §7(a), 87 Stat. 90. In the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982, 96 Stat. 701, Congress added a §7(d) to the Airway Development Acceleration Act of 1973, prohibiting the imposition of discriminatory property taxes on air carriers. That prohibition, as codified at 49 U. S. C. App. § 1513(d), reads: “(d) Acts which unreasonably burden and discriminate against interstate commerce; definitions “(1) The following acts unreasonably burden and discriminate against interstate commerce and a State, subdivision of a State, or authority acting for a State or subdivision of a State may not do any of them: “(A) assess air carrier transportation property at a value that has a higher ratio to the true market value of the air carrier transportation property than the ratio that the assessed value of other commercial and industrial property of the same type in the same assessment jurisdiction has to the true market value of the other commercial and industrial property; “(B) levy or collect a tax on an assessment that may not be made under subparagraph (A) of this paragraph; or “(C) levy or collect an ad valorem property tax on air carrier transportation property at a tax rate that exceeds the tax rate applicable to commercial and industrial property in the same assessment jurisdiction. “(2) In this subsection— “(D) ‘commercial and industrial property’ means property, other than transportation property and land used primarily for agricultural purposes or timber growing, devoted to commercial and industrial use and subject to a property tax levy; . . . “(3) This subsection shall not apply to any in lieu tax which is wholly utilized for airport and aeronautical purposes.” The South Dakota Airline Flight Property Tax, which appellants allege violates § 1513(d), was enacted in 1961. Flight property is defined as “all aircraft fully equipped ready for flight used in air commerce.” S. D. Codified Laws § 10-29-1(4) (1982). The portion of the value of flight property subject to the tax is based on flight tonnage, flight time, and revenue ton miles, § 10-29-10, and this value is taxed at the “average mill rate,” § 10-29-14. The statute also provides that “[t]he taxes imposed by this chapter shall be allocated by the secretary of revenue to the airports where such airlines companies make regularly scheduled landings and shall be used exclusively by such airports for airport purposes . . . .” §10-29-15. The South Dakota statute provides that “[fjlight property of airline companies operating in the state shall be assessed for the purpose of taxation by the department of revenue and not otherwise,” § 10-29-2. Airline flight property is 1 of 10 specific categories of property that are centrally assessed for purposes of taxation. (The other categories are certain property of railroads, private car-line companies, express companies, telephone companies, telegraph companies, electric, heating, water and gas companies, rural electric companies, rural water supply companies, and pipeline companies. See S. D. Codified Laws chs. 10-28 through 10-37.) Each of these categories was an exception from the general South Dakota scheme of local property tax assessment a1 the county level. S. D. Codified Laws § 10-3-16 (1982). In 1978, South Dakota exempted from ad valorem taxation all personal property that was locally rather than centrally assessed, §10-4-6.1. In May 1983, appellants, four airline companies operating in South Dakota, paid their flight property taxes for the first six months of 1983 under protest. Appellants then sued the appropriate county treasurers for a refund. Appellants alleged that, because airline flight property was subject to taxation while most other personal property was exempt, the South Dakota flight property tax violated §§ 1513(d)(1)(A) and (C). In each case the county answered that the state flight property tax was “utilized wholly for airport and aeronautical purposes and is in lieu of property taxes and is therefore permitted by 49 U. S. C. [App. §] 1513(d)(3).” App. 10-11. Following an unsuccessful request to seven county boards of commissioners to abate and refund flight property taxes paid after the effective date of the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982, appellants sued the county commissions for abatement and refund. App. 17. Finally, appellants appealed the property tax assessment to the South Dakota State Board of Equalization. The Board of Equalization unanimously denied the appeal, holding that “the airline flight property tax is in lieu of personal property tax and is totally utilized for airport and aeronautical purposes, therefore, in conformity with Section [1513](d)(3), this tax is lawful and not a violation of Federal law.” Id., at 31. All the lawsuits described above were consolidated in the Circuit Court for the Sixth Judicial Circuit in Hughes County, South Dakota. That court agreed with the counties and the Board of Equalization that the flight property tax was permitted under § 1513(d)(3). App. to Juris. Statement 19a-21a. On appeal, the Supreme Court of South Dakota disagreed with the conclusion that the flight property tax was authorized under § 1513(d). 372 N. W. 2d 106 (1985). In order to be an “in lieu tax,” the court reasoned, the flight property tax must be a substitute for another tax on flight property. “In the case at bar, however, the tax is not a substitute for an ad valorem personal property tax. It is in fact the first imposition of personal property tax on the airline flight property.” Id., at 109. The State Supreme Court affirmed the Circuit Court, however, on an alternative ground. Under §§ 1513(d)(1)(A) and (C), the discriminatory nature of assessment ratios or tax rates applied to airline property is determined by comparison to the ratios and rates applied to other “commercial and industrial property.” “Commercial and industrial property” is defined as “property, other than transportation property and land used primarily for agricultural purposes or timber growing, devoted to commercial and industrial use and subject to a property tax levy. ” § 1513(d)(2)(D) (emphasis supplied). Because locally assessed personal property was not subject to a property tax levy, the State Supreme Court concluded that such property “cannot be included as commercial or industrial property for comparison under either” §§ 1513(d)(1)(A) or (C). 372 N. W. 2d, at 110. Because appellants’ claims under § 1513(d) were based on a comparison between flight property and property no longer subject to a tax levy, the court concluded that the claims must be rejected. South Dakota Supreme Court Justice Henderson concurred in the court’s interpretation of the “in lieu tax” provision, but dissented from the court’s interpretation of “ ‘commercial and industrial property.’” The State Supreme Court holding, Justice Henderson observed, permitted “-‘greater discrimination when the [commercial and industrial] property is completely exempt than when it is taxed, but at a lower rate.’” Id., at 112, quoting Northwest Airlines v. State Board of Equalization, 358 N. W. 2d 515, 517 (1984). Such an interpretation of the federal antidiscrimination provisions was unreasonable, Justice Henderson concluded. “Since the level of assessment on commercial and industrial personal property is zero, the level of assessment of the airlines’ personal property must be reduced to zero.” 372 N. W. 2d, at 112. In their jurisdictional statement to this Court appellants challenged the Supreme Court of South Dakota’s interpretation of “commercial and industrial property” under § 1513(d). Appellees defended the judgment on the basis of the same reasoning used by the Supreme Court of South Dakota. We noted probable jurisdiction, 475 U. S. 1008 (1986). Following oral argument, we requested supplemental briefing from the parties, and called for the views of the United States, on the following questions: (1) Is the question whether a state tax is an “in lieu tax which is wholly utilized for airport and aeronautical purposes,” one of state or federal law, and “(2) If federal law governs the question whether a tax is an in lieu tax under § 1513(d)(3), is the South Dakota Airline Flight Property Tax ... an ‘in lieu tax’ under § 1513(d)(3)?” 479 U. S. 958 (1986). Because our conclusions on these two questions resolve this case, we do not reach the question of the interpretation of “commercial and industrial property” under § 1513(d). II The parties and the United States agree that the question whether a state tax is an “in lieu tax which is wholly utilized for airport and aeronautical purposes,” under § 1513 (d)(3), is ultimately one of federal law. The general principle that, absent a clear indication to the contrary, the meaning of words in a federal statute is a question of federal law has especial force when the purpose of the federal statute is to eliminate discriminatory state treatment of interstate commerce. Indeed, in Aloha Airlines, Inc. v. Director of Taxation, 464 U. S., at 13-14, this Court held that a state legislature’s characterization of a tax could not shield the tax from application of another subsection of §1513. In the present case, as in Aloha Airlines, supra, we must examine the “purpose and effect” of the state tax in light of the policy embodied in the federal provision. Congress has given us little material with which to interpret the in lieu tax exception. The provision was added to the Act at conference, and there is no legislative history specifically discussing it. The language of § 1513(d)(3) itself, and the policies reflected in the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982, however, lead us to the conclusion that the in lieu tax provision exempts the South Dakota Airline Flight Property Tax from the restrictions of § 1513(d). Section 1513(d)(3) uses two characteristics to identify a group of airline property taxes that are exempted from the restrictions of § 1513(d)(1). First, and perhaps most important, to fall under the protection of § 1513(d)(3) a tax must be “wholly utilized for airport and aeronautical purposes.” Section 1513(d) is modeled on similar provisions in the 4-R Act and the Motor Carrier Act of 1980. See 49 U. S. C. §§ 11503, 11503a. The legislative history of the antidiscrimi-nation provision in the 4-R Act demonstrates Congress’ awareness that interstate carriers “are easy prey for State and local tax assessors” in that they are “nonvoting, often nonresident, targets for local taxation,” who cannot easily remove themselves from the locality. S. Rep. No. 91-630, p. 3 (1969). The Department of Transportation had observed that “[s]tate and local governments derive substantial revenues from taxes on property owned by common carriers. ” Id., at 4. It is this temptation to excessively tax nonvoting, nonresident businesses in order to subsidize general welfare services for state residents that made federal legislation in this area necessary. The ability to use taxes levied on an interstate carrier to subsidize general welfare spending does not exist, of course, when the proceeds are allocated directly and entirely to the benefit of the carrier. Not only is the possibility of discriminatory benefits to state residents eliminated, but also the specter of discriminatory burdens on the carrier is avoided by the recycling of the tax revenues into the specific facilities used by the carrier. Second, the phrase “in lieu tax” restricts the protection of § 1513(d)(3) to property taxes applied to the exclusion of any other tax on the property, in other words, to taxes applied in lieu of any other possible property tax. This requirement reinforces the policy reflected in the “wholly utilized for airport and aeronautical purposes” phrase. If the revenues collected pursuant to a property tax are specifically used for the benefit of those from whom the tax was collected, then, as explained above, the tax does not discriminatorily take from some in order to benefit others. If the same property is also subjected to tax used to subsidize general state expenditures, however, then the potential for abuse remains. Two individually nondiscriminatory taxes — a tax used for general welfare spending that meets the assessment ratio and rate restrictions of § 1513(d)(1), and a tax the proceeds of which are devoted entirely to the industry from which it is collected — obviously can become discriminatorily burdensome when combined. South Dakota levies a tax on airline flight property, the proceeds of which are wholly utilized for airport and aeronautical purposes. See S. D. Codified Laws § 10-29-15 (1982), quoted supra, at 126. The South Dakota Airline Flight Property Tax establishes a method of taxing a particular type of property to the exclusion of any other tax on that property. It therefore stands in lieu of the generally applicable ad valorem property tax that had been assessed on most other commercial and industrial property in the State at the time the airline flight property tax was established. The language and logic of § 1513(d)(3), therefore, lead to the conclusion that the South Dakota Airline Flight Property Tax falls under the in lieu tax exemption. Appellants argue, however, that these characteristics alone are not sufficient for a tax to be exempted by § 1513(d)(3). Appellants advocate the position taken by the Supreme Court of South Dakota, that in order to be exempted under this provision a tax must take the place of another tax that historically had been applied to the airline property. The fact that a property tax is applied to the exclusion of all other property taxes is immaterial, appellants assert, unless some past tax was actually replaced by the present tax. Because South Dakota’s taxation of airline flight property has always taken the form of the taxation scheme at issue in this case, appellants argue, the South Dakota Airline Flight Property Tax is not a true “in lieu tax.” Admittedly the phrase “in lieu tax” is open to this interpretation. The illogical results of applying such an interpretation, however, argue strongly against the conclusion that Congress intended these results when it drafted § 1513(d)(3). Under the interpretation appellants advocate, the question whether a tax would be exempted under the in lieu tax provision would, at best, turn on historical fortuity. The identical taxation scheme South Dakota utilizes would be exempted under § 1513(d)(3) if South Dakota had at one time applied some other taxation scheme to airline flight property. Thus, if at one time the proceeds of the airline flight property tax had gone to general state expenditures rather than directly to the benefit of airports and airlines, the present tax would be exempted. Because South Dakota has always chosen to devote its taxes on airline flight property solely to the benefit of those airlines, it is not exempted, according to appellants. Why a State that has consistently chosen to levy, to the exclusion of all other property taxes, a tax utilized wholly for aeronautical purposes should be penalized for its consistency is unexplained. At worst, appellants’ interpretation of § 1513(d)(3) would do no more than place a meaningless hurdle before state legislatures seeking to conform their tax scheme to the requirements of this provision. A closer examination of how this proposed replacement requirement would operate in practice illustrates the point. Appellants do not suggest— and have no basis upon which to suggest — that in order to be an “in lieu tax” under § 1513(d)(3) the airline flight property tax must have replaced some other tax by the effective date of the federal provision. If one tax must replace another, therefore, the replacement could take place at any time. Moreover, it could not be a condition of § 1513(d)(3) coverage that the “in lieu tax” replace a tax that had met the antidis-crimination restrictions of § 1513(d). If the tax described in § 1513(d)(3) could replace only a tax that met all the requirements of § 1513(d)(1), then § 1513(d)(3) would not be an exemption at all; it would simply add a restriction on how the taxes could be spent with no corresponding latitude on how they may be collected. Ultimately, therefore, South Dakota could satisfy appellants’ interpretation of § 1513(d)(3) by simply amending its tax code so that its airline flight property tax took some other form, then the following session substituting for that tax a tax utilized wholly for aeronautical purposes. This exercise of replacing one tax with another, while contributing somewhat to a state legislature’s workload, would contribute nothing to the policies of the Airport and Airway Improvement Act. In sum, the language of § 1513(d)(3), while at first glance ambiguous, should be interpreted in a manner that comports with the policies of the Airport and Airway Improvement Act. That interpretation is that § 1513(d)(3) exempts from the antidiscrimination provisions of § 1513(d)(1) a tax on airline flight property, applied to the exclusion of any other possible tax on that property, the proceeds of which are wholly utilized for airport and aeronautical purposes. Because the South Dakota Airline Flight Property Tax fits this description, it does not violate the antidiscrimination provisions of § 1513(d). For this reason, the judgment of the Supreme Court of South Dakota is Affirmed. The United States and appellants have directed our attention to a 1975 Report of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce on H. R. 10979, the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 (4-R Act). As we note infra, at 131, the antidiscrimination provisions of 49 U. S. C. App. § 1513(d) were modeled on a similar provision in the 4-R Act. This Report used the phrase “in lieu tax” to describe special taxes on common carriers that operate differently from the generally applicable property tax schemes. H. R. Rep. No. 94-725, pp. 77, 78 (1975). The House Report seems to have used the phrase “in lieu tax” to describe a broad range of taxes. This sliver of legislative history supports our interpretation of the phrase, see infra, at 131-132. Appellants submit an affidavit of John L. Zoraek, an attorney who “rep-resentes] clients in a variety of legislative matters before the United States Congress.” App. to Supplemental Brief for Appellants in No. 14560 (Sup. Ct. S. D.) B-l, B-2. Affiant Zoraek states that he was “involved” — in an unexplained capacity — in the passage of the legislation that ultimately became § 1513(d). According to affiant Zoraek, the “in lieu” provision “was intended to ensure that the Act would not invalidate state taxes which are a legitimate substitute for other taxes on air carrier transportation property and which are not imposed in an effort to tax such property at rates higher than those imposed on other comparable commercial and industrial property.” This would be an incongruous justification for the “in lieu” provision, however, since airline property taxes that are not imposed at rates higher than those imposed on other comparable commercial and industrial property are not threatened by the antidiscrimination provisions of § 1513(d). Mr. Zoraek adds that the in lieu provision “was inserted to take care of Minnesota’s objection to an earlier version.” “To my knowledge no other state made any representation at the time that it wished to be protected by the in lieu provision,” Mr. Zorack concludes. Id., at B-2, B-3. On the basis of this affidavit, appellants argue that to be covered by the in lieu provision a state tax must resemble the Minnesota airflight property tax, which was a substitute for other property taxes previously imposed on airlines. As we note, infra, at 133, the interpretation of an “in lieu tax” as a tax that actually replaced a tax previously imposed is admittedly a possible one. Appellants’ attempt at the creation of legislative history through the post hoc statements of interested onlookers is entitled to no weight, however. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court. The issue presented by this case is whether § 306 of the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976, 49 U. S. C. § 11503, permits review by federal courts of alleged overvaluation of railroad property by state taxation authorities. HH In 1976, after 15 years of intermittent and inconclusive legislative action, Congress passed the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act, Pub. L. 94-2Í0, 90 Stat. 31 (Act). The Act’s purpose, as stated in the congressional declaration of policy, was “to provide the means to rehabilitate and maintain the physical facilities, improve the operations and structure, and restore the financial stability of the railway system of the United States.” § 101(a). Among the means chosen by Congress to fulfill these objectives, particularly the goal of furthering railroad financial stability, was a prohibition on discriminatory state taxation of railroad property. After an extended period of congressional investigation, Congress concluded that “railroads are over-taxed by at least $50 million each year.” H. R. Rep. No. 94-725, p. 78 (1975). Congress’ solution to the problem of discriminatory state taxation of railroads was embodied in § 306 of the Act, currently codified at 49 U. S. C. § 11503. In broad terms, Congress declared in § 306(b) that assessment ratios or taxation rates imposed on railroad property which differ significantly from the ratios or rates imposed on other commercial and industrial property are prohibited as burdens on interstate commerce. Section 306(c) declared an exception from the provisions of the Tax Injunction Act, 28 U. S. C. §1341, allowing railroads to challenge discriminatory taxation in federal district courts. States were given a 3-year grace period, until February 1979, to bring their property taxation systems into compliance with the statutory requirements. §306(2)(b), 90 Stat. 54; see Act of Oct. 17, 1978, Pub. L. 95-473, 92 Stat. 1466. The present action was filed by petitioner Burlington Northern Railroad in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on March 3, 1983. The complaint alleged that respondents, the Oklahoma Tax Commission and State Board of Equalization and their members, had discriminated against petitioner in the assessment of state property taxes for the 1982 tax year. In particular, petitioner alleged that respondents had overvalued petitioner’s property. The determination of railroad property tax liability in Oklahoma proceeds in several discrete stages. The first step is to ascertain the amount of property subject to tax. The Oklahoma Tax Commission follows the procedure of determining the value of the entire railroad, and then allocating a portion of that total system value to Oklahoma. The value of the railroad is determined by calculating a weighted average of original cost of assets and capitalized net operating income. Response to Complaint ¶ 14, App. 16. A similar procedure for determining the value of railroad property subject to tax by valuing the total system and apportioning that value to the taxing jurisdiction is employed in almost all jurisdictions which apply property taxes to railroads. See J. Runke & A. Finder, State Taxation of Railroads and Tax Relief Programs 23-32 (1977). In allocating a proportion of petitioner’s property to Oklahoma, the Tax Commission took the position in 1982 that 3.53% of petitioner’s property was taxable in the State, an allocation which petitioner does not dispute. Brief for Petitioner 9, n. 14. Oklahoma does not assess property at full market value for tax purposes. See Okla. Const., Art. 10, § 8 (assessment not to exceed 35% of market value). Therefore, the second step in the determination of tax liability is the application to the true market valuation of the assessment ratio. In 1982, the State assessed the taxable value of petitioner’s property at 10.87% of true market value. Petitioner does not dispute that this was the same assessment ratio employed with respect to all other commercial and industrial property in the State. Brief for Petitioner 9, n. 14. Petitioner’s claim of discriminatory taxation was thus based solely upon the State’s original determination of the market value of petitioner’s entire railroad system. The 1982 assessment by the State determined that the “true” market value of the railroad was approximately $3.6 billion. Response to Complaint ¶ 28, App. 22. Petitioner contended that fair application of respondents’ own valuation methodology would have resulted in a determination that the “true” market value of the railroad was approximately $1.5 billion. Complaint ¶ 34, App. to Pet for Cert. 31a. The District Court, following the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Lennen, 715 F. 2d 494 (1983), cert. denied, 467 U. S. 1230 (1984), held that § 11503 does not permit the exercise of federal jurisdiction to review claims of state taxation based upon alleged overvaluation of railroad property, unless the railroad “‘can make a strong showing of purposeful overvaluation with discriminatory intent.’” CIV 83-419-R (WD Okla. Jan. 8, 1985), App. to Pet. for Cert. 10a (quoting Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Lennen, supra, at 498). The District Court found that no such showing had been made, and dismissed “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction” under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1). App. to Pet. for Cert. 17a. The Court of Appeals affirmed in an unpublished opinion. No. 85-1657 (CA10 May 2, 1986). We granted certiorari, 479 U. S. 913 (1986), to resolve a conflict between the position of the Tenth Circuit and that of the Eighth Circuit in Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Bair, 766 F. 2d 1222 (1985). We now reverse. H-i ► — I There is some difference of opinion between respondents and the Court of Appeals as to the proper interpretation of §11503. The Court of Appeals, following its decision in Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Lennen, supra, held that district courts may not review claims of discriminatory taxation based upon overvaluation of railroad property unless the plaintiff first makes a preliminary showing of intentional discrimination. Respondents suggest that § 11503 never permits district court review of such claims. Brief for Respondents State Board of Equalization et al. 9; Tr. of Oral Arg. 41, 52-53. Our reading of the statute convinces us that both positions are untenable. The parties have canvassed at length the 15-year legislative history of the Act, and of the protection against discriminatory state taxation which became § 11503. We find the results of that investigation inconclusive and irrelevant. Legislative history can be a legitimate guide to a statutory purpose obscured by ambiguity, but “[i]n the absence of a ‘clearly expressed legislative intention to the contrary/ the language of the statute itself ‘must ordinarily be regarded as conclusive.’” United States v. James, 478 U. S. 597, 606 (1986) (quoting Consumer Product Safety Comm’n v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., 447 U. S. 102, 108 (1980)). Unless exceptional circumstances dictate otherwise, “[w]hen we find the terms of a statute unambiguous, judicial inquiry is complete.” Rubin v. United States, 449 U. S. 424, 430 (1981). In the present case, the language of §11503 plainly declares the congressional purpose. Subsection (b)(1) forbids any State to “assess rail transportation property at a value that has a higher ratio to the true market value . . . than the ratio that the assessed value of other commercial and industrial property in the same assessment jurisdiction has to the true market value of the other commercial and industrial property.” It is clear from this language that in order to compare the actual assessment ratios, it is necessary to determine what the “true market values” are. Respondents take the position that the first occurrence of the phrase “true market value” in § 11503(b)(1) should be read as “state determined market value,” for they contend in essence that whatever the State determines the value of the railroad to be, the resulting assessment ratio is not subject to further judicial scrutiny in the federal courts. The obstacle to this position is the language of § 11503(c), which states that “[t]he burden of proof in determining assessed value and true market value is governed by State law.” It would be inconsistent to allocate the burden of proof as to an issue which could not be litigated in federal court in the first place. Respondents attempt to meet this argument by pointing to the remainder of subsection (c), which specifically instructs the district courts as to methods for proving the assessment ratio for other commercial and industrial property, either through statistical sampling of the assessed value and sale value of individual properties, or through the determination of assessed value and true market value of “all other commercial and industrial property” “in the assessment jurisdiction.” § 11503(c)(1). Respondents contend that these instructions as to the determination of assessment ratios for other commercial and industrial property show that it is the burden of proof on these issues only which is allocated in subsection (c), and that it is only these issues which may be the subject of proof before the district court. In fact, however, the language of subsection (c) leads to the opposite conclusion. The general statement that assessed value and true market value are subjects for judicial inquiry, and are to be proved under burdens allocated by state law, is followed by a specific instruction as to how two of those issues are to be addressed. These are not, by their placement or meaning, words of limitation on the preceding general statement, but rather a particular grant of authority to district courts to use statistical methods for establishing the assessed and market values of “other commercial and industrial property” where such methods will result in proof “to the satisfaction of the district court.” Congress has said that the value of one kind of property may, in the court’s discretion, be proved by particular means; this raises no implication whatever that the value of another kind of property may not be proved at all. Respondents’ position depends upon the addition of words to a statutory provision which is complete as it stands. Adoption of their view would require amendment rather than construction of the statute, and it must be rejected here. The position taken by the Court of Appeals is also unsatisfactory. The court found that some disputes as to state valuation of railroad property may be the subject of a federal claim under § 11503, but only where the plaintiff alleges, and makes a preliminary showing, that the overvaluation results from discriminatory intent. App. to Pet. for Cert. 10a; Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Lennen, 715 F. 2d, at 498. The statute provides no support for this interpretation. Subsection (b) speaks only in terms of “acts” which “unreasonably burden and discriminate against interstate commerce”; nowhere does it refer to the intent of the actor. The Court of Appeals does not dispute that the other acts prohibited by the plain language of § 11503(b), such as the use of facially discriminatory disparities in assessment ratio or the systematic undervaluation of other commercial and industrial property, are not subject to an intent requirement. It does not explain how the same sentence can be interpreted in two such strikingly different senses depending upon whether the railroad’s challenge is to the State’s undervaluation of other commercial and industrial property or to the State’s overvaluation of railroad property. Further support for our conclusion is found in § 11503(c), which provides that “[rjelief may be granted under this subsection only if the ratio of assessed value to true market value of rail transportation property exceeds by at least 5 percent” the assessment ratio for other commercial and industrial property. Such a provision makes sense as a prohibition on the litigation of de minimis disparate-impact claims in the federal courts, but it is hard to reconcile with the proposition that Congress intended to reach only claims of intentional discrimination by overvaluation. If intentional discrimination is the evil to be remedied, did Congress propose to permit the States to discriminate at will, so long as they unfairly retained only one nickel out of every dollar? The Court of Appeals’ suggested interpolation of an intent requirement draws no support from the statute’s language and is inconsistent with its expressed purpose. I — I f-H f-H Respondents contend that injunctive relief against state taxation offends the principles of comity. Brief for Respondents State Board of Equalization et al. 41-42. The Court of Appeals found that its restrictions on valuation actions under § 11503 are necessary in order to avoid “an inevitable clog of federal dockets” and “unreasonable delay of the state tax collection process.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 10a. These are policy considerations which may have weighed heavily with legislators who considered the Act and its predecessors. It should go without saying that we are not free to reconsider them now. The decision of the Court of Appeals is Reversed. The language of the original § 306, first codified at 49 U. S. C. § 26c (1976 ed.), was slightly altered when in 1978 the provision was recodified at 49 U. S. C. § 11503. See Act of Oct. 17, 1978, Pub. L. 95-473, 92 Stat. 1337 et seq. These changes “may not be construed as making a substantive change in the laws replaced.” § 3(a), 92 Stat. 1466. For convenience, further references to the statute are to the text of 49 U. S. C. § 11503. Title 49 U. S. C. § 11503(b) provides in relevant part: “The following acts unreasonably burden and discriminate against interstate commerce, and a State, subdivision of a State, or authority acting for a State or subdivision of a State may not do any of them: “(1) assess rail transportation property at a value that has a higher ratio to the true market value of the rail transportation property than the ratio that the assessed value of other commercial and industrial property in the same assessment jurisdiction has to the true market value of the other commercial and industrial property. “(2) levy or collect a tax on an assessment that may not be made under clause (1) of this subsection. ...” Title 49 U. S. C. § 11503(c) provides: “Notwithstanding section 1341 of title 28 and without regard to the amount in controversy or citizenship of the parties, a district court of the United States has jurisdiction, concurrent with other jurisdiction of courts of the United States and the States, to prevent a violation of subsection (b) of this section. Relief may be granted under this subsection only if the ratio of assessed value to true market value of rail transportation property exceeds by at least 5 percent, the ratio of assessed value to true market value of other commercial and industrial property in the same assessment jurisdiction. The burden of proof in determining assessed value and true market value is governed by State law. If the ratio of the assessed value of other commercial and industrial property in the assessment jurisdiction to the true market value of all other commercial and industrial property cannot be determined to the satisfaction of the district court through the random-sampling method known as a sales assessment ratio study (to be carried out under statistical principles applicable to such a study), the court shall find, as a violation of this section— “(1) an assessment of the rail transportation property at a value that has a higher ratio to the true market value of the rail transportation property than the assessed value of all other property subject to a property tax levy in the assessment jurisdiction has to the true market value of all other commercial and industrial property; and “(2) the collection of an ad valorem property tax on the rail transportation property at a tax rate that exceeds the tax ratio rate applicable to taxable property in the taxing district.” The Oklahoma Tax Commission submits each year a recommendation as to the assessment of railroad property to the State Board of Equalization, which makes the final assessment decision. Response to Complaint ¶14, App. 15-16. Petitioner has not challenged the valuation methodology employed by respondents in determining the value of petitioner’s railroad; petitioner’s sole challenge is to the application of that methodology, particularly the State’s evaluation of the cost of capital and the State’s refusal to make deductions for property which petitioner claims is obsolete. Tr. of Oral Arg. 16-16. This case therefore does not present the question whether a railroad may, in an action under § 11503, challenge in the district court the appropriateness of the accounting methods by which the State determined the railroad’s value, or is instead restricted to challenging the factual determinations to which the State’s preferred accounting methods were applied. Accordingly we express no view on that issue. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. The power of state and local governments to impose ad valorem property taxes upon railroads and other interstate carriers has been the source of recurrent litigation under the Commerce Clause and the Due Process Clause. See, e.g., Central R. Co. of Pa. v. Pennsylvania, 370 U. S. 607 (1962); Braniff Airways, Inc. v. Nebraska Bd. of Equalization and Assessment, 347 U. S. 590 (1954); Morgan v. Parham, 16 Wall. 471 (1873). In the case before us, a state property tax is challenged under a federal statute, the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 (4-R Act). Pub. L. 94-210, 90 Stat. 31. The question presented is whether the State of Oregon violated the statute by imposing an ad valorem tax upon railroad property while exempting various other, but not all, classes of commercial and industrial property. We hold that a State may grant exemptions from a generally applicable ad valorem property tax without subjecting the taxation of railroad property to challenge under the relevant provision of the 4-R Act, §306(l)(d), 49 U. S. C. § 11503(b)(4). I Oregon imposes an ad valorem tax upon all real and personal property within its jurisdiction, except property granted an express exemption. Ore. Rev. Stat. §307.030 (1991). Various classes of business personal property are exempt, including agricultural machinery and equipment; nonfarm business inventories; livestock; poultry; bees; fur-bearing animals; and agricultural products in the possession of farmers. §§307.325,307.400. Standing timber is also exempt, but is subject to a severance tax when harvested. §321.272. Oregon, like many other States, exempts motor vehicles as well, instead levying upon them a modest annual registration fee. §§ 803.585, 803.420(1). Respondents, called the “Carlines” in this litigation, are eight companies that lease railroad cars to railroads and shippers. The railroad cars are considered “tangible personal property” under Oregon law, §307.030, and are not exempt from taxation. The Carlines brought suit in United States District Court under §306(l)(d) of the 4-R Act, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the assessment, levy, and collection of the State’s property tax upon their railroad cars.. Congress enacted the 4-R Act in part to “restore the financial stability of the railway system of the United States.” § 101(a), 90 Stat. 33. When drafting the legislation, Congress was aware that the railroads “ ‘are easy prey for State and local tax assessors’ in that they are ‘nonvoting, often nonresident, targets for local taxation,’ who cannot easily remove themselves from the locality.” Western Air Lines, Inc. v. Board of Equalization of S. D., 480 U. S. 123, 131 (1987) (quoting S. Rep. No. 91-630, p. 3 (1969)). Section 306 of the 4-R Act, now codified at 49 U. S. C. § 11503, addresses this concern by prohibiting the States (and their subdivisions) from enacting certain taxation schemes that discriminate against railroads. See Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Oklahoma Tax Comm’n, 481 U. S. 454, 457 (1987). The relevant provisions of § 11503 are contained in subsection (b), which states: “The following acts unreasonably burden and discriminate against interstate commerce, and a State, subdivision of a State, or authority acting for a State or subdivision of a State may not do any of them: “(1) assess rail transportation property at a value that has a higher ratio to the true market value of the rail transportation property than the ratio that the assessed value of other commercial and industrial property in the same assessment jurisdiction has to the true market value of the other commercial and industrial property. “(2) levy or collect a tax on an assessment that may not be made under clause (1) of this subsection. “(3) levy or collect an ad valorem property tax on rail transportation property at a tax rate that exceeds the tax rate applicable to commercial and industrial property in the same assessment jurisdiction. “(4) impose another tax that discriminates against a rail carrier providing transportation ... The reach of subsections (b)(l)-(3) is straightforward: These provisions forbid the imposition of higher assessment ratios or tax rates upon rail transportation property than upon “other commercial and industrial property.” The scope of subsection (b)(4), which forbids the imposition of “another tax that discriminates against a rail carrier providing transportation,” is not as clear. The Carlines do not challenge Oregon’s ad valorem property tax under subsections (b)(l)-(3). We attribute this choice to the fact that the State subjects all nonexempt property “to assessment and taxation in equal and ratable proportion.” Ore. Rev. Stat. §307.030 (1991). Rather, it is the Carlines’ contention that Oregon’s tax should be considered “another tax that discriminates against a rail carrier,” in violation of subsection (b)(4), because it exempts certain classes of commercial and industrial property while taxing railroad cars in full. The District Court, after reviewing a stipulated record, held that discriminatory property tax exemptions are subject to challenge under subsection (b)(4). On the facts presented, however, the court determined that Oregon’s ad valorem property tax complied with the provision. The court observed that, in other cases, only those state taxes exempting more than 50% of nonrailroad commercial personal property had been found to contravene subsection (b)(4). See Trailer Train Co. v. Leuenberger, 885 F. 2d 415 (CA8 1988), cert. denied, 490 U. S. 1066 (1989); Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Bair, 766 F. 2d 1222 (CA8 1985). Because (according to the court’s calculations) Oregon exempted only 31.4% of nonrailroad commercial personal property from taxation, the court granted judgment to the State. The Court of Appeals reversed. 961 F. 2d 813 (CA9 1992). In accordance with Circuit precedent, see ACF Industries, Inc. v. Arizona, 714 F. 2d 93, 94 (CA9 1983), the court acknowledged that subsections (b)(1) — (3) do not speak to the question of discriminatory property tax exemptions. Like the District Court, however, the Court of Appeals accepted the Carlines’ contention that property tax exemptions are subject to challenge under subsection (b)(4). The court explained that Congress enacted § 11503 to “ ‘prevent tax discrimination against railroads in any form whatsoever.’” 961 F. 2d, at 820 (emphasis in original) (citing Ogilvie v. State Bd. of Equalization of N. D., 657 F. 2d 204, 210 (CA8), cert. denied, 454 U. S. 1086 (1981)). Rejecting the District Court’s apparent view that ad valorem tax schemes exempting less than 50% of nonrailroad business property are not proscribed by subsection (b)(4), the Court of Appeals held that the “most natural reading” of the provision dictates that “any exemption given to other taxpayers but not to railroads” is forbidden, with possible room for “a de minimis level of exemption[s].” 961 F. 2d, at 822 (emphasis in original). The court found that Oregon’s property tax, under the calculation most generous to the State, exempted 25% of nonrailroad commercial property, far exceeding any possible de minimis exception. On this ground, the court concluded that the State’s taxation of railroad property violated subsection (b)(4). Id., at 823. Holding that the Carlines “were entitled to the same total exemption preferred property owners enjoyed,” the court enjoined the State from levying any tax upon the Carlines’ railroad property. Ibid. We granted certiorari, 508 U. S. 905 (1993), and now reverse. II Before passing upon the validity of Oregon’s ad valorem property tax under § 11503(b)(4), the Court of Appeals and the District Court addressed a preliminary question: Whether a tax upon railroad property is even subject to challenge under subsection (b)(4) on the ground that certain other classes of commercial and industrial property are exempt. We consider the same question. Both parties contend that the plain meaning of subsection (b)(4), which prohibits “another tax that discriminates against a rail carrier,” dictates an answer in their favor. In the State’s view, the word “another” means “different from that which precedes it.” Because subsections (b)(1) — (3) address property taxes and only property taxes, it follows that the term “another tax” in subsection (b)(4) must mean “a tax different from a property tax.” The State concludes that subsection (b)(4) does not speak to discriminatory property tax exemptions for the simple reason that the provision does' not speak to property taxes at all. The Carlines, like the Court of Appeals, take a different view. They understand the phrase “another tax that discriminates against a rail carrier” to be a residual category designed to reach any discriminatory state tax, including discriminatory property taxes, not covered by subsections (b)(1) — (3). It follows that property tax exemptions disfavoring railroad transportation property — exemptions the Car-lines in effect admit fall outside the scope of subsections (b)(1) — (3), see Brief for Respondents 16-17 — are within the ambit of subsection (b)(4). Accord, e. g., Trailer Train Co. v. Leuenberger, 885 F. 2d 415, 417-418 (CA8 1988), cert. denied, 490 U. S. 1066 (1989); Department of Revenue of Fla. v. Trailer Train Co., 830 F. 2d 1567, 1573 (CA11 1987). If Congress had intended to exclude property taxes from the reach of subsection (b)(4), the Carlines contend, it would have drafted the provision to prohibit “any tax other than a property tax,” and not phrased the statute as it did. Brief for Respondents 17. Both the State’s and the Carlines’ readings are defensible if subsection (b)(4) is read in isolation, cf. Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Oklahoma Tax Comm’n, 481 U. S., at 461 (language of subsection (b)(1) “plainly declares [its] purpose”), and so we must look elsewhere to determine its meaning. The structure of § 11503 as a whole does yield an answer, one adverse to the Carlines’ challenge to Oregon’s property tax. We conclude that a State may grant exemptions from a generally applicable ad valorem property tax without exposing the taxation of railroad property to invalidation under subsection (b)(4). Subsections (b)(l)-(3) of § 11503, as noted, forbid the imposition of higher property tax rates and assessment ratios upon “rail transportation property” than upon “other commercial and industrial property.” 49 U. S. C. §§ 11503(b)(1)-(3). “Commercial and industrial property,” which serves as the comparison class for measuring unlawful discrimination under those provisions, is defined as “property, other than transportation property and land used primarily for agricultural purposes or timber growing, devoted to a commercial or industrial use and subject to a property tax levy.” § 11503(a)(4). The interplay between subsections (b)(l)-(3) and the definition of “commercial and industrial property” in subsection (a)(4) is central to the interpretation of subsection (b)(4). For example, the definition of “commercial and industrial property” excludes “land used primarily for agricultural purposes.” The fact that Congress made this particular exclusion demonstrates its intent to permit the States to tax railroad property at a higher rate than agricultural land, notwithstanding subsection (b)(3)’s general prohibition of rate discrimination. One still could maintain, we suppose, that taxing railroad property at a higher rate than agricultural land should be considered “another tax that discriminates against a rail carrier,” and thus forbidden under subsection (b)(4). That interpretation, however, would subvert the statutory plan by reading subsection (b)(4) to prohibit what subsection (b)(3), in conjunction with subsection (a)(4), was designed to allow. The result would contravene the “elementary canon of construction that a statute should be interpreted so as not to render one part inoperative.” Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Pueblo of Santa Ana, 472 U. S. 237, 249 (1985) (internal quotation marks omitted). Congress qualified the definition of “commercial and industrial property” further, limiting the comparison class to property “subject to a property tax levy.” 49 U. S. C. § 11503(a)(4). The statute does not define this phrase, which on its face could bear one of two interpretations: (1) taxed property; or (2) taxable property, a broader category consisting of the general mass of property within the State’s jurisdiction and power to tax, including property that enjoys a current exemption. The first interpretation has been the subject of some criticism, see Western Air Lines, Inc. v. Board of Equalization of S. D., 480 U. S., at 135 (White, J., concurring), but we believe it follows from the way Congress used identical language elsewhere in § 11503. Section 11503(c) confers jurisdiction upon United States district courts to enforce the terms of § 11503(b) despite the bar otherwise imposed by the Tax Injunction Act, 28 U. S. C. § 1341. Subsection (c)(1) grants district courts the power (under certain circumstances not pertinent here) to prohibit “an assessment of the rail transportation property at a value that has a higher ratio to the true market value of the rail transportation property than the assessed value of all other property subject to a property tax levy in the assessment jurisdiction has to the true market value of all other commercial and industrial property.” (Emphasis added.) In the context of this provision, which concerns the differential assessment of taxed property, the words “property subject to a property tax levy” must mean “taxed property.” Given the “normal rule of statutory construction” that “‘“identical words used in different parts of the same act are intended to have the same meaning,”’” Sorenson v. Secretary of Treasury, 475 U. S. 851, 860 (1986) (quoting Helvering v. Stockholms Enskilda Bank, 293 U. S. 84, 87 (1934) (in turn quoting Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers, Inc. v. United States, 286 U. S. 427, 433 (1932))), that phrase must carry the same meaning in subsection (a)(4), where it qualifies the definition of “commercial and industrial property.” All this bears on the case before us. Because property “subject to a property tax levy” means property that is taxed, the definition of “commercial and industrial property” excludes property that is exempt. Exempt property, then, is not part of the comparison class against which discrimination is measured under subsections (b)(1) — (3), and it follows that railroads may not challenge property tax exemptions under those provisions.. As was the case with agricultural land, we must pay heed to the fact that Congress placed exempt property beyond the reach of subsections (b)(1) — (3). It would be illogical to conclude that Congress, having allowed the States to grant property tax exemptions in subsections (b)(1) — (3), would turn around and nullify its own choice in subsection (b)(4). So the Carlines’ reading of subsection (b)(4), while plausible when viewed in isolation (see supra, at 339), is untenable in light of §11503 as a whole. See Gade v. National Solid Wastes Management Assn., 505 U. S. 88, 99 (1992); see also United Sav. Assn. of Tex. v. Timbers of Inwood Forest Associates, Ltd., 484 U. S. 365, 371 (1988) (“A provision that may seem ambiguous in isolation is often clarified by the remainder of the statutory scheme ... because only one of the permissible meanings produces a substantive effect that is compatible with the rest of the law”). It is true that tax exemptions, as an abstract matter, could be a variant of tax discrimination. See Davis v. Michigan Dept. of Treasury, 489 U. S. 803 (1989). The structure of § 11503, however, warrants the conclusion that subsection (b)(4) does not limit state discretion to levy a tax upon railroad property while exempting various classes of nonrailroad property. Other considerations reinforce our construction of the statute. In drafting §11503, Congress prohibited discriminatory tax rates and assessment ratios in no uncertain terms, see 49 U. S. C. §§ 11503(b)(l)-(3), and set forth precise standards for judicial scrutiny of challenged rate and assessment practices, see §§ 11503(c)(1) — (2). By contrast, the statute does not speak with any degree of particularity to the question of tax exemptions. Subsection (b)(4), which prohibits the States from “imposing] another tax that discriminates against a rail carrier,” is, at best, vague on the point. Congress did not state whether exemptions are a form of forbidden discrimination against rail carriers, and further did not provide a standard for courts to distinguish valid from invalid exemption schemes. Had Congress, as a condition of permitting the taxation of railroad property, intended to restrict state power to exempt nonrailroad property, we are confident that it would have spoken with clarity and precision. Property tax exemptions are an important aspect of state and local tax policy. It was common at the time § 11503 was drafted, as it is now, for States with generally applicable ad valorem property taxes to exempt various classes of commercial property. Before 1960, a number of States granted such exemptions. See, e. g., Mo. Rev. Stat. § 150.040 (1949) (exempting unmanufactured articles consigned for sale and held by commission merchants); N. J. Rev. Stat. §54:4-3.20 (1937) (exempting personal property stored in a public warehouse); Vt. Stat. Ann., Tit. 32, § 3802 (1959) (exempting tools and implements possessed by mechanics and farmers, and highway-building equipment); see also Jacobs, Exemption of Tangible Personalty, in Tax Exemptions 141, 146 (1939) (by 1938, 16 States permitted “temporary exemption of newly located or newly constructed plants, and the machinery and equipment in such plants”). By the 1960’s, about 20 States granted real and personal property tax exemptions to pollution control facilities. See McNulty, State Tax Incentives to Fight Pollution, 56 A. B. A. J. 747, 748, and n. 8 (Aug. 1970). By 1971, still well before enactment of the 4-R Act, a majority of the States exempted one or more classes of business personal property, including business inventories, raw materials used in textile manufacturing, manufacturing machinery and allied equipment, and mechanics tools. See Education Commission of the States, Property Assessment and Exemptions: They Need Reform, Table C-l (Mar. 10, 1973). Given the prevalence of property tax exemptions when Congress enacted the 4-R Act, §11503’s silence on the subject — in light of the explicit prohibition of tax rate and assessment ratio discrimination — reflects a determination to permit the States to leave their exemptions in place. Principles of federalism support, in fact compel, our view. Subsection (b)(4), like the whole of § 11503, sets limits upon the taxation authority of state government, an authority we have recognized as central to state sovereignty. See, e. g., Tully v. Griffin, Inc., 429 U. S. 68, 73 (1976); Railroad Co. v. Peniston, 18 Wall. 5, 29 (1873). When determining the breadth of a federal statute that impinges upon or pre-empts the States’ traditional powers, we are hesitant to extend the statute beyond its evident scope. See Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 505 U. S. 504, 533 (1992) (“We do not, absent unambiguous evidence, infer a scope of pre-emption beyond that which clearly is mandated by Congress’ language”) (Blackmun, J., concurring); id., at 523 (opinion of Stevens, J.); R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Durham County, 479 U. S. 130,140 (1986). We will interpret a statute to pre:empt the traditional state powers only if that result is “the clear and manifest purpose of Congress.” Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U. S. 218, 230 (1947). As explained above, neither subsection (b)(4) nor the whole of § 11503 meets this standard with regard to the prohibition of property tax exemptions. The Carlines contend that the legislative history of § 11503 casts doubt upon our interpretation, but the history — to the extent it has any relevance to our inquiry — affords the Car-lines no comfort. The excerpts from the legislative record cited by the Carlines do nothing more than manifest Congress’ general concern with the discriminatory taxation of rail carriers. See, e. g., S. Rep. No. 94-595, p. 166 (1976) (describing the Senate bill, which the Conference adopted, as prohibiting “the imposition of any other tax which results in the discriminatory treatment of any common or contract carrier”). The Carlines do not point to a single instance in the legislative record suggesting that Congress had any particular concern with property tax exemptions, or that Congress intended to prohibit exemptions in subsection (b)(4). In fact, the available evidence suggests the opposite of what the Carlines would have us believe. See 120 Cong. Rec. 38734 (1974) (providing assurances that subsection (b)(4) would not prevent the States from granting tax exemptions to encourage industrial development) (remarks of Reps. Staggers, Adams, and Kuykendall). Nor do the Carlines draw our attention to a single instance in the 15-year legislative history of the 4-R Act in which representatives of the railroad industry expressed concern about discriminatory property tax exemptions. In fact, when urging the Senate to adopt subsection (b)(4), industry representatives characterized the provision as prohibiting only discriminatory in lieu taxes and gross receipts taxes; property tax exemptions, in contrast, were not mentioned. See Hearings before the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation of the Senate Committee on Commerce on Legislation Relating to Rail Passenger Service, 94th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 5, pp. 1837, 1883 (1975). In sum, the Carlines’ argument with respect to legislative history is without foundation. As a final matter, we address the contention that our interpretation of subsection (b)(4) leads to an anomalous result. The Carlines maintain that it would be nonsensical for Congress to prohibit the States from imposing higher tax rates or assessment ratios upon railroad property than upon other taxed property, while at the same time permitting the States to exempt some or all classes of nonrailroad property altogether. That result, it is argued, prohibits discrimination of a mild form, but permits it in the extreme. We think our interpretation is not at all implausible. To begin with, this is not a case in which the railroads— either alone or as part of some isolated and targeted group— are the only commercial entities subject to an ad valorem property tax. Cf. Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Superior, 932 F. 2d 1185 (CA7 1991) (occupation tax on owners and operators of “iron ore concentrates docks,” in practical effect, applied only to docks owned by one particular rail carrier). If such a case were to arise, it might be incorrect to say that the State “exempted” the nontaxed property. Rather, one could say that the State had singled out railroad property for discriminatory treatment. See J. Hellerstein & W. Hellerstein, State and Local Taxation 973 (5th ed. 1988) (the term “exemption” does not mean every exclusion from the reach of a levy, but rather exclusions of “property, persons, transactions . . . which are logically within the tax base”). On the record before us, Oregon’s ad valorem property tax does not single out railroad property in that manner, and we need not decide whether subsection (b)(4) would prohibit a tax of that nature. In addition, though some may think it unwise to forbid discrimination in tax rates and assessment ratios while permitting exemptions of certain nonrailroad property, the result is not “so bizarre that Congress ‘could not have intended’ ” it. Demarest v. Manspeaker, 498 U. S. 184, 191 (1991) (citing Griffin v. Oceanic Contractors, Inc., 458 U. S. 564, 575 (1982)). About half of the States grant property tax exemptions to encourage investment in air and water pollution control devices. See 1 CCH State Tax Guide 691-692 (1992). And it is standard practice for States to grant exemptions to commercial entities for other beneficial purposes. See, e.g., La. Const., Art. VII, § 21(F) (10-year exemption for any “new manufacturing establishment or [any] addition to an existing manufacturing establishment”); Ore. Rev. Stat. §285.597 (1991) (exemption for business property in an “enterprise zone”); Va. Code Ann. §58.1-3661 (1991) (permitting any county, city, or town to exempt from its property tax “solar energy equipment, facilities or devices” and “recycling equipment, facilities, or devices”). It is within Congress’ sound discretion to weigh the benefit of preserving those exemptions, on the one hand, against the benefit of protecting rail carriers from every tax scheme that favors some nonrailroad property, on the other. We conclude that § 11503, which expresses Congress’ resolution of the matter, does not limit the States’ discretion to exempt nonrailroad property, but not railroad property, from ad valorem property taxes of general application. We therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case for proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Western Air Lines, Inc. v. Board of Equalization of S. D. raised the question whether certain property tax exemptions were prohibited under the antidiscrimination provisions of the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982 (AAIA), 49 U. S. C. App. §§ 1513(d)(l)(A)-(C), which are identical for all relevant purposes to analogous provisions under the 4-R Act, 49 U. S. C. §§ 11603(b)(l)-(3). The case was on appeal from the Supreme Court of South Dakota, which had held that such exemptions were not subject to challenge under the AAIA. Western Air Lines, Inc. v. Hughes County, 372 N. W. 2d 106 (1985). The court rested this ruling upon its conclusion that the definition of “commercial and industrial property” in the AAIA, 49 U. S. C. App. § 1513(d)(2)(D) — which, like the parallel definition in 49 U. S. C. § 11503(a)(4), is limited to property “subject to a property tax levy” — included taxed property but not exempt property, 372 N. W. 2d, at 110. Because the comparison class against which tax discrimination was measured under §§ 1513(d)(l)(A)-(C) did not include exempt property, the court reasoned that the AAIA did not prohibit property tax exemptions. We affirmed, but on grounds unrelated to the court’s construction of the terms “commercial and industrial property” and “subject to a property tax levy.” Western Air Lines, Inc. v. Board of Equalization of S. D., 480 U. S., at 129-134. Justice White concurred, but expressed his view that the “ground on which the South Dakota Supreme Court sustained the tax” was “plainly improvident.” Id., at 135; see also Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. North Dakota, 358 N. W. 2d 515, 517 (N. D. 1984). Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The petition for writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is reversed. Paragon Jewel Coal Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 380 U. S. 624. Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Goldberg dissent for the reasons stated in Mr. Justice Goldberg's dissenting opinion in Paragon Jewel Coal Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 380 U. S., at 639. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
L
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. This capital case presents the question whether Texas contravened the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments as construed and applied in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510 (1968), when it excluded members of the venire from jury service because they were unable to take an oath that the mandatory penalty of death or imprisonment for life would not “affect [their] deliberations on any issue of fact.” We hold that there were exclusions that were inconsistent with Witherspoon, and we therefore reverse the sentence of death imposed on the petitioner. I Trials for capital offenses in Texas are conducted in a two-phase proceeding. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 37.071 (Vernon Supp. 1979). In the first phase, the jury considers the question of the defendant’s guilt or innocence. If the jury finds the defendant guilty of a capital offense, the trial court holds a separate sentencing proceeding at which a wide range of additional evidence in mitigation or aggravation is admissible. The jury is then required to answer the following questions based on evidence adduced during either phase of the trial: “(1) whether the conduct of the defendant that caused the death of the deceased was committed deliberately and with the reasonable expectation that the death of the deceased or another would result; “(2) whether there is a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society; and “(3) if raised by the evidence, whether the conduct of the defendant in killing the deceased was unreasonable in response to the provocation, if any, by the deceased.” Art. 37.071 (b). If the jury finds beyond a reasonable doubt that the answer to each of these questions is “Yes,” the court is required to impose a sentence of death. If the jury finds that the answer to any of the three questions is “No,” the court imposes a sentence of life imprisonment. Arts. 37.071 (c), (e). The petitioner in this case was charged with the capital offense of murdering a peace officer. During voir dire examination of individual prospective jurors, the prosecutor, and sometimes the trial judge, intensively inquired as to whether their attitudes about the death penalty permitted them to take the oath set forth in Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 12.31 (b) (1974). Section 12.31 (b) provides as follows: “Prospective jurors shall be informed that a sentence of life imprisonment or death is mandatory on conviction of a capital felony. A prospective juror shall be disqualified from serving as a juror unless he states under oath that the mandatory penalty of death or imprisonment for life will not affect his deliberations on any issue of fact.” Typically, the prospective juror was first advised that the State was seeking the death penalty and asked to state his general views on the subject, which were sometimes explored in considerable depth. He was then informed in detail of the special procedure used by Texas in capital cases, including in particular the fact that “Yes” answers to the three punishment questions would automatically result in the trial judge’s imposing the death sentence. Finally, he was asked whether he could state under oath, as required by § 12.31 (b), that the mandatory penalty of death or imprisonment for life would not affect his deliberations on any issue of fact. On the State’s submission and over petitioner’s objections, the trial judge excused a number of prospective jurors who were unwilling or unable to take the § 12.31 (b) oath. The jury selected under this procedure convicted the petitioner of the charged offense and answered the statutory questions affirmatively at the punishment phase, thus causing the trial judge to impose the death sentence as required by Art. 37.071 (e). On appeal, the petitioner argued that prospective jurors had been excluded in violation of this Court’s decision in Witherspoon v. Illinois, supra. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the contention on the authority of its previous cases, which had “consistently held that the statutory scheme for the selection of jurors in capital cases in. Texas, and in particular the application of [§ 12.31 (b)] to the punishment issues, comports with the constitutional requirements of Witherspoon.” 577 S. W. 2d 717, 728 (1979). We granted the petition for a writ of certiorari, 444 U. S. 990 (1979), limited to the following questions: “(1) Is the doctrine of Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510, applicable to the bifurcated procedure employed by Texas in capital cases? (2) If so, did the exclusion from jury service in the present case of prospective jurors pursuant to Texas Penal Code § 12.31 (b) violate the doctrine of Witherspoon v. Illinois, supra?” II A Witherspoon involved a state procedure for selecting juries in capital cases, where the jury did the sentencing and had complete discretion as to whether the death penalty should be imposed. In this context, the Court held that a State may not constitutionally execute a death sentence imposed by a jury culled of all those who revealed during voir dire examination that they had conscientious scruples against or were otherwise opposed to capital punishment. The State was held to have no valid interest in such a broad-based rule of exclusion, since “[a] man who opposes the death penalty, no less than one who favors it, can make the discretionary judgment entrusted to him . . . and can thus obey the oath he takes as a juror.” Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S., at 519. The defendant, on the other hand, was seriously prejudiced by the State’s practice. The jury which sentenced him to death fell “woefully short of that impartiality to which the petitioner was entitled” on the issue of punishment, id., at 518. By excluding all those who opposed capital punishment, the State “crossed the line of neutrality” and “produced a jury uncommonly willing to condemn a man to die.” Id., at 520, 521. The Court recognized that the State might well have power to exclude jurors on grounds more narrowly drawn: “[Njothing we say today bears .upon the power of a State to execute a defendant sentenced to death by a jury from which the only veniremen who were in fact excluded for cause were those who made unmistakably clear (1) that they would automatically vote against the imposition of capital punishment without regard to any evidence that might be developed at the trial of the case before them, or (2) that their attitude toward the death penalty would prevent them from making an impartial decision as to the defendant’s guilt ” Id., at 522-523, n. 21 (emphasis in original). This statement seems clearly designed to accommodate the State’s legitimate interest in obtaining jurors who could follow their instructions and obey their oaths. For example, a juror would no doubt violate his oath if he were not impartial on the question of guilt. Similarly, the Illinois law in effect at the time Witherspoon was decided required the jury at least to consider the death penalty, although it accorded the jury absolute discretion as to whether or not to impose it. A juror wholly unable even to consider imposing the death penalty, no matter what the facts of a given case, would clearly be unable to follow the law of Illinois in assessing punishment. . In Boulden v. Holman, 394 U. S. 478, 483-484 (1969), we again emphasized the State’s legitimate interest in obtaining jurors able to follow the law: “[Ijt is entirely possible that a person who has a ‘fixed opinion against’ or who does not ‘believe in’ capital punishment might nevertheless be perfectly able as a juror to abide by existing law — to follow conscientiously the instructions of a trial judge and to consider fairly the imposition of the death sentence in a particular case.” And in Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586, 595-596 (1978), we upheld against a Witherspoon challenge the exclusion of several jurors who were unable to respond affirmatively to the following question: “[D]o you feel that you could take an oath to well and truely [sic] try this case . . . and follow the law, or is your conviction so strong that you cannot take an oath, knowing that a possibility exists in regard to capital punishment?” This line of cases establishes the general proposition that a juror may not be challenged for cause based on his views about capital punishment unless those views would prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath. The State may insist, however, that jurors will consider and decide the facts impartially and conscientiously apply the law as charged by the court. B We have little difficulty in concluding. that this rule applies to the bifurcated procedure employed by Texas in capital cases. This procedure differs from the Illinois statute in effect at the time Witherspoon was decided in three principal ways: (1) the Witherspoon jury assessed punishment at the same time as it rendered its verdict, whereas in Texas the jury considers punishment in a subsequent penalty proceeding; (2) the Witherspoon jury was given unfettered discretion to impose the death sentence or not, whereas the discretion of a Texas jury is circumscribed by the requirement that it impartially answer the statutory questions; and (3) the Witherspoon jury directly imposed the death sentence, whereas Texas juries merely give answers to the statutory questions, which in turn determine the sentence pronounced by the trial judge. Because of these differences, the jury plays a somewhat more limited role in Texas than it did in Illinois. If the juror is to obey his oath and follow the law of Texas, he must be willing not only to accept that in certain circumstances death is an acceptable penalty but also to answer the statutory questions without conscious distortion or bias. The State does not violate the Witherspoon doctrine when it excludes prospective jurors who are unable or unwilling to address the penalty questions with this degree of impartiality. Nevertheless, jurors in Texas must determine whether the evidence presented by the State convinces them beyond reasonable doubt that each of the three questions put to them must be answered in the affirmative. In doing so, they must consider both aggravating and mitigating circumstances, whether appearing in the evidence presented at the trial on guilt or innocence or during the sentencing proceedings. Jurors will characteristically know that affirmative answers to the questions will result in the automatic imposition of the death penalty, Hovila v. State, 532 S. W. 2d 293, 294 (Tex. Crim. App. 1975), and each of the jurors whose exclusion is challenged by petitioner was so informed. In essence, Texas juries must be allowed to consider “on the basis of all relevant evidence not only why a death sentence should be imposed, but also why it should not be imposed.” Jurek v. Texas, 428 U. S. 262, 271 (1976) (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). This process is not an exact science, and the jurors under the Texas bifurcated procedure unavoidably exercise a range of judgment and discretion while remaining true to their instructions and their oaths. With these considerations in mind, it is apparent that a Texas juror’s views about the death penalty might influence the manner in which he performs his role but without exceeding the “guided jury discretion,” 577 S. W. 2d, at 730, permitted him under Texas law. In such circumstances, he could not be excluded consistently with Witherspoon. Exclusions under § 12.31 (b), like other exclusions, must be examined in this light. C The State urges that Witherspoon and § 12.31 (b) may coexist as separate and independent bases for excluding jurors in Texas and that exclusion under the statute is consistent with the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments as construed in Witherspoon. Brief for Respondent 48. It is the State’s position that even if some jurors in the present case were excluded on grounds broader than that permitted under' Witherspoon, the exclusion was nevertheless proper under § 12.31 (b). The State’s argument is consistent with the holdings of decisions in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals which have considered the relationship between Witherspoon and § 12.31 (b). The argument, such as it is, is unpersuasive. As an initial matter, it is clear beyond peradventure that Witherspoon is not a ground for challenging any prospective juror. It is rather a limitation on the State’s power to exclude: if prospective jurors are barred from jury service because of their views about capital punishment on “any broader basis” than inability to follow the law or abide by their oaths, the death sentence cannot be carried out. Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S., at 522, n. 21. While this point may seem too obvious to bear repetition, it is apparent from their frequent references to Witherspoon as a ground for “disqualifying” prospective jurors that the State, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, might have fallen into the error of assuming that Witherspoon and § 12.31 (b) are both grounds for exclusion, so that there is no conflict if § 12.31 (b) excludes prospective jurors that Witherspoon does not. Nor do we agree with the State’s argument that because it has a different origin and purpose § 12.31 (b) cannot and will not lead to exclusions forbidden by Witherspoon. Unlike grounds for exclusion having nothing to do with capital punishment, such as personal bias, ill health, financial hardship, or peremptory challenges, § 12.31 (b) focuses the inquiry directly on the prospective juror’s beliefs about the death penalty, and hence clearly falls within the scope of the Wither-spoon doctrine. The State could, consistently with Wither-spoon, use § 12.31 (b) to exclude prospective jurors whose views on capital punishment are such as to make them unable to follow the law or obey their oaths. But the use of § 12.31 (b) to exclude jurors on broader grounds based on their opinions concerning the death penalty is impermissible. Finally, we cannot agree that § 12.31 (b) is “neutral” with respect to the death penalty since under that section the defendant may challenge jurors who state that their views in favor of the death penalty will affect their deliberations on fact issues. Despite the hypothetical existence of the juror who believes literally in the Biblical admonition “an eye for an eye,” see Witherspoon v. Illinois, supra, at 536 (Black, J., dissenting), it is undeniable, and the State does not seriously dispute, that such jurors will be few indeed as compared with those excluded because of scruples against capital punishment. The appearance of neutrality created by the theoretical availability of § 12.31 (b) as a defense challenge is not sufficiently substantial to take the statute out of the ambit of Witherspoon. Ill Based on our own examination of the record, we have concluded that § 12.31 (b) was applied in this case to exclude prospective jurors on grounds impermissible under Wither-spoon and related cases. As employed here, the touchstone of the inquiry under § 12.31 (b) was not whether putative jurors could and would follow their instructions and answer the posited questions in the affirmative if they honestly believed the evidence warranted it beyond reasonable doubt. Rather, the touchstone was whether the fact that the imposition of the death penalty would follow automatically from affirmative answers to the questions would have any effect at all on the jurors’ performance of their duties. Such a test could, and did, exclude jurors who stated that they would be “affected” by the possibility of the death penalty, but who apparently meant only that the potentially lethal consequences of their decision would invest their deliberations with greater seriousness and gravity or would involve them emotionally. Others were excluded only because they were unable positively to state whether or not their deliberations would in any way be “affected.” But neither nervousness, emotional involvement, nor inability to deny or confirm any effect whatsoever is equivalent to an unwillingness or an inability on the part of the jurors to follow the court’s instructions and obey their oaths, regardless of their feelings about the death penalty. The grounds for excluding these jurors were consequently insufficient under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Nor in our view would the Constitution permit the exclusion of jurors from the penalty phase of a Texas murder trial if they aver that they will honestly find the facts and answer the questions in the affirmative if they are convinced beyond reasonable doubt, but not otherwise, yet who frankly concede that the prospects of the death penalty may affect what their honest judgment of the facts will be or what they may deem to be a reasonable doubt. Such assessments and judgments by jurors are inherent in the jury system, and to exclude all jurors who would be in the slightest way affected by the prospect of the death penalty or by their views about such a penalty would be to deprive the defendant of the impartial jury to which he or she is entitled under the law. We repeat that the State may bar from jury service those whose beliefs about capital punishment would lead them to ignore the law or violate their oaths. But in the present case Texas has applied § 12.31 (b) to exclude jurors whose only fault was to take their responsibilities with special seriousness or to acknowledge honestly that they might or might not be affected. It does not appear in the record before us that these individuals were so irrevocably opposed to capital punishment as to frustrate the State’s legitimate efforts to administer its constitutionally valid death penalty scheme. Accordingly, the Constitution disentitles the -State to execute a sentence of death imposed by a jury from which such prospective jurors have been excluded. The judgment of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is consequently reversed to the extent that it sustains the imposition of the death penalty. So ordered. The Chief Justice concurs in the judgment. Under Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03 (a) (1) (1974), whoever “murders a peace officer or fireman who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the person knows is a peace officer or fireman” is guilty of a capital felony. Texas also authorizes the death penalty for four other offenses: murder committed in the course of kidnaping, burglary, robbery, forcible rape, or arson; murder committed for remuneration; murder committed while escaping or attempting to escape from a penal institution; and murder of a prison employee by a prison inmate. § 19.03. Under the current Texas capital punishment scheme, the jury’s discretion over sentencing is limited both by § 19.03, which authorizes the death penalty for only a small class of aggravated crimes, and by Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 37.071 (Vernon Supp. 1979), which mandates a sentence of death if, but only if, the jury answers “Yes” to each of the statutory penalty questions. This system was adopted in response to the Court’s judgment in Branch v. Texas, decided together with Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 238 (1972), which struck down a statute giving the jury absolute discretion whether to impose the death penalty or not. The Court upheld the revised Texas capital punishment scheme in Jurek v. Texas, 428 U. S. 262 (1976). In Burns v. Estelle, 592 F. 2d 1297 (1979), a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the application of Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 12.31 (b) (1974) to the facts of that case violated Wither-spoon. The en bane Fifth Circuit has since set the case for rehearing en banc. 598 F. 2d 1016 (1979). The court held oral argument on January 8, 1980, but has as yet issued no decision. In Davis v. Georgia, 429 U. S. 122 (1976), the Court applied the Witherspoon doctrine to a case arising under a death penalty scheme similar in some respects to the current Texas system. Petitioner and amicus suggest that Davis conclusively establishes the applicability of Witherspoon to the present case. We do not treat the question as foreclosed, however, because the issue was not explicitly raised in that case. Even the State concedes that Witherspoon “applies” to the Texas system. Brief for Respondent 36-48. The State suggests that this proposition is questionable as a matter of “logic,” but agrees that Texas experience and case law conclusively demonstrate Witherspoon’s applicability. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has consistently held that Witherspoon is “alive and well” in that State. E. g., Woodkins v. State, 542 S. W. 2d 855, 862 (1976), cert. denied, 431 U. S. 960 (1977); Burns v. State, 556 S. W. 2d 270, 275, cert. denied, 434 U. S. 935 (1977); Brock v. State, 556 S. W. 2d 309, 312, cert. denied, 434 U. S. 1002 (1977); Whitmore v. State, 570 S. W. 2d 889, 893 (1976). E. g., Moore v. State, 542 S. W. 2d 664, 672 (1976), cert. denied, 431 U. S. 949 (1977); Woodkins v. State, supra, at 862; Shippy v. State, 556 S. W. 2d 246, 251, cert. denied, 434 U. S. 935 (1977); Burns v. State, supra, at 275-276; Freeman v. State, 556 S. W. 2d 287, 297-298 (1977), cert. denied, 434 U. S. 1088 (1978); Brock v. State, supra, at 313; Hughes v. State, 562 S. W. 2d 857, 859-861, cert. denied, 439 U. S. 903 (1978); Hughes v. State, 563 S. W. 2d 581, 583 (1978), cert. denied, 440 U. S. 950 (1979) ; Bodde v. State, 568 S. W. 2d 344, 348-349 (1978), cert. denied, 440 U. S. 968 (1979); Whitmore v. State, supra, at 893; Garcia v. State, 581 S. W. 2d 168, 174-175 (1979), cert. pending, No. 79-5464; Burks v. State, 583 S. W. 2d 389, 393-394 (1979), cert. pending, No. 79-5533. E. g., Brief for Respondent 34, 42, 48; Moore v. State, supra, at 672; Brock v. State, supra, at 313; Hughes v. State, 562 S. W. 2d, at 860; Hughes v. State, 563 S. W. 2d, at 586; Chambers v. State, 568 S. W. 2d 313, 320 (1978), cert. denied, 440 U. S. 928 (1979); Bodde v. State, supra, at 348; Garcia v. State, supra, at 175. Prospective jurors Mahon, Jenson, and Ferguson fell into this category. As Jenson said at one point during his voir dire examination: “Well, I think it probably would [affect my deliberations] because afterall [sic], you’re talking about a man’s life here. You definitely don’t want to take it lightly.” Tr. of Voir Dire 367. Prospective jurors Coyle, White, McDonald, and Riddle were excluded on this ground. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court. The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, 35 U.S.C. § 100 et seq., establishes a process called "inter partes review." Under that process, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is authorized to reconsider and to cancel an issued patent claim in limited circumstances. In this case, we address whether inter partes review violates Article III or the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution. We hold that it violates neither. I A Under the Patent Act, the PTO is "responsible for the granting and issuing of patents." 35 U.S.C. § 2(a)(1). When an inventor applies for a patent, an examiner reviews the proposed claims and the prior art to determine if the claims meet the statutory requirements. See §§ 112, 131. Those requirements include utility, novelty, and nonobviousness based on the prior art. §§ 101, 102, 103. The Director of the PTO then approves or rejects the application. See §§ 131, 132(a). An applicant can seek judicial review of a final rejection. §§ 141(a), 145. B Over the last several decades, Congress has created administrative processes that authorize the PTO to reconsider and cancel patent claims that were wrongly issued. In 1980, Congress established "ex parte reexamination," which still exists today. See Act To Amend the Patent and Trademark Laws, 35 U.S.C. § 301 et seq. Ex parte reexamination permits "[a]ny person at any time" to "file a request for reexamination." § 302. If the Director determines that there is "a substantial new question of patentability" for "any claim of the patent," the PTO can reexamine the patent. §§ 303(a), 304. The reexamination process follows the same procedures as the initial examination. § 305. In 1999, Congress added a procedure called "inter partes reexamination." See American Inventors Protection Act, §§ 4601-4608, 113 Stat. 1501A-567 to 1501A-572. Under this procedure, any person could file a request for reexamination. 35 U.S.C. § 311(a) (2006 ed.). The Director would determine if the request raised "a substantial new question of patentability affecting any claim of the patent" and, if so, commence a reexamination. §§ 312(a), 313 (2006 ed.). The reexamination would follow the general procedures for initial examination, but would allow the third-party requester and the patent owner to participate in a limited manner by filing responses and replies. §§ 314(a), (b) (2006 ed.). Inter partes reexamination was phased out when the America Invents Act went into effect in 2012. See § 6, 125 Stat. 299-305. C The America Invents Act replaced inter partes reexamination with inter partes review, the procedure at issue here. See id., at 299. Any person other than the patent owner can file a petition for inter partes review. 35 U.S.C. § 311(a) (2012 ed.). The petition can request cancellation of "1 or more claims of a patent" on the grounds that the claim fails the novelty or nonobviousness standards for patentability. § 311(b). The challenges must be made "only on the basis of prior art consisting of patents or printed publications." Ibid. If a petition is filed, the patent owner has the right to file a preliminary response explaining why inter partes review should not be instituted. § 313. Before he can institute inter partes review, the Director must determine "that there is a reasonable likelihood that the petitioner would prevail with respect to at least 1 of the claims challenged." § 314(a). The decision whether to institute inter partes review is committed to the Director's discretion. See Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC v. Lee, 579 U.S. ----, ----, 136 S.Ct. 2131, 2140, 195 L.Ed.2d 423 (2016). The Director's decision is "final and nonappealable." § 314(d). Once inter partes review is instituted, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board-an adjudicatory body within the PTO created to conduct inter partes review-examines the patent's validity. See 35 U.S.C. §§ 6, 316(c). The Board sits in three-member panels of administrative patent judges. See § 6(c). During the inter partes review, the petitioner and the patent owner are entitled to certain discovery, § 316(a)(5) ; to file affidavits, declarations, and written memoranda, § 316(a)(8) ; and to receive an oral hearing before the Board, § 316(a)(10). The petitioner has the burden of proving unpatentability by a preponderance of the evidence. § 316(e). The owner can file a motion to amend the patent by voluntarily canceling a claim or by "propos[ing] a reasonable number of substitute claims." § 316(d)(1)(B). The owner can also settle with the petitioner by filing a written agreement prior to the Board's final decision, which terminates the proceedings with respect to that petitioner. § 317. If the settlement results in no petitioner remaining in the inter partes review, the Board can terminate the proceeding or issue a final written decision. § 317(a). If the proceeding does not terminate, the Board must issue a final written decision no later than a year after it notices the institution of inter partes review, but that deadline can be extended up to six months for good cause. §§ 316(a)(11), 318(a). If the Board's decision becomes final, the Director must "issue and publish a certificate." § 318(b). The certificate cancels patent claims "finally determined to be unpatentable," confirms patent claims "determined to be patentable," and incorporates into the patent "any new or amended claim determined to be patentable." Ibid. A party dissatisfied with the Board's decision can seek judicial review in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. § 319. Any party to the inter partes review can be a party in the Federal Circuit. Ibid. The Director can intervene to defend the Board's decision, even if no party does. See § 143; Cuozzo, supra, at ----, 136 S.Ct., at 2143-2144. When reviewing the Board's decision, the Federal Circuit assesses "the Board's compliance with governing legal standards de novo and its underlying factual determinations for substantial evidence." Randall Mfg. v. Rea, 733 F.3d 1355, 1362 (C.A.Fed.2013). II Petitioner Oil States Energy Services, LLC, and respondent Greene's Energy Group, LLC, are both oilfield services companies. In 2001, Oil States obtained a patent relating to an apparatus and method for protecting wellhead equipment used in hydraulic fracturing. In 2012, Oil States sued Greene's Energy in Federal District Court for infringing that patent. Greene's Energy responded by challenging the patent's validity. Near the close of discovery, Greene's Energy also petitioned the Board to institute inter partes review. It argued that two of the patent's claims were unpatentable because they were anticipated by prior art not mentioned by Oil States in its original patent application. Oil States filed a response opposing review. The Board found that Greene's Energy had established a reasonable likelihood that the two claims were unpatentable and, thus, instituted inter partes review. The proceedings before the District Court and the Board progressed in parallel. In June 2014, the District Court issued a claim-construction order. The order construed the challenged claims in a way that foreclosed Greene's Energy's arguments about the prior art. But a few months later, the Board issued a final written decision concluding that the claims were unpatentable. The Board acknowledged the District Court's contrary decision, but nonetheless concluded that the claims were anticipated by the prior art. Oil States sought review in the Federal Circuit. In addition to its arguments about patentability, Oil States challenged the constitutionality of inter partes review. Specifically, it argued that actions to revoke a patent must be tried in an Article III court before a jury. While Oil States' case was pending, the Federal Circuit issued an opinion in a different case, rejecting the same constitutional arguments. MCM Portfolio LLC v. Hewlett-Packard Co., 812 F.3d 1284, 1288-1293 (2015). The Federal Circuit summarily affirmed the Board's decision in this case. 639 Fed.Appx. 639 (2016). We granted certiorari to determine whether inter partes review violates Article III or the Seventh Amendment. 582 U.S. ----, 137 S.Ct. 2239, 198 L.Ed.2d 677 (2017). We address each issue in turn. III Article III vests the judicial power of the United States "in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." § 1. Consequently, Congress cannot "confer the Government's 'judicial Power' on entities outside Article III." Stern v. Marshall, 564 U.S. 462, 484, 131 S.Ct. 2594, 180 L.Ed.2d 475 (2011). When determining whether a proceeding involves an exercise of Article III judicial power, this Court's precedents have distinguished between "public rights" and "private rights." Executive Benefits Ins. Agency v. Arkison, 573 U.S. ----, ----, 134 S.Ct. 2165, 2171, 189 L.Ed.2d 83 (2014) (internal quotation marks omitted). Those precedents have given Congress significant latitude to assign adjudication of public rights to entities other than Article III courts. See ibid. ; Stern, supra, at 488-492, 131 S.Ct. 2594. This Court has not "definitively explained" the distinction between public and private rights, Northern Pipeline Constr. Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 U.S. 50, 69, 102 S.Ct. 2858, 73 L.Ed.2d 598 (1982), and its precedents applying the public-rights doctrine have "not been entirely consistent," Stern, 564 U.S., at 488, 131 S.Ct. 2594. But this case does not require us to add to the "various formulations" of the public-rights doctrine. Ibid. Our precedents have recognized that the doctrine covers matters "which arise between the Government and persons subject to its authority in connection with the performance of the constitutional functions of the executive or legislative departments." Crowell v. Benson, 285 U.S. 22, 50, 52 S.Ct. 285, 76 L.Ed. 598 (1932). In other words, the public-rights doctrine applies to matters " 'arising between the government and others, which from their nature do not require judicial determination and yet are susceptible of it.' " Ibid. (quoting Ex parte Bakelite Corp., 279 U.S. 438, 451, 49 S.Ct. 411, 73 L.Ed. 789 (1929) ). Inter partes review involves one such matter: reconsideration of the Government's decision to grant a public franchise. A Inter partes review falls squarely within the public-rights doctrine. This Court has recognized, and the parties do not dispute, that the decision to grant a patent is a matter involving public rights-specifically, the grant of a public franchise. Inter partes review is simply a reconsideration of that grant, and Congress has permissibly reserved the PTO's authority to conduct that reconsideration. Thus, the PTO can do so without violating Article III. 1 This Court has long recognized that the grant of a patent is a "'matte[r] involving public rights.' " United States v. Duell, 172 U.S. 576, 582-583, 19 S.Ct. 286, 43 L.Ed. 559 (1899) (quoting Murray's Lessee v. Hoboken Land & Improvement Co., 18 How. 272, 284, 15 L.Ed. 372 (1856) ). It has the key features to fall within this Court's longstanding formulation of the public-rights doctrine. Ab initio, the grant of a patent involves a matter "arising between the government and others." Ex parte Bakelite Corp., supra, at 451, 49 S.Ct. 411. As this Court has long recognized, the grant of a patent is a matter between " 'the public, who are the grantors, and... the patentee.' " Duell, supra, at 586, 19 S.Ct. 286 (quoting Butterworth v. United States ex rel. Hoe, 112 U.S. 50, 59, 5 S.Ct. 25, 28 L.Ed. 656 (1884) ). By "issuing patents," the PTO "take[s] from the public rights of immense value, and bestow [s] them upon the patentee." United States v. American Bell Telephone Co., 128 U.S. 315, 370, 9 S.Ct. 90, 32 L.Ed. 450 (1888). Specifically, patents are "public franchises" that the Government grants "to the inventors of new and useful improvements." Seymour v. Osborne, 11 Wall. 516, 533, 20 L.Ed. 33 (1871) ; accord, Pfaff v. Wells Electronics, Inc., 525 U.S. 55, 63-64, 119 S.Ct. 304, 142 L.Ed.2d 261 (1998). The franchise gives the patent owner "the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States." 35 U.S.C. § 154(a)(1). That right "did not exist at common law." Gayler v. Wilder, 10 How. 477, 494, 13 L.Ed. 504 (1851). Rather, it is a "creature of statute law." Crown Die & Tool Co. v. Nye Tool & Machine Works, 261 U.S. 24, 40, 43 S.Ct. 254, 67 L.Ed. 516 (1923). Additionally, granting patents is one of "the constitutional functions" that can be carried out by "the executive or legislative departments" without " 'judicial determination.' " Crowell, supra, at 50-51, 52 S.Ct. 285 (quoting Ex parte Bakelite Corp., supra, at 452, 49 S.Ct. 411 ). Article I gives Congress the power "[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." § 8, cl. 8. Congress can grant patents itself by statute. See, e.g., Bloomer v. McQuewan, 14 How. 539, 548-550, 14 L.Ed. 532 (1853). And, from the founding to today, Congress has authorized the Executive Branch to grant patents that meet the statutory requirements for patentability. See 35 U.S.C. §§ 2(a)(1), 151 ; see also Act of July 8, 1870, § 31, 16 Stat. 202; Act of July 4, 1836, § 7, 5 Stat. 119-120; Act of Apr. 10, 1790, ch. 7, § 1, 1 Stat. 109-110. When the PTO "adjudicate[s] the patentability of inventions," it is "exercising the executive power." Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U.S. 868, 910, 111 S.Ct. 2631, 115 L.Ed.2d 764 (1991) (Scalia, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment) (emphasis deleted). Accordingly, the determination to grant a patent is a "matte[r] involving public rights." Murray's Lessee, supra, at 284. It need not be adjudicated in Article III court. 2 Inter partes review involves the same basic matter as the grant of a patent. So it, too, falls on the public-rights side of the line. Inter partes review is "a second look at an earlier administrative grant of a patent." Cuozzo, 579 U.S., at ----, 136 S.Ct., at 2144. The Board considers the same statutory requirements that the PTO considered when granting the patent. See 35 U.S.C. § 311(b). Those statutory requirements prevent the "issuance of patents whose effects are to remove existent knowledge from the public domain." Graham v. John Deere Co. of Kansas City, 383 U.S. 1, 6, 86 S.Ct. 684, 15 L.Ed.2d 545 (1966). So, like the PTO's initial review, the Board's inter partes review protects "the public's paramount interest in seeing that patent monopolies are kept within their legitimate scope," Cuozzo, supra, at ----, 136 S.Ct., at 2144 (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted). Thus, inter partes review involves the same interests as the determination to grant a patent in the first instance. See Duell, supra, at 586, 19 S.Ct. 286. The primary distinction between inter partes review and the initial grant of a patent is that inter partes review occurs after the patent has issued. But that distinction does not make a difference here. Patent claims are granted subject to the qualification that the PTO has "the authority to reexamine-and perhaps cancel-a patent claim" in an inter partes review. See Cuozzo, supra, at ----, 136 S.Ct., at 2137. Patents thus remain "subject to [the Board's] authority" to cancel outside of an Article III court. Crowell, 285 U.S., at 50, 52 S.Ct. 285. This Court has recognized that franchises can be qualified in this manner. For example, Congress can grant a franchise that permits a company to erect a toll bridge, but qualify the grant by reserving its authority to revoke or amend the franchise. See, e.g., Louisville Bridge Co. v. United States, 242 U.S. 409, 421, 37 S.Ct. 158, 61 L.Ed. 395 (1917) (collecting cases). Even after the bridge is built, the Government can exercise its reserved authority through legislation or an administrative proceeding. See, e.g., id., at 420-421, 37 S.Ct. 158 ; Hannibal Bridge Co. v. United States, 221 U.S. 194, 205, 31 S.Ct. 603, 55 L.Ed. 699 (1911) ; Bridge Co. v. United States, 105 U.S. 470, 478-482, 26 L.Ed. 1143 (1882). The same is true for franchises that permit companies to build railroads or telegraph lines. See, e.g., United States v. Union Pacific R. Co., 160 U.S. 1, 24-25, 37-38, 16 S.Ct. 190, 40 L.Ed. 319 (1895). Thus, the public-rights doctrine covers the matter resolved in inter partes review. The Constitution does not prohibit the Board from resolving it outside of an Article III court. B Oil States challenges this conclusion, citing three decisions that recognize patent rights as the "private property of the patentee." American Bell Telephone Co., 128 U.S., at 370, 9 S.Ct. 90 ; see also McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. v. Aultman, 169 U.S. 606, 609, 18 S.Ct. 443, 42 L.Ed. 875 (1898) ( "[A granted patent] has become the property of the patentee"); Brown v. Duchesne, 19 How. 183, 197, 15 L.Ed. 595 (1857) ("[T]he rights of a party under a patent are his private property"). But those cases do not contradict our conclusion. Patents convey only a specific form of property right-a public franchise. See Pfaff, 525 U.S., at 63-64, 119 S.Ct. 304. And patents are "entitled to protection as any other property, consisting of a franchise." Seymour, 11 Wall. at 533 (emphasis added). As a public franchise, a patent can confer only the rights that "the statute prescribes." Gayler, supra, at 494; Wheaton v. Peters, 8 Pet. 591, 663-664, 8 L.Ed. 1055 (1834) (noting that Congress has "the power to prescribe the conditions on which such right shall be enjoyed"). It is noteworthy that one of the precedents cited by Oil States acknowledges that the patentee's rights are "derived altogether" from statutes, "are to be regulated and measured by these laws, and cannot go beyond them." Brown, supra, at 195. One such regulation is inter partes review. See Cuozzo, 579 U.S., at ----, 136 S.Ct., at 2137. The Patent Act provides that, "[s]ubject to the provisions of this title, patents shall have the attributes of personal property." 35 U.S.C. § 261. This provision qualifies any property rights that a patent owner has in an issued patent, subjecting them to the express provisions of the Patent Act. See eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., 547 U.S. 388, 392, 126 S.Ct. 1837, 164 L.Ed.2d 641 (2006). Those provisions include inter partes review. See §§ 311 - 319. Nor do the precedents that Oil States cites foreclose the kind of post-issuance administrative review that Congress has authorized here. To be sure, two of the cases make broad declarations that "[t]he only authority competent to set a patent aside, or to annul it, or to correct it for any reason whatever, is vested in the courts of the United States, and not in the department which issued the patent." McCormickHarvesting Machine Co., supra, at 609, 18 S.Ct. 443 ; accord, American Bell Telephone Co., 128 U.S., at 364, 9 S.Ct. 90. But those cases were decided under the Patent Act of 1870. See id., at 371, 9 S.Ct. 90 ; McCormick Harvesting Machine Co., supra, at 611, 18 S.Ct. 443. That version of the Patent Act did not include any provision for post-issuance administrative review. Those precedents, then, are best read as a description of the statutory scheme that existed at that time. They do not resolve Congress' authority under the Constitution to establish a different scheme. C Oil States and the dissent contend that inter partes review violates the "general" principle that "Congress may not 'withdraw from judicial cognizance any matter which, from its nature, is the subject of a suit at the common law, or in equity, or admiralty.' " Stern, 564 U.S., at 484, 131 S.Ct. 2594 (quoting Murray's Lessee, 18 How., at 284 ). They argue that this is so because patent validity was often decided in English courts of law in the 18th century. For example, if a patent owner brought an infringement action, the defendant could challenge the validity of the patent as an affirmative defense. See Lemley, Why Do Juries Decide If Patents Are Valid? 99 Va. L. Rev. 1673, 1682, 1685-1686, and n. 52 (2013). Or, an individual could challenge the validity of a patent by filing a writ of scire facias in the Court of Chancery, which would sit as a law court when adjudicating the writ. See id., at 1683-1685, and n. 44; Bottomley, Patent Cases in the Court of Chancery, 1714-58, 35 J. Legal Hist. 27, 36-37, 41-43 (2014). But this history does not establish that patent validity is a matter that, "from its nature," must be decided by a court. Stern, supra, at 484, 131 S.Ct. 2594 (quoting Murray's Lessee, supra, at 284). The aforementioned proceedings were between private parties. But there was another means of canceling a patent in 18th-century England, which more closely resembles inter partes review: a petition to the Privy Council to vacate a patent. See Lemley, supra, at 1681-1682 ; Hulme, Privy Council Law and Practice of Letters Patent for Invention From the Restoration to 1794, 33 L.Q. Rev. 63 (1917). The Privy Council was composed of the Crown's advisers. Lemley, supra, at 1681. From the 17th through the 20th centuries, English patents had a standard revocation clause that permitted six or more Privy Counsellors to declare a patent void if they determined the invention was contrary to law, "prejudicial" or "inconvenient," not new, or not invented by the patent owner. See 11 W. Holdsworth, A History of English Law 426-427, and n. 6 (1938); Davies, The Early History of the Patent Specification, 50 L.Q. Rev. 86, 102-106 (1934). Individuals could petition the Council to revoke a patent, and the petition was referred to the Attorney General. The Attorney General examined the petition, considered affidavits from the petitioner and patent owner, and heard from counsel. See, e.g., Bull v. Lydall, PC2/81, pp. 180-181 (1706). Depending on the Attorney General's conclusion, the Council would either void the patent or dismiss the petition. See, e.g., Darby v. Betton, PC2/99, pp. 358-359 (1745-1746) (voiding the patent); Baker v. James, PC2/103, pp. 320-321, 346-347 (1752) (dismissing the petition). The Privy Council was a prominent feature of the English system. It had exclusive authority to revoke patents until 1753, and after that, it had concurrent jurisdiction with the courts. See Hulme, 33 L.Q. Rev., at 189-191, 193-194. The Privy Council continued to consider revocation claims and to revoke patents throughout the 18th century. Its last revocation was in 1779. See id., at 192-193. It considered, but did not act on, revocation claims in 1782, 1794, and 1810. See ibid. ; Board of Ordinance v. Parr, PC1/3919 (1810). The Patent Clause in our Constitution "was written against the backdrop" of the English system. Graham, 383 U.S., at 5, 86 S.Ct. 684. Based on the practice of the Privy Council, it was well understood at the founding that a patent system could include a practice of granting patents subject to potential cancellation in the executive proceeding of the Privy Council. The parties have cited nothing in the text or history of the Patent Clause or Article III to suggest that the Framers were not aware of this common practice. Nor is there any reason to think they excluded this practice during their deliberations. And this Court has recognized that, "[w]ithin the scope established by the Constitution, Congress may set out conditions and tests for patentability." Id., at 6, 86 S.Ct. 684. We conclude that inter partes review is one of those conditions. For similar reasons, we disagree with the dissent's assumption that, because courts have traditionally adjudicated patent validity in this country, courts must forever continue to do so. See post, at 1383 - 1385. Historical practice is not decisive here because matters governed by the public-rights doctrine "from their nature" can be resolved in multiple ways: Congress can "reserve to itself the power to decide," "delegate that power to executive officers," or "commit it to judicial tribunals." Ex parte Bakelite Corp., 279 U.S., at 451, 49 S.Ct. 411. That Congress chose the courts in the past does not foreclose its choice of the PTO today. D Finally, Oil States argues that inter partes review violates Article III because it shares "every salient characteristic associated with the exercise of the judicial power." Brief for Petitioner 20. Oil States highlights various procedures used in inter partes review: motion practice before the Board; discovery, depositions, and cross-examination of witnesses; introduction of evidence and objections based on the Federal Rules of Evidence; and an adversarial hearing before the Board. See 35 U.S.C. § 316(a) ; 77 Fed.Reg. 48758, 48761-48763 (2012). Similarly, Oil States cites PTO regulations that use terms typically associated with courts-calling the hearing a "trial," id., at 48758 ; the Board members "judges," id., at 48763 ; and the Board's final decision a "judgment," id., at 48761, 48766-48767. But this Court has never adopted a "looks like" test to determine if an adjudication has improperly occurred outside of an Article III court. The fact that an agency uses court-like procedures does not necessarily mean it is exercising the judicial power. See Freytag, 501 U.S., at 878, 111 S.Ct. 2631 (opinion of Scalia, J.). This Court has rejected the notion that a tribunal exercises Article III judicial power simply because it is "called a court and its decisions called judgments." Williams v. United States, 289 U.S. 553, 563, 53 S.Ct. 751, 77 L.Ed. 1372 (1933). Nor does the fact that an administrative adjudication is final and binding on an individual who acquiesces in the result necessarily make it an exercise of the judicial power. See, e.g., Murray's Lessee, 18 How., at 280-281 (permitting the Treasury Department to conduct "final and binding" audits outside of an Article III court). Although inter partes review includes some of the features of adversarial litigation, it does not make any binding determination regarding "the liability of [Greene's Energy] to [Oil States] under the law as defined." Crowell, 285 U.S., at 51, 52 S.Ct. 285. It remains a matter involving public rights, one "between the government and others, which from [its] nature do[es] not require judicial determination." Ex parte Bakelite Corp., 279 U.S., at 451, 49 S.Ct. 411. E We emphasize the narrowness of our holding. We address the constitutionality of inter partes review only. We do not address whether other patent matters, such as infringement actions, can be heard in a non-Article III forum. And because the Patent Act provides for judicial review by the Federal Circuit, see 35 U.S.C. § 319, we need not consider whether inter partes review would be constitutional "without any sort of intervention by a court at any stage of the proceedings," Atlas Roofing Co. v. Occupational Safety and Health Review Comm'n, 430 U.S. 442, 455, n. 13, 97 S.Ct. 1261, 51 L.Ed.2d 464 (1977). Moreover, we address only the precise constitutional challenges that Oil States raised here. Oil States does not challenge the retroactive application of inter partes review, even though that procedure was not in place when its patent issued. Nor has Oil States raised a due process challenge. Finally, our decision should not be misconstrued as suggesting that patents are not property for purposes of the Due Process Clause or the Takings Clause. See, e.g., Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd. v. College Savings Bank, 527 U.S. 627, 642, 119 S.Ct. 2199, 144 L.Ed.2d 575 (1999) ; James v. Campbell, 104 U.S. 356, 358, 26 L.Ed. 786 (1882). IV In addition to Article III, Oil States challenges inter partes review under the Seventh Amendment. The Seventh Amendment preserves the "right of trial by jury" in "Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars." This Court's precedents establish that, when Congress properly assigns a matter to adjudication in a non-Article III tribunal, "the Seventh Amendment poses no independent bar to the adjudication of that action by a nonjury factfinder." Granfinanciera, S.A. v. Nordberg, 492 U.S. 33, 53-54, 109 S.Ct. 2782, 106 L.Ed.2d 26 (1989) ; accord, Atlas Roofing Co., supra, at 450-455, 97 S.Ct. 1261. No party challenges or attempts to distinguish those precedents. Thus, our rejection of Oil States' Article III challenge also resolves its Seventh Amendment challenge. Because inter partes review is a matter that Congress can properly assign to the PTO, a jury is not necessary in these proceedings. V Because inter partes review does not violate Article III or the Seventh Amendment, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals. It is so ordered. I join the Court's opinion in full. The conclusion that inter partes review is a matter involving public rights is sufficient to show that it violates neither Article III nor the Seventh Amendment. But the Court's opinion should not be read to say that matters involving private rights may never be adjudicated other than by Article III courts, say, sometimes by agencies. Our precedent is to the contrary. Stern v. Marshall, 564 U.S. 462, 494, 131 S.Ct. 2594, 180 L.Ed.2d 475 (2011) ; Commodity Futures Trading Comm'n v. Schor, 478 U.S. 833, 853-856, 106 S.Ct. 3245, 92 L.Ed.2d 675 (1986) ; see also Stern, supra, at 513, 131 S.Ct. 2594 (BREYER, J., dissenting) ("The presence of 'private rights' does not automatically determine the outcome of the question but requires a more'searching' examination of the relevant factors"). After much hard work and no little investment you devise something you think truly novel. Then you endure the further cost and effort of applying for a patent, devoting maybe $30,000 and two years to that process alone. At the end of it all, the Patent Office agrees your invention is novel and issues a patent. The patent affords you exclusive rights to the fruits of your labor for two decades. But what happens if someone later emerges from the woodwork, arguing that it was all a mistake and your patent should be canceled? Can a political appointee and his administrative agents, instead of an independent Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Petitioner's interview with the police lasted approximately one hour. All agree that the interview was noncustodial, and the parties litigated this case on the assumption that he was not read Miranda warnings. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). For most of the interview, petitioner answered the officer's questions. But when asked whether his shotgun "would match the shells recovered at the scene of the murder," App. 17, petitioner declined to answer. Instead, petitioner "[l]ooked down at the floor, shuffled his feet, bit his bottom lip, cl[e]nched his hands in his lap, [and] began to tighten up." Id., at 18. After a few moments of silence, the officer asked additional questions, which petitioner answered. Ibid. Following the interview, police arrested petitioner on outstanding traffic warrants. Prosecutors soon concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge him with the murders, and he was released. A few days later, police obtained a statement from a man who said he had heard petitioner confess to the killings. On the strength of that additional evidence, prosecutors decided to charge petitioner, but by this time he had absconded. In 2007, police discovered petitioner living in the Houston area under an assumed name. Petitioner did not testify at trial. Over his objection, prosecutors used his reaction to the officer's question during the 1993 interview as evidence of his guilt. The jury found petitioner guilty, and he received a 20-year sentence. On direct appeal to the Court of Appeals of Texas, petitioner argued that prosecutors' use of his silence as part of their case in chief violated the Fifth Amendment. The Court of Appeals rejected that argument, reasoning that petitioner's prearrest, pre-Miranda silence was not "compelled" within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment. 368 S.W.3d 550, 557-559 (2011). The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals took up this case and affirmed on the same ground. 369 S.W.3d 176 (2012). We granted certiorari, 568 U.S. ----, 133 S.Ct. 928, 184 L.Ed.2d 719 (2013), to resolve a division of authority in the lower courts over whether the prosecution may use a defendant's assertion of the privilege against self-incrimination during a noncustodial police interview as part of its case in chief. Compare, e.g., United States v. Rivera, 944 F.2d 1563, 1568 (C.A.11 1991), with United States v. Moore, 104 F.3d 377, 386 (C.A.D.C.1997). But because petitioner did not invoke the privilege during his interview, we find it unnecessary to reach that question. II A The privilege against self-incrimination "is an exception to the general principle that the Government has the right to everyone's testimony." Garner v. United States, 424 U.S. 648, 658, n. 11, 96 S.Ct. 1178, 47 L.Ed.2d 370 (1976). To prevent the privilege from shielding information not properly within its scope, we have long held that a witness who " 'desires the protection of the privilege... must claim it' " at the time he relies on it. Murphy, 465 U.S., at 427, 104 S.Ct. 1136 (quoting Monia, 317 U.S., at 427, 63 S.Ct. 409 ). See also United States ex rel. Vajtauer v. Commissioner of Immigration, 273 U.S. 103, 113, 47 S.Ct. 302, 71 L.Ed. 560 (1927). That requirement ensures that the Government is put on notice when a witness intends to rely on the privilege so that it may either argue that the testimony sought could not be self-incriminating, see Hoffman v. United States, 341 U.S. 479, 486, 71 S.Ct. 814, 95 L.Ed. 1118 (1951), or cure any potential self-incrimination through a grant of immunity, see Kastigar v. United States, 406 U.S. 441, 448, 92 S.Ct. 1653, 32 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972). The express invocation requirement also gives courts tasked with evaluating a Fifth Amendment claim a contemporaneous record establishing the witness' reasons for refusing to answer. See Roberts v. United States, 445 U.S. 552, 560, n. 7, 100 S.Ct. 1358, 63 L.Ed.2d 622 (1980) ("A witness may not employ the privilege to avoid giving testimony that he simply would prefer not to give"); Hutcheson v. United States, 369 U.S. 599, 610-611, 82 S.Ct. 1005, 8 L.Ed.2d 137 (1962) (declining to treat invocation of due process as proper assertion of the privilege). In these ways, insisting that witnesses expressly invoke the privilege "assures that the Government obtains all the information to which it is entitled." Garner, supra, at 658, n. 11, 96 S.Ct. 1178. We have previously recognized two exceptions to the requirement that witnesses invoke the privilege, but neither applies here. First, we held in Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 613-615, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965), that a criminal defendant need not take the stand and assert the privilege at his own trial. That exception reflects the fact that a criminal defendant has an "absolute right not to testify." Turner v. United States, 396 U.S. 398, 433, 90 S.Ct. 642, 24 L.Ed.2d 610 (1970) (Black, J., dissenting); see United States v. Patane, 542 U.S. 630, 637, 124 S.Ct. 2620, 159 L.Ed.2d 667 (2004) (plurality opinion). Since a defendant's reasons for remaining silent at trial are irrelevant to his constitutional right to do so, requiring that he expressly invoke the privilege would serve no purpose; neither a showing that his testimony would not be self-incriminating nor a grant of immunity could force him to speak. Because petitioner had no comparable unqualified right during his interview with police, his silence falls outside the Griffin exception. Second, we have held that a witness' failure to invoke the privilege must be excused where governmental coercion makes his forfeiture of the privilege involuntary. Thus, in Miranda, we said that a suspect who is subjected to the "inherently compelling pressures" of an unwarned custodial interrogation need not invoke the privilege. 384 U.S., at 467-468, and n. 37, 86 S.Ct. 1602. Due to the uniquely coercive nature of custodial interrogation, a suspect in custody cannot be said to have voluntarily forgone the privilege "unless [he] fails to claim [it] after being suitably warned." Murphy,supra, at 429-430., 104 S.Ct. 1136 For similar reasons, we have held that threats to withdraw a governmental benefit such as public employment sometimes make exercise of the privilege so costly that it need not be affirmatively asserted. Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493, 497, 87 S.Ct. 616, 17 L.Ed.2d 562 (1967) (public employment). See also Lefkowitz v. Cunningham, 431 U.S. 801, 802-804, 97 S.Ct. 2132, 53 L.Ed.2d 1 (1977) (public office); Lefkowitz v. Turley, 414 U.S. 70, 84-85, 94 S.Ct. 316, 38 L.Ed.2d 274 (1973) (public contracts). And where assertion of the privilege would itself tend to incriminate, we have allowed witnesses to exercise the privilege through silence. See, e.g., Leary v. United States, 395 U.S. 6, 28-29, 89 S.Ct. 1532, 23 L.Ed.2d 57 (1969) (no requirement that taxpayer complete tax form where doing so would have revealed income from illegal activities); Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Bd., 382 U.S. 70, 77-79, 86 S.Ct. 194, 15 L.Ed.2d 165 (1965) (members of the Communist Party not required to complete registration form "where response to any of the form's questions... might involve [them] in the admission of a crucial element of a crime"). The principle that unites all of those cases is that a witness need not expressly invoke the privilege where some form of official compulsion denies him "a 'free choice to admit, to deny, or to refuse to answer.' " Garner, 424 U.S., at 656-657, 96 S.Ct. 1178 (quoting Lisenba v. California, 314 U.S. 219, 241, 62 S.Ct. 280, 86 L.Ed. 166 (1941) ). Petitioner cannot benefit from that principle because it is undisputed that his interview with police was voluntary. As petitioner himself acknowledges, he agreed to accompany the officers to the station and "was free to leave at any time during the interview." Brief for Petitioner 2-3 (internal quotation marks omitted). That places petitioner's situation outside the scope of Miranda and other cases in which we have held that various forms of governmental coercion prevented defendants from voluntarily invoking the privilege. The dissent elides this point when it cites our precedents in this area for the proposition that "[c]ircumstances, rather than explicit invocation, trigger the protection of the Fifth Amendment." Post, at 2189. (opinion of BREYER, J.). The critical question is whether, under the "circumstances" of this case, petitioner was deprived of the ability to voluntarily invoke the Fifth Amendment. He was not. We have before us no allegation that petitioner's failure to assert the privilege was involuntary, and it would have been a simple matter for him to say that he was not answering the officer's question on Fifth Amendment grounds. Because he failed to do so, the prosecution's use of his noncustodial silence did not violate the Fifth Amendment. B Petitioner urges us to adopt a third exception to the invocation requirement for cases in which a witness stands mute and thereby declines to give an answer that officials suspect would be incriminating. Our cases all but foreclose such an exception, which would needlessly burden the Government's interests in obtaining testimony and prosecuting criminal activity. We therefore decline petitioner's invitation to craft a new exception to the "general rule" that a witness must assert the privilege to subsequently benefit from it. Murphy, 465 U.S., at 429, 104 S.Ct. 1136. Our cases establish that a defendant normally does not invoke the privilege by remaining silent. In Roberts v. United States, 445 U.S. 552, 100 S.Ct. 1358, 63 L.Ed.2d 622, for example, we rejected the Fifth Amendment claim of a defendant who remained silent throughout a police investigation and received a harsher sentence for his failure to cooperate. In so ruling, we explained that "if [the defendant] believed that his failure to cooperate was privileged, he should have said so at a time when the sentencing court could have determined whether his claim was legitimate." Id., at 560, 100 S.Ct. 1358. See also United States v. Sullivan, 274 U.S. 259, 263-264, 47 S.Ct. 607, 71 L.Ed. 1037 (1927) ; Vajtauer, 273 U.S., at 113, 47 S.Ct. 302. A witness does not expressly invoke the privilege by standing mute. We have also repeatedly held that the express invocation requirement applies even when an official has reason to suspect that the answer to his question would incriminate the witness. Thus, in Murphy we held that the defendant's self-incriminating answers to his probation officer were properly admitted at trial because he failed to invoke the privilege. 465 U.S., at 427-428, 104 S.Ct. 1136. In reaching that conclusion, we rejected the notion "that a witness must 'put the Government on notice by formally availing himself of the privilege' only when he alone 'is reasonably aware of the incriminating tendency of the questions.' " Id., at 428, 104 S.Ct. 1136 (quoting Roberts, supra, at 562, n. *, 100 S.Ct. 1358 (Brennan, J., concurring)). See also United States v. Kordel, 397 U.S. 1, 7, 90 S.Ct. 763, 25 L.Ed.2d 1 (1970). Petitioner does not dispute the vitality of either of those lines of precedent but instead argues that we should adopt an exception for cases at their intersection. Thus, petitioner would have us hold that although neither a witness' silence nor official suspicions are enough to excuse the express invocation requirement, the invocation requirement does not apply where a witness is silent in the face of official suspicions. For the same reasons that neither of those factors is sufficient by itself to relieve a witness of the obligation to expressly invoke the privilege, we conclude that they do not do so together. A contrary result would do little to protect those genuinely relying on the Fifth Amendment privilege while placing a needless new burden on society's interest in the admission of evidence that is probative of a criminal defendant's guilt. Petitioner's proposed exception would also be very difficult to reconcile with Berghuis v. Thompkins, 560 U.S. 370, 130 S.Ct. 2250, 176 L.Ed.2d 1098 (2010). There, we held in the closely related context of post-Miranda silence that a defendant failed to invoke the privilege when he refused to respond to police questioning for 2 hours and 45 minutes. 560 U.S., at ----, 130 S.Ct., at 2256-57, 2259-60. If the extended custodial silence in that case did not invoke the privilege, then surely the momentary silence in this case did not do so either. Petitioner and the dissent attempt to distinguish Berghuis by observing that it did not concern the admissibility of the defendant's silence but instead involved the admissibility of his subsequent statements. Post, at 2181 - 2182 (opinion of BREYER, J.). But regardless of whether prosecutors seek to use silence or a confession that follows, the logic of Berghuis applies with equal force: A suspect who stands mute has not done enough to put police on notice that he is relying on his Fifth Amendment privilege. In support of their proposed exception to the invocation requirement, petitioner and the dissent argue that reliance on the Fifth Amendment privilege is the most likely explanation for silence in a case such as this one. Reply Brief 17; see post, at 2189 - 2190 (BREYER, J., dissenting). But whatever the most probable explanation, such silence is "insolubly ambiguous." See Doyle, v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 617, 96 S.Ct. 2240, 49 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976). To be sure, someone might decline to answer a police officer's question in reliance on his constitutional privilege. But he also might do so because he is trying to think of a good lie, because he is embarrassed, or because he is protecting someone else. Not every such possible explanation for silence is probative of guilt, but neither is every possible explanation protected by the Fifth Amendment. Petitioner alone knew why he did not answer the officer's question, and it was therefore his "burden... to make a timely assertion of the privilege." Garner, 424 U.S., at 655, 96 S.Ct. 1178. At oral argument, counsel for petitioner suggested that it would be unfair to require a suspect unschooled in the particulars of legal doctrine to do anything more than remain silent in order to invoke his "right to remain silent." Tr. of Oral Arg. 26-27; see post, at 2191 (BREYER, J., dissenting); Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433, 439, 94 S.Ct. 2357, 41 L.Ed.2d 182 (1974) (observing that "virtually every schoolboy is familiar with the concept, if not the language" of the Fifth Amendment). But popular misconceptions notwithstanding, the Fifth Amendment guarantees that no one may be "compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself"; it does not establish an unqualified "right to remain silent." A witness' constitutional right to refuse to answer questions depends on his reasons for doing so, and courts need to know those reasons to evaluate the merits of a Fifth Amendment claim. See Hoffman, 341 U.S., at 486-487, 71 S.Ct. 814. In any event, it is settled that forfeiture of the privilege against self-incrimination need not be knowing. Murphy, 465 U.S., at 427-428, 104 S.Ct. 1136 ; Garner, supra, at 654, n. 9, 96 S.Ct. 1178. Statements against interest are regularly admitted into evidence at criminal trials, see Fed. Rule of Evid. 804(b)(3), and there is no good reason to approach a defendant's silence any differently. C Finally, we are not persuaded by petitioner's arguments that applying the usual express invocation requirement where a witness is silent during a noncustodial police interview will prove unworkable in practice. Petitioner and the dissent suggest that our approach will "unleash complicated and persistent litigation" over what a suspect must say to invoke the privilege, Reply Brief 18; see post, at 2183 - 2184 (opinion of BREYER, J.), but our cases have long required that a witness assert the privilege to subsequently benefit from it. That rule has not proved difficult to apply. Nor did the potential for close cases dissuade us from adopting similar invocation requirements for suspects who wish to assert their rights and cut off police questioning during custodial interviews. Berghuis, 560 U.S., at ----, 130 S.Ct., at 2259-60 (requiring suspect to unambiguously assert privilege against self-incrimination to cut off custodial questioning); Davis v. United States, 512 U.S. 452, 459, 114 S.Ct. 2350, 129 L.Ed.2d 362 (1994) (same standard for assertions of the right to counsel). Notably, petitioner's approach would produce its own line-drawing problems, as this case vividly illustrates. When the interviewing officer asked petitioner if his shotgun would match the shell casings found at the crime scene, petitioner did not merely remain silent; he made movements that suggested surprise and anxiety. At precisely what point such reactions transform "silence" into expressive conduct would be a difficult and recurring question that our decision allows us to avoid. We also reject petitioner's argument that an express invocation requirement will encourage police officers to " 'unfairly "tric[k]"'" suspects into cooperating. Reply Brief 21 (quoting South Dakota v. Neville, 459 U.S. 553, 566, 103 S.Ct. 916, 74 L.Ed.2d 748 (1983) ). Petitioner worries that officers could unduly pressure suspects into talking by telling them that their silence could be used in a future prosecution. But as petitioner himself concedes, police officers "have done nothing wrong" when they "accurately stat[e] the law." Brief for Petitioner 32. We found no constitutional infirmity in government officials telling the defendant in Murphy that he was required to speak truthfully to his parole officer, 465 U.S., at 436-438, 104 S.Ct. 1136, and we see no greater danger in the interview tactics petitioner identifies. So long as police do not deprive a witness of the ability to voluntarily invoke the privilege, there is no Fifth Amendment violation. * * * Before petitioner could rely on the privilege against self-incrimination, he was required to invoke it. Because he failed to do so, the judgment of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is affirmed. It is so ordered. Justice THOMAS, with whom Justice SCALIA joins, concurring in the judgment. We granted certiorari to decide whether the Fifth Amendment privilege against compulsory self-incrimination prohibits a prosecutor from using a defendant's pre-custodial silence as evidence of his guilt. The plurality avoids reaching that question and instead concludes that Salinas' Fifth Amendment claim fails because he did not expressly invoke the privilege. Ante, at 2178 - 2179. I think there is a simpler way to resolve this case. In my view, Salinas' claim would fail even if he had invoked the privilege because the prosecutor's comments regarding his precustodial silence did not compel him to give self-incriminating testimony. In Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965), this Court held that the Fifth Amendment prohibits a prosecutor or judge from commenting on a defendant's failure to testify. Id., at 614, 85 S.Ct. 1229. The Court reasoned that such comments, and any adverse inferences drawn from them, are a "penalty" imposed on the defendant's exercise of his Fifth Amendment privilege. Ibid. Salinas argues that we should extend Griffin's no-adverse-inference rule to a defendant's silence during a precustodial interview. I have previously explained that the Court's decision in Griffin "lacks foundation in the Constitution's text, history, or logic" and should not be extended. See Mitchell v. United States, 526 U.S. 314, 341, 119 S.Ct. 1307, 143 L.Ed.2d 424 (1999) (dissenting opinion). I adhere to that view today. Griffin is impossible to square with the text of the Fifth Amendment, which provides that "[n]o person... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." A defendant is not "compelled... to be a witness against himself" simply because a jury has been told that it may draw an adverse inference from his silence. See Mitchell, supra, at 331, 119 S.Ct. 1307 (SCALIA, J., dissenting) ("[T]he threat of an adverse inference does not 'compel' anyone to testify.... Indeed, I imagine that in most instances, a guilty defendant would choose to remain silent despite the adverse inference, on the theory that it would do him less damage than his cross-examined testimony"); Carter v. Kentucky, 450 U.S. 288, 306, 101 S.Ct. 1112, 67 L.Ed.2d 241 (1981) (Powell, J., concurring) ("[N]othing in the [Self-Incrimination] Clause requires that jurors not draw logical inferences when a defendant chooses not to explain incriminating circumstances"). Nor does the history of the Fifth Amendment support Griffin. At the time of the founding, English and American courts strongly encouraged defendants to give unsworn statements and drew adverse inferences when they failed to do so. See Mitchell, supra, at 332, 119 S.Ct. 1307 (SCALIA, J., dissenting); Alschuler, A Peculiar Privilege in Historical Perspective, in The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination 204 (R. Hemholz et al. eds. 1997). Given Griffin's indefensible foundation, I would not extend it to a defendant's silence during a precustodial interview. I agree with the plurality that Salinas' Fifth Amendment claim fails and, therefore, concur in the judgment. Justice BREYER, with whom Justice GINSBURG, Justice SOTOMAYOR, and Justice KAGAN join, dissenting. In my view the Fifth Amendment here prohibits the prosecution from commenting on the petitioner's silence in response to police questioning. And I dissent from the Court's contrary conclusion. I In January 1993, Houston police began to suspect petitioner Genovevo Salinas of having committed two murders the previous month. They asked Salinas to come to the police station "to take photographs and to clear him as [a] suspect." App. 3. At the station, police took Salinas into what he describes as "an interview room." Brief for Petitioner 3. Because he was "free to leave at that time," App. 14, they did not give him Miranda warnings. The police then asked Salinas questions. And Salinas answered until the police asked him whether the shotgun from his home "would match the shells recovered at the scene of the murder." Id., at 17. At that point Salinas fell silent. Ibid. Salinas was later tried for, and convicted of, murder. At closing argument, drawing on testimony he had elicited earlier, the prosecutor pointed out to the jury that Salinas, during his earlier questioning at the police station, had remained silent when asked about the shotgun. The prosecutor told the jury, among other things, that " '[a]n innocent person' " would have said, " 'What are you talking about? I didn't do that. I wasn't there.' " 368 S.W.3d 550, 556 (Tex.Ct.App.2011). But Salinas, the prosecutor said, " 'didn't respond that way.' " Ibid. Rather, " '[h]e wouldn't answer that question.' " Ibid. II The question before us is whether the Fifth Amendment prohibits the prosecutor from eliciting and commenting upon the evidence about Salinas' silence. The plurality believes that the Amendment does not bar the evidence and comments because Salinas "did not expressly invoke the privilege against self-incrimination" when he fell silent during the questioning at the police station. Ante, at 2178. But, in my view, that conclusion is inconsistent with this Court's case law and its underlying practical rationale. A The Fifth Amendment prohibits prosecutors from commenting on an individual's silence where that silence amounts to an effort to avoid becoming "a witness against himself." This Court has specified that "a rule of evidence" permitting "commen[t]... by counsel" in a criminal case upon a defendant's failure to testify "violates the Fifth Amendment." Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 610, n. 2, 613, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965) (internal quotation marks omitted). See also United States v. Patane, 542 U.S. 630, 637, 124 S.Ct. 2620, 159 L.Ed.2d 667 (2004) (plurality opinion); Turner v. United States, 396 U.S. 398, 433, 90 S.Ct. 642, 24 L.Ed.2d 610 (1970) (Black, J., dissenting). And, since "it is impermissible to penalize an individual for exercising his Fifth Amendment privilege when he is under police custodial interrogation," the "prosecution may not... use at trial the fact that he stood mute or claimed his privilege in the face of accusation." Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 468, n. 37, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966) (emphasis added). Particularly in the context of police interrogation, a contrary rule would undermine the basic protection that the Fifth Amendment provides. Cf. Kastigar v. United States, 406 U.S. 441, 461, 92 S.Ct. 1653, 32 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972) ("The privilege... usually operates to allow a citizen to remain silent when asked a question requiring an incriminatory answer"). To permit a prosecutor to comment on a defendant's constitutionally protected silence would put that defendant in an impossible predicament. He must either answer the question or remain silent. If he answers the question, he may well reveal, for example, prejudicial facts, disreputable associates, or suspicious circumstances-even if he is innocent. See, e.g., Griffin, supra, at 613, 85 S.Ct. 1229 ; Kassin, Inside Interrogation: Why Innocent People Confess, 32 Am. J. Trial Advoc. 525, 537 (2009). If he remains silent, the prosecutor may well use that silence to suggest a consciousness of guilt. And if the defendant then takes the witness stand in order to explain either his speech or his silence, the prosecution may introduce, say for impeachment purposes, a prior conviction that the law would otherwise make inadmissible. Thus, where the Fifth Amendment is at issue, to allow comment on silence directly or indirectly can compel an individual to act as "a witness against himself"-very much what the Fifth Amendment forbids. Cf. Pennsylvania v. Muniz, 496 U.S. 582, 596-597, 110 S.Ct. 2638, 110 L.Ed.2d 528 (1990) (definition of "testimonial" includes responses to questions that require a suspect to communicate an express or implied assertion of fact or belief). And that is similarly so whether the questioned individual, as part of his decision to remain silent, invokes the Fifth Amendment explicitly or implicitly, through words, through deeds, or through reference to surrounding circumstances. B It is consequently not surprising that this Court, more than half a century ago, explained that "no ritualistic formula is necessary in order to invoke the privilege." Quinn v. United States, 349 U.S. 155, 164, 75 S.Ct. 668, 99 L.Ed. 964 (1955). Thus, a prosecutor may not comment on a defendant's failure to testify at trial-even if neither the defendant nor anyone else ever mentions a Fifth Amendment right not to do so. Circumstances, not a defendant's statement, tie the defendant's silence to the right. Similarly, a prosecutor may not comment on the fact that a defendant in custody, after receiving Miranda warnings, "stood mute"-regardless of whether he "claimed his privilege" in so many words. Miranda, supra, at 468, n. 37, 86 S.Ct. 1602. Again, it is not any explicit statement but, instead, the defendant's deeds (silence) and circumstances (receipt of the warnings) that tie together silence and constitutional right. Most lower courts have so construed the law, even where the defendant, having received Miranda warnings, answers some questions while remaining silent as to others. See, e.g., Hurd v. Terhune, 619 F.3d 1080, 1087 (C.A.9 2010) ; United States v. May, 52 F.3d 885, 890 (C.A.10 1995) ; United States v. Scott, 47 F.3d 904, 907 (C.A.7 1995) ; United States v. Canterbury, 985 F.2d 483, 486 (C.A.10 1993) ; Grieco v. Hall, 641 F.2d 1029, 1034 (C.A.1 1981) ; United States v. Ghiz, 491 F.2d 599, 600 (C.A.4 1974). But see, e.g., United States v. Harris, 956 F.2d 177, 181 (C.A.8 1992). The cases in which this Court has insisted that a defendant expressly mention the Fifth Amendment by name in order to rely on its privilege to protect silence are cases where (1) the circumstances surrounding the silence (unlike the present case) did not give rise to an inference that the defendant intended, by his silence, to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights; and (2) the questioner greeted by the silence (again unlike the present case) had a special need to know whether the defendant sought to rely on the protections of the Fifth Amendment. See ante, at 2179 (explaining that, in such cases, the government needs to know the basis for refusing to answer "so that it may either argue that the testimony sought could not be self-incriminating or cure any potential self-incrimination through a grant of immunity" (citation omitted)). These cases include Roberts, Rogers, Sullivan, Vajtauer, and Jenkins -all of which at least do involve the protection of silence -and also include cases emphasized by the plurality that are not even about silence-namely, Murphy and Garner. In Roberts and Rogers, the individual refused to answer questions that government investigators (in Roberts ) and a grand jury (in Rogers ) asked, principally because the individual wanted to avoid incriminating other persons. Roberts v. United States, 445 U.S. 552, 553-556, 100 S.Ct. 1358, 63 L.Ed.2d 622 (1980) ; Rogers v. United States, 340 U.S. 367, 368-370, and n. 4, 71 S.Ct. 438, 95 L.Ed. 344 (1951). But the Fifth Amendment does not protect someone from incriminating others; it protects against self- incrimination. In turn, neither the nature of the questions nor the circumstances of the refusal to answer them provided any basis to infer a tie between the silence and the Fifth Amendment, while knowledge of any such tie would have proved critical to the questioner's determination as to whether the defendant had any proper legal basis for claiming Fifth Amendment protection. In Sullivan, the defendant's silence consisted of his failure to file a tax return-a return, he later claimed, that would have revealed his illegal activity as a bootlegger. United States v. Sullivan, 274 U.S. 259, 262-264, 47 S.Ct. 607, 71 L.Ed. 1037 (1927). The circumstances did not give rise to an inference of a tie between his silence (in the form of failing to file a tax return) and the Fifth Amendment; and, if he really did want to rely on the Fifth Amendment, then the government would have had special need to know of any such tie in order to determine whether, for example, the assertion of privilege was valid and, perhaps, an offer of immunity was appropriate. In Vajtauer, an alien refused to answer questions asked by an immigration official at a deportation proceeding. United States ex rel. Vajtauer v. Commissioner of Immigration, 273 U.S. 103, 113, 47 S.Ct. 302, 71 L.Ed. 560 (1927). Here, the circumstances gave rise to a distinct inference that the alien was not invoking any Fifth Amendment privilege: The alien's lawyer had stated quite publicly at the hearing that he advised his client to remain silent not on Fifth Amendment grounds; rather, the lawyer " 'advise[d] the alien not to answer any further questions until the evidence upon which the warrant is based will be presented here.' " Id Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court. The essential issue raised by this case and its companion, Labor Board v. Pittsburgh Steamship Co., post, p. 498, is the effect of the Administrative Procedure Act and the legislation colloquially known as the Taft-Hartley Act on the duty of Courts of Appeals when called upon to review orders of the National Labor Relations Board. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted enforcement of an order directing, in the main, that petitioner reinstate with back pay an employee found to have been discharged because he gave testimony under the Wagner Act and cease and desist from discriminating against any employee who files charges or gives testimony under that Act. The court below, Judge Swan dissenting, decreed full enforcement of the order. 179 F. 2d 749. Because the views of that court regarding the effect of the new legislation on the relation between the Board and the Courts of Appeals in the enforcement of the Board’s orders conflicted with those of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit we brought both cases here. 339 U. S. 951 and 339 U. S. 962. The clash of opinion obviously required settlement by this Court. I. Want of certainty in judicial review of Labor Board decisions partly reflects the intractability of any formula to furnish definiteness of content for all the impalpable factors involved in judicial review. But in part doubts as to the nature of the reviewing power and uncertainties in its application derive from history, and to that extent an elucidation of this history may clear them away. The Wagner Act provided: “The findings of the Board as to the facts, if supported by evidence, shall be conclusive.” Act of July 5, 1935, § 10 (e), 49 Stat. 449, 454, 29 U. S. C. § 160 (e). This Court read “evidence” to mean “substantial evidence,” Washington, V. & M. Coach Co. v. Labor Board, 301 U. S. 142, and we said that “[substantial evidence is more than a mere scintilla. It means such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.” Consolidated Edison Co. v. Labor Board, 305 U. S. 197, 229. Accordingly, it “must do more than create a suspicion of the existence of the fact to be established.... it must be enough to justify, if the trial were to a jury, a refusal to direct a verdict when the conclusion sought to be drawn from it is one of fact for the jury.” Labor Board v. Columbian Enameling & Stamping Co., 306 U. S. 292, 300. The very smoothness of the “substantial evidence” formula as the standard for reviewing the evidentiary validity of the Board’s findings established its currency. But the inevitably variant applications of the standard to conflicting evidence soon brought contrariety of views and in due course bred criticism. Even though the whole record may have been canvassed in order to determine whether the evidentiary foundation of a determination by the Board was “substantial,” the phrasing of this Court’s process of review readily lent itself to the notion that it was enough that the evidence supporting the Board’s result was “substantial” when considered by itself. It is fair to say that by imperceptible steps regard for the fact-finding function of the Board led to the assumption that the requirements of the Wagner Act were met when the reviewing court could find in the record evidence which, when viewed in isolation, substantiated the Board’s findings. Compare Labor Board v. Waterman Steamship Corp., 309 U. S. 206; Labor Board v. Bradford Dyeing Assn., 310 U. S. 318; and see Labor Board v. Nevada Consolidated Copper Corp., 316 U. S. 105. This is not to say that every member of this Court was consciously guided by this view or that the Court ever explicitly avowed this practice as doctrine. What matters is that the belief justifiably arose that the Court had so construed the obligation to review. Criticism of so contracted a reviewing power reinforced dissatisfaction felt in various quarters with the Board’s administration of the Wagner Act in the years preceding the war. The scheme of the Act was attacked as an inherently unfair fusion of the functions of prosecutor and judge. Accusations of partisan bias were not wanting. The “irresponsible admission and weighing of hearsay, opinion, and emotional speculation in place of factual evidence” was said to be a “serious menace.” No doubt some, perhaps even much, of the criticism was baseless and some surely was reckless. What is here relevant, however, is the climate of opinion thereby generated and its effect on Congress. Protests against “shocking injustices” and intimations of judicial “abdication” with which some courts granted enforcement of the Board’s orders stimulated pressures for legislative relief from alleged administrative excesses. The strength of these pressures was reflected in the passage in 1940 of the Walter-Logan Bill. It was vetoed by President Roosevelt, partly because it imposed unduly rigid limitations on the administrative process, and partly because of the investigation into the actual operation of the administrative process then being conducted by an experienced committee appointed by the Attorney General. It is worth noting that despite its aim to tighten control over administrative determinations of fact, the Walter-Logan Bill contented itself with the conventional formula that an agency’s decision could be set aside if “the findings of fact are not supported by substantial evidence.” The final report of the Attorney General’s Committee was submitted in January, 1941. The majority concluded that “[dissatisfaction with the existing standards as to the scope of judicial review derives largely from dissatisfaction with the fact-finding procedures now employed by the administrative bodies.” Departure from the “substantial evidence” test, it thought, would either create unnecessary uncertainty or transfer to courts the responsibility for ascertaining and assaying matters the significance of which lies outside judicial competence. Accordingly, it recommended against legislation embodying a general scheme of judicial review. Three members of the Committee registered a dissent. Their view was that the "present system or lack of system of judicial review” led to inconsistency and uncertainty. They reported that under a "prevalent” interpretation of the "substantial evidence” rule “if what is called ‘substantial evidence’ is found anywhere in the record to support conclusions of fact, the courts are said to be obliged to sustain the decision without reference to how heavily the countervailing evidence may preponderate — unless indeed the stage of arbitrary decision is reached. Under this interpretation, the courts need to read only one side of the case and, if they find any evidence there, the administrative action is to be sustained and the record to the contrary is to be ignored.” Their view led them to recommend that Congress enact principles of review applicable to all agencies not excepted by unique characteristics. One of these principles was expressed by the formula that judicial review could extend to “findings, inferences, or conclusions of fact unsupported, upon the whole record, by substantial evidence.” So far as the history of this movement for enlarged review reveals, the phrase “upon the whole record” makes its first appearance in this recommendation of the minority of the Attorney General’s Committee. This evidence of the close relationship between the phrase and the criticism out of which it arose is important, for the substance of this formula for judicial review found its way into the statute books when Congress with unquestioning — we might even say uncritical — unanimity enacted the Administrative Procedure Act. One is tempted to say “uncritical” because the legislative history of that Act hardly speaks with that clarity of purpose which Congress supposedly furnishes courts in order to enable them to enforce its true will. On the one hand, the sponsors of the legislation indicated that they were reaffirming the prevailing “substantial evidence” test. But with equal clarity they expressed disapproval of the manner in which the courts were applying their own standard. The committee reports of both houses refer to the practice of agencies to rely upon “suspicion, surmise, implications, or plainly incredible evidence,” and indicate that courts are to exact higher standards “in the exercise of their independent judgment” and on consideration of “the whole record.” Similar dissatisfaction with too restricted application of the “substantial evidence” test is reflected in the legislative history of the Taft-Hartley Act. The bill as reported to the House provided that the “findings of the Board as to the facts shall be conclusive unless it is made to appear to the satisfaction of the court either (1) that the findings of fact are against the manifest weight of the evidence, or (2) that the findings of fact are not supported by substantial evidence.” The bill left the House with this provision. Early committee prints in the Senate provided for review by “weight of the evidence” or “clearly erroneous” standards. But, as the Senate Committee Report relates, “it was finally decided to conform the statute to the corresponding section of the Administrative Procedure Act where the substantial evidence test prevails. In order to clarify any ambiguity in that statute, however, the committee inserted the words ‘questions of fact, if supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole....’ ” This phraseology was adopted by the Senate. The House conferees agreed. They reported to the House: “It is believed that the provisions of the conference agreement relating to the courts’ reviewing power will be adequate to preclude such decisions as those in N. L. R. B. v. Nevada Consol. Copper Corp. (316 U. S. 105) and in the Wilson, Columbia Products, Union Pacific Stages, Hearst, Republic Aviation, and Le Tourneau, etc. cases, supra, without unduly burdening the courts.” The Senate version became the law. It is fair to say that in all this Congress expressed a mood. And it expressed its mood not merely by oratory but by legislation. As legislation that mood must be respected, even though it can only serve as a standard for judgment and not as a body of rigid rules assuring sameness of application. Enforcement of such broad standards implies subtlety of mind and solidity of judgment. But it is not for us to question that Congress may assume such qualities in the federal judiciary. From the legislative story we have summarized, two concrete conclusions do emerge. One is the identity of aim of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Taft-Hartley Act regarding the proof with which the Labor Board must support a decision. The other is that now Congress has left no room for doubt as to the kind of scrutiny which a Court of Appeals must give the record before the Board to satisfy itself that the Board’s order rests on adequate proof. It would be mischievous word-playing to find that the scope of review under the Taft-Hartley Act is any different from that under the Administrative Procedure Act. The Senate Committee which reported the review clause of the Taft-Hartley Act expressly indicated that the two standards were to conform in this regard, and the wording of the two Acts is for purposes of judicial administration identical. And so we hold that the standard of proof specifically required of the Labor Board by the Taft-Hartley Act is the same as that to be exacted by courts reviewing every administrative action subject to the Administrative Procedure Act. Whether or not it was ever permissible for courts to determine the substantiality of evidence supporting a Labor Board decision merely on the basis of evidence which in and of itself justified it, without taking into account contradictory evidence or evidence from which conflicting inferences could be drawn, the new legislation definitively precludes such a theory of review and bars its practice. The substantiality of evidence must take into account whatever in the record fairly detracts from its weight. This is clearly the significance of the requirement in both statutes that courts consider the whole record. Committee reports and the adoption in the Administrative Procedure Act of the minority views of the Attorney General’s Committee demonstrate that to enjoin such a duty on the reviewing court was one of the important purposes of the movement which eventuated in that enactment. To be sure, the requirement for canvassing “the whole record” in order to ascertain substantiality does not furnish a calculus of value by which a reviewing court can assess the evidence. Nor was it intended to negative the function of the Labor Board as one of those agencies presumably equipped or informed by experience to deal with a specialized field of knowledge, whose findings within that field carry the authority of an expertness which courts do not possess and therefore must respect. Nor does it mean that even as to matters not requiring expertise a court may displace the Board’s choice between two fairly conflicting views, even though the court would justifiably have made a different choice had the matter been before it de novo. Congress has merely made it clear that a reviewing court is not barred from setting aside a Board decision when it cannot conscientiously find that the evidence supporting that decision is substantial, when viewed in the light that the record in its entirety furnishes, including the body of evidence opposed to the Board’s view. There remains, then, the question whether enactment of these two statutes has altered the scope of review other than to require that substantiality be determined in the light of all that the record relevantly presents. A formula for judicial review of administrative action may afford grounds for certitude but cannot assure certainty of application. Some scope for judicial discretion in applying the formula can be avoided only by falsifying the actual process of judging or by using the formula as an instrument of futile casuistry. It cannot be too often repeated that judges are not automata. The ultimate reliance for the fair operation of any standard is a judiciary of high competence and character and the constant play of an informed professional critique upon its work. Since the precise way in which courts interfere with agency findings cannot be imprisoned within any form of words, new formulas attempting to rephrase the old are not likely to be more helpful than the old. There are no talismanic words that can avoid the process of judgment. The difficulty is that we cannot escape, in relation to this problem, the use of undefined defining terms. Whatever changes were made by the Administrative Procedure and Taft-Hartley Acts are clearly within this area where precise definition is impossible. Retention of the familiar “substantial evidence” terminology indicates that no drastic reversal of attitude was intended. But a standard leaving an unavoidable margin for individual judgment does not leave the judicial judgment at large even though the phrasing of the standard does not wholly fence it in. The legislative history of these Acts demonstrates a purpose to impose on courts a responsibility which has not always been recognized. Of course it is a statute and not a committee report which we are interpreting. But the fair interpretation of a statute is often “the art of proliferating a purpose,” Brooklyn National Corp. v. Commissioner, 157 F. 2d 450, 451, revealed more by the demonstrable forces that produced it than by its precise phrasing. The adoption in these statutes of the judicially-constructed “substantial evidence” test was a response to pressures for stricter and more uniform practice, not a reflection of approval of all existing practices. To find the change so elusive that it cannot be precisely defined does not mean it may be ignored. We should fail in our duty to effectuate the will of Congress if we denied recognition to expressed Congressional disapproval of the finality accorded to Labor Board findings by some decisions of this and lower courts, or even of the atmosphere which may have favored those decisions. We conclude, therefore, that the Administrative Procedure Act and the Taft-Hartley Act direct that courts must now assume more responsibility for the reasonableness and fairness of Labor Bo'ard decisions than some courts have shown in the past. Reviewing courts must be influenced by a feeling that they are not to abdicate the conventional judicial function. Congress has imposed on them responsibility for assuring that the Board keeps within reasonable grounds. That responsibility is not less real because it is limited to enforcing the requirement that evidence appear substantial when viewed, on the record as a whole, by courts invested with the authority and enjoying the prestige of the Courts of Appeals. The' Board’s findings are entitled to respect; but they must nonetheless be set aside when the record before a Court of Appeals clearly precludes the Board’s decision from being justified, by a fair estimate of the worth of the testimony of witnesses or its informed judgment on matters within its special competence or both. From this it follows that enactment of these statutes does not require every Court of Appeals to alter its practice. Some — perhaps a majority — have always applied the attitude reflected in this legislation. To explore whether a particular court should or should not alter its practice would only divert attention from the application of the standard now prescribed to a futile inquiry into the nature of the test formerly used by a particular court. Our power to review the correctness of application of the present standard ought seldom to be called into action. Whether on the record as a whole there is substantial evidence to support agency findings is a question which Congress has placed in the keeping of the Courts of Appeals. This Court will intervene only in what ought to be the rare instance when the standard appears to have been misapprehended or grossly misapplied. II. Our disagreement with the view of the court below that the scope of review of Labor Board decisions is unaltered by recent legislation does not of itself, as we have noted, require reversal of its decision. The court may have applied a standard of review which satisfies the present Congressional requirement. The decision of the Court of Appeals is assailed on two grounds. It is said (1) that the court erred in holding that it was barred from taking into account the report of the examiner on questions of fact insofar as that report was rejected by the Board, and (2) that the Board’s order was not supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole, even apart from the validity of the court’s refusal to consider the rejected portions of the examiner’s report. The latter contention is easily met. It is true that two of the earlier decisions of the court below were among those disapproved by Congress. But this disapproval, we have seen, may well have been caused by unintended intimations of judicial phrasing. And in any event, it is clear from the court’s opinion in this case that it in fact did consider the “record as a whole,” and did not deem itself merely the judicial echo of the Board’s conclusion. The testimony of the company’s witnesses was inconsistent, and there was clear evidence that the complaining employee had been discharged by an officer who was at one time influenced against him because of his appearance at the Board hearing. On such a record we could not say that it would be error to grant enforcement. The first contention, however, raises serious questions to which we now turn. III. The Court of Appeals deemed itself bound by the Board's rejection of the examiner’s findings because the court considered these findings not “as unassailable as a master’s.” 179 F. 2d at 752. They are not. Section 10 (c) of the Labor Management Relations Act provides that “If upon the preponderance of the testimony taken the Board shall be of the opinion that any person named in the complaint has engaged in or is engaging in any such unfair labor practice, then the Board shall state its findings of fact... 61 Stat. 147, 29 U. S. C. (Supp. Ill) § 160 (c). The responsibility for decision thus placed on the Board is wholly inconsistent with the notion that it has power to reverse an examiner’s findings only when they are “clearly erroneous.” Such a limitation would make so drastic a departure from prior administrative practice that explicitness would be required. The Court of Appeals concluded from this premise “that, although the Board would be wrong in totally disregarding his findings, it is practically impossible for a court, upon review of those findings which the Board itself substitutes, to consider the Board’s reversal as a factor in the court’s own decision. This we say, because we cannot find any middle ground between doing that and treating such a reversal as error, whenever it would be such, if done by a judge to a master in equity.” 179 F. 2d at 753. Much as we respect the logical acumen of the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, we do not find ourselves pinioned between the horns of his dilemma. We are aware that to give the examiner’s findings less finality than a master’s and yet entitle them to consideration in striking the account, is to introduce another and an unruly factor into the judgmatical process of review. But we ought not to fashion an exclusionary rule merely to reduce the number of imponderables to be considered by reviewing courts. The Taft-Hartley Act provides that “The findings of the Board with respect to questions of fact if supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole shall be conclusive.” 61 Stat. 148, 29 U. S. C. (Supp. Ill) § 160 (e). Surely an examiner’s report is as much a part of the record as the complaint or the testimony. According to the Administrative Procedure Act, “All decisions (including initial, recommended, or tentative decisions) shall become a part of the record....” § 8 (b), 60 Stat. 242, 5 U. S. C. § 1007 (b). We found that this Act’s provision for judicial review has the same meaning as that in the Taft-Hartley Act. The similarity of the two statutes in language and purpose also requires that the definition of “record” found in the Administrative Procedure Act be construed to be applicable as well to the term “record” as used in the Taft-Hartley Act. It is therefore difficult to escape the conclusion that the plain language of the statutes directs a reviewing court to determine the substantiality of evidence on the record including the examiner’s report. The conclusion is confirmed by the indications in the legislative history that enhancement of the status and function of the trial examiner was one of the important purposes of the movement for administrative reform. This aim was set forth by the Attorney General’s Committee on Administrative Procedure: “In general, the relationship upon appeal between the hearing commissioner and the agency ought to a considerable extent to be that of trial court to appellate court. Conclusions, interpretations, law, and policy should, of course, be open to full review. On the other hand, on matters which the hearing commissioner, having heard the evidence and seen the witnesses, is best qualified to decide, the agency should be reluctant to disturb his findings unless error is clearly shown.” Apparently it was the Committee’s opinion that these recommendations should not be obligatory. For the bill which accompanied the Final Report required only that hearing officers make an initial decision which would become final in the absence of further agency action, and that agencies which differed on the facts from their examiners give reasons and record citations supporting their conclusion. This proposal was further moderated by the Administrative Procedure Act. It permits agencies to use examiners to record testimony but not to evaluate it, and contains the rather obscure provision that an agency which reviews an examiner’s report has “all the powers which it would have in making the initial decision.” But this refusal to make mandatory the recommendations of the Attorney General’s Committee should not be construed as a repudiation of them. Nothing in the statutes suggests that the Labor Board should not be influenced by the examiner’s opportunity to observe the witnesses he hears and sees and the Board does not. Nothing suggests that reviewing courts should not give to the examiner’s report such probative force as it intrinsically commands. To the contrary, § 11 of the Administrative Procedure Act contains detailed provisions designed to maintain high standards of independence and competence in examiners. Section 10 (c) of the Labor Management Relations Act requires that examiners "shall issue... a proposed report, together with a recommended order.” Both statutes thus evince a purpose to increase the importance of the role of examiners in the administrative process. High standards of public administration counsel that we attribute to the Labor Board’s examiners both due regard for the responsibility which Congress imposes on them and the competence to discharge it. The committee reports also make it clear that the sponsors of the legislation thought the statutes gave significance to the findings of examiners. Thus, the Senate Committee responsible for the Administrative Procedure Act explained in its report that examiners’ decisions “would be of consequence, for example, to the extent that material facts in any case depend on the determination of credibility of witnesses as shown by their demeanor or conduct at the hearing.” The House Report reflects the same attitude; and the Senate Committee Report on the Taft-Hartley Act likewise indicates regard for the responsibility devolving on the examiner. We do not require that the examiner’s findings be given more weight than in reason and in the light of judicial experience they deserve. The “substantial evidence” standard is not modified in any way when the Board and its examiner disagree. We intend only to recognize that evidence supporting a conclusion may be less substantial when an impartial, experienced examiner who has observed the witnesses and lived with the case has drawn conclusions different from the Board’s than when he has reached the same conclusion. The findings of the examiner are to be considered along with the consistency and inherent probability of testimony. The significance of his report, of course, depends largely on the importance of credibility in the particular case. To give it this significance does not seem to us materially more difficult than to heed the other factors which in sum determine whether evidence is “substantial.” The direction in which the law moves is often a guide for decision of particular cases, and here it serves to confirm our conclusion. However halting its progress, the trend in litigation is toward a rational inquiry into truth, in which the tribunal considers everything “logically probative of some matter requiring to be proved.” Thayer, A Preliminary Treatise on Evidence, 530; Funk v. United States, 290 U. S. 371. This Court has refused to accept assumptions of fact which are demonstrably false, United States v. Provident Trust Co., 291 U. S. 272, even when agreed to by the parties, Swift & Co. v. Hocking Valley R. Co., 243 U. S. 281. Machinery for discovery of evidence has been strengthened; the boundaries of judicial notice have been slowly but perceptibly enlarged. It would reverse this process for courts to deny examiners’ findings the probative force they would have in the conduct of affairs outside a courtroom. We therefore remand the cause to the Court of Appeals. On reconsideration of the record it should accord the findings of the trial examiner the relevance that they reasonably command in answering the comprehensive question whether the evidence supporting the Board’s order is substantial. But the court need not limit its reexamination of the case to the effect of that report on its decision. We leave it free to grant or deny enforcement as it thinks the principles expressed in this opinion dictate. Judgment vacated and cause remanded. Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Douglas concur with parts I and II of this opinion but as to part III agree with the opinion of the court below, 179 F. 2d 749, 753. Labor Board v. Pittsburgh Steamship Co., 180 F. 2d 731, affirmed, post, p. 498. The Courts of Appeals of five circuits have agreed with the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that no material change was made in the reviewing power. Eastern Coal Corp. v. Labor Board, 176 F. 2d 131, 134-36 (C. A. 4th Cir.); Labor Board v. La Salle Steel Co., 178 F. 2d 829, 833-834 (C. A. 7th Cir.); Labor Board v. Minnesota Mining & Mfg. Co., 179 F. 2d 323, 325-326 (C. A. 8th Cir.); Labor Board v. Continental Oil Co., 179 F. 2d 552, 555 (C. A. 10th Cir.); Labor Board v. Booker, 180 F. 2d 727, 729 (C. A. 5th Cir.); but see Labor Board v. Caroline Mills, Inc., 167 F. 2d 212, 213 (C. A. 5th Cir.). See the testimony of Dean Stason before the Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary in 1941. Hearings on S. 674, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 1355-1360. See, for example, the remarks of Laird Bell, then Chairman of the Committee on Administrative Law of the Chicago Bar Association, writing in 1940 in the American Bar Association Journal. 26 A. B. A. J. 552. See Gall, The Current Labor Problem: The View of Industry, 27 Iowa L. Rev. 381, 382. This charge was made by the majority of the Special Committee of the House appointed in 1939 to investigate the National Labor Relations Board. H. R. Rep. No. 1902, 76th Cong., 3d Sess. 76. Professor Gellhorn and Mr. Linfield reached the conclusion in 1939 after an extended investigation that “the denunciations find no support in fact.” Gellhorn and Linfield, Politics and Labor Relations, 39 Col. L. Rev. 339, 394. See also Millis and Brown, From the Wagner Act to Taft-Hartley, 66-75. Wilson & Co. v. Labor Board, 126 F. 2d 114, 117. In Labor Board v. Standard Oil Co., 138 F. 2d 885, 887, Judge Learned Hand said, “We understand the law to be that the decision of the Board upon that issue is for all practical purposes not open to us at all; certainly not after we have once decided that there was'substantial’ evidence that the ‘disestablished’ union was immediately preceded by a period during which there was a ‘dominated’ union.... “[W]e recognize how momentous may be such an abdication of any power of review....’’ 86 Cong. Rec. 13942-13943, reprinted as H. R. Doc. No. 986, 76th Cong., 3d Sess. S. 915, H. R. 6324, 76th Cong., 1st Sess., § 5 (a). Final Report, 92. Referring to proposals to enlarge the scope of review to permit inquiry whether the findings are supported by the weight of the evidence, the majority said: “Assuming that such a change may be desirable with respect to special administrative determinations, there is serious objection to its adoption for general application. “In the first place there is the question of how much change, if any, the amendment would produce. The respect that courts have for the judgments of specialized tribunals which have carefully considered the problems and the evidence cannot be legislated away. The line between ‘substantial evidence’ and ‘weight of evidence’ is not easily drawn — particularly when the court is confined to a written record, has a limited amount of time, and has no opportunity further to question witnesses on testimony which seems hazy or leaves some lingering doubts unanswered. ‘Substantial evidence’ may well be equivalent to the ‘weight of evidence’ when a tribunal in which one has confidence and which had greater opportunities for accurate determination has already so decided. “In the second place the wisdom of a general change to review of the 'weight of evidence’ is questionable. If the change would require the courts to determine independently which way the evidence preponderates, administrative tribunals would be turned into little more than media for transmission of the evidence to the courts. It would destroy the values of adjudication of fact by experts or specialists in the field involved. It would divide the responsibility for administrative adjudications.” Final Report, 91-92. Id., 210-211. The minority enumerated four “existing deficiencies” in judicial review. These were (1) “the haphazard, uncertain, and variable results of the present system or lack of system of judicial review,” (2) the interpretation permitting substantiality to be determined without taking into account conflicting evidence, (3) the failure of existing formulas “to take account of differences between the various types of fact determinations,” and (4) the practice of determining standards of review by “case-to-case procedure of the courts.” They recommended that “Until Congress finds it practicable to examine into the situation of particular agencies, it should provide more definitely by general legislation for both the availability and scope of judicial review in order to reduce uncertainty and variability. As the Committee recognizes in its report, there are several principal subjects of judicial review— including constitutional questions, statutory interpretation, procedure, and the support of findings of fact by adequate evidence. The last of these should, obviously we think, mean support of all findings of fact, including inferences and conclusion of fact, upon the whole record. Such a legislative provision should, however, be qualified by a direction to the courts to respect the experience, technical competence, specialized knowledge, and discretionary authority of each agency. We have framed such a provision in the appendix to this statement.” Id., 210-212. The text of the recommended provision is as follows: “(e) Scope of review. — As to the findings, conclusions, and decisions in any case, the reviewing court, regardless of the form of the review proceeding, shall consider and decide so far as necessary to its decision and where raised by the parties, all relevant questions of: (1) constitutional right, power, privilege, or immunity; (2) the statutory authority or jurisdiction of the agency; (3) the lawfulness and adequacy of procedure; (4) findings, inferences, or conclusions of fact unsupported, upon the whole record, by substantial evidence; and (5) administrative action otherwise arbitrary or capricious. Provided, however, That upon such review due weight shall be accorded the experience, technical competence, specialized knowledge, and legislative policy of the agency involved as well as the discretionary authority conferred upon it.” Id., 246-247. 60 Stat. 237, 5 U. S. C. § 1001 et seq. The form finally adopted reads as follows: “Sec. 10. Except so far as (1) statutes preclude judicial review or. (2) agency action is by law committed to agency discretion— “(e) Scope op review. — So far as necessary to decision and where presented the reviewing court shall decide all relevant questions of law, interpret constitutional and statutory provisions, and determine the meaning or applicability of the terms of any agency action. It shall (A) compel agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed; and (B) hold unlawful and set aside agency action, findings, and conclusions found to be (1) arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law; (2) contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege, or immunity; (3) in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations, or short of statutory right; (4) without observance of procedure required by law; (5) unsupported by substantial evidence in any case subject "to the requirements of sections 7 and 8 or otherwise reviewed on the record of an agency hearing provided by statute; or (6) unwarranted by the facts to the extent that the facts are subject to trial de novo by the reviewing court. In making the foregoing determinations the court shall review the whole record or such portions thereof as may be cited by any party, and due account shall be taken of the rule of prejudicial error.” 60 Stat. 243-244, 5 U. S. C. § 1009 (e). (Italics ours.) In the form in which the bill was originally presented to Congress, clause (B) (5) read, “unsupported by competent, material, and substantial evidence upon the whole agency record as reviewed by the court in any case subject to the requirements of sections 7 and 8.” H. R. 1203, 79th Cong., 1st Sess., quoted in S. Doc. No. 248, 79th Cong., 2d Sess. 155, 160. References to competency and materiality of evidence were deleted and the final sentence added by the Senate Committee. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. In these two civil cases, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) denied veterans’ claims for disability benefits. In both cases the VA erroneously failed to provide the veteran with a certain kind of statutorily required notice. See 38 U. S. C. § 5103(a). In both cases the VA argued that the error was harmless. And in both cases the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, after setting forth a framework for determining whether a notice error is harmless, rejected the VA’s argument. In our view, the Federal Circuit’s “harmless-error” framework is too complex and rigid, its presumptions impose unreasonable evidentiary burdens upon the VA, and it is too likely too often to require the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Veterans Court) to treat as harmful errors that in fact are harmless. We conclude that the framework conflicts with established law. See § 7261(b)(2) (Veterans Court must “take due account of the rule of prejudicial error”). I A The law entitles veterans who have served on active duty in the United States military to receive benefits for disabilities caused or aggravated by their military service. The Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000 requires the VA to help a veteran develop his or her benefits claim. §5103A. In doing so, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Secretary), upon “receipt of” an “application” for benefits, must “notify the claimant... of any information, and any medical or lay evidence, not previously provided to the Secretary that is necessary to substantiate the claim.” As “part of” the required “notice,” the Secretary must also “indicate which portion of” the required “information and evidence... is to be provided by the claimant and which portion... the Secretary... will attempt to obtain.” §5103(a). Repeating these statutory requirements in its regulations, the VA has said it will provide a claimant with a letter that tells the claimant (1) what further information is necessary to substantiate his or her claim; (2) what portions of that information the VA will obtain for the claimant; and (3) what portions the claimant must obtain. 38 CFR § 3.159(b) (2008). At the time of the decisions below, the regulations also required the VA to tell the claimant (4) that he may submit any other relevant information that he has available. § 3.159(b)(1). (The VA refers to these notice requirements as Type One, Type Two, Type Three, and Type Four, respectively.) B The VA’s regional offices decide most claims. A claimant may appeal an adverse regional office decision to the VA’s Board of Veterans’ Appeals, an administrative board with the power to consider certain types of new evidence. 38 U. S. C. §§ 7107(b), 7109(a); 38 CFR § 20.1304(c). The claimant may seek review of an adverse Board decision in the Veterans Court, an Article I court. And the claimant (or the Government) may appeal an adverse decision of the Veterans Court to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit — but only in respect to certain legal matters, namely, “the validity... of any statute or regulation... or any interpretation thereof... that was relied on” by the Veterans Court in making its decision. 38 U. S. C. § 7292. A specific statute requires the Veterans Court to “take due account of the rule of prejudicial error.” § 7261(b)(2). In applying this statutory provision, the Veterans Court has developed its own special framework for notice errors. Under this framework, a claimant who argues that the VA failed to give proper notice must explain precisely how the notice was defective. Then the reviewing judge will decide what “type” of notice error the VA committed. The Veterans Court has gone on to say that a Type One error (i. e., a failure to explain what further information is needed) has the “natural effect” of harming the claimant; but errors of Types Two, Three, or Four (i. e., a failure to explain just who, claimant or agency, must provide the needed material or to tell the veteran that he may submit any other evidence available) do not have the “natural effect” of harming the claimant. In these latter instances, the claimant must show how the error caused harm, for example, by stating in particular just “what evidence” he would have provided (or asked the Secretary to provide) had the notice not been defective, and explaining just “how the lack of that notice and evidence affected the essential fairness of the adjudication.” Mayfield v. Nicholson, 19 Vet. App. 103, 121 (2005). C In the first case, Woodrow Sanders, a veteran of World War II, claimed that a bazooka exploded near his face in 1944, causing later blindness in his right eye. His wartime medical records, however, did not indicate any eye problems. Indeed, his 1945 discharge examination showed near-perfect vision. But a 1948 eye examination revealed an inflammation of the right-eye retina and surrounding tissues — a condition that eventually left him nearly blind in that eye. Soon after the examination Sanders filed a claim for disability benefits. But in 1949 the VA denied benefits on the ground that Sanders had failed to show a connection between his eye condition and his earlier military service. Forty-two years later, Sanders asked the VA to reopen his benefits claim. He argued that the 1944 bazooka explosion had hurt his eye, and added that he had begun to experience symptoms — blurred vision, swelling, and loss of sight — in 1946. He included a report from a VA doctor, Dr. Joseph Ruda, who said that “[i]t is not inconceivable that” the condition “could have occurred secondary to trauma, as stated... by” Sanders. A private ophthalmologist, Dr. Gregory Strainer, confirming that Sanders’ right retina was scarred, added that this “type of... injury... can certainly be concussive in character.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 26a-27a. In 1992, the VA reopened Sanders’ claim. Id., at 29a. After obtaining Sanders’ military medical records, the VA arranged for a further medical examination, this time by VA eye specialist Dr. Sheila Anderson. After examining Sanders’ medical history (including records of the examinations made at the time of Sanders’ enlistment and discharge), Anderson agreed with the medical diagnosis but concluded that Sanders’ condition was not service related. Since Sanders’ right-eye “visual acuity” was “20/20” upon enlistment and “20/25” upon discharge, and he had “reported decreased vision only 6 months prior” to his 1948 doctor’s “visit,” and since “there are no other signs of ocular trauma,” Anderson thought that Sanders’ condition “is most likely infectious in nature, although the etiology at this point is impossible to determine.” “Based on the documented records,” she concluded, “the patient did not lose vision while on active duty.” The VA regional office denied Sanders’ claim. Ibid. Sanders sought Board review, and in the meantime he obtained the opinion of another VA doctor, Dr. Duane Nii, who said that the “etiology of the patient’s” eye condition “is... difficult to ascertain.” He thought that “it is possible that” the condition “could be related to” a bazooka explosion, though the “possibility of” an infection “as the etiology... could also be entertained.” Id., at 30a. The Board concluded that Sanders had failed to show that the eye injury was service connected. The Board said that it had relied most heavily upon Anderson’s report because, unlike other reports, it took account of Sanders’ military medical records documenting his eyesight at the time of his enlistment and discharge. And the Board consequently affirmed the regional office's denial of Sanders’ claim. Sanders then appealed to the Veterans Court. There he argued, among other things, that the VA had made a notice error. Sanders conceded that the VA had sent him a letter telling him (1) what further information was necessary to substantiate his claim. But, he said, the VA letter did not tell him (2) which portions of the information the Secretary would provide or (3) which portions he would have to provide. That is to say, he complained about notice errors Type Two and Type Three. The Veterans Court held that these notice errors were harmless. It said that Sanders had not explained how he would have acted differently, say, by identifying what different evidence he would have produced or asked the Secretary to obtain for him, had he received proper notice. Finding no other error, the Veterans Court affirmed the Board’s decision. D The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the Veterans Court’s decision and held that the Veterans Court was wrong to find the notice error harmless. The Federal Circuit wrote that when the VA provides a claimant with a notice letter that is deficient in any respect (to the point where a “reasonable person” would not have read it as providing the necessary information), the Veterans Court “should... presum[e]” that the notice error is “prejudicial, requiring reversal unless the VA can show that the error did not affect the essential fairness of the adjudication.” Sanders v. Nicholson, 487 F. 3d 881, 889 (2007). To make this latter showing, the court added, the VA must “demonstrate” (1) that the “defect was cured by actual knowledge on the” claimant’s “part,” or (2) “that a benefit could not have been awarded as a matter of law.” Ibid. Because the VA had not made such a showing, the Federal Circuit reversed the Veterans Court’s decision. E In the second case before us, the claimant, Patricia Simmons, served on active military duty from December 1978 to April 1980. While on duty she worked in a noisy environment close to aircraft; after three months she began to lose hearing in her left ear; and by the time she was discharged, her left-ear hearing had become worse. Soon after her discharge, Simmons applied for disability benefits. The VA regional office found her hearing loss was service connected; but it also found the loss insufficiently severe to warrant compensation. In November 1980, it denied her claim. In 1998, Simmons asked the VA to reopen her claim. She provided medical examination records showing further loss of hearing in her left ear along with (what she considered related) loss of hearing in her right ear. The VA arranged for hearing examinations by VA doctors in 1999, 2001, and 2002. The doctors measured her left-ear hearing loss, ranking it as moderate to severe; they also measured her right-ear hearing loss, ranking it as mild to moderate. After comparing the results of the examinations with a VA hearing-loss compensation schedule, the regional office concluded that Simmons’ left-ear hearing loss, while service connected, was not severe enough to warrant compensation. At the same time, the regional office concluded that her right-ear hearing loss was neither service connected nor sufficiently severe. Simmons appealed the decision to the Board, which affirmed the regional office’s determination. In 2003, Simmons appealed to the Veterans Court. Among other things, she said that she had not received a notice about (and she consequently failed to attend) a further right-ear medical examination that the VA later told her it had arranged. She added that, in respect to her claim for benefits for loss of hearing in her left ear, the VA had made a Type One notice error (i e., it had failed to tell her what further information was needed to substantiate her claim). Simmons conceded that she had received a letter from the VA. But the letter told her only what, in general, a person had to do to show that a hearing injury was service connected. It did not tell her anything about her specific problem, namely, what further information she must provide to show a worsening of hearing in her left ear, to the point where she could receive benefits. The Veterans Court agreed with Simmons, and it found both errors prejudicial. In respect to Simmons’ left-ear hearing loss (the matter at issue here), it pointed out that it had earlier said (in Mayfield, 19 Vet. App., at 120-124) that a Type One notice error has the “ ‘natural effect’ of producing prejudice.” The court added that its “revie[w] [of] the record in its entirety” convinced it that Simmons did not have “actual knowledge of what evidence was necessary to substantiate her claim” and, had the VA told Simmons more specifically about what additional medical information it needed, Simmons might have “obtained” a further “private” medical “examination substantiating her claim.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 81a. The Veterans Court consequently remanded the case to the Board. The Government appealed the Veterans Court’s determination to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. And that court affirmed the Veterans Court’s decision on the basis of its decision in Sanders. Simmons v. Nicholson, 487 F. 3d 892 (2007). F We granted certiorari in both Sanders’ and Simmons’ cases in order to determine the lawfulness of the Federal Circuit’s “harmless-error” holdings. II The Federal Circuit’s holdings flow directly from its use of the “harmless-error” framework that we have described. Supra, at 404. Thus we must decide whether that framework is consistent with a particular statutory requirement, namely, the requirement that the Veterans Court “take due account of the rule of prejudicial error,” 38 U. S. C. § 7261(b)(2). See supra, at 401. We conclude that the framework is not consistent with the statutory demand. A We believe that the statute, in stating that the Veterans Court must “take due account of the rule of prejudicial error,” requires the Veterans Court to apply the same kind of “harmless-error” rule that courts ordinarily apply in civil cases. The statutory words “take due account” and “prejudicial error” make clear that is so. Congress used the same words in the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). 5 U. S. C. § 706 (“[A] court shall review the whole record... and due account shall be taken of the rule of prejudicial error”). The Attorney General’s Manual on the Administrative Procedure Act explained that the APA’s reference to “prejudicial error” is intended to “su[mj up in succinct fashion the ‘harmless error’ rule applied by the courts in the review of lower court decisions as well as of administrative bodies.” Dept. of Justice, Attorney General’s Manual on the Administrative Procedure Act 110 (1947) (emphasis added). And we have previously described § 706 as an “ ‘administrative law... harmless error rule.’ ” National Assn. of Home Builders v. Defenders of Wildlife, 551 U. S. 644, 659-660 (2007) (quoting PDK Labs. Inc. v. United States Drug Enforcement Admin., 362 F. 3d 786, 799 (CADC 2004)). Legislative history confirms that Congress intended the Veterans Court “prejudicial error” statute to “incorporate a reference” to the APA’s approach. S. Rep. No. 100-418, p. 61 (1988). We have no indication of any relevant distinction between the manner in which reviewing courts treat civil and administrative eases. Consequently, we assess the lawfulness of the Federal Circuit’s approach in light of our general case law governing application of the harmless-error standard. B Three related features of the Federal Circuit's framework, taken together, convince us that it mandates an approach to harmless error that differs significantly from the approach courts normally take in ordinary civil cases. First, the framework is complex, rigid, and mandatory. In every case involving a notice error (of no matter which kind) the Veterans Court must find the error harmful unless the VA “demonstrate[s]” (1) that the claimant’s “actual knowledge” cured the defect or (2) that the claimant could not have received a benefit as a matter of law. Suppose the notice error, as in Sanders’ case, consisted of a failure to describe what additional information, if any, the VA would provide. It might be obvious from the record in the particular case that the error made no difference. But under the Federal Circuit’s rule, the Veterans Court would have to remand the case for new proceedings regardless. We have previously warned against courts’ determining whether an error is harmless through the use of mandatory presumptions and rigid rules rather than case-specific application of judgment, based upon examination of the record. See Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U. S. 750, 760 (1946). The federal “harmless-error” statute, now codified at 28 U. S. C. §2111, tells courts to review cases for errors of law “without regard to errors” that do not affect the parties’ “substantial rights.” That language seeks to prevent appellate courts from becoming “ ‘impregnable citadels of technieality,’ ” Kotteakos, 328 U. S., at 759. And we have read it as expressing a congressional preference for determining “harmless error” without the use of presumptions insofar as those presumptions may lead courts to find an error harmful, when, in fact, in the particular case before the court, it is not. See id., at 760; O'Neal v. McAninch, 513 U. S. 432, 436-437 (1995); see also R. Traynor, The Riddle of Harmless Error 26 (1970) (hereinafter Traynor) (reviewing court normally should “determine whether the error affected the judgment... without benefit of such aids as presumptions... that expedite fact-finding at the trial”). The Federal Circuit’s presumptions exhibit the very characteristics that Congress sought to discourage. In the cases before us, they would prevent the reviewing court from directly asking the harmless-error question. They would prevent that court from resting its conclusion on the facts and circumstances of the particular case. And they would require the reviewing court to find the notice error prejudicial even if that court, having read the entire record, conscientiously concludes the contrary. Second, the Federal Circuit’s framework imposes an unreasonable evidentiary burden upon the VA. How is the Secretary to demonstrate, in Sanders’ case for example, that Sanders knew that he, not the VA, would have to produce more convincing evidence that the bazooka accident caused his eye injury? How could the Secretary demonstrate that there is no evidence anywhere that would entitle Sanders to benefits? To show a claimant’s state of mind about such a matter will often prove difficult, perhaps impossible. And even if the VA (as in Sanders’ case) searches the military records and comes up emptyhanded, it may still prove difficult, or impossible, to prove the nonexistence of evidence lying somewhere about that might significantly help the claimant. We have previously pointed out that setting an evidentiary “barrier so high that it could never be surmounted would justify the very criticism that spawned the harmless-error doctrine,” namely, reversing for error “ ‘regardless of its effect on the judgment.’ ” Neder v. United States, 527 U. S. 1, 18 (1999) (quoting Traynor 50). The Federal Circuit’s evidentiary rules increase the likelihood of reversal in cases where, in fact, the error is harmless. And, as we pointed out in Neder, that likelihood encourages abuse of the judicial process and diminishes the public’s confidence in the fair and effective operation of the judicial system. 527 U. S., at 18. Third, the Federal Circuit’s framework requires the VA, not the claimant, to explain why the error is harmless. This Court has said that the party that “seeks to have a judgment set aside because of an erroneous ruling carries the burden of showing that prejudice resulted.” Palmer v. Hoffman, 318 U. S. 109, 116 (1943); see also Tipton v. Socony Mobil Oil Co., 375 U. S. 34, 36 (1963) (per curiam); United States v. Borden Co., 347 U. S. 514, 516-517 (1954); cf. McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U. S. 548, 553 (1984); Market Street R. Co. v. Railroad Common of Cal., 324 U. S. 548, 562 (1945) (finding error harmless “in the absence of any showing of... prejudice”). Lower court cases make clear that courts have correlated review of ordinary administrative proceedings to appellate review of civil cases in this respect. Consequently, the burden of showing that an error is harmful normally falls upon the party attacking the agency’s determination. See, e. g., American Airlines, Inc. v. Department of Transp., 202 F. 3d 788, 797 (CA5 2000) (declining to remand where appellant failed to show that error in administrative proceeding was harmful); Air Canada v. Department of Transp., 148 F. 3d 1142, 1156-1157 (CADC 1998) (same); Nelson v. Apfel, 131 F. 3d 1228, 1236 (CA7 1997) (same); Bar MK Ranches v. Yuetter, 994 F. 2d 735, 740 (CA10 1993) (same); Camden v. Department of Labor, 831 F. 2d 449, 451 (CA3 1987) (same); Panhandle Co-op Assn. v. EPA, 771 F. 2d 1149, 1153 (CA8 1985) (same); Frankfort v. FERC, 678 F. 2d 699, 708 (CA7 1982) (same); NLRB v. Seine & Line Fishermen, 374 F. 2d 974, 981 (CA9 1967) (same). To say that the claimant has the “burden” of showing that an error was harmful is not to impose a complex system of “burden shifting” rules or a particularly onerous requirement. In ordinary civil appeals, for example, the appellant will point to rulings by the trial judge that the appellant claims are erroneous, say, a ruling excluding favorable evidence. Often the circumstances of the case will make clear to the appellate judge that the ruling, if erroneous, was harmful and nothing further need be said. But, if not, then the party seeking reversal normally must explain why the erroneous ruling caused harm. If, for example, the party seeking an affirmance makes a strong argument that the evidence on the point was overwhelming regardless, it normally makes sense to ask the party seeking reversal to provide an explanation, say, by marshaling the facts and evidence showing the contrary. The party seeking to reverse the result of a civil proceeding will likely be in a position at least as good as, and often better than, the opposing party to explain how he has been hurt by an error. Cf. United States v. Fior D'Italia, Inc., 536 U. S. 238, 256, n. 4 (2002) (Souter, J., dissenting). Respondents urge the creation of a special rule for this context, placing upon the agency the burden of proving that a notice error did not cause harm. But we have placed such a burden on the appellee only when the matter underlying review was criminal. See, e. g., Kotteakos, supra, at 760. In criminal cases the Government seeks to deprive an individual of his liberty, thereby providing a good reason to require the Government to explain why an error should not upset the trial court’s determination. And the fact that the Government must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt justifies a rule that makes it more difficult for the reviewing court to find that an error did not affect the outcome of a case. See United States v. Olano, 507 U. S. 725, 741 (1993) (stating that the Government bears the “burden of showing the absence of prejudice”). But in the ordinary civil case that is not so. See Palmer, supra, at 116. C Our discussion above is subject to two important qualifications. First, we need not, and we do not, decide the lawfulness of the use by the Veterans Court of what it called the “natural effects” of certain kinds of notice errors. We have previously made clear that courts may sometimes make empirically based generalizations about what kinds of errors are likely, as a factual matter, to prove harmful. See Kotteakos, 328 U. S., at 760-761 (reviewing courts may learn over time that the “ ‘natural effect’ ” of certain errors is “ ‘to prejudice a litigant’s substantial rights’ ” (quoting H. R. Rep. No. 913, 65th Cong., 3d Sess., 1 (1919))). And by drawing upon “experience” that reveals some such “‘natural effect,’” a court might properly influence, though not control, future determinations. See Kotteakos, supra, at 760-761. We consider here, however, only the Federal Circuit’s harmless-error framework. That framework, as we have said, is mandatory. And its presumptions are not based upon an effort to determine “natural effects.” Indeed, the Federal Circuit is the wrong court to make such determinations. Statutes limit the Federal Circuit’s review to certain kinds of Veterans Court errors, namely, those that concern “the validity of... any statute or regulation... or any interpretation thereof.” 38 U. S. C. § 7292(a). But the factors that inform a reviewing court’s “harmless-error” determination are various, potentially involving, among other case-specific factors, an estimation of the likelihood that the result would have been different, an awareness of what body (jury, lower court, administrative agency) has the authority to reach that result, a consideration of the error’s likely effects on the perceived fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings, and a hesitancy to generalize too broadly about particular kinds of errors when the specific factual circumstances in which the error arises may well make all the difference. See Neder, 527 U. S., at 18-19; Kotteakos, supra, at 761-763; Traynor 33-37. It is the Veterans Court, not the Federal Circuit, that sees sufficient case-specific raw material in veterans’ cases to enable it to make empirically based, nonbinding generalizations about “natural effects.” And the Veterans Court, which has exclusive jurisdiction over these cases, is likely better able than is the Federal Circuit to exercise an informed judgment as to how often veterans are harmed by which kinds of notice errors. Cf. United States v. Haggar Apparel Co., 526 U. S. 380, 394 (1999) (Article I court’s special “expertise... guides it in making complex determinations in a specialized area of the law”). Second, we recognize that Congress has expressed special solicitude for the veterans’ cause. See post, at 415-416 (Souter, J., dissenting). A veteran, after all, has performed an especially important service for the Nation, often at the risk of his or her own life. And Congress has made clear that the VA is not an ordinary agency. Rather, the VA has a statutory duty to help the veteran develop his or her benefits claim. See Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000, 38 U. S. C. §5103A. Moreover, the adjudicatory process is not truly adversarial, and the veteran is often unrepresented during the claims proceedings. See Walters v. National Assn. of Radiation Survivors, 473 U. S. 305, 311 (1985). These facts might lead a reviewing court to consider harmful in a veteran’s ease error that it might consider harmless in other circumstances. But that is not the question before us. And we need not here decide whether, or to what extent, that may be so. Ill We have considered the two cases before us in light of the principles discussed. In Sanders’ case, the Veterans Court found the notice error harmless. And after reviewing the record, we conclude that finding is lawful. The VA told Sanders what further evidence would be needed to substantiate his claim. It failed to specify what portion of any additional evidence the Secretary would provide (we imagine none) and what portion Sanders would have to provide (we imagine all). How could the VA’s failure to specify this (or any other) division of labor have mattered? Sanders has pursued his claim for over six decades; he has had numerous medical examinations; and he should be aware of the respect in which his benefits claim is deficient (namely, his inability to show that his disability is connected to his World War II service). See supra, at 403. Sanders has not told the Veterans Court, the Federal Circuit, or this Court what specific additional evidence proper notice would have led him to obtain or seek. He has not explained to the Veterans Court, to the Federal Circuit, or to us how the notice error to which he points could have made any difference. The Veterans Court did not consider the harmlessness issue a borderline question. Nor do we. We consequently reverse the Federal Circuit’s judgment and remand the case so that the court can reinstate the judgment of the Veterans Court. Simmons’ ease is more difficult. The Veterans Court found that the VA had committed a Type One error, i. e., a failure to tell Simmons what information or evidence she must provide to substantiate her claim. The VA sent Simmons a letter that provided her only with general information about how to prove a claim while telling her nothing at all about how to proceed further in her own case, a case in which the question was whether a eoncededly service-connected left-ear hearing problem had deteriorated to the point where it was compensable. And the VA did so in the context of having arranged for a further right-ear medical examination, which (because of lack of notice) Simmons failed to attend. The Veterans Court took the “natural effect” of a Type One error into account while also reviewing the record as a whole. Some features of the record suggest the error was harmless, for example, the fact that Simmons has long sought benefits and has a long history of medical examinations. But other features — e. g., the fact that her left-ear hearing loss was concededly service connected and has continuously deteriorated over time, and the fact that the VA had scheduled a further examination of her right ear that (had notice been given) might have revealed further left-ear hearing loss— suggest the opposite. Given the uncertainties, we believe it is appropriate to remand this case so that the Veterans Court can decide whether reconsideration is necessary. * * * We conclude that the Federal Circuit’s harmless-error framework is inconsistent with the statutory requirement that the Veterans Court take “due account of the rule of prejudicial error.” 38 U. S. C. §7261(b)(2). We reverse the Federal Circuit’s judgment in Sanders’ case, and we vacate its judgment in Simmons’ case. We remand both cases for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Justice Souter, with whom Justice Stevens and Justice Ginsburg join, dissenting. Federal law requires the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims to “take due account of the rule of prejudicial error.” 38 U. S. C. § 7261(b)(2). Under this provision, when the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) fails to notify a veteran of the information needed to support his benefit claim, as required by § 5103(a), must the veteran prove the error harmful, or must the VA prove its error harmless? The Federal Circuit held that the VA should bear the burden. Sanders v. Nicholson, 487 F. 3d 881 (2007). The Court reverses because the Federal Circuit’s approach is “complex, rigid, and mandatory,” ante, at 407, “imposes an unreasonable evidentiary burden upon the VA,” ante, at 408, and contradicts the rule in other civil and administrative cases by “requiring] the VA, not the claimant, to explain why the error is harmless,” ante, at 409. I respectfully disagree. Taking the last point first, the Court assumes that there is a standard allocation of the burden of proving harmlessness that Congress meant to adopt in directing the Veterans Court to “take due account of the rule of prejudicial error.” § 7261(b)(2). But as both the majority and the Government concede, “[t]here are no hard-and-fast standards governing the allocation of the burden of proof in every situation,” Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1, Denver, 413 U. S. 189, 209 (1973), and courts impose the burden of dealing with harmlessness differently in different circumstances. As the Court says, the burden is on the Government in criminal cases, ante, at 410, and even in civil and administrative appeals courts sometimes require the party getting the benefit of the error to show its harmlessness, depending on the statutory setting or specific sort of mistake made, see, e. g., McLouth Steel Prods. Corp. v. Thomas, 838 F. 2d 1317, 1324 (CADC 1988) (declaring that imposing the burden of proving harm “on the challenger is normally inappropriate where the agency has completely failed to comply with” notice and comment procedures). Thus, the question is whether placing the burden of persuasion on the veteran is in order under the statutory scheme governing the VA. I believe it is not. The VA differs from virtually every other agency in being itself obliged to help the claimant develop his claim, see, e. g., 38 U. S. C. §5103A, and a number of other provisions and practices of the VA’s administrative and judicial review process reflect a congressional policy to favor the veteran, see, e. g., § 5107(b) (“[T]he Secretary shall give the benefit of the doubt to the claimant” whenever “there is an approximate balance of positive and negative evidence regarding any issue material to the determination of a matter”); § 7252(a) (allowing the veteran, but not the Secretary, to appeal an adverse decision to the Veterans Court). Given Congress’s understandable decision to place a thumb on the scale in the veteran’s favor in the course of administrative and judicial review of VA decisions, I would not remove a comparable benefit in the Veteran’s Court based on the ambiguous directive of § 7261(b)(2). And even if there were a question in my mind, I would come out the same way under our longstanding “rule that interpretive doubt is to be resolved in the veteran’s favor.” Brown v. Gardner, 513 U. S. 115, 118 (1994). The majority's other arguments are open to judgment, but I do not see that placing the burden of showing harm on the VA goes so far as to create a “complex, rigid, and mandatory” scheme, ante, at 407, or to impose “an unreasonable evidentiary burden upon the VA,” ante, at 408. Under the Federal Circuit’s rule, the VA simply “must persuade the reviewing court that the purpose of the notice was not frustrated, e. g., by demonstrating: (1) that any defect was cured by actual knowledge on the part of the claimant, (2) that a reasonable person could be expected to understand from the notice what was needed, or (3) that a benefit could not have been awarded as a matter of law.” Sanders Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The Court is advised that the respondent died in Ingham County, Mich., on December 7, 1984. The Court’s order granting the writ of certiorari, see 469 U. S. 1033 (1984), therefore is vacated, and the petition for certiorari is dismissed. See Warden v. Palermo, 431 U. S. 911 (1977). It is so ordered. Justice Powell took no part in the decision of this case. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Brennan delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondent Demetrius Gathers was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the killing of Richard Haynes. The evidence at trial showed that Gathers and three companions encountered Haynes, a stranger to them, at a park bench one evening. When Haynes rebuffed Gathers’ attempt to initiate a conversation, Gathers and his friends assaulted Haynes, beating and kicking him severely and smashing a bottle over his head. Before leaving the scene, Gathers beat Haynes with an umbrella, which he then inserted into the victim’s anus. Some time later Gathers apparently returned to the scene and stabbed Haynes with a knife. Richard Haynes was about 31 years old and unemployed. For two years prior to his death he had been experiencing “some mental problems” and had been “in and out of [a] mental hospital” three times. App. 4. Although without formal religious training, Haynes considered himself a preacher and referred to himself as “Reverend Minister”; his mother testified that he would he would “tal[k] to people all the time about the Lord.” Id., at 5-6. He generally carried with him several bags containing articles of religious significance, including two Bibles, rosary beads, plastic statues, olive oil, and religious tracts. Among these items, on the evening of his murder, was a tract entitled “The Game Guy’s Prayer.” Relying on football and boxing metaphors, it extolled the virtues of the good sport. After Haynes was beaten, his assailants went through his belongings, looking (apparently in vain) for something worth stealing. In rummaging through his personal effects they scattered on the ground the contents of his wallet and bags, including the just-mentioned tract. Gathers was tried in the Court of General Sessions for Charleston County, South Carolina. During the guilt phase the articles found at the scene of the crime were admitted into evidence without objection. The jury found Gathers guilty of murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct. All of the testimony and exhibits from the guilt phase were readmitted into evidence at the sentencing phase. The State presented no other evidence at the sentencing phase, but the prosecutor’s closing argument included the following remarks, which are the basis for the present controversy: “We know from the proof that Reverend Minister Haynes was a religious person. He had his religious items out there. This defendant strewn [sic] them across the bike path, thinking nothing of that. “Among the many cards that Reverend Haynes had among his belongings was this card. It’s in evidence. Think about it when you go back there. He had this [sic] religious items, his beads. He had a plastic angel. Of course, he is now with the angels now, but this defendant Demetrius Gathers could care little about the fact that he is a religious person. Cared little of the pain and agony he inflicted upon a person who is trying to enjoy one of our public parks. “But look at Reverend Minister Haynes’ prayer. It’s called the Game Guy’s Prayer. ‘Dear God, help me to be a sport in this little game of life. I don’t ask for any easy place in this lineup. Play me anywhere you need me. I only ask you for the stuff to give you one hundred percent of what I have got. If all the hard drives seem to come my way, I thank you for the compliment. Help me to remember that you won’t ever let anything come my way that you and I together can’t handle. And help me to take the bad break as part of the game. Help me to understand that the game is full of knots and knocks and trouble, and make me thankful for them. Help me to be brave so that the harder they come the better I like it. And, oh God, help me to always play on the square. No matter what the other players do, help me to come clean. Help me to study the book so that I’ll know the rules, to study and think a lot about the greatest player that ever lived and other players that are portrayed in the book. If they ever found out the best part of the game was helping other guys who are out of luck, help me to find it out, too. Help me to be regular, and also an inspiration with the other players. Finally, oh God, if fate seems to uppercut me with both hands, and I am laid on the shelf in sickness or old age or something, help me to take that as part of the game, too. Help me not to whimper or squeal that the game was a frameup or that I had a raw deal. When in the falling dusk I get the final bell, I ask for no lying, complimentary tombstones. I’d only like to know that you feel that I have been a good guy, a good game guy, a saint in the game of life.’ “Reverend Minister Haynes, we know, was a very smairperson. He had his mental problems. Unable to keep a regular job. And he wasn’t blessed with fame or fortune. And he took things as they came along. He was prepared to deal with tragedies that he came across in his life. “You will find some other exhibits in this case that tell you more about a just verdict. Again this is not easy. No one takes any pleasure from it, but the proof cries out from the grave in this case. Among the personal effects that this defendant could care little about when he went through it is something that we all treasure. Speaks a lot about Reverend Minister Haynes. Very simple yet very profound. Voting. A voter’s registration card. “Reverend Haynes believed in this community. He took part. And he believed that in Charleston County, in the United States of America, that in this country you could go to a public park and sit on a public bench and not be attacked by the likes of Demetrius Gathers.” Id., at 41-43. Finding that these “extensive comments to the jury regarding the victim’s character were unnecessary to an understanding of the circumstances of the crime,” the Supreme Court of South Carolina concluded that the prosecutor’s remarks “conveyed the suggestion appellant deserved a death sentence because the victim was a religious man and a registered voter.” 295 S. C. 476, 484, 369 S. E. 2d 140, 144 (1988). Relying on our decision in Booth v. Maryland, 482 U. S. 496 (1987), the court reversed Gathers’ sentence of death and remanded for a new sentencing proceeding. We granted certiorari, 488 U. S. 888 (1988), and we now affirm. Our capital cases have consistently recognized that “[f]or purposes of imposing the death penalty . . . [the defendant’s] punishment must be tailored to his personal responsibility and moral guilt.” Enmund v. Florida, 458 U. S. 782, 801 (1982). See also id., at 825 (O’Connor, J., dissenting) (“[Proportionality requires a nexus between the punishment imposed and the defendant’s blameworthiness”); Tison v. Arizona, 481 U. S. 137, 149 (1987) (“The heart of the retribution rationale is that a criminal sentence must be directly related to the personal culpability of the criminal offender”). Two Terms ago, in Booth v. Maryland, supra, we addressed the question whether use of “victim impact statements” in capital sentencing proceedings violated this principle that a sentence of death must be related to the moral culpability of the defendant. We held that such statements introduced factors that might be “wholly unrelated to the blameworthiness of a particular defendant.” 482 U. S., at 504. The statements placed before the jury in Booth included descriptions of the victims’ personal characteristics, statements concerning the emotional impact of the crime on the victims’ family, and the family members’ opinions about the crime and the defendant. At issue in the present case is a statement of the first sort — one concerning personal characteristics of the victim. While in this case it was the prosecutor rather than the victim’s survivors who characterized the victim’s personal qualities, the statement is indistinguishable in any relevant respect from that in Booth. As in Booth, “[allowing the jury to rely on [this information] . . . could result in imposing the death sentence because of factors about which the defendant was unaware, and that were irrelevant to the decision to kill.” Id., at 505. Our opinion in Booth, however, left open the possibility that the kind of information contained in victim impact statements could be admissible if it “relate [d] directly to the circumstances of the crime.” Id., at 507, n. 10. South Carolina asserts that such is the case here. Brief for Petitioner 25-41. It contends that the various personal effects which were “maliciously strewn around [the victim’s] body during the event” were “relevant to the circumstances of the crime or reveal certain personal characteristics of the defendant.” Id., at 28. We disagree. The fact that Gathers scattered Haynes’ personal papers around his body while going through them looking for something to steal was certainly a relevant circumstance of the crime, and thus a proper subject for comment. But the prosecutor’s argument in this case went well beyond that fact: he read to the jury at length from the religious tract the victim was carrying and commented on the personal qualities he inferred from Haynes’ possession of the “Game Guy’s Prayer” and the voter registration card. The content of these cards, however, cannot possibly have been relevant to the “circumstances of the crime. ” There is no evidence whatever that the defendant read anything that was printed on either the tract or the voter card. Indeed, it is extremely unlikely that he did so. The testimony at trial was that Gathers went through Haynes’ bags very quickly, “just throwing [his belongings] everywhere, looking through things,” App. 27, and that he spent not more than a minute doing so, id., at 28. The crime took place, moreover, at night, along a dark path through a wooded area. Id., at 17; Record 621-622, 926-927. Nor did the assailants have flashlights. Id., at 622-623. Under these circumstances, the content of the various papers the victim happened to be carrying when he was attacked was purely fortuitous and cannot provide any information relevant to the defendant’s moral culpability. Notwithstanding that the papers had been admitted into evidence for another purpose, their content cannot be said to relate directly to the circumstances of the crime. The judgment of the Supreme Court of South Carolina is therefore Affirmed. The objects found scattered around Haynes’ body were, for the most part, admitted into evidence during the testimony of Charleston police officer Anthony Hazel. Record 768-790. At no time then, or otherwise during the guilt phase, was there any reference to the content of the papers Haynes had with him. For example, the following was the entire colloquy at the time many of the papers were admitted: “Q. Okay____ What else? “A. Point C, we found some personal papers. “Q. Personal papers that appeared to belong to the victim? “A. Yes, sir. “Q. That would be State’s Exhibit 19? “A. Yes.” Id., at 782. See also id., at 787. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The motions for leave to proceed in forma pauperis and the petitions for writs of certiorari are granted. The judgments of the courts below are vacated and the cases remanded for reconsideration in the light of Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510. Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Harlan dissent, for reasons stated in Mr. Justice Black's dissenting opinion in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510, 532. Mr. Justice White dissents for the reasons stated in his dissenting opinion in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510, 540. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Brennan delivered the opinion of the Court. After publicly burning an American flag as a means of political protest, Gregory Lee Johnson was convicted of desecrating a flag in violation of Texas law. This case presents the question whether his conviction is consistent with the First Amendment. We hold that it is not. I While the Republican National Convention was taking place in Dallas in 1984, respondent Johnson participated in a political demonstration dubbed the “Republican War Chest Tour.” As explained in literature distributed by the demonstrators and in speeches made by them, the purpose of this event was to protest the policies of the Reagan administration and of certain Dallas-based corporations. The demonstrators marched through the Dallas streets, chanting political slogans and stopping at several corporate locations to stage “die-ins” intended to dramatize the consequences of nuclear war. On several occasions they spray-painted the walls of buildings and overturned potted plants, but Johnson himself took no part in such activities. He did, however, accept an American flag handed to him by a fellow protestor who had taken it from a flagpole outside one of the targeted buildings. The demonstration ended in front of Dallas City Hall, where Johnson unfurled the American flag, doused it with kerosene, and set it on fire. While the flag burned, the' protestors chanted: “America, the red, white, and blue, we spit on you.” After the demonstrators dispersed, a witness to the flag burning collected the flag’s remains and buried them in his backyard. No one was physically injured or threatened with injury, though several witnesses testified that they had been seriously offended by the flag burning. Of the approximately 100 demonstrators, Johnson alone was charged with a crime. The only criminal offense with which he was charged was the desecration of a venerated object in violation of Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 42.09(a)(3) (1989). After a trial, he was convicted, sentenced to one year in prison, and fined $2,000. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas at Dallas affirmed Johnson’s conviction, 706 S. W. 2d 120 (1986), but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed, 755 S. W. 2d 92 (1988), holding that the State could not, consistent with the First Amendment, punish Johnson for burning the flag in these circumstances. The Court of Criminal Appeals began by recognizing that Johnson’s conduct was symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment: “Given the context of an organized demonstration, speeches, slogans, and the distribution of literature, anyone who observed appellant’s act would have understood the message that appellant intended to convey. The act for which appellant was convicted was clearly ‘speech’ contemplated by the First Amendment.” Id., at 95. To justify Johnson’s conviction for engaging in symbolic speech, the State asserted two interests: preserving the flag as a symbol of national unity and preventing breaches of the peace. The Court of Criminal Appeals held that neither interest supported his conviction. Acknowledging that this Court had not yet decided whether the Government may criminally sanction flag desecration in order to preserve the flag’s symbolic value, the Texas court nevertheless concluded that our decision in West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624 (1943), suggested that furthering this interest by curtailing speech was impermissible. “Recognizing that the right to differ is the centerpiece of our First Amendment freedoms,” the court explained, “a government cannot mandate by fiat a feeling of unity in its citizens. Therefore, that very same government cannot carve out a symbol of unity and prescribe a set of approved messages to be associated with that symbol when it cannot mandate the status or feeling the symbol purports to represent.” 755 S. W. 2d, at 97. Noting that the State had not shown that the flag was in “grave and immediate danger,” Barnette, supra, at 639, of being stripped of its symbolic value, the Texas court also decided that the flag’s special status was not endangered by Johnson’s conduct. 755 S. W. 2d, at 97. As to the State’s goal of preventing breaches of the peace, the court concluded that the flag-desecration statute was not drawn narrowly enough to encompass only those flag burnings that were likely to result in a serious disturbance of the peace. And in fact, the court emphasized, the flag burning in this particular case did not threaten such a reaction. “‘Serious offense’ occurred,” the court admitted, “but there was no breach of peace nor does the record reflect that the situation was potentially explosive. One cannot equate ‘serious' offense’ with incitement to breach the peace. ” Id., at 96. The court also stressed that another Texas statute, Tex. Penal Code Ann. §42.01 (1989), prohibited breaches of the peace. Citing Boos v. Barry, 485 U. S. 312 (1988), the court decided that §42.01 demonstrated Texas’ ability to prevent disturbances of the peace without punishing this flag desecration. 755 S. W. 2d, at 96. Because it reversed Johnson’s conviction on the ground that §42.09 was unconstitutional as applied to him, the state court did not address Johnson’s argument that the statute was, on its face, unconstitutionally vague and over-broad. We granted certiorari, 488 U. S. 907 (1988), and now affirm. II Johnson was convicted of flag desecration for burning the flag rather than for uttering insulting words. This fact somewhat complicates our consideration of his conviction under the First Amendment. We must first determine whether Johnson’s burning of the flag constituted expressive conduct, permitting him to invoke the First Amendment in challenging his conviction. See, e. g., Spence v. Washington, 418 U. S. 405, 409-411 (1974). If his conduct was expressive, we next decide whether the State’s regulation is related to the suppression of free expression. See, e. g., United States v. O’Brien, 391 U. S. 367, 377 (1968); Spence, supra, at 414, n. 8. If the State’s regulation is not related to expression, then the less stringent standard we announced in United States v. O’Brien for regulations of noncommuni-cative conduct controls. See O’Brien, supra, at 377. If it is, then we are outside of O’Brien’s test, and we must ask whether this interest justifies Johnson’s conviction under a more demanding standard. See Spence, supra, at 411. A third possibility is that the State’s asserted interest is simply not implicated on these facts, and in that event the interest drops out of the picture. See 418 U. S., at 414, n. 8. The First Amendment literally forbids the abridgment only of “speech,” but we have long recognized that its protection does not end at the spoken or written word. While we have rejected “the view that an apparently limitless variety of conduct can be labeled ‘speech’ whenever the person engaging in the conduct intends thereby to express an idea,” United States v. O’Brien, supra, at 376, we have acknowledged that conduct may be “sufficiently imbued with elements of communication to fall within the scope of the First and Fourteenth Amendments,” Spence, supra, at 409. In deciding whether particular conduct possesses sufficient communicative elements to bring the First Amendment into play, we have asked whether “[a]n intent to convey a particularized message was present, and [whether] the likelihood was great that the message would be understood by those who viewed it.” 418 U. S., at 410-411. Hence, we have recognized the expressive nature of students’ wearing of black armbands to protest American military involvement in Vietnam, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393 U. S. 503, 505 (1969); of a sit-in by blacks in a “whites only” area to protest segregation, Brown v. Louisiana, 383 U. S. 131, 141-142 (1966); of the wearing of American military uniforms in a dramatic presentation criticizing American involvement in Vietnam, Schacht v. United States, 398 U. S. 58 (1970); and of picketing about a wide variety of causes, see, e. g., Food Employees v. Logan Valley Plaza, Inc., 391 U. S. 308, 313-314 (1968); United States v. Grace, 461 U. S. 171, 176 (1983). Especially pertinent to this case are our decisions recognizing the communicative nature of conduct relating to flags. Attaching a peace sign to the flag, Spence, supra, at 409-410; refusing to salute the flag, Barnette, 319 U. S., at 632; and displaying a red flag, Stromberg v. California, 283 U. S. 359, 368-369 (1931), we have held, all may find shelter under the First Amendment. See also Smith v. Goguen, 415 U. S. 566, 588 (1974) (White, J., concurring in judgment) (treating flag “contemptuously” by wearing pants with small flag sewn into their seat is expressive conduct). That we have had little difficulty identifying an expressive element in conduct relating to flags should not be surprising. The very purpose of a national flag is to serve as a symbol of our country; it is, one might say, “the one visible manifestation of two hundred years of nationhood.” Id., at 603 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting). Thus, we have observed: “[T]he flag salute is a form of utterance. Symbolism is a primitive but effective way of communicating ideas. The use of an emblem or flag to symbolize some system, idea, institution, or personality, is a short cut from mind to mind. Causes and nations, political parties, lodges and ecclesiastical groups seek to knit the loyalty of their followings to a flag or banner, a color or design.” Barnette, supra, at 632. Pregnant with expressive content, the flag as readily signifies this Nation as does the combination of letters found in “America.” We have not automatically concluded, however, that any action taken with respect to our flag is expressive. Instead, in characterizing such action for First Amendment purposes, we have considered the context in which it occurred. In Spence, for example, we emphasized that Spence’s taping of a peace sign to his flag was “roughly simultaneous with and concededly triggered by the Cambodian incursion and the Kent State tragedy.” 418 U. S., at 410. The State of Washington had conceded, in fact, that Spence’s conduct was a form of communication, and we stated that “the State’s concession is inevitable on this record.” Id., at 409. The State of Texas conceded for purposes of its oral argument in this case that Johnson’s conduct was expressive conduct, Tr. of Oral Arg. 4, and this concession seems to us as prudent as was Washington’s in Spence. Johnson burned an American flag as part — indeed, as the culmination — of a political demonstration that coincided with the convening of the Republican Party and its renomination of Ronald Reagan for President. The expressive, overtly political nature of this conduct was both intentional and overwhelmingly apparent. At his trial, Johnson explained his reasons for burning the flag as follows: “The American Flag was burned as Ronald Reagan was being renominated as President. And a more powerful statement of symbolic speech, whether you agree with it or not, couldn’t have been made at that time. It’s quite a just position [juxtaposition]. We had new patriotism and no patriotism.” 5 Record 656. In these circumstances, Johnson’s burning of the flag was conduct “sufficiently imbued with elements of communication,” Spence, 418 U. S., at 409, to implicate the First Amendment. 1 — I I — I The government generally has a freer hand in restricting expressive conduct than it has in restricting the written or spoken word. See O’Brien, 391 U. S. at 376-377; Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U. S. 288, 293 (1984); Dallas v. Stanglin, 490 U. S. 19, 25 (1989). It may not, however, proscribe particular conduct because it has expressive elements. “[W]hat might be termed the more generalized guarantee of freedom of expression makes the communicative nature of conduct an inadequate basis for singling out that conduct for proscription. A law directed at the communicative nature of conduct must, like a law directed at speech itself, be justified by the substantial showing of need that the First Amendment requires.” Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Watt, 227 U.. S. App. D. C. 19, 55-56, 703 F. 2d 586, 622-623 (1983) (Scalia, J., dissenting) (emphasis in original), rev’d sub nom. Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, supra. It is, in short, not simply the verbal or nonverbal nature of the expression, but the governmental interest at stake, that helps to determine whether a restriction on that expression is valid. Thus, although we have recognized that where “‘speech’ and ‘nonspeech’ elements are combined in the same course of conduct, a sufficiently important governmental interest in regulating the nonspeech element can justify incidental limitations on First Amendment freedoms,” O’Brien, supra, at 376, we have limited the applicability of O’Brien’s relatively lenient standard to those cases in which “the governmental interest is unrelated to the suppression of free expression.” Id., at 377; see also Spence, supra, at 414, n. 8. In stating, moreover, that O’Brien’s test “in the last analysis is little, if any, different from the standard applied to time, place, or manner restrictions,” Clark, supra, at 298, we have highlighted the requirement that the governmental interest in question be unconnected to expression in order to come under O’Brien’s less demanding rule. In order to decide whether O’Brien’s test applies here, therefore, we must decide whether Texas has asserted an interest in support of Johnson’s conviction that is unrelated to the suppression of expression. If we find that an interest asserted by the State is simply not implicated on the facts before us, we need not ask whether O’Brien’s test applies. See Spence, supra, at 414, n. 8. The State offers two separate interests to justify this conviction: preventing breaches of the peace and preserving the flag as a symbol of nationhood and national unity. We hold that the first interest is not implicated on this record and that the second is related to the suppression of expression. A Texas claims that its interest in preventing breaches of the peace justifies Johnson’s conviction for flag desecration. However, no disturbance of the peace actually occurred or threatened to occur because of Johnson’s burning of the flag. Although the State stresses the disruptive behavior of the protestors during their march toward City Hall, Brief for Petitioner 34-36, it admits that “no actual breach of the peace occurred at the time of the flagburning or in response to the flagburning.” Id., at 34. The State’s emphasis on the protestors’ disorderly actions prior to arriving at City Hall is not only somewhat surprising given that no charges were brought on the basis of this conduct, but it also fails to show that a disturbance of the peace was a likely reaction to Johnson’s conduct. The only evidence offered by the State at trial to show the reaction to Johnson’s actions was the testimony of several persons who had been seriously offended by the flag burning. Id., at 6-7. The State’s position, therefore, amounts to a claim that an audience that takes serious offense at particular expression is necessarily likely to disturb the peace and that the expression may be prohibited on this basis. Our precedents do not countenance such a presumption. On the contrary, they recognize that a principal “function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.” Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U. S. 1, 4 (1949). See also Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U. S. 536, 551 (1965); Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist. 393 U. S., at 508-509; Coates v. Cincinnati, 402 U. S. 611, 615 (1971); Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U. S. 46, 55-56 (1988). It would be odd indeed to conclude both that “if it is the speaker’s opinion that gives offense, that consequence is a reason for according it constitutional protection,” FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U. S. 726, 745 (1978) (opinion of Stevens, J.), and that the government may ban the expression of certain disagreeable ideas on the unsupported presumption that their very disagreeableness will provoke violence. Thus, we have not permitted the government to assume that every expression of a provocative idea will incite a riot, but have instead required careful consideration of the actual circumstances surrounding such expression, asking whether the expression “is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.” Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U. S. 444, 447 (1969) (reviewing circumstances surrounding rally and speeches by Ku Klux Klan). To accept Texas’ arguments that it need only demonstrate “the potential for a breach of the peace,” Brief for Petitioner 37, and that every flag burning necessarily possesses that potential, would be to eviscerate our holding in Brandenburg. This we decline to do. Nor does Johnson’s expressive conduct fall within that small class of “fighting words” that are “likely to provoke the average person to retaliation, and thereby cause a breach of the peace.” Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U. S. 568, 574 (1942). No reasonable onlooker would have regarded Johnson’s generalized expression of dissatisfaction with the policies of the Federal Government as a direct personal insult or an invitation to exchange fisticuffs. See id., at 572-573; Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U. S. 296, 309 (1940); FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, supra, at 745 (opinion of Stevens, J.). We thus conclude that the State’s interest in maintaining order is not implicated on these facts. The State need not worry that our holding will disable it from preserving the peace. We do not suggest that the First Amendment forbids a State to prevent “imminent lawless action.” Brandenburg, supra, at 447. And, in fact, Texas already has a statute specifically prohibiting breaches of the peace, Tex. Penal Code Ann. §42.01 (1989), which tends to confirm that Texas need not punish this flag desecration in order to keep the peace. See Boos v. Barry, 485 U. S., at 327-329. B The State also asserts an interest in preserving the flag as a symbol of nationhood and national unity. In Spence, we acknowledged that the government’s interest in preserving the flag’s special symbolic value “is directly related to expression in the context of activity” such as affixing a peace symbol to a flag. 418 U. S., at 414, n. 8. We are equally persuaded that this interest is related to expression in the case of Johnson’s burning of the flag. The State, apparently, is concerned that such conduct will lead people to believe either that the flag does not stand for nationhood and national unity, but instead reflects other, less positive concepts, or that the concepts reflected in the flag do not in fact exist., that is, that we do not enjoy unity as a Nation. These concerns blossom only when a person’s treatment of the flag communicates some message, and thus are related “to the suppression of free expression” within the meaning of O’Brien. We are thus outside of O’Brien’s test altogether. H-i < It remains to consider whether the State s interest m preserving the flag as a symbol of nationhood and national unity justifies Johnson’s conviction. As in Spence, “[w]e are confronted with a case of prosecution for the expression of an idea through activity,” and “[a]c-cordingly, we must examine with particular care the interests advanced by [petitioner] to support its prosecution.” 418 U. S., at 411. Johnson was not, we add, prosecuted for the expression of just any idea; he was prosecuted for his expression of dissatisfaction with the policies of this country, expression situated at the core of our First Amendment values. See, e. g., Boos v. Barry, supra, at 318; Frisby v. Schultz, 487 U. S. 474, 479 (1988). Moreover, Johnson was prosecuted because he knew that his politically charged expression would cause “serious offense.” If he had burned the flag as a means of disposing of it because it was dirty or torn, he would not have been convicted of flag desecration under this Texas law: federal law designates burning as the preferred means of disposing of a flag “when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display,” 36 U. S. C. § 176(k), and Texas has no quarrel with this means of disposal. Brief for Petitioner 45. The Texas law is thus not aimed at protecting the physical integrity of the flag in all circumstances, but is designed instead to protect it only against impairments that would cause serious offense to others. Texas concedes as much: “Section 42.09(b) reaches only those severe acts of physical abuse of the flag carried out in a way likely to be offensive. The statute mandates intentional or knowing abuse, that is, the kind of mistreatment that is not innocent, but rather is intentionally designed to seriously offend other individuals.” Id., at 44. Whether Johnson’s treatment of the flag violated Texas law thus depended on the likely communicative impact of his expressive conduct. Our decision in Boos v. Barry, supra, tells us that this restriction on Johnson’s expression is content based. In Boos, we considered the constitutionality of a law prohibiting “the display of any sign within 500 feet of a foreign embassy if that sign tends to bring that foreign government into ‘public odium’ or ‘public disrepute.’” Id., at 315. Rejecting the argument that the law was content neutral because it was justified by “our international law obligation to shield diplomats from speech that offends their dignity,” id., at 320, we held that “[t]he emotive impact of speech on its audience is not a ‘secondary effect’ ” unrelated to the content of the expression itself. Id., at 321 (plurality opinion); see also id., at 334 (Brennan, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). According to the principles announced in Boos, Johnson’s political expression was restricted because of the content of the message he conveyed. We must therefore subject the State’s asserted interest in preserving the special symbolic character of the flag to “the most exacting scrutiny.” Boos v. Barry, supra, at 321. Texas argues that its interest in preserving the flag as a symbol of nationhood and national unity survives this close analysis. Quoting extensively from the writings of this Court chronicling the flag’s historic and symbolic role in our society, the State emphasizes the “'special place’” reserved for the flag in our Nation. Brief for Petitioner 22, quoting Smith v. Goguen, 415 U. S., at 601 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting). The State’s argument is not that it has an interest simply in maintaining the flag as a symbol of something, no matter what it symbolizes; indeed, if that were the State’s position, it would be difficult to see how that interest is endangered by highly symbolic conduct such as Johnson’s. Rather, the State’s claim is that it has an interest in preserving the flag as a symbol of nationhood and national unity, a symbol with a determinate range of meanings. Brief for Petitioner 20-24. According to Texas, if one physically treats the flag in a way that would tend to cast doubt on either the idea that nationhood and national unity are the flag’s referents or that national unity actually exists, the message conveyed thereby is a harmful one and therefore may be prohibited. If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. See, e. g., Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U. S., at 55-56; City Council of Los Angeles v. Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U. S. 789, 804 (1984); Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp., 463 U. S. 60, 65, 72 (1983); Carey v. Brown, 447 U. S. 455, 462-463 (1980); FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U. S., at 745-746; Young v. American Mini Theatres, Inc., 427 U. S. 50, 63-65, 67-68 (1976) (plurality opinion); Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1, 16-17 (1976); Grayned v. Rockford, 408 U. S. 104, 115 (1972); Police Dept. of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U. S. 92, 95 (1972); Bachellar v. Maryland, 397 U. S. 564, 567 (1970); O’Brien, 391 U. S., at 382; Brown v. Louisiana, 383 U. S., at 142-143; Stromberg v. California, 283 U. S., at 368-369. We have not recognized an exception to this principle even where our flag has been involved. In Street v. New York, 394 U. S. 576 (1969), we held that a State may not criminally punish a person for uttering words critical of the flag. Rejecting the argument that the conviction could be sustained on the ground that Street had “failed to show the respect for our national symbol which may properly be demanded of every citizen,” we concluded that “the constitutionally guaranteed ‘freedom to be intellectually... diverse or even contrary,’ and the ‘right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order,’ encompass the freedom to express publicly one’s opinions about our flag, including those opinions which are defiant or contemptuous.” Id., at 593, quoting Barnette, 319 U. S., at 642. Nor may the government, we have held, compel conduct that would evince respect for the flag. “To sustain the compulsory flag salute we are required to say that a Bill of Rights which guards the individual’s right to speak his own mind, left it open to public authorities to compel him to utter what is not in his mind.” Id., at 634. In holding in Barnette that the Constitution did not leave this course open to the government, Justice Jackson described one of our society’s defining principles in words deserving of their frequent repetition: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.” Id., at 642. In Spence, we held that the same interest asserted by Texas here was insufficient to support a criminal conviction under a flag-misuse statute for the taping of a peace sign to an American flag. “Given the protected character of [Spence’s] expression and in light of the fact that no interest the State may have in preserving the physical integrity of a privately owned flag was significantly impaired on these facts,” we held, “the conviction must be invalidated.” 418 U. S., at 415. See also Goguen, supra, at 588 (White, J., concurring in judgment) (to convict person who had sewn a flag onto the seat of his pants for “contemptuous” treatment of the flag would be “[t]o convict not to protect the physical integrity or to protect against acts interfering with the proper use of the flag, but to punish for communicating ideas unacceptable to the controlling majority in the legislature”). In short, nothing in our precedents suggests that a State may foster its own view of the flag by prohibiting expressive conduct relating to it. To bring its argument outside our precedents, Texas attempts to convince us that even if its interest in preserving the flag’s symbolic role does not allow it to prohibit words or some expressive conduct critical of the flag, it does permit it to forbid the outright destruction of the flag. The State’s argument cannot depend here on the distinction between written or spoken words and nonverbal conduct. That distinction, we have shown, is of no moment where the nonverbal conduct is expressive, as it is here, and where the regulation of that conduct is related to expression, as it is here. See supra, at 402-403. In addition, both Bar-nette and Spence involved expressive conduct, not only verbal communication, and both found that conduct protected. Texas’ focus on the precise nature of Johnson’s expression, moreover, misses the point of our prior decisions: their enduring lesson, that the government may not prohibit expression simply because it disagrees with its message, is not dependent on the particular mode in which one chooses to express an idea. If we were to hold that a State may forbid flag burning wherever it is likely to endanger the flag’s symbolic role, but allow it wherever burning a flag promotes that role — as where, for example, a person ceremoniously burns a dirty flag — we would be saying that when it comes to impairing the flag’s physical integrity, the flag itself may be used as a symbol — as a substitute for the written or spoken word or a “short cut from mind to mind” — only in one direction. We would be permitting a State to “prescribe what shall be orthodox” by saying that one may burn the flag to convey one’s attitude toward it and its referents only if one does not endanger the flag’s representation of nationhood and national unity. We never before have held that the Government may ensure that a symbol be used to express only one view of that symbol or its referents. Indeed, in Schacht v. United States, we invalidated a federal statute permitting an actor portraying a member of one of our Armed Forces to “‘wear the uniform of that armed force if the portrayal does not tend to discredit that armed force.’” 398 U. S., at 60, quoting 10 U. S. C. § 772(f). This proviso, we held, “which leaves Americans free to praise the war in Vietnam but can send persons like Schacht to prison for opposing it, cannot survive in a country which has the First Amendment.” Id., at 63. We perceive no basis on which to hold that the principle underlying our decision in Schacht does not apply to this case. To conclude that the government may permit designated symbols to be used to communicate only a limited set of messages would be to enter territory having no discernible or defensible boundaries. Could the government, on this theory, prohibit the burning of state flags? Of copies of the Presidential seal? Of the Constitution? In evaluating these choices under the First Amendment, how would we decide which symbols were sufficiently special to warrant this unique status? To do so, we would be forced to consult our own political preferences, and impose them on the citizenry, in the very way that the First Amendment forbids us to do. See Carey v. Brown, 447 U. S., at 466-467. There is, moreover, no indication — either in the text of the Constitution or in our cases interpreting it — that a separate juridical category exists for the American flag alone. Indeed, we would not be surprised to learn that the persons who framed our Constitution and wrote the Amendment that we now construe were not known for their reverence for the Union Jack. The First Amendment does not guarantee that other concepts virtually sacred to our Nation as a whole— such as the principle that discrimination on the basis of race is odious and destructive — will go unquestioned in the marketplace of ideas. See Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U. S. 444 (1969). We decline, therefore, to create for the flag an exception to the joust of principles protected by the First Amendment. It is not the State’s ends, but its means, to which we object. It cannot be gainsaid that there is a special place reserved for the flag in this Nation, and thus we do not doubt that the government has a legitimate interest in making efforts to “presence] the national flag as an unalloyed symbol of our country.” Spence, 418 U. S., at 412. We reject the suggestion, urged at oral argument by counsel for Johnson, that the government lacks “any state interest whatsoever” in regulating the manner in which the flag may be displayed. Tr. of Oral Arg. 38. Congress has, for example, enacted precatory regulations describing the proper treatment of the flag, see 36 U. S. C. §§ 173-177, and we cast no doubt on the legitimacy of its interest in making such recommendations. To say that the government has an interest in encouraging proper treatment of the flag, however, is not to say that it may criminally punish a person for burning a flag as a means of political protest. “National unity as an end which officials may foster by persuasion and example is not in question. The problem is whether under our Constitution compulsion as here employed is a permissible means for its achievement.” Barnette, 319 U. S., at 640. We are fortified in today’s conclusion by our conviction that forbidding criminal punishment for conduct such as Johnson’s will not endanger the special role played by our flag or the feelings it inspires. To paraphrase Justice Holmes, we submit that nobody can suppose that this one gesture of an unknown man will change our Nation’s attitude towards its flag. See Abrams v. United States, 250 U. S. 616, 628 (1919) (Holmes, J., dissenting). Indeed, Texas’ argument that the burning of an American flag “ ‘is an act having a high likelihood to cause a breach of the peace,’ ” Brief for Petitioner 31, quoting Sutherland v. DeWulf, 323 F. Supp. 740, 745 (SD Ill. 1971) (citation omitted), and its statute’s implicit assumption that physical mistreatment of the flag will lead to “serious offense,” tend to confirm that the flag’s special role is not in danger; if it were, no one would riot or take offense because a flag had been burned. We are tempted to say, in fact, that the flag’s deservedly cherished place in our community will be strengthened, not weakened, by our holding today. Our decision is a reaffirmation of the principles of freedom and inclusiveness that the flag best reflects, and of the conviction that our toleration of criticism such as Johnson’s is a sign and source of our strength. Indeed, one of the proudest images of our flag, the one immortalized in our own national anthem, is of the bombardment it survived at Fort McHenry. It is the Nation’s resilience, not its rigidity, that Texas sees reflected in the flag — and it is that resilience that we re Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
C
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The judgment is vacated and the ease is remanded to the Supreme Court of Michigan for further consideration in the light of Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186. Mr. Justice Frankfurter took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court. The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that "[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury...." Does the Sixth Amendment's speedy trial guarantee apply to the sentencing phase of a criminal prosecution? That is the sole question this case presents. We hold that the guarantee protects the accused from arrest or indictment through trial, but does not apply once a defendant has been found guilty at trial or has pleaded guilty to criminal charges. For inordinate delay in sentencing, although the Speedy Trial Clause does not govern, a defendant may have other recourse, including, in appropriate circumstances, tailored relief under the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Petitioner Brandon Betterman, however, advanced in this Court only a Sixth Amendment speedy trial claim. He did not preserve a due process challenge. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 19. We, therefore, confine this opinion to his Sixth Amendment challenge. I Ordered to appear in court on domestic assault charges, Brandon Betterman failed to show up and was therefore charged with bail jumping. 378 Mont. 182, 184, 342 P.3d 971, 973 (2015). After pleading guilty to the bail-jumping charge, he was jailed for over 14 months awaiting sentence on that conviction. Id., at 184-185, 342 P.3d, at 973-974. The holdup, in large part, was due to institutional delay: the presentence report took nearly five months to complete; the trial court took several months to deny two presentence motions (one seeking dismissal of the charge on the ground of delay); and the court was slow in setting a sentencing hearing. Id., at 185, 195, 342 P.3d, at 973-974, 980. Betterman was eventually sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, with four of those years suspended. Id., at 185, 342 P.3d, at 974. Arguing that the 14-month gap between conviction and sentencing violated his speedy trial right, Betterman appealed. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence, ruling that the Sixth Amendment's Speedy Trial Clause does not apply to postconviction, presentencing delay. Id., at 188-192, 342 P.3d, at 975-978. We granted certiorari, 577 U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 582, 193 L.Ed.2d 464 (2015), to resolve a split among courts over whether the Speedy Trial Clause applies to such delay. Holding that the Clause does not apply to delayed sentencing, we affirm the Montana Supreme Court's judgment. II Criminal proceedings generally unfold in three discrete phases. First, the State investigates to determine whether to arrest and charge a suspect. Once charged, the suspect stands accused but is presumed innocent until conviction upon trial or guilty plea. After conviction, the court imposes sentence. There are checks against delay throughout this progression, each geared to its particular phase. In the first stage-before arrest or indictment, when the suspect remains at liberty-statutes of limitations provide the primary protection against delay, with the Due Process Clause as a safeguard against fundamentally unfair prosecutorial conduct. United States v. Lovasco, 431 U.S. 783, 789, 97 S.Ct. 2044, 52 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977) ; see id., at 795, n. 17, 97 S.Ct. 2044 (Due Process Clause may be violated, for instance, by prosecutorial delay that is "tactical" or "reckless" (internal quotation marks omitted)). The Sixth Amendment's Speedy Trial Clause homes in on the second period: from arrest or indictment through conviction. The constitutional right, our precedent holds, does not attach until this phase begins, that is, when a defendant is arrested or formally accused. United States v. Marion, 404 U.S. 307, 320-321, 92 S.Ct. 455, 30 L.Ed.2d 468 (1971). Today we hold that the right detaches upon conviction, when this second stage ends. Prior to conviction, the accused is shielded by the presumption of innocence, the "bedrock[,] axiomatic and elementary principle whose enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law." Reed v. Ross, 468 U.S. 1, 4, 104 S.Ct. 2901, 82 L.Ed.2d 1 (1984) (internal quotation marks omitted). The Speedy Trial Clause implements that presumption by "prevent[ing] undue and oppressive incarceration prior to trial, ... minimiz[ing] anxiety and concern accompanying public accusation [,] and ... limit[ing] the possibilities that long delay will impair the ability of an accused to defend himself." Marion, 404 U.S., at 320, 92 S.Ct. 455 (internal quotation marks omitted). See also Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 532-533, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972). As a measure protecting the presumptively innocent, the speedy trial right-like other similarly aimed measures-loses force upon conviction. Compare In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970) (requiring "proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime"), with United States v. O'Brien, 560 U.S. 218, 224, 130 S.Ct. 2169, 176 L.Ed.2d 979 (2010) ("Sentencing factors ... can be proved ... by a preponderance of the evidence."). Compare also 18 U.S.C. § 3142(b) (bail presumptively available for accused awaiting trial) with § 3143(a) (bail presumptively unavailable for those convicted awaiting sentence). Our reading comports with the historical understanding. The speedy trial right, we have observed, "has its roots at the very foundation of our English law heritage. Its first articulation in modern jurisprudence appears to have been made in Magna Carta (1215)...." Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213, 223, 87 S.Ct. 988, 18 L.Ed.2d 1 (1967). Regarding the Framers' comprehension of the right as it existed at the founding, we have cited Sir Edward Coke's Institutes of the Laws of England. See id., at 223-225, and nn. 8, 12-14, 18, 87 S.Ct. 988. Coke wrote that "the innocent shall not be worn and wasted by long imprisonment, but ... speedily come to his tria[l] ." 1 E. Coke, Second Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England 315 (1797) (emphasis added). Reflecting the concern that a presumptively innocent person should not languish under an unresolved charge, the Speedy Trial Clause guarantees "the accused " "the right to a speedy ... trial ." U.S. Const., Amdt. 6 (emphasis added). At the founding, "accused" described a status preceding "convicted." See, e.g., 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 322 (1769) (commenting on process in which "persons accused of felony ... were tried ... and convicted " (emphasis added)). And "trial" meant a discrete episode after which judgment (i.e., sentencing) would follow. See, e.g., id., at 368 ("We are now to consider the next stage of criminal prosecution, after trial and conviction are past ...: which is that of judgment ."). This understanding of the Sixth Amendment language-"accused" as distinct from "convicted," and "trial" as separate from "sentencing"-endures today. See, e.g., Black's Law Dictionary 26 (10th ed. 2014) (defining "accused" as "a person who has been arrested and brought before a magistrate or who has been formally charged " (emphasis added)); Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 32 (governing "Sentencing and Judgment," the rule appears in the chapter on "Post-Conviction Procedures," which follows immediately after the separate chapter headed "Trial"). This Court's precedent aligns with the text and history of the Speedy Trial Clause. Detaining the accused pretrial, we have said, disadvantages him, and the imposition is "especially unfortunate" as to those "ultimately found to be innocent." Barker, 407 U.S., at 532-533, 92 S.Ct. 2182. And in Marion, 404 U.S., at 320, 92 S.Ct. 455 addressing "the major evils protected against by the speedy trial guarantee," we observed: "Arrest is a public act that may seriously interfere with the defendant's liberty, whether he is free on bail or not, and that may disrupt his employment, drain his financial resources, curtail his associations, subject him to public obloquy, and create anxiety in him, his family and his friends." We acknowledged in Marion that even pre-arrest-a stage at which the right to a speedy trial does not arise-the passage of time "may impair memories, cause evidence to be lost, deprive the defendant of witnesses, and otherwise interfere with his ability to defend himself." Id., at 321, 92 S.Ct. 455. Nevertheless, we determined, "this possibility of prejudice at trial is not itself sufficient reason to wrench the Sixth Amendment from its proper [arrest or charge triggered] context." Id., at 321-322, 92 S.Ct. 455. Adverse consequences of postconviction delay, though subject to other checks, see infra, at 1617 - 1618, are similarly outside the purview of the Speedy Trial Clause. The sole remedy for a violation of the speedy trial right-dismissal of the charges, see Strunk v. United States, 412 U.S. 434, 440, 93 S.Ct. 2260, 37 L.Ed.2d 56 (1973) ; Barker, 407 U.S., at 522, 92 S.Ct. 2182 -fits the preconviction focus of the Clause. It would be an unjustified windfall, in most cases, to remedy sentencing delay by vacating validly obtained convictions. Betterman concedes that a dismissal remedy ordinarily would not be in order once a defendant has been convicted. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 5-6; cf. Bozza v. United States, 330 U.S. 160, 166, 67 S.Ct. 645, 91 L.Ed. 818 (1947) ("[A]n error in passing the sentence" does not permit a convicted defendant "to escape punishment altogether."). The manner in which legislatures have implemented the speedy trial guarantee matches our reading of the Clause. Congress passed the Speedy Trial Act of 1974, 18 U.S.C. § 3161 et seq.,"to give effect to the sixth amendment right." United States v. MacDonald, 456 U.S. 1, 7, n. 7, 102 S.Ct. 1497, 71 L.Ed.2d 696 (1982) (quoting S.Rep. No. 93-1021, p. 1 (1974)). "The more stringent provisions of the Speedy Trial Act have mooted much litigation about the requirements of the Speedy Trial Clause...." United States v. Loud Hawk, 474 U.S. 302, 304, n. 1, 106 S.Ct. 648, 88 L.Ed.2d 640 (1986) (citation omitted). With certain exceptions, the Act directs-on pain of dismissal of the charges, § 3162(a)-that no more than 30 days pass between arrest and indictment, § 3161(b), and that no more than 70 days pass between indictment and trial, § 3161(c)(1). The Act says nothing, however, about the period between conviction and sentencing, suggesting that Congress did not regard that period as falling within the Sixth Amendment's compass. Numerous state analogs similarly impose precise time limits for charging and trial; they, too, say nothing about sentencing. Betterman asks us to take account of the prevalence of guilty pleas and the resulting scarcity of trials in today's justice system. See Lafler v. Cooper, 566 U.S. ----, ----, 132 S.Ct. 1376, 1381, 182 L.Ed.2d 398 (2012) ( "[C]riminal justice today is for the most part a system of pleas, not a system of trials."). The sentencing hearing has largely replaced the trial as the forum for dispute resolution, Betterman urges. Therefore, he maintains, the concerns supporting the right to a speedy trial now recommend a speedy sentencing hearing. The modern reality, however, does not bear on the presumption-of-innocence protection at the heart of the Speedy Trial Clause. And factual disputes, if any there be, at sentencing, do not go to the question of guilt; they are geared, instead, to ascertaining the proper sentence within boundaries set by statutory minimums and maximums. Moreover, a central feature of contemporary sentencing in both federal and state courts is preparation by the probation office, and review by the parties and the court, of a presentence investigation report. See 18 U.S.C. § 3552 ; Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 32(c) -(g) ; 6 W. LaFave, J. Israel, N. King, & O. Kerr, Criminal Procedure § 26.5(b), pp. 1048-1049 (4th ed. 2015) (noting reliance on presentence reports in federal and state courts). This aspect of the system requires some amount of wholly reasonable presentencing delay. Indeed, many-if not most-disputes are resolved, not at the hearing itself, but rather through the presentence-report process. See N. Demleitner, D. Berman, M. Miller, & R. Wright, Sentencing Law and Policy 443 (3d ed. 2013) ("Criminal justice is far more commonly negotiated than adjudicated; defendants and their attorneys often need to be more concerned about the charging and plea bargaining practices of prosecutors and the presentence investigations of probation offices than ... about the sentencing procedures of judges or juries."); cf. Bierschbach & Bibas, Notice-and-Comment Sentencing, 97 Minn. L. Rev. 1, 15 (2012) ("[T]oday's sentencing hearings ... rubber-stamp plea-bargained sentences."). As we have explained, at the third phase of the criminal-justice process, i.e., between conviction and sentencing, the Constitution's presumption-of-innocence-protective speedy trial right is not engaged. That does not mean, however, that defendants lack any protection against undue delay at this stage. The primary safeguard comes from statutes and rules. The federal rule on point directs the court to "impose sentence without unnecessary delay." Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 32(b)(1). Many States have provisions to the same effect, and some States prescribe numerical time limits. Further, as at the prearrest stage, due process serves as a backstop against exorbitant delay. See supra, at 1613. After conviction, a defendant's due process right to liberty, while diminished, is still present. He retains an interest in a sentencing proceeding that is fundamentally fair. But because Betterman advanced no due process claim here, see supra, at 1612, we express no opinion on how he might fare under that more pliable standard. See, e.g., United States v. $8,850, 461 U.S. 555, 562-565, 103 S.Ct. 2005, 76 L.Ed.2d 143 (1983). The course of a criminal prosecution is composed of discrete segments. During the segment between accusation and conviction, the Sixth Amendment's Speedy Trial Clause protects the presumptively innocent from long enduring unresolved criminal charges. The Sixth Amendment speedy trial right, however, does not extend beyond conviction, which terminates the presumption of innocence. The judgment of the Supreme Court of Montana is therefore Affirmed. Justice THOMAS, with whom Justice ALITO joins, concurring. I agree with the Court that the Sixth Amendment's Speedy Trial Clause does not apply to sentencing proceedings, except perhaps to bifurcated sentencing proceedings where sentencing enhancements operate as functional elements of a greater offense. See ante, at 1612 - 1613, and n. 2. I also agree with the Court's decision to reserve judgment on whether sentencing delays might violate the Due Process Clause. Ante, at 1617 - 1618. Brandon Betterman's counsel repeatedly disclaimed that he was raising in this Court a challenge under the Due Process Clause. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 7-8 ("We haven't included that. We didn't include that in the question presented, Your Honor"); id., at 8 ("[W]e are not advancing that claim here"); id., at 19 ("[W]e didn't preserve a-a due process challenge. Our challenge is solely under the Sixth Amendment"). We have never decided whether the Due Process Clause creates an entitlement to a reasonably prompt sentencing hearing. Today's opinion leaves us free to decide the proper analytical framework to analyze such claims if and when the issue is properly before us. Justice SOTOMAYOR suggests that, for such claims, we should adopt the factors announced in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 530-533, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972). Post, at 1619 (concurring opinion). I would not prejudge that matter. The factors listed in Barker may not necessarily translate to the delayed sentencing context. The Due Process Clause can be satisfied where a State has adequate procedures to redress an improper deprivation of liberty or property. See Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 537, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981). In unusual cases where trial courts fail to sentence a defendant within a reasonable time, a State might fully satisfy due process by making traditional extraordinary legal remedies, such as mandamus, available. Or, much like the federal Speedy Trial Act regulates trials, see 18 U.S.C. § 3161, a State might remedy improper sentencing delay by statute. And a person who sleeps on these remedies, as Betterman did, may simply have no right to complain that his sentencing was delayed. We should await a proper presentation, full briefing, and argument before taking a position on this issue. The Court thus correctly "express[es] no opinion on how [Betterman] might fare" under the Due Process Clause. Ante, at 1618. Compare Burkett v. Cunningham, 826 F.2d 1208, 1220 (C.A.3 1987) ; Juarez-Casares v. United States, 496 F.2d 190, 192 (C.A.5 1974) ; Ex parte Apicella, 809 So.2d 865, 869 (Ala.2001) ; Gonzales v. State, 582 P.2d 630, 632 (Alaska 1978) ; Jolly v. State, 358 Ark. 180, 191, 189 S.W.3d 40, 45 (2004) ; Trotter v. State, 554 So.2d 313, 316 (Miss.1989), superseded by statute on other grounds, Miss.Code Ann. § 99-35-101 (2008) ; Commonwealth v. Glass, 526 Pa. 329, 334, 586 A.2d 369, 371 (1991) ; State v. Leyva, 906 P.2d 910, 912 (Utah App.1995) ; and State v. Dean, 148 Vt. 510, 513, 536 A.2d 909, 912 (1987) (Speedy Trial Clause applies to sentencing delay), with United States v. Ray, 578 F.3d 184, 198-199 (C.A.2 2009) ; State v. Drake, 259 N.W.2d 862, 866 (Iowa 1977), abrogated on other grounds by State v. Kaster, 469 N.W.2d 671, 673 (Iowa 1991) ; State v. Pressley, 290 Kan. 24, 29, 223 P.3d 299, 302 (2010) ; State v. Johnson, 363 So.2d 458, 460 (La.1978) ; 378 Mont. 182, 192, 342 P.3d 971, 978 (2015) (case below); and Ball v. Whyte, 170 W.Va. 417, 418, 294 S.E.2d 270, 271 (1982) (Speedy Trial Clause does not apply to sentencing delay). We reserve the question whether the Speedy Trial Clause applies to bifurcated proceedings in which, at the sentencing stage, facts that could increase the prescribed sentencing range are determined (e.g., capital cases in which eligibility for the death penalty hinges on aggravating factor findings). Nor do we decide whether the right reattaches upon renewed prosecution following a defendant's successful appeal, when he again enjoys the presumption of innocence. As Betterman points out, at the founding, sentence was often imposed promptly after rendition of a verdict. Brief for Petitioner 24-26. But that was not invariably the case. For the court's "own convenience, or on cause shown, [sentence could be] postpone[d] ... to a future day or term." 1 J. Bishop, Criminal Procedure § 1291, p. 767 (3d ed. 1880) (footnote omitted). See also 1 J. Chitty, A Practical Treatise on the Criminal Law 481 (1819) ("The sentence ... is usually given immediately after the conviction, but the court may adjourn to another day and then give judgment."). We do not mean to convey that provisions of the Sixth Amendment protecting interests other than the presumption of innocence are inapplicable to sentencing. In this regard, we have held that the right to defense counsel extends to some postconviction proceedings. See Mempa v. Rhay, 389 U.S. 128, 135-137, 88 S.Ct. 254, 19 L.Ed.2d 336 (1967). Smith v. Hooey, 393 U.S. 374, 89 S.Ct. 575, 21 L.Ed.2d 607 (1969), on which Betterman relies, is not to the contrary. There we concluded that a defendant, though already convicted and imprisoned on one charge, nevertheless has a right to be speedily brought to trial on an unrelated charge. Id., at 378, 89 S.Ct. 575. "[T]here is reason to believe," we explained in Smith, "that an outstanding untried charge (of which even a convict may, of course, be innocent) can have fully as depressive an effect upon a prisoner as upon a person who is at large." Id., at 379. Smith is thus consistent with comprehension of the Speedy Trial Clause as protective of the presumptively innocent. Betterman suggests that an appropriate remedy for the delay in his case would be reduction of his sentence by 14 months-the time between his conviction and sentencing. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 6. We have not read the Speedy Trial Clause, however, to call for a flexible or tailored remedy. Instead, we have held that violation of the right demands termination of the prosecution. See, e.g., Alaska Rule Crim. Proc. 45 (2016); Ark. Rules Crim. Proc. 28.1 to 28.3 (2015); Cal.Penal Code Ann. § 1382 (West 2011) ; Colo.Rev.Stat. § 18-1-405 (2015) ; Conn. Rules Crim. Proc. 43-39 to 43-42 (2016); Fla. Rule Crim. Proc. 3.191 (2016); Haw. Rule Crim. Proc. 48 (2016); Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 725, § 5/103-5 (West 2014) ; Ind. Rule Crim. Proc. 4 (2016); Iowa Rule Crim. Proc. 2.33 (2016); Kan. Stat. Ann. § 22-3402 (2014 Cum. Supp.); La.Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 701 (West Cum. Supp. 2016); Mass. Rule Crim. Proc. 36 (2016); Neb.Rev.Stat. §§ 29-1207, 29-1208 (2008) ; Nev.Rev.Stat. § 178.556 (2013); N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law Ann. § 30.30 (West Cum. Supp. 2016); Ohio Rev.Code Ann. §§ 2945.71 to 2945.73 (Lexis 2014) ; Ore.Rev.Stat. §§ 135.745, 135.746, 135.748, 135.750, 135.752 (2015); Pa. Rule Crim. Proc. 600 (2016); S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-44-5.1 (Cum. Supp. 2015); Va.Code Ann. § 19.2-243 (2015) ; Wash. Rule Crim. Proc. 3.3 (2016) ; Wis. Stat. § 971.10 (2011-2012); Wyo. Rule Crim. Proc. 48 (2015). "In federal prosecutions," the Solicitor General informs us, "the median time between conviction and sentencing in 2014 was 99 days." Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 31, n. 5. A good part of this time no doubt was taken up by the drafting and review of a presentence report. See Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 32(c) -(g) (detailing presentence-report process). It is true that during this period the defendant is often incarcerated. See, e.g., § 3143(a) (bail presumptively unavailable for convicted awaiting sentence). Because postconviction incarceration is considered punishment for the offense, however, a defendant will ordinarily earn time-served credit for any period of presentencing detention. See § 3585(b) ; A. Campbell, Law of Sentencing § 9:28, pp. 444-445, and n. 4 (3d ed. 2004) ("[State c]rediting statutes routinely provide that any period of time during which a person was incarcerated in relation to a given offense be counted toward satisfaction of any resulting sentence."). That such detention may occur in a local jail rather than a prison is of no constitutional moment, for a convicted defendant has no right to serve his sentence in the penal institution he prefers. See Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 224-225, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976). See, e.g., Alaska Rule Crim. Proc. 32(a) (2016); Colo. Rule Crim. Proc. 32(b)(1) (2015); Del. Super. Ct. Crim. Rule 32(a)(1) (2003); Fla. Rule Crim. Proc. 3.720 (2016); Haw. Rule Penal Proc. 32 (a) (2016); Kan. Stat. Ann. § 22-3424(c) (2014 Cum. Supp.); Ky. Rule Crim. Proc. 11.02(1) (2016); La. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 874 (West 2016) ; Me. Rule Crim. Proc. 32(a)(1) (2015); Mass. Rule Crim. Proc. 28(b) (2016); Mich. Ct. Rule 6.425(E)(1) (2011); Mo. Sup. Ct. Rule 29.07(b)(1) (2011); Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-115 (2015); Nev. Rev. Stat. § 176.015(1) (2013); N.H. Rule Crim. Proc. 29(a)(1) (2016); N.J. Ct. Rule 3:21-4(a) (2016); N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law Ann. § 380.30(1) (West Cum. Supp. 2016); N.D. Rule Crim. Proc. 32(a)(1) (2011); Ohio Rule Crim. Proc. 32(A) (2013); R.I. Super. Ct. Rule 32(a)(1) (2015); S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-27-1 (Cum. Supp. 2015); Vt. Rule Crim. Proc. 32(a)(1) (2010); Va. Sup. Ct. Rule 3A:17.1(b) (2012); W. Va. Rule Crim. Proc. 32(a) (2006); Wyo. Rule Crim. Proc. 32(c)(1) (2015). See, e.g., Ariz. Rule Crim. Proc. 26.3(a)(1) (2011); Ark. Rule Crim. Proc. 33.2 (2015); Cal.Penal Code Ann. § 1191 (West 2015) ; Ind. Rule Crim. Proc. 11 (2016); N.M. Rule Crim. Proc. 5-701(B) (2016); Ore. Rev. Stat. § 137.020(3) (2015); Pa. Rule Crim. Proc. 704(A)(1) (2016); Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-35-209(a) (2014); Utah Rule Crim. Proc. 22(a) (2015); Wash. Rev. Code § 9.94A.500(1) (2016 Cum. Supp.). These sentencing provisions are separate from state analogues to the Speedy Trial Act. See supra, at 1616, and n. 7. Relevant considerations may include the length of and reasons for delay, the defendant's diligence in requesting expeditious sentencing, and prejudice. * * * The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U.S. 321, 337, 26 S.Ct. 282, 50 L.Ed. 499. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Stewart delivered the opinion of the Court. The respondent, George Robert Brown, is in an Indiana prison under sentence of death. He is an indigent. In a federal habeas corpus proceeding the District Court held that Indiana has deprived Brown of a right secured by the Fourteenth Amendment by refusing him appellate review of the denial of a writ of error coram nobis solely because of his poverty. 196 F. Supp. 484. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 302 F. 2d 537. We agree that the Indiana procedure at issue in this case falls short of the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. In the administration of its criminal law, Indiana seems to have long pursued a conspicuously enlightened policy in the quest for equal justice to the destitute, and it is not without irony that the constitutional problem in this case stems from legislation evidently enacted to enlarge that State’s existing system of aid to the indigent. For more than a hundred years the Indiana Constitution has guaranteed the assistance of counsel to every defendant in a criminal trial. This right has been extended to include the right of an indigent to consult with a lawyer prior to arraignment, as well as the right to be represented by counsel on appeal from a criminal conviction. It has also been established for more than a century in Indiana that a poor person appealing a criminal conviction may secure a transcript of the trial record without cost. In 1945 the Indiana Legislature enacted the so-called Public Defender Act, a law to deal with the problem of providing legal assistance to indigent prisoners in postconviction proceedings. It is the operation of the provisions of this law, as interpreted by the Supreme Court of Indiana, which we find constitutionally deficient in the present case. The 1945 legislation created the office of Public Defender, to be appointed by the State Supreme Court, and, as later amended, authorized him to employ “such deputies, stenographers or other clerical help as may be required to discharge his duties . ...” The provisions of the law which are at the root of the problem in the case before us are those which define the Public Defender’s basic duties and which authorize him to order hearing transcripts, or their equivalent, at public expense: “It shall be the duty of the public defender to represent any person in any penal institution of this state who is without sufficient property or funds to employ his own counsel, in any matter in which such person may assert he is unlawfully or illegally imprisoned, after his time for appeal shall have expired.” “The public defender may order on behalf of any prisoner he represents a transcript of any court proceeding, including evidence presented, had against any prisoner, and depositions, if necessary, at the expense of the state, but the public defender shall have authority to stipulate facts contained in the record of any court, or the substance of testimony presented or evidence heard involving any issue to be presented on behalf of any prisoner, without the same being fully transcribed.” The rules of the Indiana Supreme Court expressly permit an appeal from the denial of a writ of error comm nobis, but also require that a transcript be filed in order to confer jurisdiction upon the court to hear such an appeal. The Indiana court has held that under the above-quoted provisions of the Public Defender Act, only the Public Defender can procure a transcript of a coram nobis hearing for an indigent; an indigent cannot procure a transcript for himself and appeal pro se, nor can he secure the appointment of another lawyer to get the transcript and prosecute the appeal. State ex rel. Casey v. Murray, 231 Ind. 74,106 N. E. 2d 911; Jackson v. Reeves, 238 Ind. 708, 153 N. E. 2d 604; Willoughby v. State, 242 Ind. 183, 177 N. E. 2d 465. The upshot is that a person with sufficient funds can appeal as of right to the Supreme Court of Indiana from the denial of a writ of error coram nobis, but an indigent can, at the will of the Public Defender, be entirely cut off from any appeal at all. The impact of this system is fully illustrated by the history of the present case. Brown was convicted of murder in an Indiana trial court and sentenced to death. The conviction was affirmed on appeal, 239 Ind. 184, 154 N. E. 2d 720, and this Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari. 361 U. S. 936. Thereafter, Brown filed in the Federal District Court an application for habeas corpus which was dismissed because of failure to exhaust available state remedies. Brown then filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis in the state trial court. After a hearing at which Brown was represented by the Public Defender, the court denied relief. Brown requested the Public Defender to represent him in perfecting an appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court. This request was refused because of the Public Defender’s stated belief that an appeal would be unsuccessful. Brown next applied to the state trial court for a transcript of the comm nobis hearing and the appointment of counsel to perfect an appeal. This application was denied. The Supreme Court of Indiana refused to order the trial court to grant the petitioner’s request for a transcript and appointment of counsel, stating: “Under the circumstances presented, the public defender was under no duty to request a transcript of the proceedings in error coram nobis and, in the absence of a request from said office, the trial court was under no duty to provide a certified copy of said proceedings at public expense.” Brown v. Indiana, 241 Ind. 298, 302, 171 N. E. 2d 825, 827. Brown again sought a writ of certiorari in this Court, and his petition was again denied, “without prejudice to an application for a writ of habeas corpus in the appropriate United States District Court . . . .” 366 U. S. 954. Brown finally instituted in the Federal District Court the habeas corpus proceedings we now review. His petition alleged, in addition to four substantive grounds for relief, “That Relator has been denied equal protection of the law in that he was effectively denied an appeal from the Order of the Lake County, Indiana Criminal Court, denying his petition for writ of error coram nobis because of his poverty and inability to secure a transcript, which right of appeal is available to all defendants in Indiana who can afford the expense of a transcript.” The court, directing its attention only to this last issue, held “that the actions of the State of Indiana have denied petitioner equal protection of the laws,” and ordered that Brown “be given a full, appellate review of his Coram Nobis denial” within 90 days or such additional time as the court might thereafter determine. 196 F. Supp., at 488. Upon the failure of Indiana to provide such a review, the District Court ordered Brown’s discharge from custody, but granted a stay pending appellate review. The Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s judgment, directing, however, that Brown continue to be held in custody pending final disposition of the case by this Court. 302 F. 2d, at 540. Both the District Court and the Court of Appeals were of the opinion that the issue in the present case is controlled by recent decisions of this Court which have held constitutionally invalid procedures of other States found substantially to deny indigent defendants the benefits of an existing system of appellate review. We are in complete agreement. In Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U. S. 12, the Court held that a State with an appellate system which made available trial transcripts to those who could afford them was constitutionally required to provide “means of affording adequate and effective appellate review to indigent defendants.” Id., at 20. “Destitute defendants,” the Court held, “must be afforded as adequate appellate review as defendants who have money enough to buy transcripts.” Id., at 19. In Bums v. Ohio, 360 U. S. 252, involving a $20 fee for filing a motion for leave to appeal a felony conviction to the Supreme Court of Ohio, this Court reaffirmed the Griffin doctrine, saying that “once the State chooses to establish appellate review in criminal cases, it may not foreclose indigents from access to any phase of that procedure because of their poverty. . . . This principle is no less applicable where the State has afforded an indigent defendant access to the first phase of its appellate procedure but has effectively foreclosed access to the second phase of that procedure solely because of his indigency;” Id., at 257. In Smith v. Bennett, 365 U. S. 708, the Court made clear that these principles were not to be limited to direct appeals from criminal convictions, but extended alike to state postconviction proceedings. “Respecting the State’s grant of a right to test their detention,” the Court said, “the Fourteenth Amendment weighs the interests of rich and poor criminals in equal scale, and its hand extends as far to each.” Id., at 714. In Eskridge v. Washington Prison Board, 357 U. S. 214, the Court held invalid a provision of Washington’s criminal appellate system which conferred upon the trial judge the power to withhold a trial transcript from an indigent upon the finding that “justice would not be promoted . . . in that defendant has been accorded a fair and impartial trial, and in the Court’s opinion no grave or prejudicial errors occurred therein.” Id., at 215. There it was said that “[t]he conclusion of the trial judge that there was no reversible error in the trial cannot be an adequate substitute for the right to full appellate review available to all defendants in Washington who can afford the expense of a transcript.” Id., at 216. The present case falls clearly within the area staked out by the Court’s decisions in Griffin, Burns, Smith, and Eskridge. To be sure, this case does not involve, as did Griffin, a direct appeal from a criminal conviction, but Smith makes clear that the Griffin principle also applies to state collateral proceedings, and Burns leaves no doubt that the principle applies even though the State has already provided one review on the merits. In Eskridge the Court held constitutionally invalid a provision which permitted a trial judge to prevent an indigent from taking an effective appeal. The provision before us confers upon a state officer outside the judicial system power to take from an indigent all hope of any appeal at all. Such a procedure, based on indigency alone, does not meet constitutional standards. We have no doubt that Indiana, with its historic concern for equal justice under law, will find no practical difficulty in correcting the constitutional deficiency which this case exposes. The judgments of the Court of Appeals and of the District Court are vacated and the case remanded to the latter, so that appropriate orders may be entered ordering Brown’s discharge from custody, unless within a reasonable time the State of Indiana provides him an appeal on the merits to the Supreme Court of Indiana from the denial of the writ of error coram nobis. It is so ordered. Separate opinion of Ind. Const., Art. 1, §13 (1851). In 1854 the Supreme Court of Indiana said: “It is not to be thought of, in a civilized community, for a moment, that any citizen put in jeopardy of life or liberty, should be debarred of counsel because he was too poor to employ such aid. No Court could be respected, or respect itself, to sit and hear such a trial.” Webb v. Baird, 6 Ind. 13, 18. (Quoted in the dissenting opinion in Betts v. Brady, 316 U. S. 455, at 476-477.) Batchelor v. State, 189 Ind. 69, 125 N. E. 773 (1920). State v. Hilgemann, 218 Ind. 572, 34 N. E. 2d 129 (1941); State ex rel. Orecco v. Allen Circuit Court, 238 Ind. 571, 575, 153 N. E. 2d 914, 916 (1958). But see State ex rel. Macon v. Orange Circuit Court, 243 Ind. 429, 185 N. E. 2d 619. Falkenburgh v. Jones, 5 Ind. 296 (1854); State ex rel. Morris v. Wallace, 41 Ind. 445 (1872). Since 1893, the right to a transcript has been conferred by statute. Burns Ind. Ann. Stat., 1946, § 4-3511. “There is hereby created the office of Public Defender. The public defender shall be appointed by the Supreme Court of the state of Indiana to serve at the pleasure of said court, for a term of four [4] years. He shall be a resident of the state of Indiana, and a practicing lawyer of this state for at least three [3] years. The Supreme Court is authorized to give such tests as it may deem proper to determine the fitness of any applicant for appointment.” Indiana Acts 1945, c. 38, § 1, Burns Ind. Ann. Stat., 1956, § 13-1401. “The public defender shall be paid an annual salary to be fixed by the supreme court of this state. He may, with the consent of said court, appoint or employ such deputies, stenographers or other clerical help as may be required to discharge his duties at compensation to be fixed by the court. He shall be provided with an office at a place to be located and designated by the Supreme Court, and he shall be paid his actual necessary and reasonable traveling expenses, including cost of food and lodging when away from the municipality in which his office is located on business of the office of the public defender, and he shall be provided with office furniture, fixtures and equipment, books, stationery, printing services, postage and supplies.” Indiana Acts 1945, c. 38, § 4, as amended, Burns Ind. Ann. Stat., 1956, § 13-1404. Indiana Acts 1945, c. 38, § 2, Burns Ind. Ann. Stat., 1956, § 13-1402. Indiana Acts 1945, c. 38, § 5, Bums Ind. Ann. Stat., 1956, § 13-1405. “Rule 2-40 of this court, 1958 Edition, provides, in relevant part: “ 'An appeal may be taken to the Supreme Court from a judgment granting or denying a petition for a writ of error coram nobis. The sufficiency of the pleadings and of the evidence to entitle the petitioner to a vacation of the judgment will be considered upon an assignment of error that the finding is contrary to law. The transcript of so much of the record as is necessary to present all questions raised by appellant’s propositions shall be filed with the clerk of the Supreme Court within ninety (90) days after the date of the decision. The provisions of the rules of this court applicable to appeals from final judgments shall govern as to the form and time of filing briefs.’ ” McCrary v. State, 241 Ind. 518, 533-534, 173 N. E. 2d 300, 307. “Rule 2-6 of this court, 1958 Edition, provides, in relevant part: “ ‘There shall be attached to the front of the transcript, immediately following the index, a specific assignment of the errors relied upon by the appellant in which each specification of error shall be complete and separately numbered.’ ” 241 Ind., at 533, 173 N. E. 2d, at 307. “After a careful review of your hearing had on June 1 on your petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis in the Criminal Court of Lake County, will advise that I am unable to find any error or errors that would have any merit to assign upon an appeal; therefore, I am hereby informing you that my office will not appeal the judgment denying your Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis.” “(1) Inadequate representation by court-appointed counsel at his trial in Lake County, Indiana Criminal Court. “(2) Procurement by State authorities of a confession from petitioner through fear produced by threats and prolonged questioning during an illegal detention. “(3) Admission of confession before proof of the corpus delicti. “(4) Admission into evidence of exhibits and testimony of petitioner’s prior commitment to a mental institution and crimes of rape and attempted rape alleged to have been committed by the petitioner.” We do not deal here with a preliminary screening procedure applicable alike to all coram nobis appeals. Nor need we determine in this case what procedural measures Indiana might constitutionally take to reduce the public expense of indigents’ appeals. See Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U. S., at 20. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. Section 5(e)(2) of the Federal Alcohol Administration Act prohibits beer labels from displaying alcohol content. We granted certiorari in this case to review the Tenth Circuit’s holding that the labeling ban violates the First Amendment because it fails to advance a governmental interest in a direct and material way. Because § 5(e)(2) is inconsistent with the protections granted to commercial speech by the First Amendment, we affirm. I Respondent brews beer. In 1987, respondent applied to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), an agency of the Department of the Treasury, for approval of proposed labels and advertisements that disclosed the alcohol content of its beer. BATF rejected the application on the ground that the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAAA or Act), 49 Stat. 977, 27 U. S. C. § 201 et seq., prohibited disclosure of the alcohol content of beer on labels or in advertising. Respondent then filed suit in the District Court for the District of Colorado seeking a declaratory judgment that the relevant provisions of the Act violated the First Amendment; respondent also sought injunctive relief barring enforcement of these provisions. The Government took the position that the ban was necessary to suppress the threat of “strength wars” among brewers, who, without the regulation, would seek to compete in the marketplace based on the potency of their beer. The District Court granted the relief sought, but a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed and remanded. Adolph Coors Co. v. Brady, 944 F. 2d 1543 (1991). Applying the framework set out in Central Hudson Gas & Elec. Corp. v. Public Serv. Comm’n of N. Y., 447 U. S. 557 (1980), the Court of Appeals found that the Government’s interest in suppressing alcoholic “strength wars” was “substantial.” Brady, supra, at 1547-1549. It further held, however, that the record provided insufficient evidence to determine whether the FAAA’s ban on disclosure “directly advanced” that interest. Id., at 1549-1551. The court remanded for further proceedings to ascertain whether a “‘reasonable fit’” existed between the ban and the goal of avoiding strength wars. Id., at 1554. After further factfinding, the District Court upheld the ban on the disclosure of alcohol content in advertising but invalidated the ban as it applied to labels. Although the Government asked the Tenth Circuit to review the invalidation of the labeling ban, respondent did not appeal the court’s decision sustaining the advertising ban. On the case’s second appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court. Adolph Coors Co. v. Bentsen, 2 F. 3d 355 (1993). Following our recent decision in Edenfield v. Fane, 507 U. S. 761 (1993), the Tenth Circuit asked whether the Government had shown that the “ ‘challenged regulation advances [the Government’s] interests in a direct and material way.’” 2 F. 3d, at 357 (quoting Edenfield, supra, at 767-768). After reviewing the record, the Court of Appeals concluded that the Government had failed to demonstrate that the prohibition in any way prevented strength wars. The court found that there was no evidence of any relationship between the publication of factual information regarding alcohol content and competition on the basis of such content. 2 F. 3d, at 358-359. We granted certiorari, 512 U. S. 1203 (1994), to review the Tenth Circuit’s decision that § 205(e)(2) violates the First Amendment. We conclude that the ban infringes respondent’s freedom of speech, and we therefore affirm. II A Soon after the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and ended the Nation’s experiment with Prohibition, Congress enacted the FAAA. The statute establishes national rules governing the distribution, production, and importation of alcohol and established a Federal Alcohol Administration to implement these rules. Section 5(e)(2) of the Act prohibits any producer, importer, wholesaler, or bottler of alcoholic beverages from selling, shipping, or delivering in interstate or foreign commerce any malt beverages, distilled spirits, or wines in bottles “unless such products are bottled, packaged, and labeled in conformity with such regulations, to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, with respect to packaging, marking, branding, and labeling and size and fill of container ... as will provide the consumer with adequate information as to the identity and quality of the products, the alcoholic content thereof (except that statements of, or statements likely to be considered as statements of, alcoholic content of malt beverages are prohibited unless required by State law and except that, in case of wines, statements of alcoholic content shall be required only for wines containing more than 14 per centum of alcohol by volume), the net contents of the package, and the manufacturer or bottler or importer of the product.” 27 U. S. C. § 205(e)(2) (emphasis added). The Act defines “‘malt beverage[s]’” in such a way as to include all beers and ales. § 211(a)(7). Implementing regulations promulgated by BATF (under delegation of authority from the Secretary of the Treasury) prohibit the disclosure of alcohol content on beer labels. 27 CFR § 7.26(a) (1994). In addition to prohibiting numerical indications of alcohol content, the labeling regulations proscribe descriptive terms that suggest high content, such as “strong,” “full strength,” “extra strength,” “high test,” “high proof,” “pre-war strength,”, and “full oldtime alcoholic strength.” § 7.29(f). The prohibitions do not preclude labels from identifying a beer as “low alcohol,” “reduced alcohol,” “non-alcoholic,” or “alcohol-free.” Ibid.; see also §§7.26(b)-(d). By statute and by regulation, the labeling ban must give way if state law requires disclosure of alcohol content. B Both parties agree that the information on beer labels constitutes commercial speech. Though we once took the position that the First Amendment does not protect commercial speech, see Valentine v. Chrestensen, 316 U. S. 52 (1942), we repudiated that position in Virginia Bd. of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425 U. S. 748 (1976). There we noted that the free flow of commercial information is “indispensable to the proper allocation of resources in a free enterprise system” because it informs the numerous private decisions that drive the system. Id., at 765. Indeed, we observed that a “particular consumer’s interest in the free flow of commercial information . . . may be as keen, if not keener by far, than his interest in the day’s most urgent political debate.” Id., at 763. Still, Virginia Board of Pharmacy suggested that certain types of restrictions might be tolerated in the commercial speech area because of the nature of such speech. See id., at 771-772, n. 24. In later decisions we gradually articulated a test based on “‘the “commonsense” distinction between speech proposing a commercial transaction, which occurs in an area traditionally subject to government regulation, and other varieties of speech.’” Central Hudson, 447 U. S., at 562 (quoting Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Assn., 436 U. S. 447, 455-456 (1978)). Central Hudson identified several factors that courts should consider in determining whether a regulation of commercial speech survives First Amendment scrutiny: “For commercial speech to come within [the First Amendment], it at least must concern lawful activity and not be misleading. Next, we ask whether the asserted governmental interest is substantial. If both inquiries yield positive answers, we must determine whether the regulation directly advances the governmental interest asserted, and whether it is not more extensive than is necessary to serve that interest.” 447 U. S., at 566. We now apply Central Hudson’s test to § 205(e)(2). III Both the lower courts and the parties agree that respondent seeks to disclose only truthful, verifiable, and nonmisleading factual information about alcohol content on its beer labels. Thus, our analysis focuses on the substantiality of the interest behind § 205(e)(2) and on whether the labeling ban bears an acceptable fit with the Government’s goal. A careful consideration of these factors indicates that § 205(e)(2) violates the First Amendment’s protection of commercial speech. A The Government identifies two interests it considers sufficiently “substantial” to justify §205(e)(2)’s labeling ban. First, the Government contends that § 205(e)(2) advances Congress’ goal of curbing “strength wars” by beer brewers who might seek to compete for customers on the basis of alcohol content. According to the Government, the FAAA’s restriction prevents a particular type of beer drinker — one who selects a beverage because of its high potency — from choosing beers solely for their alcohol content. In the Government’s view, restricting disclosure of information regarding a particular product characteristic will decrease the extent to which consumers will select the product on the basis of that characteristic. Respondent counters that Congress actually intended the FAAA to achieve the far different purpose of preventing brewers from making inaccurate claims concerning alcohol content. According to respondent, when Congress passed the FAAA in 1935, brewers did not have the technology to produce beer with alcohol levels within predictable tolerances — a skill that modern beer producers now possess. Further, respondent argues that the true policy guiding federal alcohol regulation is not aimed at suppressing strength wars. If such were the goal, the Government would not pursue the opposite policy with respect to wines and distilled spirits. Although § 205(e)(2) requires BATF to promulgate regulations barring the disclosure of alcohol content on beer labels, it also orders BATF to require the disclosure of alcohol content on the labels of wines and spirits. See 27 CFR § 4.38 (1994) (wines); §5.37 (distilled spirits). Rather than suppressing the free flow of factual information in the wine and spirits markets, the Government seeks to control competition on the basis of strength by monitoring distillers’ promotions and marketing. Respondent quite correctly notes that the general thrust of federal alcohol policy appears to favor greater disclosure of information, rather than less. This also seems to be the trend in federal regulation of other consumer products as well. See, e. g., Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, Pub. L. 101-535, 104 Stat. 2353, as amended (requiring labels of food products sold in the United States to display nutritional information). Respondent offers a plausible reading of the purpose behind § 205(e)(2), but the prevention of misleading statements of alcohol content need not be the exclusive Government interest served by § 205(e)(2). In Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Co. of P. R., 478 U. S. 328, 341 (1986), we found that the Puerto Rico Legislature’s interest in promoting the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens by reducing their demand for gambling provided a sufficiently “substantial” governmental interest to justify the regulation of gambling advertising. So too the Government here has a significant interest in protecting the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens by preventing brewers from competing on the basis of alcohol strength, which could lead to greater alcoholism and its attendant social costs. Both panels of the Court of Appeals that heard this case concluded that the goal of suppressing strength wars constituted a substantial interest, and we cannot say that their conclusion is erroneous. We have no reason to think that strength wars, if they were to occur, would not produce the type of social harm that the Government hopes to prevent. The Government attempts to bolster its position by arguing that the labeling ban not only curbs strength wars, but also “facilitates” state efforts to regulate alcohol under the Twenty-first Amendment. The Solicitor General directs us to United States v. Edge Broadcasting Co., 509 U. S. 418 (1993), in which we upheld a federal law that prohibited lottery advertising by radio stations located in States that did not operate lotteries. That ease involved a station located in North Carolina (a nonlottery State) that broadcast lottery advertisements primarily into Virginia (a State with a lottery). We upheld the statute against First Amendment challenge in part because it supported North Carolina’s anti-gambling policy without unduly interfering with States that sponsored lotteries. Id., at 431-435. In this case, the Government claims that the interest behind § 205(e)(2) mirrors that of the statute in Edge Broadcasting because it prohibits disclosure of alcohol content only in States that do not affirmatively require brewers to provide that information. In the Government’s view, this saves States that might wish to ban such labels the trouble of enacting their own legislation, and it discourages beer drinkers from crossing state lines to buy beer they believe is stronger. We conclude that the Government’s interest in preserving state authority is not sufficiently substantial to meet the requirements of Central Hudson. Even if the Federal Government possessed the broad authority to facilitate state powers, in this case the Government has offered nothing that suggests that States are in need of federal assistance. States clearly possess ample authority to ban the disclosure of alcohol content — subject, of course, to the same First Amendment restrictions that apply to the Federal Government. Unlike the situation in Edge Broadcasting, the policies of some States do not prevent neighboring States from pursuing their own alcohol-related policies within their respective borders. One State’s decision to permit brewers to disclose alcohol content on beer labels will not preclude neighboring States from effectively banning such disclosure of that information within their borders. B The remaining Central Hudson factors require that a valid restriction on commercial speech directly advance the governmental interest and be no more extensive than necessary to serve that interest. We have said that “[t]he last two steps of the Central Hudson analysis basically involve a consideration of the ‘fit’ between the legislature’s ends and the means chosen to accomplish those ends.” Posadas, supra, at 341. The Tenth Circuit found that § 205(e)(2) failed to advance the interest in suppressing strength wars sufficiently to justify the ban. We agree. Just two Terms ago, in Edenfield v. Fane, 507 U. S. 761 (1993), we had occasion to explain the Central Hudson factor concerning whether the regulation of commercial speech “directly advances the governmental interest asserted.” Central Hudson, 447 U. S., at 566. In Edenfield, we decided that the Government carries the burden of showing that the challenged regulation advances the Government’s interest “in a direct and material way.” 507 U. S., at 767. That burden “is not satisfied by mere speculation or conjecture; rather, a governmental body seeking to sustain a restriction on commercial speech must demonstrate that the harms it recites are real and that its restriction will in fact alleviate them to a material degree.” Id., at 770-771. We cautioned that this requirement was critical; otherwise, “a State could with ease restrict commercial speech in the service of other objectives that could not themselves justify a burden on commercial expression.” Id., at 771. The Government attempts to meet its burden by pointing to current developments in the consumer market. It claims that beer producers are' already competing and advertising on the basis of alcohol strength in the “malt liquor” segment of the beer market. The Government attempts to show that this competition threatens to spread to the rest of the market by directing our attention to respondent’s motives in bringing this litigation. Respondent allegedly suffers from consumer misperceptions that its beers contain less alcohol than other brands. According to the Government, once respondent gains relief from § 205(e)(2), it will use its labels to overcome this handicap. Under the Government’s theory, § 205(e)(2) suppresses the threat of such competition by preventing consumers from choosing beers on the basis of alcohol content. It is assuredly a matter of “common sense,” Brief for Petitioner 27, that a restriction on the advertising of a product characteristic will decrease the extent to which consumers select a product on the basis of that trait. In addition to common sense, the Government urges us to turn to history as a guide. According to the Government, at the time Congress enacted the FAAA, the use of labels displaying alcohol content had helped produce a strength war. Section 205(e)(2) allegedly relieved competitive pressures to market beer on the basis of alcohol content, resulting over the long term in beers with lower alcohol levels. We conclude that § 205(e)(2) cannot directly and materially advance its asserted interest because of the overall irrationality of the Government’s regulatory scheme. While the laws governing labeling prohibit the disclosure of alcohol content unless required by state law, federal regulations apply a contrary policy to beer advertising. 27 U. S. C. § 205(f)(2); 27 CFR § 7.50 (1994). Like § 205(e)(2), these restrictions prohibit statements of alcohol content in advertising, but, unlike § 205(e)(2), they apply only in States that affirmatively prohibit such advertisements. As only 18 States at best prohibit disclosure of content in advertisements, App. to Brief for Respondent la-12a, brewers remain free to disclose alcohol content in advertisements, but not on labels, in much of the country. The failure to prohibit the disclosure of alcohol content in advertising, which would seem to constitute a more influential weapon in any strength war than labels, makes no rational sense if the Government’s true aim is to suppress strength wars. Other provisions of the FAAA and its regulations similarly undermine §205(e)(2)’s efforts to prevent strength wars. While § 205(e)(2) bans the disclosure of alcohol content on beer labels, it allows the exact opposite in the case of wines and spirits. Thus, distilled spirits may contain statements of alcohol content, 27 CFR § 5.37 (1994), and such disclosures are required for wines with more than 14 percent alcohol, 27 CFR §4.36 (1994). If combating strength wars were the goal, we would assume that Congress would regulate disclosure of alcohol content for the strongest beverages as well as for the weakest ones. Further, the Government permits brewers to signal high alcohol content through use of the term “malt liquor.” Although the Secretary has proscribed the use of various colorful terms suggesting high alcohol levels, 27 CFR § 7.29(f) (1994), manufacturers still can distinguish a class of stronger malt beverages by identifying them as malt liquors. One would think that if the Government sought to suppress strength wars by prohibiting numerical disclosures of alcohol content, it also would preclude brewers from indicating higher alcohol beverages by using descriptive terms. While we are mindful that respondent only appealed the constitutionality of § 205(e)(2), these exemptions and inconsistencies bring into question the purpose of the labeling ban. To be sure, the Government’s interest in combating strength wars remains a valid goal. But the irrationality of this unique and puzzling regulatory framework ensures that the labeling ban will fail to achieve that end. There is little chance that § 205(e)(2) can directly and materially advance its aim, while other provisions of the same Act directly undermine and counteract its effects. This conclusion explains the findings of the courts below. Both the District Court and the Court of Appeals found that the Government had failed to present any credible evidence showing that the disclosure of alcohol content would promote strength wars. In the District Court’s words, “none of the witnesses, none of the depositions that I have read, no credible evidence that I have heard, lead[s] me to believe that giving alcoholic content on labels will in any way promote . .. strength wars.” App. to Pet. for Cert. A-38. See also Bentsen, 2 F. 3d, at 359. Indeed, the District Court concluded that “[prohibiting the alcoholic content disclosure of malt beverages on labels has little, if anything, to do with the type of advertising that promotes strength wars.” App. to Pet. for Cert. A-36. As the FAAA’s exceptions and regulations would have counteracted any effect the labeling ban had exerted, it is not surprising that the lower courts did not find any evidence that § 205(e)(2) had suppressed strength wars. The Government’s brief submits anecdotal evidence and educated guesses to suggest that competition on the basis of alcohol content is occurring today and that §2Q5(e)(2)’s ban has constrained strength wars that otherwise would burst out of control. These various tidbits, however, cannot overcome the irrationality of the regulatory scheme and the weight of the record. The Government did not offer any convincing evidence that the labeling ban has inhibited strength wars. Indeed, it could not, in light of the effect of the FAAA’s other provisions. The absence of strength wars over the past six decades may have resulted from any number of factors. Nor do we think that respondent’s litigating positions can be used against it as proof that the Government’s regulation is necessary. That respondent wishes to disseminate factual information concerning alcohol content does not demonstrate that it intends to compete on the basis of alcohol content. Brewers may have many different reasons — only one of which might be a desire to wage a strength war — why they wish to disclose the potency of their beverages. Even if § 205(e)(2) did meet the Edenfield standard, it would still not survive First Amendment scrutiny because the Government’s regulation of speech is not sufficiently tailored to its goal. The Government argues that a sufficient “fit” exists here because the labeling ban applies to only one product characteristic and because the ban does not prohibit all disclosures of alcohol content — it applies only to those involving labeling and advertising. In response, respondent suggests several alternatives, such as directly limiting the alcohol content of beers, prohibiting marketing efforts emphasizing high alcohol strength (which is apparently the policy in some other western nations), or limiting the labeling ban only to malt liquors, which is the segment of the market that allegedly is threatened with a strength war. We agree that the availability of these options, all of which could advance the Government’s asserted interest in a manner less intrusive to respondent’s First Amendment rights, indicates that § 205(e)(2) is more extensive than necessary. IV In sum, although the Government may have a substantial interest in suppressing strength wars in the beer market, the FAAA’s countervailing provisions prevent § 205(e)(2) from furthering that purpose in a direct and material fashion. The FAAA’s defects are further highlighted by the availability of alternatives that would prove less intrusive to the First Amendment’s protections for commercial speech. Because we find that § 205(e)(2) fails the Central Hudson test, we affirm the decision of the court below. It is so ordered. BATF has suspended § 7.26 to comply with the District Court’s order enjoining the enforcement of that provision. 58 Fed. Reg. 21228 (1993). Pending the final disposition of this case, interim regulations permit the disclosure of alcohol content on beer labels. 27 CFR § 7.71 (1994). The Government argues that Central Hudson imposes too strict a standard for reviewing § 205(e)(2), and urges us to adopt instead a far more deferential approach to restrictions on commercial speech concerning alcohol. Relying on United States v. Edge Broadcasting Co., 509 U. S. 418 (1993), and Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Co. of P. R., 478 U. S. 328 (1986), the Government suggests that legislatures have broader latitude to regulate speech that promotes socially harmful activities, such as alcohol consumption, than they have to regulate other types of speech. Although Edge Broadcasting and Posadas involved the advertising of gambling activities, the Government argues that we also have applied this principle to speech concerning alcohol. See California v. LaRue, 409 U. S. 109, 138 (1972) (holding that States may ban nude dancing in bars and nightclubs that serve liquor). Neither Edge Broadcasting nor Posadas compels us to craft an exception to the Central Hudson standard, for in both of those cases we applied the Central Hudson analysis. Indeed, Edge Broadcasting specifically avoided reaching the argument the Government makes here because the Court found that the regulation in question passed muster under Central Hudson. 509 U. S., at 425. To be sure, Posadas did state that the Puerto Rico Government could ban promotional advertising of casino gambling because it could have prohibited gambling altogether. 478 U. S., at 346. But the Court reached this argument only after it already had found that the state regulation survived the Central Hudson test. See 478 U. S., at 340-344. The Court raised the Government’s point in response to an alternative claim that Puerto Rico’s regulation was inconsistent with Carey v. Population Services Int'l, 431 U. S. 678 (1977), and Bigelow v. Virginia, 421 U. S. 809 (1975). Posadas, supra, at 345-346. Nor does LaRue support the Government’s position. LaRue did not involve commercial speech about alcohol, but instead concerned the regulation of nude dancing in places where alcohol was served. 409 U. S., at 114. “ ‘Malt liquor’ is the term used to designate those malt beverages with the highest alcohol content.... Malt liquors represent approximately three percent of the malt beverage market.” Adolph Coors Co. v. Bentsen, 2 F. 3d 355, 358, n. 4 (CA10 1993). Not only was there little evidence that American brewers intend to increase alcohol content, but the lower courts also found that “in the United States ... the vast majority of consumers . . . value taste and lower calories — both of which are adversely affected by increased alcohol strength.” Bentsen, 2 F. 3d, at 359; accord, App. to Pet. for Cert. A-37. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
C
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. This case raises the same statutory question as Slocum v. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co., ante, p. 239, The petitioner, Order of Railway Conductors, is the only accredited bargaining representative of conductors employed by the respondent Southern Railway. A dispute arose between certain conductors and the railroad concerning the railroad’s obligation under the collective-bargaining agreement to give conductors extra pay for certain services. The claims of the conductors were referred to the union, which sought by negotiation to persuade the railroad to pay. The railroad refused, and thereafter prayed a South Carolina state court for a declaratory judgment interpreting the agreement as not requiring the claimed payments. The trial court first refused to exercise jurisdiction. Citing Order of Conductors v. Pitney, 326 U. S. 561, it held that state courts, like federal courts, should leave settlement of such disputes to the National Railroad Adjustment Board. The State Supreme Court reversed, holding that the state court did have power to interpret the bargaining agreement and adjudicate the dispute. 210 S. C. 121, 41 S. E. 2d 774. After a lengthy trial the lower court held that the collective agreement did not require the compensation sought by the conductors and entered the declaratory judgment requested. The Supreme Court affirmed. 215 S. C. 280, 54 S. E. 2d 816. For reasons set out in the Slocum case, ante, p. 239, we hold that the South Carolina state court was without power to interpret the terms of this agreement and adjudicate the dispute. We discuss this case separately because it sharply points up the conflicts that could arise from state court intervention in railroad-union disputes. After the railroad had sued in the state court, the union filed a petition for hearing and award before the Adjustment Board. The state court nevertheless proceeded to adjudicate the dispute. Sustaining the state court’s action would invite races of diligence whenever a carrier or union preferred one forum to the other. And if a carrier or a union could choose a court instead of the Board, the other party would be deprived of the privilege conferred by § 3 First (i) of the Railway Labor Act, 48 Stat. 1191, 45 U. S. C. § 153 First (i), which provides that after negotiations have failed “either party” may refer the dispute to the appropriate division of the Adjustment Board. The judgment of the South Carolina Supreme Court is reversed, and the cause is remanded for proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Mr. Justice Reed is of the view that the decision below should be affirmed for the reasons set out in his dissent in Slocum v. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co., ante, p. 245. Mr. Justice Douglas took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
J
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Brennan delivered the opinion of the Court. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) “determine[s] questions of disability and dependency” in administering the Federal Government’s provision of annuities to retired employees and their dependents. 5 U. S. C. § 8347(c). Subject to administrative review by the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), § 8347(d)(1), OPM’s “decisions... concerning these matters are final and conclusive and are not subject to review,” § 8347(c). This case presents two questions of substantial importance to the administration of the Government’s retirement annuity program. The first is whether § 8347(c) bars judicial review altogether of an MSPB judgment affirming the denial by OPM of a disability retirement claim, or bars review only of factual determinations while permitting review for alleged errors of law and procedure. If judicial review is available to the latter, limited extent, a second question arises: whether the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has jurisdiction directly to review MSPB decisions in such cases, or whether an applicant whose appeal is rejected by the MSPB must instead file a Tucker Act claim in the United States Claims Court or a United States district court, from which an appeal could then be taken to the Federal Circuit. i — i b> These questions implicate a host of overlapping statutory schemes, which we review before turning to the case at hand. The Civil Service Retirement Act (Retirement Act). Government employees who are covered by the Retirement Act are required to contribute a portion of their salaries to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund. 5 U. S. C. §§ 8334(a), (b). The amount of retirement annuity is based on the employee’s average pay and years of federal service. § 8339. The Retirement Act provides for several types of annuities; at issue here are disability retirement annuities. Pursuant to § 8337, a covered employee who has completed at least five years of federal civilian service is eligible for an immediate annuity if found “disabled,” whether he is retired on his own application (“voluntary” retirement) or on the application of his employing agency (“involuntary” retirement). § 8337(a). Although the Retirement Act at no time has contained a general judicial review provision, this Court concluded almost 50 years ago that a retired employee may secure judicial review of an agency denial of his annuity claim by invoking the district courts’ Tucker Act jurisdiction to entertain monetary claims against the United States. Dismuke v. United States, 297 U. S. 167 (1936). The Court reasoned: “[I]n the absence of compelling language, resort to the courts to assert a right which the statute creates will be deemed to be curtailed only so far as authority to decide is given to the administrative officer.... If he is authorized to determine questions of fact his decision must be accepted unless he exceeds his authority by making a determination which is arbitrary or capricious or unsupported by evidence..., or by failing to follow a procedure which satisfies elementary standards of fairness and reasonableness essential to the due conduct of the proceeding which Congress has authorized... Id., at 172. The civil service laws later were amended to incorporate a finality provision limiting judicial review of dependency and disability determinations. See ch. 84, § 12(d) (3), 62 Stat. 56. As originally enacted, the finality provision provided: “Questions of dependency and disability arising under this section shall be determined by the Civil Service Commission and its decisions with respect to such matters shall be final and conclusive and shall not be subject to review. The Commission may order or direct at any time such medical or other examinations as it shall deem necessary to determine the facts relative to the nature and degree of disability....” Ibid, (emphasis added). This provision has undergone several revisions since 1948; as now codified at 5 U. S. C. § 8347(c), the relevant language provides that determinations “concerning these matters are final and conclusive and are not subject to review.” The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA). This legislation comprehensively overhauled the civil service system. Several of the CSRA’s provisions bear on this case. First, Congress abolished the Civil Service Commission and created the OPM, which is now responsible for administering the Retirement Act. CSRA §§201, 906, 92 Stat. 1118, 1224; see 5 U. S. C. § 8347(a). Second, Congress created the MSPB, and directed that one of the Board’s duties would be to review OPM’s decisions in Retirement Act cases “under procedures prescribed by the Board.” CSRA § 906, 92 Stat. 1225; see 5 U. S. C. § 8347(d)(1). Third, Congress created a new framework for evaluating adverse personnel actions against “employees” and “applicants for employment”: it established exacting standards for review of such actions by the MSPB, provided that “employees” and “applicants for employment” could obtain judicial review of MSPB decisions, and specified the standards for judicial review of such actions. CSRA §205, 92 Stat. 1138, 5 U. S. C. §§ 7701, 7703 (1976 ed., Supp. V). Finally, Congress provided generally that jurisdiction over “a final order or final decision of the Board” would be in the Court of Claims, pursuant to the Tucker Act, or in the regional courts of appeals, pursuant to 28 U. S. C. §2342. See CSRA §205, 92 Stat. 1143, 5 U. S. C. §7703(b)(1) (1976 ed., Supp. V). Public Law 96-500 (“the 1980 amendment”). Congress revisited the finality language of 5 U. S. C. §8347 in 1980, and enacted legislation providing that one subclass of Retirement Act applicants would enjoy the enhanced administrative and judicial review provisions of the recently enacted CSRA: “In the case of any individual found by [OPM] to be disabled in whole or in part on the basis of the individual’s mental condition, and that finding was made pursuant to an application by an agency for purposes of disability retirement under section 8337(a) of this title, the [MSPB review] procedures under section 7701 of this title shall apply and the decision of the Board shall be subject to judicial review under section 7703 of this title.” Pub. L. 96-500, 94 Stat. 2696, as codified in 5 U. S. C. § 8347(d)(2). The Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982 (FCIA). In the FCIA, Congress combined the appellate portions of the Court of Claims’ Tucker Act jurisdiction with certain elements of the regional courts of appeals’ jurisdiction, and vested jurisdiction over these matters in a new United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. FCIA § 127, 96 Stat. 37, 28 U. S. C. § 1295. Whereas the Court of Claims and the regional courts of appeals formerly shared jurisdiction over appeals from the MSPB, the Federal Circuit now has exclusive jurisdiction “of an appeal from a final order or final decision” of the Board pursuant to, inter alia, 5 U. S. C. § 7703(b)(1). 28 U. S. C. § 1295(a)(9); see FCIA §144, 96 Stat. 45. B Until his retirement, the petitioner Wayne Lindahl served as a civilian security guard at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, Cal. Lindahl suffers from acute and chronic bronchitis, allegedly aggravated in part by his exposure over the years to chemical irritants at Mare Island. In September 1979, the Department of the Navy informed Lindahl that he would be retired “because your physical condition has disabled you to such an extent that you are unable to perform the full range of duties required of your position as a Police Officer.” App. 10. Lindahl agreed with the Navy’s assessment and chose not to contest his separation. Both before and after his retirement, Lindahl took steps to apply for a disability retirement annuity. OPM denied Lindahl’s claim several months after he had been retired on the ground that the evidence “fails to establish that you have a disability severe enough to prevent useful, efficient, and safe performance of the essential duties of the position from which you are seeking retirement.” Id., at 21. Pursuant to 5 U. S. C. § 8347(d), Lindahl appealed this decision to the MSPB. The Board sustained OPM’s denial, finding that Lindahl had not demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that he was disabled within the meaning of the Retirement Act. App. 40. Lindahl then filed a complaint in the Court of Claims, invoking that court’s jurisdiction under 5 U. S. C. §7703 and the Tucker Act, 28 U. S. C. § 1491. App. 42-44. He charged that the MSPB had violated the CSRA and MSPB regulations by placing the burden of proving disability on him rather than requiring the agency to disprove disability. ¶ 14, App. 43. He also alleged that the Navy had dismissed him while he was attempting to obtain disability retirement benefits, in violation of regulations requiring an agency that initiates a disability retirement action to retain the employee pending OPM’s resolution of the employee’s disability status. ¶ 16, App. 44. After Congress enacted the FCIA in 1982, Lindahl’s case was transferred to the Federal Circuit. The OPM moved to dismiss, arguing in the alternative (1) that judicial review of legal and procedural questions, as well as of factual determinations, is altogether barred in Retirement Act cases by 5 U. S. C. § 8347(c); and (2) that the jurisdictional provisions of §7703 are limited to “employees,” that retired employees are no longer “employees,” and that the Federal Circuit therefore lacks direct jurisdiction of appeals from MSPB decisions in Retirement Act cases. The MSPB intervened as an amicus curiae in support of Lindahl’s re-viewability and jurisdictional contentions. The Federal Circuit sitting en banc dismissed Lindahl’s appeal as barred by § 8347(c). 718 F. 2d 391 (1983). The court concluded that the plain words of the subsection, along with the structure of the civil service laws and the import of the 1980 amendment, overcome the usual presumption favoring judicial review of administrative action. The court acknowledged that courts for almost 30 years had interpreted § 8347(c) to permit judicial review of alleged legal and procedural errors, but concluded that “those cases... would have to be viewed as wrongly decided and overruled.” Id., at 396. The court also rejected Lindahl’s argument that the legislative history of the 1980 amendment indicated Congress’ intention to preserve limited judicial review in Retirement Act cases. Two judges filed qualified concurring opinions. Id., at 400 (Nichols, J.), 405 (Nies, J.). Four others dissented, arguing, inter alia, that the legislative history of the 1980 amendment demonstrates Congress’ awareness of the previous judicial construction of § 8347(c) and its intention to preserve judicial review to the extent previously recognized. Id., at 405 (Davis, J., joined by Friedman, Kashiwa, and Smith, JJ.), 407 (Smith, J., joined by Friedman, Davis, and Kashiwa, JJ.). We granted certiorari. 467 U. S. 1251 (1984). We reverse. II We have often noted that “only upon a showing of ‘clear and convincing evidence’ of a contrary legislative intent should the courts restrict access to judicial review.” Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U. S. 136, 141 (1967). See also Dunlop v. Bachowski, 421 U. S. 560, 568 (1975). The Court previously has applied just such a presumption in Retirement Act cases, albeit prior to the enactment of § 8347(c). See Dismuke v. United States, 297 U. S., at 172 (judicial review presumed available “in the absence of compelling [statutory] language” to the contrary). Of course, the “clear and convincing evidence” standard has never turned on a talismanic test. Block v. Community Nutrition Institute, 467 U. S. 340, 346-346 (1984). Rather, the question whether a statute precludes judicial review “is determined not only from its express language, but also from the structure of the statutory scheme, its objectives, its legislative history, and the nature of the administrative action involved.” Id., at 345. The Federal Circuit reasoned that § 8347(c), except as qualified by § 8347(d)(2), plainly precludes any judicial review of OPM decisions in voluntary disability retirement cases: “[i]t is difficult to conceive of a more clear-cut statement of congressional intent to preclude review than one in which the concept of finality is thrice repeated in a single sentence.” 718 F. 2d, at 393. We do not share the Federal Circuit’s certainty with respect to the plain import of the statutory language. To begin with, while § 8347(c) plausibly can be read as imposing an absolute bar to judicial review, it also quite naturally can be read as precluding review only of OPM’s factual determinations about “questions of disability and dependency.” Under this reading of §8347(c)’s language, the factual “question” whether an applicant is disabled is quite distinct from questions of what laws and procedures the OPM must apply in administering the Retirement Act. In addition, the application of § 8347(c) as completely pre-clusive is problematic when a disability applicant, as here, challenges not only OPM’s determinations but also the standards and procedures used by the MSPB in reviewing those determinations. Section 8347(c) speaks of the preclusive effect of OPM determinations, but says nothing one way or the other about the finality of MSPB judgments. Finally, our hesitation regarding the “plain meaning” of § 8347(c) is compounded by the fact that, when Congress intends to bar judicial review altogether, it typically employs language far more unambiguous and comprehensive than that set forth in §8347. Congress’ failure to use similar language in § 8347(c) therefore reinforces the possibility that the finality bar may extend only to OPM’s factual determinations “with respect to” disability and dependency questions. Until Congress’ 1980 amendment of §8347, this was precisely the interpretation adopted by courts in reviewing disability retirement decisions by the OPM and its predecessor, the Civil Service Commission. Under the “Scroggins” standard, so-called after Scroggins v. United States, 184 Ct. Cl. 530, 397 F. 2d 295, cert. denied, 393 U. S. 952 (1968), courts acknowledged that § 8347(c) imposes “a special and unusual restriction on judicial examination, and under it courts are not as free to review Commission retirement decisions as they would be if the finality’ clause were not there.” 184 Ct. Cl., at 533-534, 397 F. 2d, at 297. Accordingly, courts emphasized that they could not weigh the evidence or even apply the traditional substantial-evidence standard for reviewing disability determinations. Id., at 534, 397 F. 2d, at 297. Courts also held, however, that § 8347(c)’s finality language did not prevent them from reviewing Commission decisions to determine whether there had been '“a substantial departure from important procedural rights, a misconstruction of the governing legislation, or some like error “going to the heart of the administrative determination.”’” Ibid. The Federal Circuit nevertheless believed that Congress’ revision of § 8347 in 1980 “provide[s] compelling evidence of its intent to preclude judicial review of MSPB decisions on voluntary disability retirement claims.” 718 F. 2d, at 394. Again employing a “plain words” analysis, the court reasoned that the addition of § 8347(d)(2) — providing for MSPB review of involuntary mental disability retirement decisions pursuant to the standards of § 7701 and for judicial review of such decisions pursuant to the standards of § 7703 — demonstrates that Congress intended all other types of disability retirement decisions to be unreviewable. “To hold that judicial review of all § 8347(d)(1) decisions had all along been available under §7703, would be to render superfluous Congress’ action in § 8347(d)(2), making judicial review available for particular claims under §7703.” Id., at 399. Again we cannot agree that the meaning of the 1980 amendment is “plain” on its face. The Scroggins standard allows only for review of legal and procedural errors. The 1980 amendment added § 8347(d)(2), which provides special safeguards in cases of involuntary mental disability retirements. That subsection incorporates § 7703, which provides, inter alia, for a substantial-evidence standard of review of the factual bases of OPM’s decisions. Given the much more deferential Scroggins standard of review, there would be nothing “superfluous” about an amendment providing for the full measure of judicial review pursuant to § 7703 in one subclass of retirement cases. There is certainly nothing on the face of the 1980 amendment suggesting that Congress intended to discard Scroggins review generally while expanding upon it in a particular category of cases. Absent more compelling indicia of congressional intent — whether from the overall statutory structure or from the legislative history— we thus believe in these circumstances that “ ‘[t]he mere fact that some acts are made reviewable should not suffice to support an implication of exclusion as to others.’” Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U. S., at 141 (citation omitted). Moreover, the fact that Congress amended § 8347 in 1980 without explicitly repealing the established Scroggins doctrine itself gives rise to a presumption that Congress intended to embody Scroggins in the amended version of §8347. We need not rely on the bare force of this presumption here, however, because the legislative history of the 1980 amendment demonstrates that Congress was indeed well aware of the Scroggins standard, amended § 8347 on its understanding that Scroggins applied to judicial review of disability retirement decisions generally, and intended that Scroggins review continue except to the extent augmented by the more exacting standards of § 8347(d)(2). The 1980 amendment to § 8347 grew out of investigations and oversight hearings conducted by the Subcommittee on Compensation and Employee Benefits of the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. In a 1978 Report, the Subcommittee found that several Government agencies had used involuntary mental disability retirements as a disciplinary tool against unpopular employees and that the finality language of § 8347(c) had worked a “devastating effect” on the ability of courts to scrutinize the evidentiary underpinnings of such dismissals. Forced Retirement/Psychiatric Fitness for Duty Exams, 95th Cong., 2d Sess., 15 (Comm. Print 1978) (Subcommittee Report). The Subcommittee emphasized its understanding that § 8347(c) did not “eliminate the constitutional right of appeal of the courts in the case of official ‘arbitrary and capricious conduct.’” Ibid. Citing numerous Court of Claims cases, including Scroggins, the Subcommittee stated that under the judicial construction of § 8347(c) a retired employee could obtain judicial relief if he could “show one of the three following conditions: there has been a substantial departure from important procedural rights, a misconstruction of governing legislation, and an error going to the heart of the administrative determinations.” Subcommittee Report, at 15. The Subcommittee criticized this construction “as imposing an almost impossible heavy burden of proof” on retired employees, ibid., and accordingly called for the outright repeal of the preclusion language of § 8347(c), id., at 20. These recommendations were embodied in legislation introduced the following year by Representative Spellman, the Subcommittee’s Chair. H. R. 2510, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. (1979). In hearings on the proposed bill, representatives from OPM noted that outright repeal of §8347(c)’s finality provision would result in full judicial review of all OPM disability and dependency decisions, and objected that such broad review was unwarranted and unnecessary: under § 8347(c) as it had long been interpreted, “if there are questions of proper procedure or constitutional issues, these questions may be raised in the Federal court system. Only the questions [sic] of disability itself, which is a question of medical fact, is actually barred from judicial review by section 8347(c). “We believe that these protections are adequate.... The courts already may review questions of procedure as distinguished from questions of fact concerning the disability itself, and employees are, therefore, not entirely precluded from obtaining judicial review.” Hearing on H. R. 2510 before the Subcommittee on Compensation and Employee Benefits of the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, 96th Cong., 1st Sess., 4 (1979) (Subcommittee Hearing) (statement of Gary Nelson, Associate Director, Compensation Group, OPM). Thereafter, the full Committee adopted an amendment in the nature of a substitute to H. R. 2510 that limited full judicial review “to cases involving agency-filed applications for disability retirement based on an employee’s mental condition.” H. R. Rep. No. 96-1080, p. 2 (1980). The Director of OPM, Alan K. Campbell, then wrote the Chairman of the Committee to inform him that, in light of the elimination of the “sweeping” judicial review originally proposed, OPM was now prepared to support the measure: “We believe that it is reasonable and proper to restrict expanded judicial review to involuntary disability retirements. An employee who voluntarily applies for disability retirement seeks to establish title to a benefit granted by law; the Office of Personnel Management is the administrative agency charged under the law with the managerial function of adjudicating disability retirement claims. It is appropriate, therefore, that OPM decisions on voluntary applications be conclusive, reviewable only to determine whether there has been a substantial procedural error, misconstruction of governing legislation, or some like error going to the heart of the administrative determination.” Letter from Alan K. Campbell to Rep. James M. Hanley (May 14, 1980), reprinted in H. R. Rep. No. 96-1080, at 8 (emphasis added). Director Campbell made these identical representations to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, see Letter from Alan K. Campbell to Sen. Abraham A. Ribicoff (Sept. 25, 1980), reprinted in S. Rep. No. 96-1004, pp. 4-5 (1980); his letter was cited in the Senate Report as providing “further reinforce[ment]” for and an “endorsement” of the Committee’s position on the proper scope of the amendment, id., at 3. Notwithstanding that this history strongly suggests that Congress restricted the scope of its revision of §8347 precisely on the understanding that limited judicial review already was available in disability retirement cases, the respondent seizes upon isolated passages in the legislative history in support of its argument that Congress in fact was under the impression in 1980 that § 8347(c) barred review altogether. See also post, at 804-808 (White, J., dissenting). There were, to be sure, references throughout the legislative proceedings to the “present bar to judicial review of disability determinations”; the purpose of the amendment frequently was characterized as being “to remove the ban to judicial review of certain disability retirement determinations.” These assertions, however, typically were supported by detailed analyses of and quotations from the Scroggins line of cases. Because these cases hold that the “bar” extends only to review of the factual elements of disability determinations, statements in which Scroggins was cited cannot serve to indicate that Congress believed there was an absolute bar to judicial review. Rather, the conclusion was that “expanded judicial review [of] involuntary disability retirements” was necessary under the provisions of 5 U. S. C. §7703. The Scroggins standard, it was contended, was “so narrow” that it prevented effective judicial review; “a more thorough review would reveal the evidentiary weakness” of many involuntary mental disability retirements. If Congress had intended by the 1980 amendment not only to expand judicial review in mental disability cases beyond the established Scroggins standard but to abolish the standard in all other cases as well, there would presumably be some indication in the legislative history to this effect. There is none. Nor, despite Congress’ explicit consideration of the Scroggins interpretation of § 8347, did Congress amend the wording of the finality clause other than to provide for more expansive review in mental disability cases. “Given that the sole purpose of the amendment was to expand judicial protection of employees through review of factual findings in a certain subset of cases, it hardly follows that Congress negatively implied its intent to strip employees of Scroggins-type review in other cases. ” Turner v. OPM, 228 U. S. App. D. C. 94, 98, 707 F. 2d 1499, 1503 (1983). The Federal Circuit nevertheless concluded that the references to Scroggins were made by only “some congressmen,” and that the “comments of a few congressmen” are unreliable indicia of congressional intent. 718 F. 2d, at 399-400. The Scroggins standard was discussed, not just by “a few congressmen,” but by the sponsor of the legislation, the Subcommittee from which it originated, and the House and Senate Committees responsible for its consideration. Similarly, it is contended that the testimony and correspondence of OPM Director Campbell and other agency officials “could not express the intent of Congress.” Id., at 399; see also Brief for Respondent 48-49. Yet while Congress’ understanding of the enactment is of course our touchstone, in discerning what it was that Congress understood “we necessarily attach ‘great weight’ to agency representations to Congress when the administrators ‘participated in drafting and directly made known their views to Congress in committee hearings.’” United States v. Vogel Fertilizer Co., 455 U. S. 16, 31 (1982), quoting Zuber v. Allen, 396 U. S. 168, 192 (1969). Here the Director and other representatives of OPM described the Scroggins standard in detail to both responsible Committees, and relied on the existence of that standard in successfully proposing narrower alternatives to the proposed legislation. The Federal Circuit also reasoned, however, that most of the Scroggins line of cases involved involuntary retirements for alleged mental disabilities, and that none was addressed to voluntary disability retirement claims. 718 F. 2d, at 395. The Scroggins standard was never restricted solely to involuntary mental disability retirements, however, and the legislative history quite clearly indicates that Congress’ understanding was thát the Scroggins standard applied to disability retirement claims generally. Finally, it is suggested that prior to 1980 the Scroggins standard was little more than ill-considered dicta in that (1) it “had resulted in virtually no reversals of the decisions reached in the administrative process,” 718 F. 2d, at 399; (2) courts invoking Scroggins had never “considered] the matter in any depth,” Brief for Respondent 42; and (3) the Scroggins standard was wrong from the outset and “[w]hat did not properly exist cannot be expanded,” 718 F. 2d, at 399. See also post, at 802, n. 2 (White, J., dissenting) (“The so-called Scroggins doctrine apparently is the product of frequent repetition of the Scroggins court’s dictum”). Each of these assertions is either erroneous or misses the mark. That courts applying Scroggins had almost never reversed agency decisions is a testament to Scroggins’ narrow compass, not to its insubstantiality. A fair reading of the cases demonstrates that the courts carefully articulated the standard to begin with, and reaffirmed its vitality only after measured reconsideration. And whether or not Scroggins was correctly decided is largely inapposite to the question at hand. “For the relevant inquiry is not whether Congress correctly perceived the then state of the law, but rather what its perception of the state of the law was.” Brown v. GSA, 425 U. S. 820, 828 (1976). The Federal Circuit therefore erred in concluding that § 8347, as amended, altogether bars judicial review of MSPB decisions in retirement disability cases. Accordingly, while the factual underpinnings of § 8347 disability determinations may not be judicially reviewed, such review is available to determine whether “there has been a substantial departure from important procedural rights, a misconstruction of the governing legislation, or some like error ‘going to the heart of the administrative determination.”’ Scroggins v. United States, 184 Ct. Cl., at 534, 397 F. 2d, at 297. 1 — 1 > — I I — I The respondent contends that, even if Scroggins review is available, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has no jurisdiction directly to review MSPB disability retirement decisions except as provided in § 8347(d)(2). Instead, the respondent argues, retirees such as Lindahl whose administrative appeals are rejected by the MSPB must file a Tucker Act suit in a district court pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 1346(a)(2) or in the Claims Court pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 1491(a), after which the judgment can be appealed to the Federal Circuit pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 1295(a)(2) or (a)(3), respectively. In other words, the respondent contends that most retirees may not obtain direct Federal Circuit review of MSPB decisions, but must instead surmount a two-step judicial review process — with a trial court initially conducting the nonevidentiary Scroggins review, followed by the Federal Circuit conducting the identical review all over again. In addition to making no apparent sense as a matter of sound judicial administration, this argument does not accord with the jurisdictional framework established by the CSRA and the FCIA. Title 28 U. S. C. § 1295(a) provides: “The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit shall have exclusive jurisdiction... (9) of an appeal from a final order or final decision of the Merit Systems Protection Board, pursuant to sections 7703(b)(1) and 7703(d) of title 5.” Title 5 U. S. C. § 7703(b)(1) in turn provides that, except for discrimination cases covered by subsection (b)(2), “a petition to review a final order or final decision of the Board shall be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit” (emphasis added). Sections 1295(a)(9) and 7703(b)(1) together appear to provide for exclusive jurisdiction over MSPB decisions in the Federal Circuit, and do not admit any exceptions for disability retirement claims. The respondent argues, however, that § 7703(b)(1) can only properly be understood by reference to § 7703(a)(1), which provides that “[a]ny employee or applicant for employment” may obtain judicial review of MSPB decisions and orders. Contending that former employees are not “employees” within the meaning of § 7703(a)(1), the respondent advances two grounds in support of its argument that the jurisdictional grant of § 7703(b)(1) is limited to appeals authorized by § 7703(a)(1). First, it seems to assert that § 7703(a)(1) is itself the operative jurisdictional grant, because it repeatedly contends that § 7703(b)(1) “appears to be nothing more than a venue provision.” Brief for Respondent 22; see also id., at 29. This argument wholly misperceives the statutory framework. Section 7703(a)(1) creates a right of review for “employee[s]” and “applicants for employment,” but is not addressed to subject-matter jurisdiction at all. Section 7703(b)(1) confers the operative grant of jurisdiction — the “power to adjudicate” — and is not in any sense a “venue” provision. The fact that § 7703(a)(1) provides one action for review under the jurisdiction of § 7703(b)(1) does not preclude the possibility of other actions for review that similarly would fall within the jurisdictional perimeters of § 7703(b)(1). Second, the respondent contends that the CSRA, which initially enacted § 7703(b)(1), was addressed primarily to adverse actions against employees and applicants for employment and that Congress did not intend, in either the CSRA or the PCIA, to extend the direct review mechanism beyond MSPB decisions involving such matters. There is no question that Congress’ primary focus in the CSRA was on adverse actions, and there are numerous references throughout the legislative history to §7703 as a mechanism for review of adverse actions. These legislative references, combined with the proximity of § 7703(a)(1) and § 7703(b)(1), might be read as limiting the latter to the terms of the former. But as numerous lower courts have noted, “[i]n the process of drafting a comprehensive scheme of reform Congress failed to address specifically how the mechanics of the [CSRA] would function in certain situations,” and the judicial task therefore is to “ ‘look to the provisions of the whole law, and to its object and policy.’” Meyer v. Department of HHS, 229 Ct. Cl. 151, 153-154, 666 F. 2d 540, 542 (1981), quoting Richards v. United States, 369 U. S. 1, 11 (1962). When construing these arguably ambiguous provisions, our duty is “to remain faithful to the central congressional purposes underlying the enactment of the CSRA.” Devine v. White, 225 U. S. App. D. C. 179, 183, 697 F. 2d 421, 425 (1983). A review of the policies and purposes of the CSRA and FCIA demonstrates that the terms of § 7703(b)(1) and 28 U. S. C. § 1295(a)(9) should not be limited by an implied jurisdictional restriction for disability retirement cases. As originally enacted by Congress in the CSRA, § 7703(b) (1) provided that jurisdiction over appeals from MSPB final decisions would rest either in the Court of Claims, pursuant to the Tucker Act, or in the regional courts of appeals, pursuant to 28 U. S. C. §2342(6) (1976 ed., Supp. V). See 5 U. S. C. §7703(b)(1) (1976 ed., Supp. V). The House version of the bill had provided for jurisdiction in either the Court of Claims or the district courts, but the Conference Committee substituted Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. A federal criminal statute forbids any “person” from “engaging] in a continuing criminal enterprise.” 84 Stat. 1264, 21 U. S. C. § 848(a). It defines “continuing criminal enterprise” (CCE) as involving a “violation]” of the drug statutes where “such violation is a part of a continuing series of violations.” § 848(e). We must decide whether a jury has to agree unanimously about which specific violations make up the “continuing series of violations.” We hold that the jury must do so. That is to say, a jury in a federal criminal ease brought under §848 must unanimously agree not only that the defendant committed some “continuing series of violations” but also that the defendant committed each of the individual “violations” necessary to make up that “continuing series.” I The CCE statute imposes a mandatory minimum prison term of at least 20 years upon a person who engages in a “continuing criminal enterprise.” § 848(a). It says: “[A] person is engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise if— “(1) he violates any provision of [the federal drug laws, i <?.,] this subehapter or subchapter II of this chapter the punishment for which is a felony, and “(2) such violation is a part of a continuing series of violations of [the federal drug laws, i. <?.,] this subehapter or subchapter II of this chapter— “(A) which are undertaken by such person in concert with five or more other persons with respect to whom such person occupies a position of organizer [or supervisor or manager] and "(B) from which such person come or resources.” § 848(c). In 1994 the Federal Government charged the petitioner, Eddie Richardson, with violating this statute. The Government presented evidence designed to show that in 1970 Richardson had organized a Chicago street gang called the Undertaker Vice Lords; that the gang had distributed heroin, crack cocaine, and powder cocaine over a period of years stretching from 1984 to 1991; and that Richardson, known as “King of all the Undertakers,” had run the gang, managed the sales, and obtained substantial income from those unlawful activities. The jury convicted Richardson. The question before us struction about the statute’s “series of violations” requirement. The judge rejected Richardson’s proposal to instruct the jury that it must “unanimously agree on which three acts constituted [the] series of violations.” App. 21. Instead, the judge instructed the jurors that they “must unanimously agree that the defendant committed at least three federal narcotics offenses,” while adding, “[y]ou do not . . . have to agree as to the particular three or more federal narcotics offenses committed by the defendant.” Id., at 37. On appeal, the Seventh Circuit upheld the trial judge’s instruction. 130 F. 3d 765, 779 (1997). Recognizing a split in the Circuits on the matter, we granted certiorari. Compare United States v. Edmonds, 80 F. 3d 810, 822 (CA3 1996) (en banc) (jury must unanimously agree on which “violations” constitute the series), with United States v. Hall, 93 F. 3d 126, 129 (CA4 1996) (unanimity with respect to particular “violations” is not required), and United States v. Anderson, 39 F. 3d 331, 350-351 (CADC 1994) (same). We now conclude that unanimity in respect to each individual violation is necessary. J — t i — i Federal crimes are made up of factual elements, which are ordinarily listed in the statute that defines the crime. A (hypothetical) robbery statute, for example, that makes it a crime (1) to take (2) from a person (3) through force or the threat of force (4) property (5) belonging to a bank would have defined the crime of robbery in terms of the five elements just mentioned. Cf. 18 U. S. C. § 2113(a). Calling a particular kind of fact an “element” carries certain legal consequences. Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U. S. 224, 239 (1998). The consequence that matters for this ease is that a jury in a federal criminal case cannot convict unless it unanimously finds that the Government has proved each element. Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U. S. 356, 369-371 (1972) (Powell, J., concurring); Andres v. United States, 333 U. S. 740, 748 (1948); Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 31(a). The question before us arises because a federal jury need not always decide unanimously which of several possible sets of underlying brute facts make up a particular element, say, which of several possible means the defendant used to commit an element of the crime. Schad v. Arizona, 501 U. S. 624, 631-632 (1991) (plurality opinion); Andersen v. United States, 170 U. S. 481, 499-501 (1898). Where, for example, an element of robbery is force or the threat of force, some jurors might conclude that the defendant used a knife to create the threat; others might conclude he used a gun. But that disagreement — a disagreement about means — would not matter as long as all 12 jurors unanimously concluded that the Government had proved the necessary related element, namely, that the defendant had threatened force. See McKoy v. North Carolina, 494 U. S. 433, 449 (1990) (Blackmun, J., concurring). In this ease, we must decide whether the statute’s phrase “series of violations” refers to one element, namely a “series,” in respect to which the “violations” constitute the underlying brute facts or means, or whether those words create several elements, namely the several “violations,” in respect to each of which the jury must agree unanimously and separately. Our decision will make a difference where, as here, the Government introduces evidence that the defendant has committed more underlying drug crimes than legally necessary to make up a “series.” (We assume, but do not decide, that the necessary number is three, the number used in this case.) If the statute creates a single element, a “series,” in respect to which individual violations are but the means, then the jury need only agree that the defendant committed at least three of all the underlying crimes the Government has tried to prove. The jury need not agree about which three. On the other hand, if the statute makes each “violation” a separate element, then the jury must agree unanimously about which three crimes the defendant committed. A When interpreting a statute, we look first to the language. United States v. Wells, 519 U. S. 482, 490 (1997). In this case, that language may seem to permit either interpretation, that of the Government or of the petitioner, for the statute does not explicitly tell us whether the individual violation is an element or a means. But the language is not totally neutral. The words “violates” and “violations” are words that have a legal ring. A “violation” is not simply an act or conduct; it is an act or conduct that is contrary to law. Black’s Law Dictionary 1570 (6th ed. 1990). That circumstance is significant because the criminal law ordinarily entrusts a jury with determining whether alleged conduct “violates” the law, see infra, at 822, and, as noted above, a federal criminal jury must act unanimously when doing so. Indeed, even though the words “violates” and “violations” appear more than 1,000 times in the United States Code, the Government has not pointed us to, nor have we found, any legal source reading any instance of either word as the Government would have us read them in this case. To hold that each “violation” here amounts to a separate element is consistent with a tradition of requiring juror unanimity where the issue is whether a defendant has engaged in conduct that violates the law. To hold the contrary is not. The CCE statute’s breadth also argues against treating each individual violation as a means, for that breadth aggravates the dangers of unfairness that doing so would risk. Cf. Schad v. Arizona, supra, at 645 (plurality opinion). The statute’s word “violations” covers many different kinds of behavior of varying degrees of seriousness. The two chapters of the Federal Criminal Code setting forth drug crimes contain approximately 90 numbered sections, many of which proscribe various acts that may be alleged as “violations” for purposes of the series requirement in the statute. Compare, e. g., 21 U. S. C. §§ 842(a)(4) and (c) (1994 ed. and Supp. Ill) (providing civil penalties for removing drug labels) and 21 U. S. C. § 844(a) (Supp. Ill) (simple possession of a controlled substance) with 21 U. S. C. § 858 (endangering human life while manufacturing a controlled substance in violation of the drug laws) and § 841(b)(1)(A) (possession with intent to distribute large quantities of drugs). At the same time, the Government in a CCE case may well seek to prove that a defendant, charged as a drug kingpin, has been involved in numerous underlying violations. The first of these considerations increases the likelihood that treating violations simply as alternative means, by permitting a jury to avoid discussion of the specific factual details of each violation, will cover up wide disagreement among the jurors about just what the defendant did, or did not, do. The second consideration significantly aggravates the risk (present at least to a small degree whenever multiple means are at issue) that jurors, unless required to focus upon specific factual detail, will fail to do so, simply concluding from testimony, say, of bad reputation, that where there is smoke there must be fire. Finally, this Court has indicated that the Constitution itself limits a State’s power to define crimes in ways that would permit juries to convict while disagreeing about means, at least where that definition risks serious unfairness and lacks support in history or tradition. Schad v. Arizona, 501 U. S., at 632-633 (plurality opinion); id., at 651 (Scalia, J., concurring) (“We would not permit ... an indictment charging that the defendant assaulted either X on Tuesday or Y on Wednesday .. .”). We have no reason to believe that Congress intended to come close to, or to test, those constitutional limits when it wrote this statute. See Garrett v. United States, 471 U. S. 773, 783-784 (1985) (citing H. R. Rep. No. 91-1444, pt. 1, pp. 83-84 (1970)) (in making CCE a separate crime, rather than a sentencing provision, Congress sought increased procedural protections for defendants); cf. Gomez v. United States, 490 U. S. 858, 864 (1989) (“It is our settled policy to avoid an interpretation of a federal statute that engenders constitutional issues if a reasonable alternative interpretation poses no constitutional question”); Ashwander v. TVA, 297 U. S. 288, 346-348 (1936) (Brandéis, J., concurring). B The Government’s arguments for an interpretation of “violations” as means are not sufficiently powerful to overcome the considerations just mentioned, those of language, tradition, and potential unfairness. The Government, emphasizing the words “continuing series,” says that the statute, in seeking to punish drug kingpins, focuses upon the drug business, not upon the particular violations that constitute the business. Brief for United States 18719. The argument, however, begs the question. Linguistically speaking, the statute punishes those kingpins who are involved in a “continuing series of violations” of the drug laws. And Congress might well have intended a jury to focus upon individual violations in order to assure guilt of the serious crime the statute creates. Emphasizing the first two words in the passage does not eliminate the last. Nor can the Government successfully appeal to a history or tradition of treating individual criminal “violations” as simply means toward the commission of a greater crime. The Government virtually concedes the absence of any such tradition when it says that the statute “departed significantly from common-law models and prior drug laws, creating a new crime keyed to the concept of a ‘continuing criminal enterprise.’ ” Id., at 18. The closest analogies it cites consist of state statutes making criminal such crimes as sexual abuse of a minor. State courts interpreting such statutes have sometimes permitted jury disagreement about a “specific” underlying criminal “incident” insisting only upon proof of a “continuous course of conduct” in violation of the law. E. g., People v. Gear, 19 Cal. App. 4th 86, 89-94, 23 Cal. Rptr. 2d 261, 263-267 (1993) (continuous sexual abuse of a child); People v. Reynolds, 294 Ill. App. 3d 58, 69-71, 689 N. E. 2d 335, 343-344 (1997) (criminal sexual assault of a minor and aggravated sexual abuse of a minor); State v. Spigarolo, 210 Conn. 359, 391-392, 556 A. 2d 112, 129 (1989) (committing an act likely to impair the health or morals of a child); Soper v. State, 731 P. 2d 587, 591 (Alaska App. 1987) (sexual assault in the first degree). With one exception, see Cal. Penal Code Ann. § 288.5(a) (West Supp. 1998), the statutes do not define the statutory crime in terms that require the commission of other predicate crimes by the defendant. The state practice may well respond to special difficulties of proving individual underlying criminal acts, People v. Gear, supra, at 90-92, 23 Cal. Rptr. 2d, at 264-265, which difficulties are absent here. See infra, at 823-824. The cases are not federal but state, where this Court has not held that the Constitution imposes a jury-unanimity requirement. Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U. S., at 366 (Powell, J., concurring). And their special subject matter indicates that they represent an exception; they do not represent a general tradition or a rule. People v. Gear, supra, at 89-92, 23 Cal. Rptr. 2d, at 263-265. In fact, federal fers a competing analogy no more distant than the analogy the Government offers. See Garrett v. United States, supra, at 782 (the statute originated in a "recidivist provision . . . that provided for enhanced sentences”). If one looks to recidivism, one finds that commission of a prior crime will lead to an enhanced punishment only when a relevant factfinder, judge, or jury has found that the defendant committed that specific individual prior crime. Where sentencing is at issue, the judge, enhancing a sentence in light of recidivism, must find a prior individual conviction, United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual §§4A1.1, 4B1.1 (Nov. 1998), which means that an earlier factfinder ie. g., a unanimous federal jury in the ease of a federal crime) found that the defendant committed the specific earlier crime, §§4A1.2(a)(l), 4B1.2(c). Where a substantive statute is at issue, for example, a statute forbidding a felon’s possession of a firearm, 18 U. S. C. § 922(g) (1994 ed. and Supp. Ill), the relevant precondition, namely that the gun possessor be a felon, means at a minimum that an earlier factfinder (e. g., a unanimous federal jury in the ease of a federal crime) found that the defendant in fact committed that earlier individual crime. The Government’s interpretation is inconsistent with this practice, for it, in effect, imposes punishment on a defendant for the underlying crimes without any factfinder having found that the defendant committed those crimes. If there are federal statutes reflecting a different practice or tradition, the Government has not called them to our attention, which suggests that any such statute would represent a lesser known exception to ordinary practice. Cf. Schad v. Arizona, 501 U. S., at 633 (plurality opinion) (“[I]t is an assumption of our system of criminal justice... that no person may be punished criminally save upon proof of some specific illegal conduct”). Neither are we convinced by the Government’s two remaining significant arguments. First, the Government says that a jury-unanimity requirement will make the statute’s crime too difficult to prove — to the point where it is unreasonable to assume Congress intended such a requirement. But we do not understand why a unanimity requirement would produce that level of difficulty. After all, the Government routinely obtains the testimony of underlings— street-level dealers who could point to specific incidents — as well as the testimony of agents who make controlled buys or otherwise observe drug transactions. Such witnesses should not have inordinate difficulty pointing to specific transactions. Or, if they do have difficulty, would that difficulty in proving individual specific transactions not tend to cast doubt upon the existence of the requisite “series”? Government, argues that the prosecution will now have to prove that the defendant derived substantial income or resources from, and that five persons were involved with, the specific underlying crimes the jury unanimously agrees were committed. See post, at 830. To the extent the dissent suggests that those other statutory requirements must be satisfied with respect to each underlying crime, it is clearly wrong. Those requirements must be met with respect to the series, which, at a minimum, permits the jury to look at all of the agreed-upon violations in combination. Even if the jury were limited to the agreed-upon violations, we still fail to see why prosecutions would prove unduly difficult. The dissent writes as if it follows from its reading that conviction under the CCE statute depends on specific proof of specific sales to specific street-level users. See post, at 832. That is not true. A specific transaction is not an element of possession with intent to distribute under 21 U. S. C. §841. It would be enough to present testimony, like that of Michael Sargent partially recounted by the dissent, showing that the defendant supplied a runner in his organization with large quantities of drugs on or about particular dates as alleged in an indictment. And one need only examine Sargent’s testimony to dispel any fears about fading memories. He testified that he received from Richardson large quantities of heroin three times a week; he was able to specify the location where Richardson gave him the drugs; he was able to recall precisely how the heroin was packaged when Richardson gave it to him. Tr. 1399-1401. Though he was not pressed to be specific, he even testified that he started receiving drugs from Richardson sometime in the beginning of 1989. Id., at 1382. Given the record in this case, we find it hard to believe the Government will have as hard a time producing evidence sufficient to support a CGE conviction as the dissent suggests. Second, the statute, which requires a defendant to have supervised “five or more other persons.” 21 U. S. C. § 848(c)(2)(A). The Government says that no one claims that the jury must unanimously agree about the identity of those five other persons. It adds that the jury may also disagree about the brute facts that make up other statutory elements such as the “substantial income” that the defendant must derive from the enterprise, § 848(c)(2)(B), or the defendant’s role in the criminal organization, § 848(c)(2)(A). Assuming, without deciding, that there is no unanimity requirement in respect to these other provisions, we nonetheless find them significantly different from the provision before us. They differ in respect to language, breadth, tradition, and the other factors we have discussed. These considerations, taken together, lead us to conclude that the statute requires jury unanimity in respect to each individual “violation.” We leave to the Court of Appeals the question whether to engage in harmless-error analysis, and if so, whether the error was harmless in this case. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is vacated, case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
A
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What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an action for an estate tax refund brought by the executors of the estate of Morris Lober. In 1924 he signed an instrument conveying to himself as trustee money and stocks for the benefit of his young son. In 1929 he executed two other instruments, one for the benefit of a daughter, the other for a second son. The terms of these three instruments were the same. Lober was to handle the funds, invest and reinvest them as he deemed proper. He could accumulate and reinvest the income with the same freedom until his children reached twenty-one years of age. When twenty-one they were to be paid the accumulated income. Lober could hold the principal of each trust until the beneficiary reached twenty-five. In case he died his wife was to be trustee with the same broad powers Lober had conveyed to himself. The trusts were declared to be irrevocable, and as the case reaches us we may assume that the trust instruments gave Lober’s children a “vested interest” under state law, so that if they had died after creation of the trusts their interests would have passed to their estates. A crucial term of the trust instruments was that Lober could at any time he saw fit turn all or any part of the principal of the trusts over to his children. Thus he could at will reduce the principal or pay it all to the beneficiaries, thereby terminating any trusteeship over it. Lober died in 1942. By that time the trust property was valued at more than $125,000. The Internal Revenue Commissioner treated this as Lober’s property and included it in his gross estate. That inclusion brought this lawsuit. The Commissioner relied on §811 (d)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U. S. C. § 811 (1946 ed.). That section, so far as material here, required inclusion in a decedent’s gross estate of the value of all property that the decedent had previously transferred by trust “where the enjoyment thereof was subject at the date of his' death to any change through the exercise of a power ... to alter, amend, or revoke In Commissioner v. Holmes, 326 U. S. 480, we held that power to terminate was the equivalent of power to “alter, amend, or revoke” it, and we approved taxation of the Holmes estate on that basis. Relying on the Holmes case, the Court of Claims upheld inclusion of these trust properties in Lober’s estate. 124 Ct. Cl. 44, 108 F. Supp. 731. This was done despite the assumption that the trust conveyances gave the Lober children an indefeasible “vested interest” in the properties conveyed. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had reached a contrary result where the circumstances were substantially the same, in Hays’ Estate v. Commissioner, 181 F. 2d 169, 172-174. Because of this conflict, we granted certiorari. 345 U. S. 969. Petitioners stress a factual difference between this and the Holmes case. The Holmes trust instrument provided that if a beneficiary died before expiration of the trust his children succeeded to his interest, but if he died without children, his interest would pass to his brothers or their children. Thus the trustee had power to eliminate a contingency that might have prevented passage of a beneficiary’s interest to his heirs. Here we assume that upon death of the Lober beneficiaries their part in the trust estate would, under New York law, pass to their heirs. But we cannot agree that this difference should change the Holmes result. We pointed out in the Holmes case that § 811 (d) (2) was more concerned with “present economic benefit” than with “technical vesting of title or estates.” And the Lober beneficiaries, like the Holmes beneficiaries, were granted no “present right to immediate enjoyment of either income or principal.” The trust instrument here gave none of Lober’s children full “enjoyment” of the trust property, whether it “vested” in them or not. To get this full enjoyment they had to wait until they reached the age of twenty-five unless their father sooner gave them the money and stocks by terminating the trust under the power of change he kept to the very date of his death. This father could have given property to his children without reserving in himself any power to change the terms as to the date his gift would be wholly effective, but he did not. What we said in the Holmes case fits this situation too: “A donor who keeps so strong a hold over the actual and immediate enjoyment of what he puts beyond his own power to retake has not divested himself of that degree of control which §811 (d)(2) requires in order to avoid the tax.” Commissioner v. Holmes, supra, at 487. Affirmed. Me. Justice Douglas and Mr. Justice Jackson dissent. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
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What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice' Whittaker delivered the opinion of the Court. These federal income tax cases present questions concerning the proper and timely accrual of gross income deriving from sales of commercial installment paper by retail dealers to finance companies. The taxpayers involved in these cases are two retail automobile dealers and a house trailer dealer. All keep their books on the accrual basis. Most of their sales are “credit sales.” It- appears that they generally negotiate, consummate, and finance such sales in accordance with a common pattern. The dealer and his customer agree upon a “Cash Delivered Price” for a particular vehicle owned by. the dealer. In part payment of that price the customer makes a'down payment to the dealer in cash or “trade in,” or both. To the remaining balance of. that cash-price there is added the cost of insurance on the vehicle and a “finance charge.” The aggregate is sometimes called the “Deferred Balance.” It is evidenced and secured by an assignable or negotiable instrument retaining defeasible title to or a lien on the vehicle — ^generally on a form supplied by the finance company with which the dealer may then be doing business— and’the instrument is signed by the customer, delivered to the dealer, and made payable to him in monthly installments over an agreed period- — one to three years on automobiles and three to five years on Rouse trailers. Thereupon, the dealer delivers the vehicle to his customer, with such memoranda or bill of sale as will enable him to register, license and úse it. Soon after completion of these procedures, these" dealers sell (discount) those instruments (hereafter called “installment paper”) to finance companies for an agreed or formula fixed price, and the dealers guarantee payment, in whole or in part, of the installment paper. Under contracts between the respective dealers and finance companies here concerned, the latter, upon receipt and acceptance of installment paper, are. obligated to pay immediately to the dealers a major percentage.of the purchase price, but they are thereby also authorized to retain the remaining percentage of the price and to credit it on their book's to a “Dealers Reserve Account” in the name of the particular dealer, for the purpose of securing performance by him of his guarantor, endorser, and other liabilities to the finance company. The dealers involved in...these cases recorded on their books in the years the installment paper was sold, and included in their income tax returns for those years, the cash received from the finance companies, but they did not accrue on their books or include in their returns the percentage of the price that was retained by the finance companies and credited to their reserve',accounts. The Commissioner contends that in the year of their sales of installment paper to the.finance companies, the taxpayers acquired a fixed right to receive — even though not until a later.year — the percentage of the purchase money that was retained by the. finance companies and •credited on their books to the dealers’ reserve accounts in that year, and, hence, those amounts constituted accrued income to the taxpayers in that year, and should have been accrued on their books and included in their returns for that year. The taxpayers, on the other hand,- contend that the amounts so retained and credited were.never under or'subject to their control, and were always subject to such- contingent liabilities of the taxpayers to the finance companies that it could not have been known, in the year of-the-sales, how much, if any, of the'reserves, would actually be received-by them in cash, and hence they did not acquire, in the year of any of the sales, a fixed right to receive — in a later year or at any,time — the amounts credited, to them in the reserves, and, therefore, the reserves did not constitute accrued income to them. This presents, in essence, the issue- for decision in these cases.- On the grounds stated, the Commissioner proposed assessment. of income tax deficiencies, for certain years against the respective taxpayers here involved. The taxpayers eanh petitioned the Tax Court for a redetermina-' tion'. After hearings, the Tax Court sustained the Commissioner in each case. The taxpayers petitioned :for review. In No. 380, the Hansen case, the Ninth Circuit reversed, 258 F. 2d 585; in No. 381, the Glover case, the Eighth Circuit reversed, 253 F. 2d 735; and in No. 512, the Baird case; the Seventh Circuit affirmed, 256 F. 2d 918. Because of an asserted conflict between those circuits in these cases, and between other circuits on the question involved, and because of the importance of the question to the proper administration of the revenue laws, we granted certiorari in all three cases: Inasftiuch as these cases turn on the same issue, and the Hañéen and Glover cases were consolidated for.argument and argued together in this Court, and the Baird cSse was argued immediately following, it will be convenient to decide the three cases in one opinion. Although the relevant facts in the three cases are very similar and follow the pattern just explained, there- are variations which we think should be set forth. Respondents in No. 380, John R. Hansen and Shirley G. Hansen, are husband and wife and filed joint federal income tax returns for the taxable years 1951, 1952 and 1953 here involved.. During those years, John R. Hansen (“taxpayer”), was a motorcar dealer in Bellevue, Washington, and kept his books on the accrual basis. He frequently sold automobiles on “time payments.” The taxpayer was not bound by any contract to sell his installment paper, but because of his needs for operating capital he consistently sold it to General Motors Acceptance Corporation (“GMAC”). Although before selling installment paper to GMAC the taxpayer did not have an express contract with that company concerning the terms and conditions of such sales and purchases, he had received its manual covering its policies on those subjects and apparently acted under them. That manual was not put in evidence, but it is intimated in the evidence and findings and stated in the briefs, without contradiction, that it contained provisions to the effect that upon receipt and acceptance of a duly assigned conditional sale contract guaranteed by the dealer, GMAC would pay to the dealer the major percentage (not specified in the evidence or findings) of the agreed price therefor, but would retain the remaining percentage of the price and credit the same on its books to a “Dealers Reserve Account” in the name of the dealer, as security for performance of his obligations to GMAC under his guaranty of payment of the installment paper and for the payment of any other obligation which he might incur to GMAC. Once in each year GMAC would remit to the dealer so much of his accumulated reserve as exceeded 5% of the then aggregate unpaid balances on installment paper which GMAC had purchased from the dealer. Upon negotiating a time sale of an automobile and receiving the down payment and any other sum immediately payable, the taxpayer prepared, on forms supplied by GMAC, a conditional sale contract setting forth a compilation of the figures, including insurance and a finance charge, involved in the time sale and concluding with a statement of the “Time (Deferred) Balance” which was payable at the office of GMAC in fixed monthly installments. When.the customer signed and delivered to the taxpayer the conditional sale contract, the automobile was delivered to the customer and, as recited in that contract, he acknowledged “delivery and acceptance of [it] in good order.” It was the taxpayer’s consistent practice immediately thereafter to assign the conditional sale contract (and guarantee its payment) to GMAC by executing the form of assignment printed at the foot of the form and forwarding it to GMAC for purchase. Upon receipt and acceptanee of the conditional sale contract and assignment, GMAC remitted to the taxpayer the major percentage' of the price it was to pay therefor, but retained the. remaining percentage and credited it on its books to a “Dealers Reserve Account” in the name of the taxpayer, for the purpose of securing performance by him of his obligations to GMAC. - The taxpayer recorded, on his books in the year such installment paper was sold, and included in his income tax return, for that year, the cash received from GMAC, but he did not accrue on his books, or include in his return, the percentage of the price that was retained by GMAC and credited to his reserve account. The Commissioner proposed the assessment of deficiencies in income taxes against the taxpayer and his wife for the years involved upon the grounds earlier stated. The taxpayer sought a redetermination in the Tax Court which, after hearing, sustained the Commissioner, but on taxpayers petition for review the Ninth Circuit reversed, 258 F. 2d 585, and we granted certiorari for the reasons already stated, 358 U. S. 879. Respondent in No. 381, Burl P. Glover (“taxpayer”), during the years 1949, 1950 and 1951 here inyolved, was a motorcar dealer in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and kept his books and filed his income tax returns on a calendar year accrual basis. He frequently sold automobiles on time payments, the unpaid balance of the purchase price of each automobile, including insurance and a finance charge, being evidenced by the customer’s promissory note' payable to the dealer, or his order, in monthly installments over a fixed period, and. secured by a chattel mortgage on the automobile. Before the note and mortgage sales transactions here involved, the taxpayer signed a letter addressed to Universal C. I. T. Credit Corporation (obviously written on a form prepared by the addressee) proposing to sell to Universal C. I. T. Credit Corporation (“C. I. T.”) such of his notes and mortgages as he chose to sell and as were “acceptable to” C. I. T., and agreeing, among other things, to endorse with “full recourse” certain of the notes accepted and purchased by C. I. T., and to purchase from C. I. T. any automobile that it repossessed or recovered under a note and mortgage bought from him, at a cash price, payable on demand, equal to the then unpaid balance of the note and mortgage, or, failing in that obligation, to pay to C. I. T. the amount of any loss incurred by it in selling such repossessed automobile. The letter also stated that the provisions for “reserves as outlined in [C. I. T.’s] reserve arrangement effective at the time paper [was] purchased by [it],” would apply to such sales, and that 3 times in each 12-month period, if-the dealer was not then indebted" to C. I. T., the latter would pay to the dealer so much of his reserves as exceeded 3% of' the then aggregate unpaid balances on paper purchased from the dealer. Upon consummating a time sale of an automobile with his customer in the manner stated, the taxpayer delivered the automobile to his customer, along with a bill of sale, subject to the mortgage, which enabled the customer to register, license and use it. Soon afterward the taxpayer, pursuant to his letter to C. I. T. just referred to, endorsed the note (and assigned the mortgage) to C. I. T., in some cases without recourse' and in others with full recourse, and forwarded the same to C. I. T. for purchase. Upon receipt and acceptance of the note and mortgage, C. I. T. remitted to the taxpayer the. major percentage (not specified in the evidence or findings) of the agreed price, therefor, but retained the remaining percentage and credited.it on its books- to a “Dealers Reserve Account” in the -name of the taxpayer, for the purpose of securing performance -by him of his obligations to C. I. T. As in the Hansen case, the taxpayer recorded on his books in the year the installment paper was sold, and included in his income tax return for that year, the cash received from C. I. T., but he did not accrue on his books, or include in his return, the percentage of the price that was retained by C. I. T. and credited to his reserve account. And, as in the Hansen case, the Commissioner proposed the assessment of deficiencies in income taxes against the taxpayer for the years involved upon the grounds earlier stated. The taxpayer sought a redetermination in the Tax Court which, after hearing, sustained the Commissioner, but, on the taxpayer’s petition for review, the Eighth Circuit reversed, 253 F. 2d 735, and we granted certiorari for the reasons already stated, 358 U. S. 879. Petitioners in No. 512, Clifton E. Baird and Violet L,. Baird (“taxpayers”), are husband and wife and, during the years 1952, 1953 and 1954 here involved, they were also. partners in, a firm known as “Baird Trailer Sales” (“the partnership”) which was engaged primarily in'selling house trailers at Salem, Indiana. The partnership kept its books and filed its partnership (informational) income tax returns on a fiscal year accrual basis, but the taxpayers kept their personal books, and filed their returns, on a calendar year cash basis. During the years involved the partnership sold many of its trailers on “the installment basis,” the unpaid purchase price of each trailer being evidenced and secured by an assignable or negotiable instrument, retaining in the partnership defeasible title to or a lien on the trailer, signed by the customer, delivered to the partnership, and payable to it in monthly installments over an agreed period. The partnership was not legally obligated to sell its installment paper but its limited operating capital made it necessary, as a practical matter, to do so. Prior to the transactions here involved the partnership entered into contracts, with Minnehoma Financial Company (“Minnehoma”), of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Michigan National Bank, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Midland Discount Corporation (“Midland”), of Cincinnati, Ohio, providing for the sale and purchase of such of the partnership’s installment paper as it offered for sale and as those companies were willing to buy, and throughout the years in question the partnership sold installment paper to each of those companies under those contracts. It was provided in the Minnehoma contract that the partnership, among other liabilities assumed by it to Minnehoma, would unconditionally' guarantee payment when due of all sums called for by any installment paper purchased from it, and, that Minnehoma, upon receipt and acceptance of such installment paper, would remit to the partnership 95% of the agreed price to be paid therefor, but would retain the remaining 5% of the price and.credit it (and also, if it wished, a portion of the “finance charge”) tó a reserve account on its books in the name of the partnership, as security for performance of all endorser, guarantor, and other liabilities- of the partnership to Minnehoma. Under an oral contract with Michigan National Bank, the bank agreed that, upon receipt and acceptance of installment paper endorsed by the partnership with full recourse, it would immediately pay to the partnership a percentage (not specified in the evidence or findings) of the price to be paid therefor, but that the remaining percentage of the price would be retained and credited to a “reserve account” in the bank in the name of the partnership. That reserve account was contemporaneously assigned to the bank by the partnership under the “collateral assignment” shown in the margin. The contract with Midland was evidenced by two letters. In essence they stated that upon receipt and acceptance of installment paper, endorsed by the partnership with full recourse, Midland would “advance” 97% of the price to be paid therefor if on new trailers and 95% of the price if on used trailers, and that the “differentials of 3% and 5%” would be retained and credited on Midland’s books to a reserve account in the name of the partnership, for the purpose of securing performance of its obligations to Midland. They also stated that, when a particular note has been' paid out, the amount credited to the reserve" on account of that note would be immediately paid to the dealer, and that when the “reserve fund exceeds 10% of [the partnership’s] outstandings, the excess will be paid [to the partnership] automatically.” Here, as in the Hansen and Glover cases, the partnership did not accrue on its books, and the taxpayers did not include in their individual returns, in any of the years here involved, the amounts that were retained by Minnehoma, Michigan National Bank and Midland and credited on their respective books to the partnership’s reserve accounts, and, again, as in the Hansen and Glover cases, the Commissioner proposed assessment against the taxpayers of deficiencies in income taxes, for the years involved upon the grounds previously stated. Similarly, the taxpayers sought a redetermination in the Tax Court which, after hearing, sustained the Commissioner. On the taxpayers’ petition for review, the Seventh Circuit affirmed, 256 F. 2d 918, and we granted certiorari for the reasons already stated, 358 U. S. 918. We turn, first, to the taxpayers’ contention that, in substance, the purchaser, not the dealer, obtains the loan directly from a finance company, and that the percentage of the loan which is retained by the finance company— although credited on its books to a reserve account in the name of the dealer as collateral security for the payment of his liabilities to the finance company — is the property of the purchaser of the vehicle, not the dealer, and therefore may not be regarded as accrued income to the dealer. The basis óf the contention (filling in the omitted but necessarily involved steps) is that each of these- transactions is a single, “three-cornered” one between the dealer, the finance company and the purchaser; that, in substance, the dealer agrees to sell the vehicle.to the purchaser for “a down payment plus cash” (the term “cash” as here used must necessarily refer to the unpaid balance of the. purchase price); that the purchaser agrees immediately to obtain from the finance company, and it agrees -to make to the purchaser, a loan, on the security of the vehicle, in an amount at least equal to the unpaid balance of the purchase price owing by the purchaser to the dealer for the vehicle; and that the purchaser agrees immediately to pay, or to direct 4he finance company to pay, to the dealer, out of the proceeds of the loan, an amount equal to 95% (in most instances) of the unpaid balance of the purchase price owing by the purchaser to the dealer for the vehicle. Although this leaves an unpaid balance of the purchase price of the vehicle (5% in most instances) still owing by the purchaser to the dealer, it also leayes in possession of the finance company, out of the proceeds of the loan, an amount at least equal to that 5%. Nevertheless the purchaser, with the consent of the dealer, agrees with the finance company that the latter shall retain that 5% and credit it on its books to a reserve account in the name of the dealer, as collateral security for the payment of his contingent liabilities to the finance company. On these assumptions of fact the taxpayers contend that the, reserves retained, by the finance companies, though credited on their books to the dealers’ reserve accounts, are only contingently so credited and are subject to cancellation if the purchaser fails.to pay out his loan and, at all events, the reserves belong to the purchasers, and should not be regarded as accrued income of the dealers. The Ninth Circuit in the Hansen case, heavily relying upon the opinion of the Fifth Circuit in Texas Trailercoach, Inc., v. Commissioner, 251 F. 2d 395, adopted this theory and largely rested its decision upon that ground, 258 F. 2d, at 588, and, to a lesser extent, so did the Eighth Circuit in the Glover case, 253 F. 2d, at 737. The taxpayers contend here that such is the substance, if hot the form, of their' transactions and that, inasmuch as taxation depends on substance and not on form, the Hansen and Glover cases should be affirmed and the Baird case should be reversed on this ground alone. We agree, of course, that the incidence of taxation depends upon the substance, not the form, of the transaction, Commissioner v. Court Holding Co., 324 U. S. 331, 334; Helvering v. F. & R. Lazarus & Co., 308 U. S. 252, 255; Bowers v. Kerbaugh-Empire Co., 271 U. S. 170, 174; Weiss v. Stearn, 265 U. S. 242, 254; United States v. Phellis, 257 U. S. 156, 168, but we think that the taxpayers have assumed facts which are contrary to the records and are wholly without substance. These records clearly show that, in every instance, the installment paper was executed by. the purchaser and made payable to the dealer (though in the Hansen case' “at the office of” GMAC, and in the Baird case “at the office of” Minnehoma), and that the same was later assigned or endorsed by the dealer and sent to the finance company for purchase, under and subject to the dealer’s contractually assumed contingent liabilities to the finance company respecting it, and that, in every instance, the finance company, upon receipt and acceptance of the installment paper and of the dealer’s obligations respecting it, immediately paid to the dealer a major percentage of the agreed or formula fixed price for the paper; but, pursuant to the terms of the dealer’s contract with the finance company, the latter retained the remaining percentage of the price and credited it on its books to the dealer’s reserve account, as collateral security for the payment of his contingent liabilities to the finance company on. such installment paper. It is therefore clear that the retained percentages of the purchase price of the installment paper, from the time they were entered on the books of the finance companies as liabilities to the respective dealers, were vested in and belonged to the respective dealers, subject only to their several pledges thereof to the respective finance companies as collateral security for the payment of their then contingent liabilities to the finance companies. This brings us to the question whether amounts of purchase price withheld by finance companies as security to cover possible losses on installment paper purchased from dealers, who employ the accrual method of accounting, constitute income to them at the time the withheld amounts are recorded on the books of the finance companies as liabilities to the dealers. The principles governing the accrual and reporting of income by taxpayers who employ the accrual basis have long been settled by the opinions of this Court, Security Flour Mills Co. v. Commissioner, 321 U. S. 281; Spring City Foundry Co. v. Commissioner, 292 U. S. 182, 184; Brown v. Helvering, 291 U. S. 193, 199. In Spring City Foundry Co. v. Commissioner, supra, Chief Justice Hughes, speaking for the Court, said: “Keeping accounts and making returns on the accrual basis, as distinguished from the cash basis, import that it is the right to receive and not the actual receipt that determines the inclusion of the amount in gross income. When the right to receive an amount becomes fixed, the right accrues.” 292 U. S., at 184-185. Those principles are not questioned here, but the parties differ respecting their application to the facts of these cases. The taxpayers contend, first, that they cannot presently compel the finance companies to pay to them the amounts of their reserve accounts, and therefore they have not acquired a presently enforcible right to recover those reserves, and, hence, they should.not be deemed to constitute accrued income to them. Inasmuch as these records show that the pay-out period for automobiles varies from 12 to 36 months and for house trailers from 36 to 60 months, it is doubtless true that the taxpayers, having pledged their reserve accounts to the finance companies as collateral security, cannot presently compel the finance companies, to pay over their reserves. But the question is not whether the taxpayers can presently recover their reserves, for, as stated, it is the time of acquisition of the fixed right to receive the reserves and not the time of their actual receipt that determines whether or not the reserves have accrued and are taxable. The taxpayers next contend that the amounts that were retained by the finance companies and entered on their books as liabilities to the dealers under their reserve accounts, were subject to such contingencies that it could not have been known, in the year of such retentions and credits, what amount of those reserves would.actually be received by them and, hence, they did not acquire, in the year of such retentions and credits, a fixed right to receive: — in a later year or at any time — rthe amounts so withheld and credited to them, and therefore those amounts did not constitute accrued income to them. It is true that the amounts retained by any one of the finance companies, and entered on its books as a liability to a particular dealer, are subject to such liabilities as the dealer may have contractually assumed to the finance company, but only the obligations of the dealer to the finance company arising from those liabilities may be- offset against a like amount in.the dealer’s reserve account.'Hence, those liabilities and obligations provide the only conditions that can affect- full cash payment to the-dealer of his reserve account. No amount may be charged by the finance company against the dealer’s reserve’account which he has not thus authorized. It follows that only one or the other of two things can happen to the dealer’s reserve account: (1) the finance company is bound to pay the full amount to the dealer in cash, or (2) if the dealer has incurred -obligations to the finance company under his giiaranty, endorsement, or contract of sale, of the installment paper, the finance company may apply so much’of the reserve as is necessary to discharge.those' obligations, and is bound to pay the remainder to the dealer in cash. Does the dealer- “receive” funds which are so taken from his reserve account and applied-to the payment of his obligations to the finance company? The dealer agreed in his contract with the finance company to receive his reserve in offset payment of- his obligations to the finance company and the balance in cash. ■ It would therefore seem that funds in the dealer’s reserve which are applied to the payment of his obligations to the finance company are as much “received” by him as those which the finance company pays to him in cash. The Seventh Circuit took that view in the Baird case, saying: “Ultimately only two things could happen to the funds in the dealer’s reserve accounts: either the amounts would be paid to the partnership in cash or they would be used to satisfy the partnership’s other obligations to the finance companies.” 256 F. 2d, at 924. In any realistic view we think that the dealer has “received” his reserve account whether it is applied, as he authorized, to the payment of his obligations to the finance company, or is paid to him in cash. It follows that the amounts (of purchase price of the installment paper) that were withheld by the finance companies constituted accrued income to these accrual basis dealers at the time the withheld amounts were entered on the books of the finance companies as liabilities to the dealers, for at that time the dealers acquired a fixed right to receive the amounts so retained by the finance companies. The taxpayers complain that such a holding will unfairly require them to pay taxes upon funds which are not available to them for that purpose. Though the funds are not presently available to the taxpayers for the payment of taxes, they are nevertheless owned by the taxpayers, and the latter cannot expect to collateralize their liabilities, for periods running, from 1 to 5 years, by the use of their accrued but untaxed funds. Moreover, it is a normal result of the accrual basis of accounting and reporting that taxes frequently must be paid on accrued funds before receipt of the cash with which to pay.them, just as the Ninth Circuit stated in the Hansen case, 258 F. 2d, at 587. See Security Flour Mills Co. v. Commissioner, 321 U. S. 281, 284-285. To permit accrual basis taxpayers to escape accrual and taxation, in a particular year, of such portions of their sales as they may permit to be retained by buyers, as collateral security, well might violate § 42 (a) of the. 1939 Internal Revenue Code as amended, and, moreover, might well afford opportunities to accrual basis taxpayers to allocate income, to years deemed most advantageous. The Commissioner has broad powers in determining whether accounting methods used by a taxpayer clearly reflect' income, Lucas v. American Code Co., 280 U. S. 445, 449; Automobile Club of Michigan v. Commissioner, 353 U. S. 180, 189-190, and under § 41 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, 26 U. S. C. (1952 ed.) § 41, the Commissioner, believing that the accounting method employed by a taxpayer. “does not clearly reflect the income,” may require that “.computation shall be made in accordance with such method as in [his] opinion... does clearly reflect the income.” Since 1931 the Internal Revenue Service has consistently maintained that amounts withheld by finance companies to cover possible losses on notes purchased from dealers constitute income to dealers, who employ the accrual method of accounting, from the time the amounts are recorded on the books of the finance companies as liabilities to the dealers. That position, in general, accords with our view. The taxpayers have argued that portions of the Dealers Reserve Accounts consist of percentages of “finance charges” which the finance companies agreed to allow them, and that such percentages of the “finance charges,” not being a part of the purchase price of the installment paper, should in no event be regarded as accrued income to the dealers. However,- the respective taxpayers, each of whom had the burden of showing that he did not owe the taxes which the Commissioner proposed to' assess against him, wholly failed to adduce evidence to support their claims. They failed even to adduce evidence showing whether any percentages of the “finance charges” that may have been allowed to them by the respective finance companies were entered oh the books of the fipance companies as credits. to the respective “Dealers Reserve Accounts,” and if so> whether such.percentages of the “finance charges” so credited had been identified and separated in-.character and amount from the percentages of the purchase price of the installment paper that were retained by the finance companies and entered on their books as liabilities to the dealers in their respective Dealers Reserve Accounts. For these reasons the respective taxpayers have wholly failed to sustain the burden of showing that any part of the amounts credited on the books of the finance companies to the respective Dealers Reserve Accounts was entitled to special treatment. The judgments in No. 380 and No. 381 are reversed and the judgment in No. 512 is affirmed. Mr. Justice Douglas dissents. Mr. Justice Black took no part in the consideration or decision of these cases. The Sixth Circuit in Schaeffer v. Commissioner, 258 F. 2d 861, sustained the Commissioner’s position. Also the Tax Court since Shoemaker-Nash, Inc., v. Commissioner, 41 B. T. A. 417 (1940), has by a long line of decisions consistently sustained the Commissioner’s position. On the. other hand the Fourth Circuit has sustained the taxpayers’ position in Johnson v. Commissioner, 233 F. 2d 952. And the Fifth Circuit has sustained the taxpayers’ position in Texas Trailercoach, Inc., v. Commissioner, 251 F. 2d 395, West Pontiac, Inc., v. Commissioner, 257 F. 2d 810, and in several judgments (without opinions) entered on- stipulations specifically presenting anew the same issue which that court had decided in Texas Trailercoach, Inc., v. Commissioner, supra. In entering those judgments (in United States v. Hines Pontiac, 2 P-H Fed. Tax Rep. 2d 5694, United States v. Modern Olds, Inc., 2 P-H Fed. Tax Rep. 2d 5713, and Kilborn v. Commissioner, 2 P-H Fed. Tax Rep. 2d 5812), the Fifth Circuit adhered to its decision in Texas Trailercoach, Inc., v. Commissioner, supra. At the very beginning of the form there is a recital that “The undersigned seller, [the dealer] hereby sells, and the undersigned purchaser or purchasers, jointly and severally, hereby purehase(s), subject to the terms and conditions hereinafter' set forth, the following property, delivery and acceptance of which in good order are hereby acknowledged.by purchaser,” and then follows a detailed description of the automobile, and a coniputation of the amounts which support the “Time (Deferred) Balance” that is payable by the purchaser in monthly installments. The reverse side of the form recites that “[f]or the purpose'of securing payment of the obligation héreunder, seller reserves title, and shall have a. security interest, in said property until said amount is fully paid in 'cash.” It then goes on'to specify the various conditions to be observed by the purchaser, which are' usually found in conditional sale contracts. That assignment, so far as pertinent, provides: “For vahie received, undersigned [the dealer] does hereby sell, ■assign and transfer to the General Motors Acceptance Corporation his... right, title and interest in and to-the within contract, herewith submitted for.purchase by it, and the property covered thereby and authorizes said General Motors Acceptance Corporation to do every act and thing necessary to collect and discharge the same. “In consideration of your purchase of the within contract, under-. signed [the dealer] guarantees payment of the full amount remaining unpaid hereon, and covenants if default be made in payment of any instalment herein to pay the ful[ amount then unpaid to General Motors Acceptance Corporation upon demands...” This record does not contain C. I. T.’s “reserve arrangement.” The pertinent parts of the taxpayer’s letter, referred to in the text, may be more fully summarized as follows: C. I. T. was to buy from the taxpayer such of his notes and mortgages as he chose to sell and as were “acceptable to” C. I. T. Some of the notes and mortgages were to be endorsed by the dealer to C. I. T. without recourse, but “paper covering commercial cars used for long distance hauling, commercial ears of more than two tons capacity, busses, cars used for taxi, jitney, ‘drive-yourself’ service, or cars sold to relatives or employees” was to bear the dealer’s “full recourse endorsement.” ' Provisions for “reserves as outlined in [C. I. T.’s] reserve arrangement effective at the time paper [was] purchased by [it],” were to be applicable to such sales, but as earlier observed this record does not contain C. I. T.’s “reserve arrangement.” Three times in each i2-month period, if the dealer was not then indebted to C. I. T-., the latter would pay to the dealer his “accumulated reserves in excess of 3% of the then aggregate unpaid balances oh paper purchased from [him],” but if C. I. T. stopped buying installment paper from the dealer the former was authorized to “hold and apply all reserves until liquidation of all paper purchased from [the dealer was] completed.” The taxpayer was to purchase from C. I. T. “each repossessed or recovered car tendered at [the- dealer’s] place of business within 90 days after maturity of the earliest instalment still unpaid,” at a price, payable on demand, equal to “the unpaid balance due on the car,” or, if the dealer failed to do so, he was to pay to C. I. T. the amount of “any deficiency incurred by [C. I. T.] in the resale of such repossessed cars. '...” If because of prepayment of a note Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
L
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. This case requires us to consider whether the United States Postal Service is subject to liability under the federal antitrust laws. Flamingo Industries (USA) Ltd., a private corporation, and its owner and principal officer are the respondents here. Flamingo had been making mail sacks for the Postal Service, but then its contract was terminated. The respondents sued in United States District Court alleging that the Postal Service had sought to suppress competition and create a monopoly in mail sack production. (They also brought claims against the Postal Service under federal procurement law and state law, but those claims are not before us.) The Dis-triet Court dismissed the antitrust claims, concluding that the Postal Service is not subject to liability under federal antitrust law. The Court of Appeals reversed. It held that the Postal Service can be liable but that it has a limited immunity from antitrust liability for conduct undertaken at the command of Congress. 302 F. 3d 985, 993 (CA9 2002). We granted certiorari to consider the question whether the United States Postal Service is a “person” amenable to suit under the controlling antitrust statute. 538 U. S. 1056 (2003). We hold it is not subject to antitrust liability, and we reverse. After the Revolution, both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution explicitly empowered the National Government to provide and regulate postal services. Article of Confederation IX; U. S. Const., Art. I, § 8. The importance of the enterprise was prefigured by the Continental Congress’ appointment of Benjamin Franklin to be the first Postmaster General, on July 26, 1775. G. Cullinan, The United States Postal Service 26 (1973) (hereinafter Cullinan). From those beginnings, the Postal Service has become “the nation’s oldest and largest public business.” J. Tierney, Postal Reorganization: Managing the Public’s Business vii (1981) (hereinafter Tierney). During its history since Postmaster Franklin, the postal organization has been reorganized or restructured at various times. In the immediate period after ratification of the Constitution, it was called the General Post Office and was subordinate to the Treasury Department. Cullinan 35-36. In 1825, its name changed from the General Post Office to the Post Office Department, an alteration accomplished by somewhat informal means when Postmaster Joseph McLean simply changed the title on official letterhead. McLean also began the practice of reporting directly to the President rather than to the Secretary of the Treasury. Id., at 50-51. (McLean was a popular Postmaster who served from 1823 until 1829, when the incoming President Andrew Jackson solved his worries about McLean’s independence in matters of postal governance, especially patronage, by appointing him to this Court. Id., at 52.) In 1829, President Jackson acknowledged the enhanced status of the Postmaster General by making him a member of the Cabinet, though it was not until 1872 that Congress formally recognized the Post Office Department as an executive department of the Federal Government. Id., at 36. A more complete account of the origins and mission of the postal system is set forth in Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Assns., 453 U. S. 114, 120-126 (1981). Major change came with the Postal Reorganization 1970 (PRA), 39 U. S. C. § 101 et seq. It was adopted to increase the efficiency of the Postal Service and reduce political influences on its operations. Tierney 1-26; Cullinan 5-10. The PRA renames the Post Office Department the United States Postal Service and removes it from the Cabinet to make it “an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States.” 39 U. S. C. § 201. Superintendence over the new Postal Service is the responsibility of a Board of Governors, consisting of 11 members. §202. Nine governors are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate and are removable only for cause. Ibid. The other two governors are the Postmaster General, who also serves as the chief executive officer of the Postal Service, and who is appointed by the other nine, and the Deputy Postmaster General, who is appointed by the other nine together with the Postmaster General. Ibid. The PRA creates a second independent establishment, the Postal Rate Commission, to make recommendations on postal rate changes. §3601. The Commission advises the Board of Governors on rates for all postal services, including both letter carriage and parcel delivery. §3621. Rates are set by the Board of Governors based on the recommendations of the Commission, and those decisions are in certain circumstances subject to judicial review. §§3625,3628. In making rate recommendations the Commission must consider factors including making each class of mail bear the costs attributable to it, and the effect of rate increases on the mail-using public and on competitors in the parcel delivery business. § 3622(b). Under the PRA, the Postal Service retains its monopoly over the carriage of letters, and the power to authorize postal inspectors to search for, seize, and forfeit mail matter transported in violation of the monopoly. See §§601-606. It also retains the obligation to provide universal service to all parts of the country. §§101, 403. The Postal Service has the power of eminent domain, the power to make postal regulations, and the power to enter international postal agreements subject to the supervision of the Secretary of State. §§401,407. It has, in addition, powers to contract, to acquire property, and to settle claims. §401. As this brief summary indicates, the Postal Service has significant governmental powers, consistent with its status as an independent establishment of the Executive Branch. It was exempted from many, though not all, statutes governing federal agencies, and specifically subjected to some others. §§409-410. With respect to antitrust liability, however, the PRA neither exempts the Postal Service nor subjects it to liability by express mention. It is silent on the point. The PRA waives the immunity of the Postal Service from suit by giving it the power “to sue and be sued in its official name.” §401. The first question we address is whether that waiver suffices by its own terms to subject the Postal Service to liability under the Sherman Act, ch. 647, 26 Stat. 209, as amended, 15 U. S. C. § 1 et seq. We begin with a discussion of our precedents bearing on the inquiry. This Court has held that when Congress passes enabling legislation allowing an agency or other entity of the Federal Government to be sued the waiver should be given a liberal — that is to say, expansive — construction. Federal Housing Administration v. Burr, 309 U. S. 242 (1940). In support of its holding in Burr the Court, in a passage often cited in later cases involving the waiver of sovereign immunity, wrote as follows: “[I]t must be presumed that when Congress launched a governmental agency into the commercial world and endowed it with authority to ‘sue or be sued,’ that agency is not less amenable to judicial process than a private enterprise under like circumstances would be.” Id., at 245. This general proposition was cited in the first two cases in which the Court considered the extent of the waiver effected by the sue-and-be-sued clause of the PRA. In Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. v. Postal Service, 467 U. S. 512 (1984), the underlying dispute concerned the obligation of the Postal Service to withhold unpaid state taxes from the wages of its employees. A unanimous Court held that the Postal Service was required to respond to an order to withhold the amounts, even though the process was a state administrative tax levy, not an order issued by a state court. Id., at 525. The sue- and-be-sued clause, the Court held, must be given broad effect, and the Postal Service was required to respond to the administrative order even though it had not been issued by a judicial body. Id., at 519-521. The second case in which the Court considered the scope of the waiver effected by the PRA’s sue-and-be-sued clause was Loeffler v. Frank, 486 U. S. 549 (1988). After the Postal Service had been found liable for damages from employment discrimination in an action brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the question arose whether it was subject as well to prejudgment interest. Id., at 551. The Court allowed the interest, and in the course of its decision asserted, or repeated, formulations which indicate that the sue-and-be-sued clause effects a broad waiver of immunity. Id., at 554-555. The Court also relied, however, upon the provisions of Title VII itself which, by specific amendment, extended the coverage under the Civil Rights Act to federal employees. Id., at 558-561. After Loeffler, this Court decided FDIC v. Meyer, 510 U. S. 471, 484 (1994). In Meyer, the question was whether the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), an agency of the United States, could be held liable in a so-called “Bivens action.” See Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S. 388 (1971). A federal statute provided for a waiver of sovereign immunity in suits against the FSLIC, but the Court explained that the interpretation of the waiver statute was just the initial part of a two-part inquiry. Even though sovereign immunity had been waived, there was the further, separate question whether the agency was subject to the substantive liability recognized in Bivens. Meyer, supra, at 483. The Loeffler Court had not set forth the two-step analysis in the explicit terms Meyer used, but it did, as we have said, consult the statute as the source of the liability upon which the obligation to pay prejudgment interest depended. The two-step analysis in Meyer applies here. We ask first whether there is a waiver of sovereign immunity for actions against the Postal Service. If there is, we ask the second question, which is whether the substantive prohibitions Of the Sherman Act apply to an independent establishment of the Executive Branch of the United States. When the Court of Appeals considered the instant case, it cited Meyer and seemed at the outset to follow Meyer’s, two-step analysis. In our view, however, the ensuing discussion in the Court of Appeals’ opinion was not consistent with the Meyer framework; for, having found that the Postal Service’s immunity from suit is waived to the extent provided by the statutory sue-and-be-sued clause, the Court of Appeals relied on the same waiver to conclude that the Sherman Act applies to the Postal Service. This conflated the two steps and resulted in an erroneous conclusion. See Meyer, supra, at 484. As to the first step, as an of the executive branch of the Government of the United States,” 39 U. S. C. § 201, the Postal Service is part of the Government and that status indicates immunity unless there is a waiver. The sue-and-bé-sued clause waives immunity, and makes the Postal Service amenable to suit, as well as to the incidents of judicial process. § 401. See Meyer, supra, at 482; Loeffler, supra, at 565; Franchise Tax Bd., supra, at 525. While Congress waived the immunity of the Postal Service, Congress did not strip it of its governmental status. The distinction is important. An absence of immunity does not result in liability if the substantive law in question is not intended to reach the federal entity. So we proceed to Meyer’s second step to determine if the substantive antitrust liability defined by the statute extends to the Postal Service. Under Meyer’s second step, we must look to the statute. Some years before Meyer was decided, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recognized the two distinct inquiries required when the question is whether the Government, or an entity it owns, is named as a defendant in a suit under the antitrust laws. Sea-Land Serv., Inc. v. Alaska R. Co., 659 F. 2d 243, 245 (1981) (R. Ginsburg, J.). That is the correct approach. Upon examining the Sherman Act, our decisions interpreting it, and the statutes that create and organize the Postal Service, we conclude that the Postal Service is not subject to antitrust liability. The Sherman Act imposes liability on any “person.” It defines the word. It provides that “‘person* . . . shall be deemed to include corporations and associations existing under or authorized by the laws of either the United States [or of States or foreign governments].” 15 U. S. C. §7. It follows then, that corporate or governmental status in most instances is not a bar to the imposition of liability on an entity as a “person” under the Act. The federal prohibition, for instance, binds state governmental bodies. See Georgia v. Evans, 316 U. S. 159 (1942); see also Pfizer Inc. v. Government of India, 434 U. S. 308 (1978). It is otherwise, however, when liability is pursued against the Federal Government. The Court made this proposition clear in United States v. Cooper Corp., 312 U. S. 600, 614 (1941). The question in Cooper was whether, under the Sherman Act, the United States was a person who could bring a treble-damages claim for its own alleged antitrust injury. The Court held the United States could not sue for antitrust damages because it is not a person under the antitrust statute. Id., at 606-607. Important to the present case is an explicit reason given by the Cooper Court for reaching its decision. The Court observed that if the definition of “person” included the United States, then the Government would be exposed to liability as an antitrust defendant, a result Congress could not have intended. Id., at 607, 609. After Cooper, Congress amended the antitrust statutes to allow the United States to bring antitrust suits. For our purposes, the means by which it did so is instructive. Congress did not change the definition of “person” in the statute, but added a new section allowing the United States to sue. See 15 U. S. C. § 15a. So, Cooper’s conclusion that the United States is not an antitrust “person,” in particular not a person who can be an antitrust defendant, was unaltered by Congress’ action; indeed, the means Congress used to amend the antitrust law implicitly ratified Cooper’s conclusion that the United States is not a proper antitrust defendant. See 312 U. S., at 609; Sea-Land, supra, at 245 (“Although Congress was well aware of the view the Court indicated in Cooper Corp., that Congress had not described the United States as a ‘person’ for Sherman Act purposes, Congress addressed only the direct holding in that case — the ruling that the United States was not authorized to proceed as a Sherman Act treble damage action plaintiff” (footnote omitted)). The remaining question, the antitrust laws the Postal Service is a person separate from the United States itself. It is not. The statutory designation of the Postal Service as an “independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States” is not consistent with the idea that it is an entity existing outside the Government. The statutory instruction that the Postal Service is an establishment “of the executive branch of the Government of the United States” indicates just the contrary. The PRA gives the Postal Service a high degree of independence from other offices of the Government, but it remains part of the Government. The Sherman Act defines “person” to include corporations, and had the Congress chosen to create the Postal Service as a federal corporation, we would have to ask whether the Sherman Act’s definition extends to the federal entity under this part of the definitional text. Congress, however, declined to create the Postal Service as a Government corporation, opting instead for an independent establishment. The choice of words likely was more informed than unconsidered,'because Congress debated proposals to make the Postal Service a Government corporation before it enacted the PRA. See H. R. Rep. No. 91-1104, p. 6 (1970). As we have noted, the PRA refers in explicit terms to various federal statutes and specifies that the Postal Service is exempt from some and subject to others. 39 U. S. C. §§ 409-410. It makes no mention of the Sherman Act or the antitrust laws, however. The silence leads to no helpful inference one way or the other on the issue before us; but the other considerations we have discussed lead us to say that absent an express statement from Congress that the Postal Service can be sued for antitrust violations despite its status as an independent establishment of the Government of the United States, the PRA does not subject the Postal Service to antitrust liability. Our conclusion is consistent with the nationwide, public responsibilities of the Postal Service. The Postal Service has different goals, obligations, and powers from private corporations. Its goals are not those of private enterprise. The most important difference is that it does not seek profits, but only to break even, 39 U. S. C. §3621, which is consistent with its public character. It also has broader obligations, including the provision of universal mail delivery, the provision of free mail delivery to certain classes of persons, §§3201-3405, and, most recently, increased public responsibilities related to national security. Finally, the Postal Service has many powers more characteristic of Government than of private enterprise, including its state-conferred monopoly on mail delivery, the power of eminent domain, and the power to conclude international postal agreements. On the other hand, but in ways still relevant to the non-applicability of the antitrust laws to the Postal Service, its powers are more limited than those of private businesses. It lacks the prototypical means of engaging in anti-competitive behavior: the power to set prices. This is true both as a matter of mechanics, because pricing decisions are made with the participation of the separate Postal Rate Commission, and as a matter of substance, because price decisions are governed by principles other than profitability. See supra, at 740-741. Similarly, before it can close a post office, it must provide written reasons, and its decision is subject to reversal by the Commission for arbitrariness, abuse of discretion, failure to follow procedures, or lack of evidence. § 404. The Postal Service’s public characteristics and responsibilities indicate it should be treated under the antitrust laws as part of the Government of the United States, not a market participant separate from it. The Postal Service does operate nonpostal lines of business, for which it is free to set prices independent of the Commission, and in which it may seek profits to offset losses in the postal business. § 403(a). The great majority of the organization’s business, however, consists of postal services. See Revenue, Pieces, and Weight by Classes of Mail and Special Services for Government Fiscal Year 2003, available at http://www.usps.com/financials/_pdf/GFY03.pdf (as visited Jan. 23, 2004, and available in Clerk of Court’s case file). Further, the Postal Service’s predecessor, the Post Office Department, had nonpostal lines of business, such as money orders and postal savings accounts. Cullinan 84-85, 107. As a Cabinet agency, the old Post Office Department was not subject to the antitrust laws. The new Postal Service’s lines of business beyond the scope of its mail monopoly and universal service obligation do not show it is separate from the Government under the antitrust laws. * * * The Postal Service, in both form and function, is not a separate antitrust person from the United States. It is part of the Government of the United States and so is not controlled by the antitrust laws. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed. It is so ordered. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. We consider whether § 7002 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), 42 U. S. C. § 6972, authorizes a private cause of action to recover the prior cost of cleaning up toxic waste that does not, at the time of suit, continue to pose an endangerment to health or the environment. We conclude that it does not. I Respondent KFC Western, Inc. (KFC), owns and operates a “Kentucky Fried Chicken” restaurant on a parcel of property in Los Angeles. In 1988, KFC discovered during the course of a construction project that the property was contaminated with petroleum. The County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services ordered KFC to attend to the problem, and KFC spent $211,000 removing and disposing of the oil-tainted soil. Three years later, KFC brought this suit under the citizen suit provision of RCRA, 90 Stat. 2825, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 6972(a), seeking to recover these cleanup costs from petitioners Alan and Margaret Meghrig. KFC claimed that the contaminated soil was a “solid waste” covered by RCRA, see 42 U. S. C. § 6903(27), that it had previously posed an “imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment,” see § 6972(a)(1)(B), and that the Meghrigs were responsible for “equitable restitution” of KFC’s cleanup costs under § 6972(a) because, as prior owners of the property, they had contributed to the waste’s “past or present handling, storage, treatment, transportation, or disposal.” See App. 12-19 (first amended complaint). The District Court held that § 6972(a) does not permit recovery of past cleanup costs and that § 6972(a)(1)(B) does not authorize a cause of action for the remediation of toxic waste that does not pose an “imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment” at the time suit is filed, and dismissed KFC’s complaint. App. to Pet. for Cert. A21-A23. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed, over a dissent, 49 F. 3d 518, 524-528 (1995) (Brunetti, J.), finding that a district court had authority under § 6972(a) to award restitution of past cleanup costs, id., at 521-523, and that a private party can proceed with a suit under § 6972(a)(1)(B) upon an allegation that the waste at issue presented an “imminent and substantial endangerment” at the time it was cleaned up, id., at 520-521. The Ninth Circuit’s conclusion regarding the remedies available under RCRA conflicts with the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Furrer v. Brown, 62 F. 3d 1092, 1100-1101 (1995), and its interpretation of the “imminent endangerment” requirement represents a novel application of federal statutory law. We granted certiorari to address the conflict between the Circuits and to consider the correctness of the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of RCRA, 515 U. S. 1192 (1995), and now reverse. II RCRA is a comprehensive environmental statute that governs the treatment, storage, and disposal of solid and hazardous waste. See Chicago v. Environmental Defense Fund, 511 U. S. 328, 331-332 (1994). Unlike the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), 94 Stat. 2767, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 9601 et seq., RCRA is not principally designed to effectuate the cleanup of toxic waste sites or to compensate those who have attended to the remediation of environmental hazards. Cf. General Electric Co. v. Litton Industrial Automation Systems, Inc., 920 F. 2d 1415, 1422 (CA8 1990) (the “two ... main purposes of CERCLA” are “prompt cleanup of hazardous waste sites and imposition of all cleanup costs on the responsible party”). RCRA’s primary purpose, rather, is to reduce the generation of hazardous waste and to ensure the proper treatment, storage, and disposal of that waste which is nonetheless generated, “so as to minimize the present and future threat to human health and the environment.” 42 U. S. C. § 6902(b). Chief responsibility for the implementation and enforcement of RCRA rests with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), see §§6928, 6973, but like other environmental laws, RCRA contains a citizen suit provision, §6972, which permits private citizens to enforce its provisions in some circumstances. Two requirements of § 6972(a) defeat KFC’s suit against the Meghrigs. The first concerns the necessary timing of a citizen suit brought under § 6972(a)(1)(B): That section permits a private party to bring suit against certain responsible persons, including former owners, “who ha[ve] contributed or who [are] contributing to the past or present handling, storage, treatment, transportation, or disposal of any solid or hazardous waste which may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment.” (Emphasis added.) The second defines the remedies a district court can award in a suit brought under § 6972(a)(1)(B): Section 6972(a) authorizes district courts “to restrain any person who has contributed or who is contributing to the past or present handling, storage, treatment, transportation, or disposal of any solid or hazardous waste ... , to order such person to take such other action as may be necessary, or both.” (Emphasis added.) It is apparent from the two remedies described in § 6972(a) that RCRA’s citizen suit provision is not directed at providing compensation for past cleanup efforts. Under a plain reading of this remedial scheme, a private citizen suing under § 6972(a)(1)(B) could seek a mandatory injunction, i. e., one that orders a responsible party to “take action” by attending to the cleanup and proper disposal of toxic waste, or a prohibitory injunction, i. e., one that “restrains” a responsible party from further violating RCRA. Neither remedy, however, is susceptible of the interpretation adopted by the Ninth Circuit, as neither contemplates the award of past cleanup costs, whether these are denominated “damages” or “equitable restitution.” In this regard, a comparison between the relief available under RCRA’s citizen suit provision and that which Congress has provided in the analogous, but not parallel, provisions of CERCLA is telling. CERCLA was passed several years after RCRA went into effect, and it is designed to address many of the same toxic waste problems that inspired the passage of RCRA. Compare 42 U. S. C. § 6903(5) (RCRA definition of “hazardous waste”) and §6903(27) (RCRA definition of “solid waste”) with § 9601(14) (CERCLA provision incorporating certain “hazardous substance[s],” but specifically excluding petroleum). CERCLA differs markedly from RCRA, however, in the remedies it provides. CERCLA’s citizen suit provision mimics § 6972(a) in providing district courts with the authority “to order such action as may be necessary to correct the violation” of any CERCLA standard or regulation. 42 U. S. C. § 9659(c). But CERCLA expressly permits the Government to recover “all costs of removal or remedial action,” § 9607(a)(4)(A), and it expressly permits the recovery of any “necessary costs of response, incurred by any . . . person consistent with the national contingency plan,” § 9607(a)(4)(B). CERCLA also provides that “[a]ny person may seek contribution from any other person who is liable or potentially liable” for these response costs. See § 9613(f)(1). Congress thus demonstrated in CERCLA that it knew how to provide for the recovery of cleanup costs, and that the language used to define the remedies under RCRA does not provide that remedy. That RCRA’s citizen suit provision was not intended to provide a remedy for past cleanup costs is further apparent from the harm at which it is directed. Section 6972(a)(1)(B) permits a private party to bring suit only upon a showing that the solid or hazardous waste at issue “may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment.” The meaning of this timing restriction is plain: An endangerment can only be “imminent” if it “threaten[s] to occur immediately,” Webster’s New International Dictionary of English Language 1245 (2d ed. 1934), and the reference to waste which “may present” imminent harm quite clearly excludes waste that no longer presents such a danger. As the Ninth Circuit itself intimated in Price v. United States Navy, 39 F. 3d 1011, 1019 (1994), this language “implies that there must be a threat which is present now, although the impact of the threat may not be felt until later.” It follows that § 6972(a) was designed to provide a remedy that ameliorates present or obviates the risk of future “imminent” harms, not a remedy that compensates for past cleanup efforts. Cf. § 6902(b) (national policy behind RCRA is “to minimize the present and future threat to human health and the environment”). Other aspects of RCRA’s enforcement scheme strongly support this conclusion. Unlike CERCLA, RCRA contains no statute of limitations, compare § 9613(g)(2) (limitations period in suits under CERCLA § 9607), and it does not require a showing that the response costs being sought are reasonable, compare §§ 9607(a)(4)(A) and (B) (costs recovered under CERCLA must be “consistent with the national contingency plan”). If Congress had intended § 6972(a) to function as a cost-recovery mechanism, the absence of these provisions would be striking. Moreover, with one limited exception, see Hallstrom v. Tillamook County, 493 U. S. 20, 26-27 (1989) (noting exception to notice requirement “when there is a danger that hazardous waste will be discharged”), a private party may not bring suit under § 6972(a)(1)(B) without first giving 90 days’ notice to the Administrator of the EPA, to “the State in which the alleged endangerment may occur,” and to potential defendants, see §§6972(b)(2)(A)(i)-(iii). And no citizen suit can proceed if either the EPA or the State has commenced, and is diligently prosecuting, a separate enforcement action, see §§ 6972(b)(2)(B) and (C). Therefore, if RCRA were designed to compensate private parties for their past cleanup efforts, it would be a wholly irrational mechanism for doing so. Those parties with insubstantial problems, problems that neither the State nor the Federal Government feel compelled to address, could recover their response costs, whereas those parties whose waste problems were sufficiently severe as to attract the attention of Government officials would be left without a recovery. Though it agrees that KFC’s complaint is defective for failing properly to allege an “imminent and substantial endanger ment,” the Government (as amicus) nonetheless joins KFC in arguing that § 6972(a) does not in all circumstances preclude, an award of past cleanup costs. See Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 22-28. The Government posits a situation in which suit is properly brought while the waste at issue continues to pose an imminent endangerment, and suggests that the plaintiff in such a case could seek equitable restitution of money previously spent on cleanup efforts. Echoing a similar argument made by KFC, see Brief for Respondent 11-19, the Government does not rely on the remedies expressly provided in § 6972(a), but rather cites a line of cases holding that district courts retain inherent authority to award any equitable remedy that is not expressly taken away from them by Congress. See, e. g., Porter v. Warner Holding Co., 328 U. S. 395 (1946); Wyandotte Transp. Co. v. United States, 389 U. S. 191 (1967); Hecht Co. v. Bowles, 321 U. S. 321 (1944). RCRA does not prevent a private party from recovering its cleanup costs under other federal or state laws, see § 6972(f) (preserving remedies under statutory and common law), but the limited remedies described in § 6972(a), along with the stark differences between the language of that section and the cost recovery provisions of CERCLA, amply demonstrate that Congress did not intend for a private citizen to be able to undertake a cleanup and then proceed to recover its costs under RCRA. As we explained in Middle-sex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clammers Assn., 453 U. S. 1, 14 (1981), where Congress has provided “elaborate enforcement provisions” for remedying the violation of a federal statute, as Congress has done with RCRA and CERCLA, “it cannot be assumed that Congress intended to authorize by implication additional judicial remedies for private citizens suing under” the statute. “‘[I]t is an elemental canon of statutory construction that where a statute expressly provides a particular remedy or remedies, a court must be chary of reading others into it.’” Id., at 14-15 (quoting Tmnsamerica Mortgage Advisors, Inc. v. Lewis, 444 U. S. 11, 19 (1979)). Without considering whether a private party could seek to obtain an injunction requiring another party to pay cleanup costs which arise after a RCRA citizen suit has been properly commenced, cf. United States v. Price, 688 F. 2d 204, 211-213 (CA3 1982) (requiring funding of a diagnostic study is an appropriate form of relief in a suit brought by the Administrator under § 6973), or otherwise recover cleanup costs paid out after the invocation of RCRA’s statutory process, we agree with the Meghrigs that a private party cannot recover the cost of a past cleanup effort under RCRA, and that KFC’s complaint is defective for the reasons stated by the District Court. Section 6972(a) does not contemplate the award of past cleanup costs, and § 6972(a)(1)(B) permits a private party to bring suit only upon an allegation that the contaminated site presently poses an “imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment,” and not upon an allegation that it posed such an endangerment at some time in the past. The judgment of the Ninth Circuit is reversed. It is so ordered. Section 6972(a) provides, in relevant part: “Except as provided in subsection (b) or (c) of this section, any person may commence a civil action on his own behalf— “(1)(B) against any person, including . .. any past or present generator, past or present transporter, or past or present owner or operator of a treatment, storage, or disposal facility, who has contributed or who is contributing to the past or present handling, storage, treatment, transportation, or disposal of any solid or hazardous waste which may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment.... “. . . The district court shall have jurisdiction ... to restrain any person who has contributed or who is contributing to the past or present handling, storage, treatment, transportation, or disposal of any solid or hazardous waste referred to in paragraph (1)(B), to order such person to take such other action as may be necessary, or both ....” Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Chief Justice Vinson delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a suit to obtain payment of the proceeds of a $5,000 insurance policy. Federal jurisdiction is founded on diversity of citizenship, and, for present purposes, South Carolina law is controlling. We granted certio-rari in order to determine whether the Circuit Court of Appeals’ refusal to follow the only South Carolina decision directly in point, the decision of a Court of Common Pleas, was consistent with the Rules of Decision Act as applied in Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U. S. 64 (1938), and subsequent cases. The petitioner, Mrs. King, is the beneficiary of the policy ; her husband, Lieutenant King, was the insured; and the respondent Order of United Commercial Travelers of America is the insurer. The policy insured against King’s accidental death, but contained a clause exempting the respondent from liability for “death resulting from participation ... in aviation.” It is this aviation exclusion clause which gave rise to the litigation now before us. King lost his life one day in the winter of 1943 when a land-based Civil Air Patrol plane in which he was flight observer made an emergency landing thirty miles off the coast of North Carolina. The plane sank, but King was not seriously hurt and managed to get out of the plane and don his life jacket. He was still alive two and a half hours later, when an accompanying plane was forced to leave the scene. When picked up about four and a half hours after the landing, however, he was dead. The medical diagnosis was “Drowning as a result of exposure in the water.” The respondent took the position that death, while “accidental,” resulted from “participation ... in aviation.” Accordingly, it refused to pay Mrs. King the proceeds of the policy. A resident of South Carolina, she then sued the respondent in a court of that State, contending that drowning rather than the airplane flight was the cause of death within the meaning of the policy. The respondent, an Ohio corporation, exercised its statutory right to remove the cause to the Federal District Court for the Western District of South Carolina. The parties agreed that South Carolina law was controlling, but up to the time of the District Court’s decision neither of them had located any decision on aviation exclusion clauses by any South Carolina court. The District Court therefore fell back on what it deemed to be general principles of South Carolina insurance law, as enunciated by the State Supreme Court: that ambiguities in an insurance contract are to be resolved in favor of the beneficiary, and that the cause of death, within the meaning of accident insurance policies, is the immediate, not the remote cause. Applying these principles, the court held that King’s death resulted from drowning, not from participation in aviation, and that Mrs. King was entitled to recover. Two months later, a South Carolina court, the Court of Common Pleas for Spartanburg County, likewise ruled in favor of Mrs. King in a suit against a different insurer on a $2,500 policy which contained an almost identical aviation exclusion clause. The judge followed the same reasoning as the District Court had and relied, at least in part, on that court’s decision. Under South Carolina statutes the insurer in this second case had the right to appeal to the State Supreme Court, but did not do so. On appeal of the present case, the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the District Court’s judgment for Mrs. King. The court acknowledged that under South Carolina law ambiguities in insurance policies are to be construed against the insurer, but it found no ambiguity in the aviation exclusion clause insofar as its application to the facts of this case was concerned. On the contrary, King’s death was thought clearly to have resulted from “participation ... in aviation.” Nothing in South Carolina Supreme Court decisions, it was said, was inconsistent with this view, whereas that court’s accepted theories of proximate cause in tort cases supported it. Under these circumstances, the Circuit Court of Appeals expressed its disbelief that the Supreme Court of South Carolina would have ruled for Mrs. King, had her case been before it, “in the face of reason and the very considerable authority” from other jurisdictions. The Common Pleas decision in Mrs. King’s favor, it was thought, was not binding on the Circuit Court of Appeals as a final expression of South Carolina law since it was not binding on other South Carolina courts and since the court rendering it had relied on the District Court’s ruling in the present case. After we granted certiorari, a new factor was interjected in the case. Another South Carolina Court of Common Pleas, the one for Greenville County, handed down an opinion which, so far as relevant here, expressly rejected the reasoning of the Spartanburg Court of Common Pleas and espoused that of the Circuit Court of Appeals. What effect, if any, we should give to this second Common Pleas decision becomes an appropriate subject for inquiry only if it is first determined that the Circuit Court of Appeals erred in not following the Spartanburg decision, which was the only one outstanding at the time of its action. We therefore address ourselves first to that question. The Rules of Decision Act commands federal courts to regard as “rules of decision” the substantive “laws” of the appropriate state, except only where the Constitution, treaties, or statutes of the United States provide otherwise. And the Erie R. Co. case decided that “laws,” in this context, include not only state statutes, but also the unwritten law of a state as pronounced by its courts. The ideal aimed at by the Act -is, of course, uniformity of decision within each state. So long as it does not impinge on federal interests, a state may shape its own law in any direction it sees fit, and it is inadmissible that cases dependent on that law should be decided differently according to whether they are before federal or state courts. This is particularly true where accidental factors such as diversity of citizenship and the amount in controversy enable one of the parties to choose whether the case is tried in a federal or a state court. Effectuation of that policy is comparatively easy when the issue confronting a federal court has previously been decided by the highest court in the appropriate state; the Erie R. Co. case decided that decisions and opinions of that court are binding on federal courts. The Erie R. Co. case left open, however, the more difficult question of the effect to be given to decisions by lower state courts on points never passed on by the highest state court. Two years later, a series of four cases presented some aspects of that question. In three of the cases this Court held that federal courts are bound by decisions of a state’s intermediate appellate courts unless there is persuasive evidence that the highest state court would rule otherwise. Six Companies v. Highway District, 311 U. S. 180 (1940); West v. American T. & T. Co., 311 U. S. 223 (1940); and Stoner v. New York Life Ins. Co., 311 U. S. 464 (1940). In the fourth case, Fidelity Union Trust Co. v. Field, 311 U. S. 169 (1940), the Court went further and held that a federal court had to follow two decisions announced four years earlier by the New Jersey Court of Chancery, a court of original jurisdiction. The Fidelity Union Trust Co. case did not, however, lay down any general rule as to the respect to be accorded state trial court decisions. This Court took pains to point out that the status of the New Jersey Court of Chancery was not that of the usual nisi prius court. It had state-wide jurisdiction. Its standing on the equity side was comparable to that of New Jersey’s intermediate appellate courts on the law side. A uniform ruling by the Court of Chancery over a course of years was seldom set aside by the state’s highest court. And chancery decrees were ordinarily treated as binding in later cases in chancery. The present case involves no attack on the policy of the Rules of Decision Act, the principle of the Erie R. Co. case, or the soundness of the other cases referred to above. It involves the practical administration of the Act; and the question it raises is whether, in the long run, it would promote uniformity in the application of South Carolina law if federal courts confronted with questions under that law were obliged to follow the ruling of a Court of Common Pleas. The Courts of Common Pleas make up South Carolina’s basic system of trial courts for civil actions. There are fourteen judges for these courts, one for each of the judicial circuits into which the state’s forty-six counties are grouped. A circuit judge hears civil cases at specified times in each county comprising the circuit to which he is then assigned, and at such times his court is called the Court of Common Pleas for that particular county. In addition, he presides over a parallel set of criminal courts, the Courts of General Sessions. South Carolina has no tier of intermediate appellate courts, and appeal from Common Pleas decisions is directly, and as a matter of right, to the State Supreme Court. While the Courts of Common Pleas are denominated courts of record, their decisions are not published or digested in any form whatsoever. They are filed only in the counties in which the cases are tried, and even there the sole index is by the parties’ names. Perhaps because these facts preclude ready availability to bench and bar, the Common Pleas decisions seem to be accorded little weight as precedents in South Carolina’s own courts. In this connection, respondent has submitted a certificate from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina to the effect that “under the practice in this State an unappealed decision of the Court of Common Pleas is binding only upon the parties who are before the Court in that particular case and would not constitute a precedent in any other case in that Court or in any other court in the State of South Carolina.” Consideration of these facts leads us to the conclusion that the Circuit Court of Appeals did not commit error. While that court properly attributed some weight to the Spartanburg Common Pleas decision, we believe that it was justified in holding the decision not controlling and in proceeding to make its own determination of what the Supreme Court of South Carolina would probably rule in a similar case. In the first place, a Court of Common Pleas does not appear to have such importance and competence within South Carolina’s own judicial system that its decisions should be taken as authoritative expositions of that State’s “law.” In future cases between different parties, as indicated above, a Common Pleas decision does not exact conformity from either the same court or lesser courts within its territorial jurisdiction; and it may apparently be ignored by other Courts of Common Pleas without the compunctions which courts often experience in reaching results divergent from those reached by another court of coordinate jurisdiction. Thus a Common Pleas decision does not, so far as we have been informed, of itself evidence one of the “rules of decision commonly accepted and acted upon by the bar and inferior courts.” Furthermore, as we have but recently had occasion to remark, a federal court adjudicating a matter of state law in a diversity suit is, “in effect, only another court of the State”; it would be incongruous indeed to hold the federal court bound by a decision which would not be binding on any state court. Secondly, the difficulty of locating Common Pleas decisions is a matter of great practical significance. Litigants could find all the decisions on any given subject only by laboriously searching the judgment rolls in all of South Carolina’s forty-six counties. To hold that federal courts must abide by Common Pleas decisions might well put a premium on the financial ability required for exhaustive screening of the judgment rolls or for the maintenance of private records: In cases where the parties could not afford such practices, the result would often be to make their rights dependent on chance; for every decision cited by counsel there might be a dozen adverse decisions outstanding but undiscovered. In affirming the decision below, we are deciding only that the Circuit Court of Appeals did not have to follow the decision of the Court of Common Pleas for Spartan-burg County. We do not purport to determine the correctness of its ruling on the merits. Nor is our decision to be taken as promulgating a general rule that federal courts need never abide by determinations of state law by state trial courts. As indicated by the Fidelity Union Trust Co. case, other situations in other states may well call for a different result. It may also be well to add that, even if the Circuit Court of Appeals had been in error at the time of its decision, reversal of its judgment would not necessarily be appropriate in view of the second Common Pleas decision. But we prefer to regard that second decision as an illustration of the perils of interpreting a Common Pleas decision as a definitive expression of “South Carolina law,” not as a controlling factor in our decision. Affirmed. Both courts below so held, and until the case was briefed for this Court, neither party took issue with this holding or raised any full faith and credit question. Hence it is unnecessary for us to consider whether or not United Commercial Travelers of America v. Wolfe, 331 U. S. 586 (1947), is applicable. 332 U. S. 754. Judiciary Act of 1789, § 34, R. S. § 721, 28 U. S. C. § 725. 28 U. S. C. § 71. For this proposition the court cited Goethe v. New York Life Ins. Co., 183 S. C. 199, 190 S. E. 451 (1937). In that case the insured died following vigorous efforts to put out a fire. There was disputed medical evidence as to whether the symptoms shown just before death indicated heatstroke or heart disease as the cause’ of death. There was no evidence that the insured suffered from heart disease before that time. The Supreme Court of South Carolina upheld a jury determination that heatstroke caused death, and then, on the most disputed point in the case, ruled that heatstroke was a “bodily injury” within the meaning of an accident insurance policy. It seems to us, as it apparently did to the Circuit Court of Appeals, questionable whether this case supports the principle for which it was cited. 65 F. Supp. 740 (1946). 1 S. C. Code Ann. §§ 26 and 780. 161 F.2d 108 (1947). The court cited Horne v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 177 S. C. 461, 181 S.E. 642 (1935). Among the cases cited were Neel v. Mutual Life Ins. Co. of New York, 131 F. 2d 159 (C. C. A. 2, 1942), and Green v. Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co., 144 F. 2d 55 (C. C. A. 1, 1944). Although the decision by the Spartanburg Court of Common Pleas was rendered after the District Court decision, it was proper for the Circuit Court of Appeals to consider it. See Vandenbark v. Owens-Illinois Co., 311 U. S. 538 (1941). See note 3, supra. In all three cases the state supreme court had refused to review the intermediate appellate court decision; in the West and Stoner cases, the intermediate appellate court’s decision had involved the same parties engaged in the subsequent case before the federal courts; and in the Six Companies case, the intermediate appellate court’s decision had remained on the books for over twenty years without disapproval. These factors were mentioned in our opinions, but were not necessarily determinative. See Fidelity Union Trust Co. v. Field, 311 U.S. 169, 178 (1940). S. C. Const., Art. 5, § 15. These courts also have limited appellate jurisdiction, varying somewhat from county to county. The Court of Common Pleas for Spartanburg County handles appeals from the county’s probate court, 1 S. C. Code Ann. § 228, its court of domestic relations, 1 id. §§ 256-24 and 256-44, and its magistrates courts. The latter have civil jurisdiction concurrent with the courts of Common Pleas only in suits involving less than $100, 1 id. § 257. The county court for Spartanburg County has concurrent jurisdiction in civil suits involving less than $3,000, but appeal from its decisions is directly to the Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1 id. §§ 184 and 190. S. C. Const., Art. 5, § 13; IS. C. Code Ann. §50. There is provision for periodic interchange of judges among the circuits. 1 S. C. Code Ann. § 22. S. C. Const., Art. 5, § 16; IS. C. Code Ann. §§ 51-64. See note 7 supra. S. C. Circuit Court Rule 39. There is a Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for each county. S. C. Const., Art. 5, § 27. I. e., county courts, magistrates courts, probate courts, and courts of domestic relations. See note 14 sxipra. West v. American T. & T. Co., 311 U. S. 223, 236 (1940). Guaranty Trust Co. v. York, 326 U. S. 99, 108 (1945). In the present ease, the Spartanburg decision came to light because petitioner had been a party to it, the Greenville decision because respondent’s counsel had been a party to it. See Vandenbark v. Owens-Illinois Co., 311 U. S. 538 (1941). Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
I
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court. Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 10b-5 makes it unlawful: "(a) To employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud, "(b) To make any untrue statement of a material fact..., or "(c) To engage in any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit... in connection with the purchase or sale of any security." 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 (2018). In Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, 564 U.S. 135, 131 S.Ct. 2296, 180 L.Ed.2d 166 (2011), we examined the second of these provisions, Rule 10b-5(b), which forbids the "mak[ing]" of "any untrue statement of a material fact." We held that the "maker of a statement is the person or entity with ultimate authority over the statement, including its content and whether and how to communicate it." Id., at 142, 131 S.Ct. 2296 (emphasis added). We said that "[w]ithout control, a person or entity can merely suggest what to say, not'make' a statement in its own right." Ibid. And we illustrated our holding with an analogy: "[W]hen a speechwriter drafts a speech, the content is entirely within the control of the person who delivers it. And it is the speaker who takes credit-or blame-for what is ultimately said." Id., at 143, 131 S.Ct. 2296. On the facts of Janus, this meant that an investment adviser who had merely "participat[ed] in the drafting of a false statement" "made" by another could not be held liable in a private action under subsection (b) of Rule 10b-5. Id., at 145, 131 S.Ct. 2296. In this case, we consider whether those who do not "make" statements (as Janus defined "make"), but who disseminate false or misleading statements to potential investors with the intent to defraud, can be found to have violated the other parts of Rule 10b-5, subsections (a) and (c), as well as related provisions of the securities laws, § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 891, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), and § 17(a)(1) of the Securities Act of 1933, 48 Stat. 84-85, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 77q(a)(1). We believe that they can. I A For our purposes, the relevant facts are not in dispute. Francis Lorenzo, the petitioner, was the director of investment banking at Charles Vista, LLC, a registered broker-dealer in Staten Island, New York. Lorenzo's only investment banking client at the time was Waste2Energy Holdings, Inc., a company developing technology to convert "solid waste" into "clean renewable energy." In a June 2009 public filing, Waste2Energy stated that its total assets were worth about $14 million. This figure included intangible assets, namely, intellectual property, valued at more than $10 million. Lorenzo was skeptical of this valuation, later testifying that the intangibles were a "dead asset" because the technology "didn't really work." During the summer and early fall of 2009, Waste2Energy hired Lorenzo's firm, Charles Vista, to sell to investors $15 million worth of debentures, a form of "debt secured only by the debtor's earning power, not by a lien on any specific asset," Black's Law Dictionary 486 (10th ed. 2014). In early October 2009, Waste2Energy publicly disclosed, and Lorenzo was told, that its intellectual property was worthless, that it had "'"[w]rit[ten] off... all [of its] intangible assets,"'" and that its total assets (as of March 31, 2009) amounted to $370,552. Shortly thereafter, on October 14, 2009, Lorenzo sent two e-mails to prospective investors describing the debenture offering. According to later testimony by Lorenzo, he sent the e-mails at the direction of his boss, who supplied the content and "approved" the messages. The e-mails described the investment in Waste2Energy as having "3 layers of protection," including $10 million in "confirmed assets." The e-mails nowhere revealed the fact that Waste2Energy had publicly stated that its assets were in fact worth less than $400,000. Lorenzo signed the e-mails with his own name, he identified himself as "Vice President-Investment Banking," and he invited the recipients to "call with any questions." B In 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission instituted proceedings against Lorenzo (along with his boss and Charles Vista). The Commission charged that Lorenzo had violated Rule 10b-5, § 10(b) of the Exchange Act, and § 17(a)(1) of the Securities Act. Ultimately, the Commission found that Lorenzo had run afoul of these provisions by sending false and misleading statements to investors with intent to defraud. As a sanction, it fined Lorenzo $15,000, ordered him to cease and desist from violating the securities laws, and barred him from working in the securities industry for life. Lorenzo appealed, arguing primarily that in sending the e-mails he lacked the intent required to establish a violation of Rule 10b-5, § 10(b), and § 17(a)(1), which we have characterized as " 'a mental state embracing intent to deceive, manipulate, or defraud.' " Aaron v. SEC, 446 U.S. 680, 686, and n. 5, 100 S.Ct. 1945, 64 L.Ed.2d 611 (1980). With one judge dissenting, the Court of Appeals panel rejected Lorenzo's lack-of-intent argument. 872 F.3d 578, 583 (C.A.D.C. 2017). Lorenzo does not challenge the panel's scienter finding. Reply Brief 17. Lorenzo also argued that, in light of Janus, he could not be held liable under subsection (b) of Rule 10b-5. 872 F.3d at 586-587. The panel agreed. Because his boss "asked Lorenzo to send the emails, supplied the central content, and approved the messages for distribution," id., at 588, it was the boss that had "ultimate authority" over the content of the statement "and whether and how to communicate it," Janus, 564 U.S. at 142, 131 S.Ct. 2296. (We took this case on the assumption that Lorenzo was not a "maker" under subsection (b) of Rule 10b-5, and do not revisit the court's decision on this point.) The Court of Appeals nonetheless sustained (with one judge dissenting) the Commission's finding that, by knowingly disseminating false information to prospective investors, Lorenzo had violated other parts of Rule 10b-5, subsections (a) and (c), as well as § 10(b) and § 17(a)(1). Lorenzo then filed a petition for certiorari in this Court. We granted review to resolve disagreement about whether someone who is not a "maker" of a misstatement under Janus can nevertheless be found to have violated the other subsections of Rule 10b-5 and related provisions of the securities laws, when the only conduct involved concerns a misstatement. Compare e.g., 872 F.3d 578, with WPP Luxembourg Gamma Three Sarl v. Spot Runner, Inc., 655 F.3d 1039, 1057-1058 (C.A.9 2011). II A At the outset, we review the relevant provisions of Rule 10b-5 and of the statutes. See Appendix, infra. As we have said, subsection (a) of the Rule makes it unlawful to "employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud." Subsection (b) makes it unlawful to "make any untrue statement of a material fact." And subsection (c) makes it unlawful to "engage in any act, practice, or course of business" that "operates... as a fraud or deceit." See 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5. There are also two statutes at issue. Section 10(b) makes it unlawful to "use or employ... any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance" in contravention of Commission rules and regulations. 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b). By its authority under that section, the Commission promulgated Rule 10b-5. The second statutory provision is § 17(a), which, like Rule 10b-5, is organized into three subsections. 15 U.S.C. § 77q(a). Here, however, we consider only the first subsection, § 17(a)(1), for this is the only subsection that the Commission charged Lorenzo with violating. Like Rule 10b-5(a), (a)(1) makes it unlawful to "employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud." B After examining the relevant language, precedent, and purpose, we conclude that (assuming other here-irrelevant legal requirements are met) dissemination of false or misleading statements with intent to defraud can fall within the scope of subsections (a) and (c) of Rule 10b-5, as well as the relevant statutory provisions. In our view, that is so even if the disseminator did not "make" the statements and consequently falls outside subsection (b) of the Rule. It would seem obvious that the words in these provisions are, as ordinarily used, sufficiently broad to include within their scope the dissemination of false or misleading information with the intent to defraud. By sending emails he understood to contain material untruths, Lorenzo "employ[ed]" a "device," "scheme," and "artifice to defraud" within the meaning of subsection (a) of the Rule, § 10(b), and § 17(a)(1). By the same conduct, he "engage[d] in a[n] act, practice, or course of business" that "operate[d]... as a fraud or deceit" under subsection (c) of the Rule. Recall that Lorenzo does not challenge the appeals court's scienter finding, so we take for granted that he sent the emails with "intent to deceive, manipulate, or defraud" the recipients. Aaron, 446 U.S. at 686, n. 5, 100 S.Ct. 1945. Under the circumstances, it is difficult to see how his actions could escape the reach of those provisions. Resort to dictionary definitions only strengthens this conclusion. A " 'device,' " we have observed, is simply " '[t]hat which is devised, or formed by design' "; a "'scheme' " is a " 'project,' " " 'plan[,] or program of something to be done' "; and an " 'artifice' " is " 'an artful stratagem or trick.' " Id., at 696, n. 13, 100 S.Ct. 1945 (quoting Webster's International Dictionary 713, 2234, 157 (2d ed. 1934) (Webster's Second)). By these lights, dissemination of false or misleading material is easily an "artful stratagem" or a "plan," "devised" to defraud an investor under subsection (a). See Rule 10b-5(a) (making it unlawful to "employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud"); § 17(a)(1) (same). The words "act" and "practice" in subsection (c) are similarly expansive. Webster's Second 25 (defining "act" as "a doing" or a "thing done"); id., at 1937 (defining "practice" as an "action" or "deed"); see Rule 10b-5(c) (making it unlawful to "engage in a[n] act, practice, or course of business" that "operates... as a fraud or deceit"). These provisions capture a wide range of conduct. Applying them may present difficult problems of scope in borderline cases. Purpose, precedent, and circumstance could lead to narrowing their reach in other contexts. But we see nothing borderline about this case, where the relevant conduct (as found by the Commission) consists of disseminating false or misleading information to prospective investors with the intent to defraud. And while one can readily imagine other actors tangentially involved in dissemination-say, a mailroom clerk-for whom liability would typically be inappropriate, the petitioner in this case sent false statements directly to investors, invited them to follow up with questions, and did so in his capacity as vice president of an investment banking company. C Lorenzo argues that, despite the natural meaning of these provisions, they should not reach his conduct. This is so, he says, because the only way to be liable for false statements is through those provisions that refer specifically to false statements. Other provisions, he says, concern "scheme liability claims" and are violated only when conduct other than misstatements is involved. Brief for Petitioner 4-6, 28-30. Thus, only those who "make" untrue statements under subsection (b) can violate Rule 10b-5 in connection with statements. (Similarly, § 17(a)(2) would be the sole route for finding liability for statements under § 17(a).) Holding to the contrary, he and the dissent insist, would render subsection (b) of Rule 10b-5 "superfluous." See post, at 1108 - 1109 (opinion of THOMAS, J.). The premise of this argument is that each of these provisions should be read as governing different, mutually exclusive, spheres of conduct. But this Court and the Commission have long recognized considerable overlap among the subsections of the Rule and related provisions of the securities laws. See Herman & MacLean v. Huddleston, 459 U.S. 375, 383, 103 S.Ct. 683, 74 L.Ed.2d 548 (1983) ("[I]t is hardly a novel proposition that" different portions of the securities laws "prohibit some of the same conduct" (internal quotation marks omitted)). As we have explained, these laws marked the "first experiment in federal regulation of the securities industry." SEC v. Capital Gains Research Bureau, Inc., 375 U.S. 180, 198, 84 S.Ct. 275, 11 L.Ed.2d 237 (1963). It is "understandable, therefore," that "in declaring certain practices unlawful," it was thought prudent "to include both a general proscription against fraudulent and deceptive practices and, out of an abundance of caution, a specific proscription against nondisclosure" even though "a specific proscription against nondisclosure" might in other circumstances be deemed "surplusage." Id., at 198-199, 84 S.Ct. 275. "Each succeeding prohibition" was thus "meant to cover additional kinds of illegalities-not to narrow the reach of the prior sections." United States v. Naftalin, 441 U.S. 768, 774, 99 S.Ct. 2077, 60 L.Ed.2d 624 (1979). We have found " 'no warrant for narrowing alternative provisions... adopted with the purpose of affording added safeguards.' " Ibid. (quoting United States v. Gilliland, 312 U.S. 86, 93, 61 S.Ct. 518, 85 L.Ed. 598 (1941) ); see Affiliated Ute Citizens of Utah v. United States, 406 U.S. 128, 152-153, 92 S.Ct. 1456, 31 L.Ed.2d 741 (1972) (While "the second subparagraph of [Rule 10b-5] specifies the making of an untrue statement... [t]he first and third subparagraphs are not so restricted"). And since its earliest days, the Commission has not viewed these provisions as mutually exclusive. See, e.g., In re R. D. Bayly & Co., 19 S. E. C. 773 (1945) (finding violations of what would become Rules 10b-5(b) and (c) based on the same misrepresentations and omissions); In re Arthur Hays & Co., 5 S. E. C. 271 (1939) (finding violations of both §§ 17(a)(2) and (a)(3) based on false representations in stock sales). The idea that each subsection of Rule 10b-5 governs a separate type of conduct is also difficult to reconcile with the language of subsections (a) and (c). It should go without saying that at least some conduct amounts to "employ[ing]" a "device, scheme, or artifice to defraud" under subsection (a) as well as "engag[ing] in a[n] act... which operates... as a fraud" under subsection (c). In Affiliated Ute, for instance, we described the "defendants' activities" as falling "within the very language of one or the other of those subparagraphs, a 'course of business' or a 'device, scheme, or artifice' that operated as a fraud." 406 U.S. at 153, 92 S.Ct. 1456. (The dissent, for its part, offers no account of how the superfluity problems that motivate its interpretation can be avoided where subsections (a) and (c) are concerned.) Coupled with the Rule's expansive language, which readily embraces the conduct before us, this considerable overlap suggests we should not hesitate to hold that Lorenzo's conduct ran afoul of subsections (a) and (c), as well as the related statutory provisions. Our conviction is strengthened by the fact that we here confront behavior that, though plainly fraudulent, might otherwise fall outside the scope of the Rule. Lorenzo's view that subsection (b), the making-false-statements provision, exclusively regulates conduct involving false or misleading statements would mean those who disseminate false statements with the intent to cheat investors might escape liability under the Rule altogether. But using false representations to induce the purchase of securities would seem a paradigmatic example of securities fraud. We do not know why Congress or the Commission would have wanted to disarm enforcement in this way. And we cannot easily reconcile Lorenzo's approach with the basic purpose behind these laws: "to substitute a philosophy of full disclosure for the philosophy of caveat emptor and thus to achieve a high standard of business ethics in the securities industry." Capital Gains, 375 U.S. at 186, 84 S.Ct. 275. See also, e.g., SEC v. W. J. Howey Co., 328 U.S. 293, 299, 66 S.Ct. 1100, 90 L.Ed. 1244 (1946) (the securities laws were designed "to meet the countless and variable schemes devised by those who seek the use of the money of others on the promise of profits"). III Lorenzo and the dissent make a few other important arguments. They contend that applying subsections (a) or (c) of Rule 10b-5 to conduct like his would render our decision in Janus (which we described at the outset, supra, at 1098 - 1099) "a dead letter," post, at 1102. But we do not see how that is so. In Janus, we considered the language in subsection (b), which prohibits the "mak[ing]" of "any untrue statement of a material fact." See 564 U.S. at 141-143, 131 S.Ct. 2296. We held that the "maker" of a "statement" is the "person or entity with ultimate authority over the statement." Id., at 142, 131 S.Ct. 2296. And we found that subsection (b) did not (under the circumstances) cover an investment adviser who helped draft misstatements issued by a different entity that controlled the statements' content. Id., at 146-148, 131 S.Ct. 2296. We said nothing about the Rule's application to the dissemination of false or misleading information. And we can assume that Janus would remain relevant (and preclude liability) where an individual neither makes nor disseminates false information-provided, of course, that the individual is not involved in some other form of fraud. Next, Lorenzo points to the statute's "aiding and abetting" provision. 15 U.S.C. § 78t(e). This provision, enforceable only by the Commission (and not by private parties), makes it unlawful to "knowingly or recklessly... provid[e] substantial assistance to another person" who violates the Rule. Ibid. ; see Janus, 564 U.S. at 143, 131 S.Ct. 2296 (citing Central Bank of Denver, N. A. v. First Interstate Bank of Denver, N. A., 511 U.S. 164, 114 S.Ct. 1439, 128 L.Ed.2d 119 (1994) ). Lorenzo claims that imposing primary liability upon his conduct would erase or at least weaken what is otherwise a clear distinction between primary and secondary (i.e., aiding and abetting) liability. He emphasizes that, under today's holding, a disseminator might be a primary offender with respect to subsection (a) of Rule 10b-5 (by employing a "scheme" to "defraud") and also secondarily liable as an aider and abettor with respect to subsection (b) (by providing substantial assistance to one who "makes" a false statement). And he refers to two cases that, in his view, argue in favor of circumscribing primary liability. See Central Bank, 511 U.S. at 164, 114 S.Ct. 1439 ; Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., 552 U.S. 148, 128 S.Ct. 761, 169 L.Ed.2d 627 (2008). We do not believe, however, that our decision creates a serious anomaly or otherwise weakens the distinction between primary and secondary liability. For one thing, it is hardly unusual for the same conduct to be a primary violation with respect to one offense and aiding and abetting with respect to another. John, for example, might sell Bill an unregistered firearm in order to help Bill rob a bank, under circumstances that make him primarily liable for the gun sale and secondarily liable for the bank robbery. For another, the cases to which Lorenzo refers do not help his cause. Take Central Bank, where we held that Rule 10b-5's private right of action does not permit suits against secondary violators. 511 U.S. at 177, 114 S.Ct. 1439. The holding of Central Bank, we have said, suggests the need for a "clean line" between conduct that constitutes a primary violation of Rule 10b-5 and conduct that amounts to a secondary violation. Janus, 564 U.S. at 143, and n. 6, 131 S.Ct. 2296. Thus, in Janus, we sought an interpretation of "make" that could neatly divide primary violators and actors too far removed from the ultimate decision to communicate a statement. Ibid. (citing Central Bank, 511 U.S. 164, 114 S.Ct. 1439 ). The line we adopt today is just as administrable: Those who disseminate false statements with intent to defraud are primarily liable under Rules 10b-5(a) and (c), § 10(b), and § 17(a)(1), even if they are secondarily liable under Rule 10b-5(b). Lorenzo suggests that classifying dissemination as a primary violation would inappropriately subject peripheral players in fraud (including him, naturally) to substantial liability. We suspect the investors who received Lorenzo's e-mails would not view the deception so favorably. And as Central Bank itself made clear, even a bit participant in the securities markets "may be liable as a primary violator under [Rule] 10b-5" so long as "all of the requirements for primary liability... are met." Id., at 191, 114 S.Ct. 1439. Lorenzo's reliance on Stoneridge is even further afield. There, we held that private plaintiffs could not bring suit against certain securities defendants based on undisclosed deceptions upon which the plaintiffs could not have relied. 552 U.S. at 159, 128 S.Ct. 761. But the Commission, unlike private parties, need not show reliance in its enforcement actions. And even supposing reliance were relevant here, Lorenzo's conduct involved the direct transmission of false statements to prospective investors intended to induce reliance-far from the kind of concealed fraud at issue in Stoneridge. As for Lorenzo's suggestion that those like him ought to be held secondarily liable, this offer will, far too often, prove illusory. In instances where a "maker" of a false statement does not violate subsection (b) of the Rule (perhaps because he lacked the necessary intent), a disseminator of those statements, even one knowingly engaged in an egregious fraud, could not be held to have violated the "aiding and abetting" statute. That is because the statute insists that there be a primary violator to whom the secondary violator provided "substantial assistance." 15 U.S.C. § 78t(e). And the latter can be "deemed to be in violation" of the provision only "to the same extent as the person to whom such assistance is provided." Ibid. In other words, if Acme Corp. could not be held liable under subsection (b) for a statement it made, then a knowing disseminator of those statements could not be held liable for aiding and abetting Acme under subsection (b). And if, as Lorenzo claims, the disseminator has not primarily violated other parts of Rule 10b-5, then such a fraud, whatever its intent or consequences, might escape liability altogether. That is not what Congress intended. Rather, Congress intended to root out all manner of fraud in the securities industry. And it gave to the Commission the tools to accomplish that job. * * * For these reasons, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. So ordered. Justice KAVANAUGH took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. APPENDIX 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 "It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by the use of any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce, or of the mails or of any facility of any national securities exchange, "(a) To employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud, "(b) To make any untrue statement of a material fact or to omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading, or "(c) To engage in any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon any person in connection with the purchase or sale of any security." 15 U.S.C. § 78j "It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by the use of any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce or of the mails, or of any facility of any national securities exchange- * * * "(b) To use or employ, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security registered on a national securities exchange or any security not so registered, or any securities-based swap agreement[,] any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance in contravention of such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors." 15 U.S.C. § 77q "(a) Use of interstate commerce for purpose of fraud or deceit "It shall be unlawful for any person in the offer or sale of any securities (including security-based swaps) or any security-based swap agreement... by the use of any means or instruments of transportation or communication in interstate commerce or by use of the mails, directly or indirectly- "(1) to employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud, or "(2) to obtain money or property by means of any untrue statement of a material fact or any omission to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading; or "(3) to engage in any transaction, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon the purchaser." 15 U.S.C. § 78t "(e) Prosecution of persons who aid and abet violations "For purposes of any action brought by the Commission..., any person that knowingly or recklessly provides substantial assistance to another person in violation of a provision of this chapter, or of any rule or regulation issued under this chapter, shall be deemed in violation of such provision to the same extent as the person to whom such assistance is provided. Justice THOMAS, with whom Justice GORSUCH joins, dissenting. In Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, 564 U.S. 135, 131 S.Ct. 2296, 180 L.Ed.2d 166 (2011), we drew a clear line between primary and secondary liability in fraudulent-misstatement cases: A person does not "make" a fraudulent misstatement within the meaning of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 10b-5(b)-and thus is not primarily liable for the statement-if the person lacks "ultimate authority over the statement." Id., at 142, 131 S.Ct. 2296. Such a person could, however, be liable as an aider and abettor under principles of secondary liability. Today, the Court eviscerates this distinction by holding that a person who has not "made" a fraudulent misstatement can nevertheless be primarily liable for it. Because the majority misconstrues the securities laws and flouts our precedent in a way that is likely to have far-reaching consequences, I respectfully dissent. I To appreciate the sweeping nature of the Court's holding, it is helpful to begin with the facts of this case. On October 14, 2009, the owner of the firm at which petitioner Frank Lorenzo worked instructed him to send e-mails to two clients regarding a debenture offering. The owner explained that he wanted the e-mails to come from the firm's investment-banking division, which Lorenzo directed. Lorenzo promptly addressed an e-mail to each client, "cut and pasted" the contents of each e-mail-which he received from the owner-into the body, and "sent [them] out." App. 321. It is undisputed that Lorenzo did not draft the e-mails' contents, though he knew that they contained false or misleading statements regarding the debenture offering. Both e-mails stated that they were sent "[a]t the request of" the owner of the firm. Id., at 403, 405. No other allegedly fraudulent conduct is at issue. In 2013, the SEC brought enforcement proceedings against the owner of the firm, the firm itself, and Lorenzo. Even though Lorenzo sent the e-mails at the owner's request, the SEC did not charge Lorenzo with aiding and abetting fraud committed by the owner. See 15 U.S.C. §§ 77o(b), 78o(b)(4)(E), 78t(e). Instead, the SEC charged Lorenzo as a primary violator of multiple securities laws, including Rule 10b-5(b), which prohibits "mak[ing] any untrue statement of a material fact... in connection with the purchase or sale of any security." 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5(b) (2018) ; see Ernst & Ernst v. Hochfelder, 425 U.S. 185, 212-214, 96 S.Ct. 1375, 47 L.Ed.2d 668 (1976) (construing Rule 10b-5(b) to require scienter). The SEC ultimately concluded that, by "knowingly sen[ding] materially misleading language from his own email account to prospective investors," App. to Pet. for Cert. 77, Lorenzo violated Rule 10b-5(b) and several other antifraud provisions of the securities laws. The SEC "barred [him] from serving in the securities industry" for life. Id., at 91. The Court of Appeals unanimously rejected the SEC's determination that Lorenzo violated Rule 10b-5(b). Applying Janus, the court held that Lorenzo did not "make" the false statements at issue because he merely "transmitted statements devised by [his boss] at [his boss'] direction." 872 F.3d 578, 587 (C.A.D.C. 2017). The SEC has not challenged that aspect of the decision below. The panel majority nevertheless upheld the SEC's decision holding Lorenzo primarily liable for the same false statements under other provisions of the securities laws-specifically, § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (1934 Act), Rules 10b-5(a) and (c), and § 17(a)(1) of the Securities Act of 1933 (1933 Act). Unlike Rule 10b-5(b), none of these provisions pertains specifically to fraudulent misstatements. II Even though Lorenzo undisputedly did not "make" the false statements at issue in this case under Rule 10b-5(b), the Court follows the SEC in holding him primarily liable for those statements under other provisions of the securities laws. As construed by the Court, each of these more general laws completely subsumes Rule 10b-5(b) and § 17(a)(2) of the 1933 Act in cases involving fraudulent misstatements, even though these provisions specifically govern false statements. The majority's interpretation of these provisions cannot be reconciled with their text or our precedents. Thus, I am once again compelled to "disagre[e] with the SEC's broad view" of the securities laws. Janus, supra, at 145, n. 8, 131 S.Ct. 2296. A I begin with the text. The Court of Appeals held that Lorenzo violated § 10(b) of the 1934 Act and Rules 10b-5(a) and (c). In relevant part, § 10(b) makes it unlawful for a person, in connection with the purchase or sale of a security, "[t]o use or employ... any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance" in contravention of an SEC rule. 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b). Rule 10b-5 was promulgated under this statutory authority. That Rule makes it unlawful, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security, "(a) To employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud, "(b) To make any untrue statement of a material fact..., or "(c) To engage in any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit...." 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5. The Court of Appeals also held that Lorenzo violated § 17(a)(1) of the 1933 Act. Similar to Rule 10b-5, § 17(a) of the Act provides that it is unlawful, in connection with the offer or sale of a security, "(1) to employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud, or "(2 Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Per Curiam. The judgment is reversed. Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Wisconsin, 347 U. S. 672; Natural Gas Pipeline Co. v. Panoma Corporation, 349 U. S. 44. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mb. Justice Stewaet announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Rehnquist, and Mr. Justice Stevens joined. Under § 105-1307 of the Georgia Code (1978) (hereinafter Georgia statute), the mother of an illegitimate child can sue for the wrongful death of that child. A father who has legitimated a child can also sue for the.wrongful death of the child if there is no mother. A father who has not legitimated a child, however, is precluded from maintaining a wrongful-death action. The question presented in this case is whether this statutory scheme violates the Equal Protection or Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by denying the father of an illegitimate child who has not legitimated the child the right to sue for the child’s wrongful death. I The appellant was the biological father of Lemuel Parham, a minor child who was killed in an automobile collision. The child’s mother, Cassandra Moreen, was killed in the same collision. The appellant and Moreen were never married to each other, and the appellant did not legitimate the child as he could have done under Georgia law. The appellant did, however, sign the child’s birth certificate and contribute to his support. The child took the appellant’s name and was visited by the appellant on a regular basis. After the child was killed in the automobile collision, the appellant brought an action seeking to recover for the allegedly wrongful death. The complaint named the appellee (the driver of the other automobile involved in the collision) as the defendant, and charged that negligence on the part of the appellee had caused the death of the child. The child's maternal grandmother, acting as administratrix of his estate, also brought a lawsuit against the appellee to recover for the child’s wrongful death. The appellee filed a motion for summary judgment in the present case, asserting that under the Georgia statute the appellant was precluded from recovering for his illegitimate child’s wrongful death. The trial court held that the Georgia statute violated both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and, accordingly, denied a summary judgment in favor of the appellee. On appeal, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed the ruling of the trial court. 241 Ga. 198, 243 S. E. 2d 867. The appellate court found that the statutory classification was rationally related to three legitimate state interests: (1) the interest in avoiding difficult problems of proving paternity in wrongful-death actions; (2) the interest in promoting a legitimate family unit; and (3) the interest in setting a standard of morality by not according to the father of an illegitimate child the statutory right to sue for the child’s death. Accordingly, the court held that the statute did not violate either the Equal Protection or Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. We noted probable jurisdiction of this appeal from the judgment of the Georgia Supreme Court. 439 U. S. 815. II State laws are generally entitled to a presumption of validity against attack under the Equal Protection Clause. Lockport v. Citizens for Community Action, 430 U. S. 259, 272. Legislatures have wide discretion in passing laws that have the inevitable effect of treating some people differently from others, and legislative classifications are valid unless they bear no rational relationship to a permissible state objective. New York City Transit Authority v. Beazer, 440 U. S. 568; Vance v. Bradley, 440 U. S. 93; Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U. S. 307, 314; Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S. 471, 485. Not all legislation, however, is entitled to the same presumption of validity. The presumption is not present when a State has enacted legislation whose purpose or effect is to create classes based upon racial criteria, since racial classifications, in a constitutional sense, are inherently "suspect.” McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U. S. 184; Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483. And the presumption of statutory validity may also be undermined when a State has enacted legislation creating classes based upon certain other immutable human attributes. See, e. g., Oyama v. California, 332 U. S. 633 (national origin); Graham v. Richardson, 403 U. S. 365 (alienage); Gomez v. Perez, 409 U. S. 535 (illegitimacy) ; Reed v. Reed, 404 U. S. 71 (gender). In the absence of invidious discrimination, however, a court is not free under the aegis of the Equal Protection Clause to substitute its judgment for the will of the people of a State as expressed in the laws passed by their popularly elected legislatures. “The Constitution presumes that, absent some reason to infer antipathy, even improvident decisions will eventually be rectified by the democratic process and that judicial intervention is generally unwarranted no matter how unwisely we may think a political branch has acted.” Vance v. Bradley, 440 U. S., at 97 (footnote omitted). The threshold question, therefore, is whether the Georgia statute is invidiously discriminatory. If it is not, it is entitled to a presumption of validity and will be upheld “unless the varying treatment of different groups or persons is so unrelated to the achievement of any combination of legitimate purposes that we can only conclude that the legislature’s actions were irrational.” Ibid. Ill The appellant relies on decisions of the Court that have invalidated statutory classifications based upon illegitimacy and upon gender to support his claim that the Georgia statute is unconstitutional. Both of these lines of cases have involved laws reflecting invidious discrimination against a particular class. We conclude, however, that neither line of decisions is applicable in the present case. A The Court has held on several occasions that state legislative classifications based upon illegitimacy — i. e., that differentiate between illegitimate children and legitimate children — violate the Equal Protection Clause. E. g., Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U. S. 762; Weber v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 406 U. S. 164. The basic rationale of these decisions is that it is unjust and ineffective for society to express its condemnation of procreation outside the marital relationship by punishing the illegitimate child who is in no way responsible for his situation and is unable to change it. As Mr. Justice Powell stated for the Court in the Weber case: “The status of illegitimacy has expressed through the ages society’s condemnation of irresponsible liaisons beyond the bonds of marriage. But visiting this condemnation on the head of an infant is illogical and unjust. Moreover, imposing disabilities on the illegitimate child is contrary to the basic concept of our system that legal burdens should bear some relationship to individual responsibility or wrongdoing. Obviously, no child is responsible for his birth and penalizing the illegitimate child is an ineffectual — as well as an unjust — way of deterring the parent.” Id., at 175. It is apparent that this rationale is in no way applicable to the Georgia statute now before us. The statute does not impose differing burdens or award differing benefits to legitimate and illegitimate children. It simply denies a natural father the right to sue for his illegitimate child's wrongful death. The appellant, as the natural father, was responsible for conceiving an illegitimate child and had the opportunity to legitimate the child but failed to do so. Legitimation would have removed the stigma of bastardy and allowed the child to inherit from the father in the same manner as if born in lawful wedlock. Ga. Code § 74-103 (1978). Unlike the illegitimate child for whom the status of illegitimacy is involuntary and immutable, the appellant here was responsible for fostering an illegitimate child and for failing to change its status. It is thus neither illogical nor unjust for society to express its “condemnation of irresponsible liaisons beyond the bounds of marriage” by not conferring upon a biological father the statutory right to sue for the wrongful death of his illegitimate child. The justifications for judicial sensitivity to the constitutionality of differing legislative treatment of legitimate and illegitimate children are simply absent when a classification affects only the fathers of deceased illegitimate children. B The Court has also held that certain classifications based upon sex are invalid under the Equal Protection Clause, e. g., Reed v. Reed, 404 U. S. 71; Stanton v. Stanton, 421 U. S. 7; Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U. S. 677; Craig v. Boren, 429 U. S. 190. Underlying these decisions is the principle that a State is not free to make overbroad generalizations based on sex which are entirely unrelated to any differences between men and women or which demean the ability or social status of the affected class. Thus, in Reed v. Reed, supra, the Court was faced with the question of the constitutionality of an Idaho probate code provision that gave men a mandatory preference over women, in the same degree of relationship to the decedent, in the administration of the decedent’s estate. The Court held that “[b]y providing dissimilar treatment for men and women who are thus similarly situated, the challenged section violates the Equal Protection Clause.” 404 U. S., at 77. Similarly, in Frontiero v. Richardson, supra, the Court invalidated the federal Armed Services benefit statutes that were based on the assumption that female spouses of servicemen were financially dependent while similarly situated male spouses of servicewomen were not. 411 U. S., at 690-691. And in the Stanton case, the Court held constitutionally invalid a Utah statute which provided that males had to reach a greater age than females to attain majority status. In reaching this result, the Court rejected the “old notion” that the female is “destined solely for the home and the rearing of the family, and only the male for the marketplace and the world of ideas.” 421 U. S., at 14-15. See also Orr v. Orr, 440 U. S. 268. In cases where men and women are not similarly situated, however, and a statutory classification is realistically based upon the differences in their situations, this Court has upheld its validity. In Schlesinger v. Ballard, 419 U. S. 498, for example, the Court upheld the constitutionality of a federal statute which provided that male naval officers who were not promoted within a certain length of time were subject to mandatory discharge while female naval officers who were not promoted within the same length of time could continue as officers. Because of restrictions on women officers’ seagoing service, their opportunities to compile records entitling them to promotion were more restricted than were those of their male counterparts. Thus, unlike the Reed and Frontiero cases where the gender-based classifications were based solely on administrative convenience and outworn cliches, the different treatment in the Schlesinger case reflected “not archaic and overbroad generalizations, but, instead, the demonstrable fact that male and female line officers in the Navy are not similarly situated with respect to opportunities for professional service.” 419 U. S., at 508 (emphasis in original). With these principles in mind, it is clear that the Georgia statute does not invidiously discriminate against the appellant simply because he is of the male sex. The fact is that mothers and fathers of illegitimate children are not similarly situated. Under Georgia law, only a father can by voluntary unilateral action make an illegitimate child legitimate. Unlike the mother of an illegitimate child whose identity will rarely be in doubt, the identity of the father will frequently be unknown. Lalli v. Lalli, 439 U. S. 259. By coming forward with a motion under § 74-103 of the Georgia Code, however, a father can both establish his identity and make his illegitimate child legitimate. Thus, the conferral of the right of a natural father to sue for the wrongful death of his child only if he has previously acted to identify himself, undertake his paternal responsibilities, and make his child legitimate, does not reflect any overbroad generalizations about men as a class, but rather the reality that in Georgia only a father can by unilateral action legitimate an illegitimate child. Since fathers who do legitimate their children can sue for wrongful death in precisely the same circumstances as married fathers whose children were legitimate ab initio, the statutory classification does not discriminate against fathers as a class but instead distinguishes between fathers who have legitimated their children and those who have not. Such a classification is quite unlike those condemned in the Reed, Frontiero, and Stanton cases which were premised upon overbroad generalizations and excluded all members of one sex even though they were similarly situated with members of the other sex. IV Having concluded that the Georgia statute does not invidiously discriminate against any class,.we still must determine whether the statutory classification is rationally related to a permissible state objective. This Court has frequently recognized that a State has a legitimate interest in the maintenance of an accurate and efficient system for the disposition of property at death. E. g., Lalli v. Lalli, supra; Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U. S. 762; Labine v. Vincent, 401 U. S. 532. Of particular concern to the State is the existence of some mechanism for dealing with “the often difficult problem of proving the paternity of illegitimate children and the related danger of spurious claims against intestate estates.” Lalli v. Lalli, supra, at 265. See also Gomez v. Perez, 409 U. S., at 538. This same state interest in avoiding fraudulent claims of paternity in order to maintain a fair and orderly system of decedent’s property disposition is also present in the context of actions for wrongful death. If paternity has not been established before the commencement of a wrongful-death action, a defendant may be faced with the possibility of multiple lawsuits by individuals all claiming to be the father of the deceased child. Such uncertainty would make it difficult if not impossible for a defendant to settle a wrongful-death action in many cases, since there would always exist the risk of a subsequent suit by another person claiming to be the father. The State of Georgia has chosen to deal with this problem by allowing only fathers who have established their paternity by legitimating their children to sue for wrongful death, and we cannot say that this solution is an irrational one. Cf. Lalli v. Lalli, 439 U. S. 259. The appellant argues, however, that whatever may be the problem with establishing paternity generally, there is no question in this case that he is the father. This argument misconceives the basic principle of the Equal Protection Clause. The function of that provision of the Constitution is to measure the validity of classifications created by state laws. Since we have concluded that the classification created by the Georgia statute is a rational means for dealing with the problem of proving paternity, it is constitutionally irrelevant that the appellant may be able to prove paternity in another manner. y The appellant also alleges that the Georgia statute violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Nowhere in the appellant’s brief or oral argument, however, is there any explanation of how the Due Process Clause is implicated in this case. The only decision of this Court cited by the appellant that is even remotely related to his due process claim is Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U. S. 645. In the Stanley case, the Court held that a father of illegitimate children who had raised these children was entitled to a hearing on his fitness as a parent before they could be taken from him by the State of Illinois. The interests which the Court found controlling in Stanley were the integrity of the family against state interference and the freedom of a father to raise his own children. The present case is quite a different one, involving as it does only an asserted right to sue for money damages. Eor these reasons, the judgment of the Supreme Court of Georgia is affirmed. It is so ordered. Section 105-1307 provides: “A mother, or, if no mother, a father, may recover for the homicide of a child, minor or sui juris, unless said child shall leave a wife, husband or child. The mother or father shall be entitled to recover the full value of the life of such child. In suits by the mother the illegitimacy of the child shall be no bar to a recovery.” (Emphasis added.) Under Ga. Code § 74A103 (1978), a natural father can have his child legitimated by court order. Section 74M03 provides: “A father of an illegitimate child may render the same legitimate by petitioning the superior court of the county of his residence, setting forth the name, age, and sex of such child, and also the name of the mother; and if he desires the name changed, stating the new name, and praying the legitimation of such child. Of this application the mother, if alive, shall have notice. Upon such application, presented and fled, the court may pass an order declaring said child to be legitimate, and capable of inheriting from the father in the same manner as if born in lawful wedlock, and the name by which he or she shall be known.” Under Ga. Code § 74-202 (1978), a father is required to support an illegitimate child until the child reaches 18, marries, or becomes self-supporting, whichever occurs first. Georgia Code § 105-1309 (1978) provides: “In cases where there is no person entitled to sue under the foregoing provisions of this Chapter [the wrongful-death Chapter], the administrator or executor of the decedent may sue for and recover and hold the amount recovered for the benefit of the next of kin. In any such case the amount of the recovery shall be the full value of the life of the decedent.” In cases where statutory classifications affecting illegitimates are so precisely structured as to further a sufficiently adequate state interest, however, the Court has upheld the validity of the statutes. Lalli v. Lalli, 439 U. S. 259; Mathews v. Lucas, 427 U. S. 495; Labine v. Vincent, 401 U. S. 532. The constitutionality of the legitimation provision of the Georgia statute has not been challenged and is not at issue in this ease. As Mr. Justice Powell stated for the plurality in the Lalli case: “That the child is the child of a particular woman is rarely difficult to prove. Proof of paternity, by contrast, frequently is difficult when the father is not part of a formal family unit. The putative father often goes his way unconscious of the birth of a child. Even if conscious, he is very often totally unconcerned because of the absence of any ties to the mother. Indeed the mother may not know who is responsible for her pregnancy.” 439 U. S., at 268-269. (Citations omitted.) In Glona v. American Guarantee & Liability Ins. Co., 391 U. S. 73, the Court held that a Louisiana statute that did not allow a natural mother of an illegitimate child to sue for its wrongful death violated the Equal Protection Clause. That cause was quite different from this one. The invidious discrimination perceived in that ease was between married and unmarried mothers. There thus existed no real problem of identity or of fraudulent claims. See Part IV, infra. Moreover, the statute in Olona excluded every mother of an illegitimate child from bringing a wrongful-death action while the Georgia statute at issue here excludes only those fathers who have not legitimated their children. Thus, the Georgia statute has in effect adopted “a middle ground between the extremes of complete exclusion and case-by-case determination of paternity.” Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U. S. 762, 771. Cf. Lalli v. Lalli, supra. We need not decide whether a statute which completely precluded fathers, as opposed to mothers, of illegitimate children from maintaining a wrongful-death action would violate the Equal Protection Clause. See n. 2, supra. The ability of a father to make his child legitimate under Georgia law distinguishes this case from Caban v. Mohammed, post, p. 380, decided today. The Georgia legitimation provision enables the father to change the child’s status, and thereby his own for purposes of the wrongful-death statute, and at the same time is a rational method for the State to deal with the problem of proving paternity. Lalli v. Lalli, supra; see Part IV, infra. In the Caban case, by contrast, the father could change neither his children’s status nor his own for purposes of the New York adoption statute. Indeed, a similar uncertainty is evident in the present case. The appellee has been sued by both the administratrix of the estate and the appellant for the wrongful death of the child. We thus need not decide whether the classification created by the Georgia statute is rationally related to the State’s interests in promoting the traditional family unit or in setting a standard of morality. It cannot seriously be argued that a statutory entitlement to sue for the wrongful death of another is itself a “fundamental” or constitutional right. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
B
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Mr. Justice Harlan delivered the opinion of the Court. The questions presented by this case are similar to those involved in No. 28, Konigsberg v. State Bar of California, decided today, ante, p. 36. ' In 1954 petitioner, George Anastaplo, an instructor and research assistant at the University of Chicago, having previously passed his Illinois bar examinations, was denied admission to the bar of that State by the Illinois Supreme Court. The denial was based upon his refusal to answer questions of the Committee on Character and Fitness as to whether he was a member of the Communist Party. This Court, two Justices dissenting, refused review. 348 U. S. 946. In 1957, following this Court’s decisions in the earlier Konigsberg case, 353 U. S. 252, and in Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners of New Mexico, 353 U. S. 232, Anastaplo sought to have the Character Committee rehear his application for certification. The Committee, by a divided vote, refused, but the State Supreme Court reversed and directed rehearing. The ensuing lengthy proceedings before the Committee, at which Anastaplo was the only witness, are perhaps best described as a wide-ranging exchange between the Committee and Anastaplo in which the Committee sought to explore Anastaplo’s ability conscientiously to swear support of the Federal and State Constitutions, as required by the Illinois attorneys’ oath, and Anastaplo undertook to expound and defend, on historical and ideological premises, his abstract belief in the “right of revolution,” and to resist, on grounds of asserted constitutional right and scruple, Committee questions which he deemed improper. The Committee already had before it uncontroverted evidence as to Anastaplo’s “good moral character,” in the form of written statements or affidavits furnished by persons of standing acquainted with him, and the record on rehearing contains nothing which could properly be considered as reflecting adversely upon his character or reputation or on the sincerity of the beliefs' he espoused before the Committee. Anastaplo persisted, however, in refusing to answer, among other inquiries, the Committee’s questions as to his possible membership in the Communist Party or in other allegedly related organizations. Thereafter the Committee, by a vote of 11 to 6, again declined to certify Anastaplo because of his refusal to answer such questions, the majority stating in its report to the Illinois'Supreme Court: “his [Anastaplo’s] failure to reply, in our .view, (i) obstructs the lawful processes of the Committee, (ii) prevents inquiry into subjects which bear intimately upon the issue of character and fitness, such as loyalty to our basic institutions, belief in representative government and bona fides of the attorney’s oath and (iii) results in his failure to meet the burden of establishing that he possesses the good moral character and fitness to practice law, which are conditions to the granting of a license to practice law. “We draw no inference of disloyalty or subversion from applicant’s continued refusal to answer questions concerning Communist or other subversive affiliations. We do, however, hold that there is a strong public interest in our being free to question applicants for admission to the bar on their adherence to our basic institutions and form of government and that such public interest in the character of its attorneys overrides an applicant’s private interest in keeping such views to himself. By failing to respond to this higher public interest we hold that the applicant has obstructed the proper functions of the Committee. ... We cannot certify the applicant as worthy of the trust and confidence of the public when we do not know that he is so worthy and when he has prevented us from finding out.” At the same time the full Committee acknowledged that Anastaplo “is well regarded by his academic associates, by professors who had taught him in school and by members of the Bar who know him personally . . ; that it had “not been supplied with any information by any third party which is derogatory to Anastaplo’s character or general reputation . . and that it had “received no information from any outside source which would cast any doubt on applicant’s loyalty or which would tend to connect him in any manner with any subversive group.” Further, the majority found that Anastaplo’s views “with respect to the right to overthrow the government by force or violence, while strongly libertarian and expressed with an intensity and fervor not necessarily shared by all good citizens, are not inconsistent with those held by many patriotic Americans both at the present time and throughout the course of this country’s history and do not in and of themselves reveal any adherence to subversive doctrines.” Upon review, the Illinois Supreme Court, over three dissents, confirmed the Committee’s report and refusal to certify Anastaplo, reaffirming in its per curiam opinion the court’s “. . . earlier conclusion that a determination as to whether an applicant can in good conscience take the attorney’s oath to support and defend the constitutions of the United States and the State of Illinois is impossible where he refuses to state whether he is a member of a group dedicated to the overthrow of the government of the United States by force and violence.” 18 Ill. 2d 182, 200-201, 163 N. E. 2d 429, 439. We granted certiorari, 362 U. S. 968, and set the matter for argument along with the Konigsberg case, ante, p. 36, and Cohen v. Hurley, post, p. 117. Two of the basic issues in this litigation have been settled by our contemporary Konigsberg opinion. We have there held it not constitutionally impermissible for a State legislatively, or through court-made regulation as here and in Konigsberg, to adopt a rule that an applicant will not be admitted to the practice of law if, and so long as, by refusing to answer matérial questions, he obstructs a bar examining committee in its proper functions of interrogating and cross-examining him upon his qualifications. That such was a proper function of the Illinois Character Committee is incontestably established by the opinions of the State Supreme Court in this case. 3 Ill. 2d, at 476, 121 N. E. 2d, at 829; 18 Ill. 2d, at 188, 163 N. E. 2d, at 432. We have also held in Konigsberg that the State's interest in enforcing such a rule as applied to refusals to answer questions about membership in the Communist Party outweighs any deterrent effect upon freedom of speech and association, and hence that such state action does not offend the Fourteenth Amendment. We think that in this respect no valid constitutional distinction can be based on the circumstance that in Konigsberg there was some, though weak, independent evidence that the applicant had once been connected with the Communist Party, while here there was no such evidence as to Anastaplo. Where, as with membership in the bar, the State may withhold a privilege available only to those possessing the requisite qualifications, it is of no constitutional significance whether the State’s interrogation of an applicant on matters relevant to these qualifications— in this case Communist Party membership — is prompted by information which it already has about him from other sources, or arises merely from a good faith belief in the need for exploratory or testing questioning of the applicant. Were it otherwise, a bar examining committee such as this, having no resources of its own for independent investigation, might be placed in the untenable position of having to certify an applicant without assurance as to a significant aspect of his qualifications which the applicant himself is best circumstanced to supply. The Constitution does not so unreasonably fetter the States. Two issues, however, do arise upon this record which are not disposed of by Konigsberg. The first is whether Anastaplo was given adequate warning as to the consequences of his refusal to answer the Committee’s questions relating to Communist Party membership. The second is whether his exclusion from the bar on this ground was, in the- circumstances of this case, arbitrary ■ or discriminatory. I. The opinions below reflect full awareness on the part of the Character Committee and the Illinois Supreme Court of Anastaplo’s constitutional right to be warned in advance of the consequences of his refusal to answer. Cf. Konigsberg v. State Bar, 353 U. S., at 261. On the part of Anastaplo, he stands in the unusual position of one who had already been clearly so warned as a result of his earlier exclusion from the bar for refusal to answer the very question which was again put to him on rehearing. See note 2, supra. Anastaplo nevertheless, contends in effect that he was lulled into a false, sense of security by various occurrences at the Committee hearings: (1) several statements by Committee members indicating that all questions asked and refused an answer should not be considered as bearing the same level of importance in the eyes of the Committee; and (2) a statement by one of the principal Committee members that Illinois had no “per se” rule of exclusion, that is that Anastaplo’s refusal to answer would not automatically operate to exclude him from the bar. These suggestions, whether taken separately or together, can only be viewed as insubstantial. The sum and substance of the matter is that throughout the renewed proceedings petitioner was fully aware that his application for admission had already once been rejected on the very ground about which he now professes to have been left in doubt, and that the Committee made manifest both that it continued to attach special importance- to its Communist Party affiliation questions, and that adverse consequences might well follow if Anastaplo persisted in refusing to answer them. What follows will suffice to show that statements to the effect that the Committee as a whole did not necessarily approve or adopt every question asked by any of its members can hardly be taken as having left petitioner in doubt as to the central importance and general approval of questions about Communist Party membership. At an early stage of the proceedings Anastaplo was informed: “Now you have asked for a warning when we put a question to you that we think is a pivotal, important question in connection with your qualification. I must tell you that we consider that question, ‘Are you a member of the Communist Party,’ such a question; and that the refusal to answer it may have serious consequences to your application.” And at the last hearing one of the leading Committee members responded to Anastaplo’s insistence on being told even more explicitly what refusals to answer would be of significance to the Committee, by pointing out that “The Supreme Court of Illinois has ruled that it is proper for us to ask you whether you are a member of the Communist Party. You have refused to answer the question.” Further, petitioner’s repeated objections throughout the hearings to the effect that there was no basis for the Committee’s evident purpose to give much greater emphasis to questions about Communist Party membership than to other unanswered inquiries, dispel any doubt that Anastaplo was quite aware that Communist-affiliation questions were to be treated differently from other questions he had refused to answer. The other aspect of petitioner’s claim on lack of adequate warning is equally untenable. It is true that the Committee told Anastaplo that his refusal to answer questions would not ipso jacto result in his exclusion from the bar, but only that it “could and might.” This, however, certainly did not give rise to constitutional infirmity. Even as to one charged with crime due process does not demand that he be warned as to what specific sanction will be applied to him if he violates the law. It is enough that he know what sanction “could and might” be visited on him. Anastaplo was entitled to no more. It is of course indubitable that by reason of the original rejection of his application, Anastaplo knew of Illinois’ rule of exclusion for refusal to answer relevant questions — indeed the very questions involved here. Petitioner having been fairly warned that exclusion from admission to practice might follow from his refusal to answer, it must be found that this requirement of due process was duly met. II. Petitioner’s claim that the application of the State’s exclusionary rule was arbitrary and discriminatory in the circumstances of this case must also be rejected. It is contended (1) that Anastaplo’s refusal to answer these particular questions did not obstruct the Committee’s investigation, because that body already had before it uncontroverted evidence establishing petitioner’s good character and fitness for the practice of law; and (2) that the real reason why the State proceeded as it did was because of its disapproval of Anastaplo’s constitutionally protected views on the right to resist tyrannical government. Neither contention can be accepted. It is sufficient to say in answer to the first contention that even though the Committee already had before it substantial character evidence altogether favorable to Anastaplo, there is nothing in the Federal Constitution which required the Committee to draw the curtain upon its investigation at that point. It had the right to supplement that evidence and to test the applicant’s own credibility by interrogating him. And to those ends the Committee could insist upon unprivileged answers to relevant questions, such as we have held in our today’s Konigsberg opinion those relating to Communist affiliations were, even though as to them the Committee could not, as it did not, draw an unfavorable inference from refusal to answer. Konigsberg v. State Bar of California, supra. As to the second contention, there is nothing in the record which would justify our holding that the State has invoked its exclusionary refusal-to-answer rule as a mask for its disapproval of petitioner’s notions on the right to overthrow tyrannical government. While the Committee’s majority report does observe that there was “a serious question” whether Anastaplo’s views on the right to resist judicial decrees would be compatible with his taking of the attorney’s oath, and that “certain” members of the Committee thought that such views affirmatively demonstrated his disqualification for admission to the bar, it is perfectly clear that the Illinois Bar Committee and Supreme Court regarded petitioner’s refusal to cooperate in the Committee’s examination of him as the basic and only reason for a denial of certification. A different conclusion is not suggested by the circumstances that the Committee when it reheard Anastaplo evinced its willingness to consider the effect of petitioner’s refusal to answer in light of what might transpire at the hearings, and that it continued to explore petitioner’s views on resistance and overthrow long after it became clear that he would refuse to answer Communist-affiliation questions. These factors indicate no more than that the Committee was attempting to exercise an informed judgment as to whether the situation was an appropriate one for waiver of the Committee’s continuing requirement, earlier enforced after the first Anastaplo hearings, that such questions must be answered. Finally, contrary to the assumption on which some of the arguments on behalf of Anastaplo seem to have proceeded, we do not understand that Illinois’ exclusionary requirement will continue to operate to exclude Anastaplo from the bar any longer than he continues in his refusal to answer. We find nothing to suggest that he would not be admitted now if he decides to answer, assuming of course that no grounds justifying his exclusion from practice resulted. In short, petitioner holds the key to admission in his own hands. We conclude with observing that our function here is solely one of constitutional adjudication, not to pass judgment on what has been done as if we were another state court of review, still less to express any view upon the wisdom of the State’s action. With appropriate regard for the limited range of our authority we cannot say that the State’s denial of Anastaplo’s application for admission to its bar offends the Federal Constitution. The judgment of the Illinois Supreme Court must therefore be Affirmed. The Illinois procedure for admission to the bar was thus summarized by the State Supreme Court (3 Ill. 2d, at 475-476, 121 N. E. 2d, at 829): “In the exercise of its judicial power over the bar, and in discharge of its responsibility for the choice of personnel who will compose that bar, this court has adopted Rule 58, (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1951, chap. 110, par. 259.58,) which governs admissions and provides, among other things, that applicants shall be admitted to the practice of law by this court after satisfactory examination by the Board of Examiners and certification of approval by a Committee on Character and Fitness. Section IX of the rule provides for the creation of such committees and imposes upon them the duty to examine applicants who appear before them for moral character, general fitness to practice law and good citizenship. Still another condition precedent to admission to practice law in this State, imposed by the legislature, is the taking of an oath to support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of Illinois. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1951, chap. 13, par. 4.)” On that occasion the State Supreme Court said (3 Ill. 2d, at 480, 121 N. E. 2d, at 831): “It is our opinion, therefore, that a member of the Communist Party may, because of such membership, be unable truthfully and in good conscience to take the oath required as a condition for admission to practice, and we hold that it is relevant to inquire of an applicant as to his membership in that party. A negative answer to the question, if accepted as true, would end the inquiry on the point. If the truthfulness of a negative answer were doubted, further questions and information to test the veracity of the applicant would be proper. If an affirmative answer were received, further inquiry into the applicant’s innocence or knowledge as to the subversive nature of the organization would be relevant. Under any hypothesis, therefore, questions as to membership in the Communist Party or known subversive 'front’ organizations were relevant to the inquiry into petitioner’s fitness for admission to the bar. His refusal to answer has prevented the committee from inquiring fully into his general fitness and good citizenship and justifies their refusal to-issue a certificate.” In remanding the matter to the Character Committee, the Illinois Supreme Court stated (see 18 Ill. 2d, at 186, 163 N. E. 2d, at 431): “ 'The principal question presented by the petition for rehearing concerns the significance of the applicant’s views as to the overthrow of government by force in the light of Konigsberg v. State Bar of California, 353 U. S. 252, and Yates v. United States, 1 L. ed. 2d 1356, 77 S. Ct. 1064. Additional questions presented concern the applicant’s activities since his original application was denied, and his present reputation. “ 'We are of the opinion that the Committee should have allowed the petition for rehearing and heard evidence on these matters, and the Committee is requested to do so, and to report the evidence and its conclusions.’ ” The proceedings consumed six hearing days, and resulted in a transcript of over 400 pages. More particularly: petitioner was first asked routine questions about his personal history. He refused, on constitutional grounds, to answer whether he was affiliated with any church. He answered all questions about organizational relationships so long as he did not know that the organization was “political” in character. He refused, on grounds of protected free speech and association, to answer whether he was a member of the Communist Party or of any other group named in the Attorney General's list of “subversive” organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan and the Silver Shirts of America. Much of the ensuing five sessions was devoted to discussion of Anastaplo’s reasons for believing that inquiries into such matters were constitutionally privileged, and to an unjustifiable attempt, later expressly repudiated by the Committee, to delve into the consistency of petitioner’s religious beliefs with an attorney’s duty to take an oath of office. A substantial part of the proceedings revolved around Anastaplo’s views as to the right to revolt against tyrannical government, and the right to resist judicial decrees in exceptional circumstances. Although the transcript of the prior Committee proceedings has not been made part of the record before us, it is evident that it contained nothing which affirmatively reflected unfavorably on petitioner’s character or reputation. See note 5, supra. Two dissenting opinions were filed. Justice Bristow dissented on constitutional grounds. 18 Ill. 2d, at 201, 163 N. E. 2d, at 439. Justices Schaefer and Davis, joining in a single opinion, did not reach the constitutional questions. 18 Ill. 2d, at 224, 163 N. E. 2d, at 928. In its second opinion, the State Supreme Court stated (18 Ill. 2d, at 188, 163 N. E. 2d, at 432): “The committee further advises us that it has conducted no independent investigation into Anastaplo’s character, reputation or activities. For the very practical reason that the committee has no personnel or other resources for any such investigation, the committee states that it has traditionally asserted the view that it cannot be expected to carry the burden of establishing, by independent investigation, whether .an applicant possesses the requisite character and fitness for admission to the bar and that a duty devolves upon the applicant to establish that he possesses the necessary qualifications and that it is then the duty of the committee to test, by hearings and questioning of the applicant, the worth of the evidence which he proffers. We agree, and have held that the discretion exercised by the Committee on Character and Fitness will not ordinarily be reviewed. In re Frank, 293 Ill. 263.” The fact that in Konigsberg the materiality of questions relating to Communist Party membership rested directly on the existence of a California statute disqualifying from membership in the bar those advocating forcible overthrow of government, whereas here materiality stemmed from their bearing upon the likelihood that a bar applicant would observe as a lawyer the orderly processes • that lie at the roots of this country’s legal and political systems, cf. Barenblatt v. United States, 360 U. S. 109, is of course a circumstance of no significance. Cf. Garner v. Los Angeles Board, 341 U. S. 716; American Communications Assn. v. Douds, 339 U. S. 382. The Committee's majority report states: “The Committee repeatedly warned the applicant that questions regarding Communist affiliation were viewed as important by the Committee members and that his failure to respond to them could adversely affect his application for admission to the bar.” The Illinois Supreme Court stated (18 Ill. 2d, at 196, 163 N. E. 2d, at 436): “. . .no problem exists as to inadequate notice of the consequences of a refusal to answer; the applicant was specifically notified both by the Illinois Supreme Court in its opinion in 3 111. 2d 471, and by the committee on rehearing that his continued refusal to answer might lead to the denial of his application.” It was stated at one point in the Committee hearings: “It has been pointed out before to you, that the mere fact that a question is asked does not indicate that. other people would have asked or approved that question, nor does it indicate that any particular weight will be attached to the answer or failure to answer the question; do you understand?” It should be observed, however, that this remark, as was also the case with an earlier similar remark, was made in the context of questions involving petitioner’s religious beliefs. See note 5, supra. This aspect of Anastaplo’s contention is based on the following episode relating to the Committee’s Communist Party questions: “Mr. Anastaplo: ... I would like to find out exactly what this entails. You are not suggesting that refusal to answer that question would per se block my admission to the bar? “Commissioner Stephan: No, I am saying your refusal to answer that question as to whether you are a member of the Communist Party, could and might. “Mr. Anastaplo: I see. “Commissioner Stephan: To us, it is relevant to your character and fitness. If you should answer the question 'yes,' I am not at all sure that would end the inquiry. I think if you should answer it 'yes,' the committee should be entitled to probe further and find out what kind of Communist Party member the applicant might be, whether he is an active member, whether he is a dues-paying member, whether he is a policy-making member, whether he is an officer in a local group, or just what he is. So I would point out the seriousness of that issue to you at this time. “Mr. Anastaplo: I assume that the committee does not care to state why this is a particularly serious issue with respect to me? I mean — I notice you say nothing about the Ku Klux Klan or the Silver Shirts of America, about which you have also asked with the same amount of emphasis up to this point, and which I have refused to answer for the same reasons. Would you care to indicate why you say this about this question and not about the other ones? “Commissioner Stephan: I think there is an easy answer to that. This committee has not come into being — this committee cannot completely ignore the history of this proceeding. “Commissioner-: But the history includes that question, and that question has been before two of the high courts of the country. “Commissioner Stephan: Whatever the relevance of other questions, we consider that one quite relevant.”- The particular importance which the Committee attached to its Communist Party questions was still further brought home to Anastaplo by the fact that after this Court’s decisions in Beilan v. Board of Education, 357 U. S. 399, and Lerner v. Casey, 357 U. S. 468, had come down, the Committee wrote Anastaplo specifically drawing his attention to them. We find it difficult to understand how it can be seriously suggested, as it further is, that petitioner was put off guard by the fact that instead of standing on petitioner’s mere refusal to answer such questions, the Committee proceeded to interrogate him widely. Not only are subsequent events generally irrelevant to an earlier warning, but a large part of the questioning which Anastaplo now complains led him astray was in fact devoted to exploring' the bearing of these questions on his fitness for admission to the bar and his reasons for declining to answer them. Both the Committee’s report and the State Supreme Court’s opinion make it apparent that this area of Anastaplo’s views played no part in his exclusion from the bar. See pp. 86-88, supra; 18 Ill. 2d, at 188, 163 N. E. 2d, at 432. This of course could hardly be so in the context of the illustrations which Anastaplo gave of his views as to when a right to resist might arise. These were: Nazi Germany; Hungary during the 1956 revolt against Russia; a hypothetical decree of this Court establishing “some dead pagan religion as the official religion of the country . . .”; a capital sentence of Jesus Christ. Asked to give a more realistic instance of when resistance would be proper, Anastaplo summarized: “I know of no decree, off hand, in the history of American government, where such a single instance has occurred. No — I grant that it is hard -to find these instances. I think it is important to insist that there might be such instances.” Nothing in the State Court’s opinion remotely suggests its approbation of these views of “certain” Committee members. Supra, pp. 86-88. Apart from anything else, there is of course no room under our Rules for the suggestion made in petitioner’s brief that he be admitted to the Bar of this Court, “independently of the. action Illinois might be induced to take.” See Rule 5, Revised Rules of this Court. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
C
sc_issuearea
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the issue area of the Court's decision. Determine the issue area on the basis of the Court's own statements as to what the case is about. Focus on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. In specifying the issue in a legacy case, choose the one that best accords with what today's Court would consider it to be. Choose among the following issue areas: "Criminal Procedure" encompasses the rights of persons accused of crime, except for the due process rights of prisoners. "Civil rights" includes non-First Amendment freedom cases which pertain to classifications based on race (including American Indians), age, indigency, voting, residency, military or handicapped status, gender, and alienage. "First Amendment encompasses the scope of this constitutional provision, but do note that it need not involve the interpretation and application of a provision of the First Amendment. For example, if the case only construe a precedent, or the reviewability of a claim based on the First Amendment, or the scope of an administrative rule or regulation that impacts the exercise of First Amendment freedoms. "Due process" is limited to non-criminal guarantees. "Privacy" concerns libel, comity, abortion, contraceptives, right to die, and Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations. "Attorneys" includes attorneys' compensation and licenses, along with trhose of governmental officials and employees. "Unions" encompass those issues involving labor union activity. "Economic activity" is largely commercial and business related; it includes tort actions and employee actions vis-a-vis employers. "Judicial power" concerns the exercise of the judiciary's own power. "Federalism" pertains to conflicts and other relationships between the federal government and the states, except for those between the federal and state courts. "Federal taxation" concerns the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. "Private law" relates to disputes between private persons involving real and personal property, contracts, evidence, civil procedure, torts, wills and trusts, and commercial transactions. Prior to the passage of the Judges' Bill of 1925 much of the Court's cases concerned such issues. Use "Miscellaneous" for legislative veto and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states. Justice THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioner Kingdomware Technologies, Inc., a veteran-owned small business, unsuccessfully vied for a federal contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide emergency-notification services. Kingdomware sued, arguing that the Department violated a federal law providing that it “shall award” contracts to veteran-owned small businesses when there is a “reasonable expectation” that two or more such businesses will bid for the contract at “a fair and reasonable price that offers best value to the United States.” 38 U.S.C. § 8127(d). This provision is known as the Rule of Two. In this case, we consider whether the Department must use the Rule of Two every time it awards contracts or whether it must use the Rule of Two only to the extent necessary to meet annual minimum goals for contracting with veteran-owned small businesses. We conclude that the Department must use the Rule of Two when awarding contracts, even when the Department will otherwise meet its annual minimum contracting goals. I This case concerns the interplay between several federal statutes governing federal procurement. A In an effort to encourage small businesses, Congress has mandated that federal agencies restrict competition for some federal contracts. The Small Business Act thus requires many federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, to set aside contracts to be awarded to small businesses. The Act requires each agency to set “an annual goal that presents, for that agency, the maximum practicable opportunity” for contracting with small businesses, including those “small business concerns owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans.” 15 U.S.C. § 644(g)(1)(B). And federal regulations set forth procedures for most agencies to “set aside” contracts for small businesses. See, e.g., 48 CFR § 19.502-2(b) (2015). In 1999, Congress expanded small-business opportunities for veterans by passing the Veterans Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act, 113 Stat. 233. That Act established a 3% government-wide contracting goal for contracting with service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. 15 U.S.C. § 644(g)(l)(A)(ii). When the Federal Government continually fell behind in achieving these goals, Congress tried to correct the situation. Relevant here, Congress enacted the Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006, §§ 502, 503, 120 Stat. 3431-3436 (codified, as amended, at 38 U.S.C. §§ 8127, 8128). That Act requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to set more specific annual goals that encourage contracting with veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. § 8127(a). The Act’s “Rule of Two,” at issue here, provides that the Department “shall award” contracts by restricting competition for the contract to service-disabled or other veteran-owned small businesses. To restrict competition under the Act, the contracting officer must reasonably expect that at least two of these businesses will submit offers and that “the award can be made at a fair and reasonable price that offers best value to the United States.”. § 8127(d). Congress provided two exceptions to the Rule. Under those exceptions, the Department may use noncompetitive and sole-source contracts when the contracts are below specific dollar amounts. Under § 8127(b), a contracting officer “may use procedures other than competitive procedures” to award contracts to veteran-owned small businesses when the goods or services that are the subject of such contracts are worth less than the simplified acquisition threshold. 38 U.S.C. § 8127(b); 41 U.S.C. § 134 (establishing a “ ‘simplified acquisition threshold’ ” of $100,000); see also § 1908 (authorizing adjustments for inflation); 75 Fed.Reg. 53130 (codified at 48 CFR § 2.101 (2010)) (raising the amount to $150,000). And under 38 U.S.C. § 8127(c), a contracting officer “may award a contract to a [veteran-owned small business] using procedures other than competitive procedures” if the contract is worth more than the simplified acquisition threshold but less than $5 million, the contracting officer determines that the business is “a responsible source with respect to performance of such contract opportunity,” and the award can be made at “a fair and reasonable price.” 38 U.S.C. § 8127(c). In finalizing its regulations meant to implement the Act, the Department stated in a preamble that § 8127’s procedures “do not apply to [Federal Supply Schedule] task or delivery orders.” VA Acquisition Regulation, 74 Fed.Reg. 64624 (2009). The Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) generally is a streamlined method for Government agencies to acquire certain supplies and services in bulk, such as office supplies or food equipment. 48 CFR § 8.402(a) (2015). Instead of the normal bidding process for each individual order, FSS contracts are ordinarily pre-negotiated between outside vendors and the General Services Administration, which negotiates on behalf of various Government agencies. See § 8.402(b); Sharp Electronics Corp. v. McHugh, 707 F.3d 1367, 1369 (C.A.Fed.2013). Under FSS contracts, businesses agree to provide “[i]ndefinite delivery” of particular goods or services “at stated prices for given periods of time.” § 8.402(a). Agencies receive a list of goods and services available through the FSS. Because the terms of purchasing these goods and services have already been negotiated, contracting officers can acquire these items and services simply by issuing purchase orders. B Kingdomware Technologies, Inc., is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business. Around January 2012, the Department decided to procure an Emergency Notification Service for four medical centers.- In an emergency, this service sends important information to Department personnel. The Department sent a request for a price quotation to a non-veteran-owned company through the FSS system. That company responded with a favorable price, which the Department accepted around February 22, 2012. The agreement was for one year, with an option to extend the agreement for two more. The Department exercised the one option to extend the time, and performance was completed in May 2013. Decl. of Corydon Ford Heard III ¶ 8. Kingdomware challenged the Department’s decision to award the contract to a non-veteran-owned company by filing a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). See 31 U.S.C. § 3552(a). Kingdomware alleged that the Department procured multiple contracts through the FSS without restricting competition using the Rule of Two, as required by § 8127. Kingdomware contended that the Department could not award the contracts at issue here without first checking to see whether at least two veteran-owned small businesses could perform the work at a fair and reasonable price. The GAO issued a nonbinding determination that the Department’s failure to employ the Rule of Two was unlawful and recommended that the Department conduct market research to determine whether there were two veteran-owned businesses that could fulfill the procurement. The Department disagreed with the recommendation. Petitioner then filed suit in the Court of Federal Claims and sought declaratory and injunctive relief. The Court of Federal Claims granted summary judgment to the Department. 107 Fed.Cl. 226 (2012). A divided panel of the Federal Circuit affirmed. 754 F.3d 923 (2014). In the majority’s "view, § 8127 did not require the Department to use the Rule of Two in all contracting. Id., at 933-934. Instead, the court concluded, mandatory application of the Rule of Two was limited to contracts necessary to fulfill its statutory purpose— to provide a means of satisfying the Department’s annual contracting goals described in § 8127(a). Id., at 934. Thus, so long as those goals were satisfied, the Court of Appeals concluded, the Department need not apply the Rule of Two any further. Ibid. Judge Reyna dissented, arguing that § 8127 employs mandatory language that “could not be clearer” in requiring the Department to apply the Rule of Two in every instance of contracting. Id., at 935. We granted certiorari to decide whether § 8127(d) requires the Department to apply the Rule of Two in all contracting, or whether the statute gives the Department some discretion in applying the rule. 576 U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 2857, 192 L.Ed.2d 894 (2015). II Before we reach the merits, we must assess our jurisdiction. Article III of the Constitution limits federal courts to deciding “Cases” and “Controversies,” and “an actual controversy must exist not only at the time the complaint is filed, but through all stages of the litigation.” Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc., 568 U.S. -, -, 133 S.Ct. 721, 726, 184 L.Ed.2d 553 (2013) (internal quotation marks omitted). Here, no live controversy in the ordinary sense remains because no court is now capable of granting the relief petitioner seeks. When Kingdomware filed this suit four years ago, it sought a permanent injunction and declaratory relief with respect to a particular procurement. The services at issue in that procurement were completed in May 2013. And the two earlier procurements, which Kingdomware had also protested, were complete in September 2012. See Decl. of Corydon Ford Heard III ¶¶6-8. As a result, no court can enjoin further .performance of those services or solicit new bids for the performance of those services. And declaratory relief would have no effect here with respect to the present procurements because the services have already been rendered. ? a case would generally be moot in such circumstances, this Court’s precedents recognize an exception to the mootness doctrine for a controversy that is “‘capable of repetition, yet evading review.’ ” Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 17, 118 S.Ct. 978, 140 L.Ed.2d 43 (1998). That exception applies “only in exceptional situations,” where (1) “the challenged action [is] in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to cessation or expiration,” and (2) “there [is] a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party [will] be subject to the same action again.” Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted; brackets in original). That exception applies to these short-term contracts. First, the procurements were fully performed in less than two years after they were awarded. We have previously held that a period of two years is too short to complete judicial review of the lawfulness of the procurement. See Southern Pacific Terminal Co. v. ICC, 219 U.S. 498, 514-516, 31 S.Ct. 279, 55 L.Ed. 310 (1911). Second, it is reasonable to expect that the Department will refuse to apply the Rule of Two in a future procurement for the kind of services provided by Kingdomware. If Kingdomware’s interpretation of § 8127(d) is correct, then the Department must use restricted competition rather than procure on the open market. And Kingdomware, which has been' awarded many, previous contracts, has shown a reasonable likelihood that it would be awarded a future contract if its interpretation of § 8127(d) prevails. See Decl. of Corydon Ford Heard III ¶¶ 11-15 (explaining that the company continues to bid on similar contracts). Thus, we have jurisdiction because the same legal issue in this case is likely to recur, in future controversies between the same parties in circumstances where the period of contract performance is too short to allow full judicial review before performance is complete. Our interpretation of § 8127(d)’s requirements in this case will govern the Department’s future contracting. Ill On the merits, we hold that § 8127 is mandatory, not discretionary. Its text requires the Department to apply the Rule of Two to all contracting determinations and to award contracts to veteran-owned small businesses. The Act does not allow the Department to evade the Rule of Two on the ground that it has already met its contracting goals or on the ground that the Department has placed an order through the FSS. A In statutory construction, we begin “with the language of the statute.” Barnhart v. Sigmon Coal Co., 534 U.S. 438, 450, 122 S.Ct. 941, 151 L.Ed.2d 908 (2002). If the statutory language is unambiguous and “the statutory scheme is coherent and consistent”—as is the case here—“[t]he inquiry ceases.” Ibid. We hold that § 8127(d) unambiguously requires the Department to use the Rule of Two before contracting under the competitive procedures. Section 8127(d) requires that “a contracting officer of the Department shall award contracts” to veteran-owned small businesses using restricted competition whenever the Rule of Two is satisfied, “[ejxcept as provided in subsections (b) and (c).” (Emphasis added.) Subsections (b) and (c) provide, in turn, that the Department “may” use noncompetitive procedures and sole-source contracts for lower value acquisitions. §§ 8127(b), (c). Except when the Department uses the noncompetitive and sole-source contracting procedures in subsections (b) and (c), § 8127(d) requires the Department to use the Rule of Two before awarding a contract to another supplier. The text also has no exceptions for orders from the FSS system, Congress’ use of the word “shall” demonstrates that § 8127(d) mandates the use of the Rule of Two in all contracting before using competitive procedures. Unlike the word “may,” which implies discretion, the word “shall” usually connotes a requirement. Compare Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, 523 U.S. 26, 35, 118 S.Ct. 956, 140 L.Ed.2d 62 (1998) (recognizing that “shall” is “mandatory” and “normally creates an obligation impervious to judicial discretion”), with United States v. Rodgers, 461 U.S. 677, 706, 103 S.Ct. 2132, 76 L.Ed.2d 236 (1983) (explaining that “[t]he word ‘may,’ when used in a statute, usually implies some degree of discretion”). Accordingly, the Department shall (or must) prefer veteran-owned small businesses when the Rule of Two is satisfied. The surrounding subsections of § 8127 confirm that Congress used the word “shall” in § 8127(d) as a command. Like § 8127(d), both § 8127(b) and § 8127(c) provide special procedures “[f]or purposes of meeting the goals under [§ 8127(a) §§ 8127(b), (c). But, in contrast to § 8127(d), those latter two provisions state that “a contracting officer of the Department may use” (or, for § 8127(c), “may award”) such contracts. §§ 8127(b), (c) (emphasis added). When a statute distinguishes between “may” and “shall,” it is generally clear that “shall” imposes a mandatory duty. See United States ex rel. Siegel v. Thoman, 156 U.S. 353, 359-360, 15 S.Ct. 378, 39 L.Ed. 450 (1895). We see no reason to depart from the usual inference here. We therefore hold that, before contracting with a non-veteran owned business, the Department must first apply the Rule of Two. B The Federal Circuit and the Department offered several reasons for their alternative reading of § 8127(d) as a discretionary provision that the Department can disregard for at least some contracting decisions. We disagree with them. To hold that § 8127(d) is discretionary, the Federal Circuit relied on § 8127(d)’s prefatory clause. 754 F.3d, at 933. That clause declares that the Rule of Two is designed “for the purposes of’ meeting the annual contracting goals that the Department is required to set under § 8127(a). The Department originally made a similar argument before changing arguments in its briefing on the merits. Compare Brief in Opposition 13-16 with Brief for United States 24-25. ? the prefatory clause has no bearing on whether § 8127(d)’s requirement is mandatory or discretionary. The clause announces an objective that Congress hoped that the Department would achieve and charges the Secretary with setting annual benchmarks, but it does not change the plain meaning of the operative clause, § 8127(d). See Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. Co. v. Thomas, 132 U.S. 174, 188, 10 S.Ct. 68, 33 L.Ed. 302 (1889) (explaining that prefatory clauses or preambles cannot change the scope of the operative clause). The Federal Circuit’s interpretation also would produce an anomaly. If the Federal Circuit’s understanding of § 8127(d)’s prefatory clause were correct, then §§ 8127(b) and (c), which also contain “[flor purposes of meeting the goals” clauses, would cease to apply once the Department meets the Secretary’s goal, and the Department would be required to return to competitive bidding. If we interpreted the “purposes” clause of § 8127(d) to mean that its mandate no longer applies if the goals are met, then the identical “purposes” clauses of §§ 8127(b) and (c) would also render those clauses’ permissive mandates inapplicable. This would require the Department,' once the goals are met, to award bids using the default contracting procedures rather than "to use the noncompetitive and single-source provisions in §§ 8127(b) and (c). Second, the Department argues that the mandatory provision does not apply to “orders” under “pre-existing FSS contracts.” Brief for United States 25. The Department failed to raise this argument in the courts below, and we normally decline to entertain such forfeited arguments. See OBB Personenverkehr AG v. Sachs, 577 U.S. -, -, 136 S.Ct. 390, 397-398, 193 L.Ed.2d 269 (2015). But the Department’s forfeited argument fails in any event. Section 8127(d) applies when the Department “award[s] contracts.” When the Department places an FSS order, that order creates contractual obligations for each party and is a “contract” within the ordinary meaning of that term. See, e.g., Black’s Law Dictionary 389 (10th ed. 2014) (“[a]n agreement between two or more parties creating obligations that are enforceable or otherwise recognizable at law”). It also creates a “contract” as defined by federal regulations, namely, a “mutually binding legal relationship obligating the seller to furnish the supplies or services ... and the buyer to pay for them,” including “all types of commitments that obligate the Government to an expenditure of appropriated funds and” (as a general matter) “are in writing.” 48 CFR § 2.101 (2015). An FSS order creates mutually binding obligations: for the contractor, to supply certain goods or services, and for the Government, to pay. The placement of the order creates a new contract; the underlying FSS contract gives the Government the option to buy, but it does not require the Government to make a purchase or expend funds. Further confirming that FSS orders are contracts, the Government is not completely bound by the FSS contract’s terms; to the contrary, when placing orders, agencies may sometimes seek different terms than are listed in the FSS. See § 8.405-4 (permitting agencies to negotiate some new terms, such as requesting “a price reduction,” when ordering from the FSS). Third, the Department contends that our interpretation fails to appreciate the distinction between FSS orders and contracts. The Department maintains that FSS orders are only for simplified acquisitions, and that using the Rule of Two for these purchases will hamper mundane purchases like “griddles or food slicers.” Brief for United States 21. But this argument understates current practices under the FSS. The Department has expanded use of the FSS well beyond simple procurement. See Brief for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America as Amicus Curiae 14-16. This case proves the point: the contract at issue here concerned complex information technology services over a multiyear period. Moreover, the Department may continue to purchase items that cost less than the simplified acquisition threshold (currently $150,000) through the FSS, if the Department procures them from a veteran-owned small business. See 38 U.S.C. § 8127(b). Finally and relatedly, the Department asks us to defer to its interpretation that FSS “orders” are not “contracts.” See Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843-844, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984) (establishing deference to an agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute). Even assuming, arguendo, that the preamble to the agency’s rulemaking could be owed Chevron deference, we do not defer to the agency when the statute is unambiguous. See id., at 842-843, 104 S.Ct. 2778. For the reasons already given, the text of § 8127(d) clearly imposes a mandatory duty. Thus, we decline the Department’s invitation to defer to its interpretation. We hold that the Rule of Two contracting procedures in § 8127(d) are not limited to those contracts necessary to fulfill the Secretary’s goals under § 8127(a). We also hold that § 8127(d) applies to orders placed under the FSS. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. . This provision reads in full: "Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c), for purposes of meeting the goals under subsection (a), and in accordance with this section, a contracting officer of the Department shall award contracts on the basis of competition restricted to small business concerns' owned and controlled by veterans if the contracting officer has a reasonable expectation that two or more small business concerns owned and controlled by veterans will submit offers and that the award can be made at a fair and reasonable price that offers best value to the United States.” 38 U.S.C. § 8127(d). . We use "Department” when referring to the Government as a party in this litigation. . Petitioner’s complaint additionally stated claims for two other bid protests. To simplify the proceedings, the parties entered into a joint stipulation of facts concerning only the one bid protest described above. The details concerning the two other disputed bids are relevant only for mootness analysis since the work related to both bids has been performed. See Part II, infra. . We need not decide today precisely what sort of search for veteran-owned small businesses the Department must conduct to comply with the Rule of Two. We do not decide, for example, whether the Department may satisfy its obligations by searching for eligible veteran-owned small businesses within the FSS, or whether it must conduct a broader search for such businesses. Question: What is the issue area of the decision? A. Criminal Procedure B. Civil Rights C. First Amendment D. Due Process E. Privacy F. Attorneys G. Unions H. Economic Activity I. Judicial Power J. Federalism K. Interstate Relations L. Federal Taxation M. Miscellaneous N. Private Action Answer:
H
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