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4  CAMERON v. EMW WOMEN’S SURGICAL CENTER, P. S. C. 

Opinion of the Court 

and the panel had already decided the appeal; second, that 
no  “ ‘substantial  legal  interest’ ”  was  at  stake  because  the 
attorney  general  was  pursuing  “ ‘extraordinary’ ”  forms  of 
review (rehearing en banc and certiorari) to which litigants 
are  not  generally  entitled;  and  third,  that  allowing  inter-
vention would prejudice respondents because the attorney 
general’s rehearing petition included an argument (that re-
spondents lacked third-party standing) that the secretary’s 
briefs  had  not  raised.3    EMW  Women’s  Surgical  Center, 
P.S.C.  v.  Friedlander,  831  Fed.  Appx.  748,  749–753  (CA6 
2020). 
  We granted certiorari limited to the question whether the 
Sixth Circuit should have permitted the attorney general to 
intervene.  592 U. S. ___ (2021). 

II 
  In considering this question, we begin with respondents’ 
contention that the attorney general’s motion to intervene 
was  jurisdictionally  barred.   Respondents  never  advanced 
this argument below, and the Sixth Circuit did not consider 
it.    Nevertheless,  we  must  assure  ourselves  that  jurisdic-
tional requirements are met at all stages of the cases that 
come before us for review, see Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp., 546 
U. S. 500, 506 (2006). 

A 
  Respondents’ argument is narrow and somewhat compli-
cated.    While  implicitly  conceding  that  a  court  of  appeals 
generally has jurisdiction to consider a non-party’s motion 
to intervene in a pending appeal, they claim that one nar-
row sub-set of non-parties is jurisdictionally barred: those 
non-parties that are bound by the district court judgment.  

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3 In  the  District  Court,  an  attorney  representing  the  secretary  had 
raised the issue during argument on the secretary’s motion for a directed 
verdict, but the District Court refused to consider the issue on the ground 
that it should have been raised much earlier.  Tr. 105 (Nov. 15, 2018).