Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-86_l5gm.pdf
Page Number: 37.0

4 

AXON ENTERPRISE, INC. v. FTC 

GORSUCH, J., concurring in judgment 

But what happens when the factors point in different direc-
tions, some in favor and others against immediate judicial 
review?  No one knows.  You get to guess.1 

II 

Putting  aside  these  problems  with  the  Thunder  Basin 
project serves only to expose others.  We are told that con-
sulting so many disparate factors  is essential if we are to 
divine  and  give  effect  to  “implici[t]”  congressional  “in-
ten[tions]” to divest district courts of jurisdiction in favor of 
certain agency proceedings.  Ante, at 7 (internal quotation 
  But  what  gives  courts  authority  to 
marks  omitted).
engage 
jurisdiction-stripping-by-
implication? 

in  this  business  of 

The answer, of course, is nothing.  Under our Constitu-
tion, “Congress, and not the Judiciary, defines the scope of 
federal  jurisdiction.”  New  Orleans  Public  Service,  Inc.  v. 
Council of City of New Orleans, 491 U. S. 350, 359 (1989). 
Federal courts “have no more right to decline the exercise 
of jurisdiction which is given, than to usurp that which is 
not  given.”  Cohens  v.  Virginia,  6  Wheat.  264,  404  (1821) 
(Marshall, C. J., for the Court).  That is why we have called 
it the “true rule” that “statutes clearly defining the jurisdic-
tion of the courts . . . must control . . . in the absence of sub-
sequent legislation equally express.”  Rosencrans v. United 
States,  165 U. S.  257, 262  (1897).  And why  we  have  said 
that “jurisdiction conferred by 28 U. S. C. §1331,” in partic-
ular,  “should  hold  firm  against  mere  implication[s]”  from 
other  laws.  Mims  v.  Arrow  Financial  Services,  LLC,  565 
U. S. 368, 383 (2012) (internal quotation marks omitted). 

Thunder  Basin  defies  these  foundational  rules.  Maybe 

—————— 

1 See  Tr.  of  Oral  Arg.  in  No.  21–86,  p. 81  (“JUSTICE ALITO:  . . .  Does 
Axon have to win on all three?  Do you have to win on all three?  Or can 
either of you win if one or more factors go in one direction and the other 
factor  or  factors  go  in  the  other  direction?    [Deputy  Solicitor  General]: 
. . . I’m not trying to be obstreperous, but I think it would depend . . .”).