Opinion ID: 890151
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Principles of Justiciability and Ripeness

Text: ¶ 53 As stated above, the judicial power of Montana's courts is limited to justiciable controversies. Plan Helena, Inc. v. Helena Regl. Airport Auth. Bd., 2010 MT 26, ¶ 6, 355 Mont. 142, 226 P.3d 567. In general terms, a justiciable controversy is one that is definite and concrete, touching legal relations of parties having adverse legal interests and admitting of specific relief through decree of conclusive character, as distinguished from an opinion advising what the law would be upon a hypothetical state of facts, or upon an abstract proposition. Chovanak v. Matthews, 120 Mont. 520, 526, 188 P.2d 582, 585 (1948) (emphasis omitted). To be justiciable, the parties must have existing and genuine (rather than theoretical) rights or interests, the questions must be presented in an adversary context, and the controversy must be one upon which a court's judgment will effectively and conclusively operate, as distinguished from a dispute invoking a purely political, administrative, philosophical, or academic conclusion. Plan Helena, ¶¶ 7-8; Montana-Dakota Utils. Co. v. City of Billings, 2003 MT 332, ¶ 9, 318 Mont. 407, 80 P.3d 1247. This limitation on judicial power derives primarily from the Montana Constitution, which limits the courts to deciding only cases and controversies, but also from the courts themselves, which have adopted discretionary limitations on the exercise of judicial power for prudential reasons. Plan Helena, ¶ 6; Greater Missoula Area Fedn. of Early Childhood Educators v. Child Start, Inc., 2009 MT 362, ¶ 22, 353 Mont. 201, 219 P.3d 881; Heffernan v. Missoula City Council, 2011 MT 91, ¶¶ 31-33, 360 Mont. 207, 255 P.3d 80. While the constitutional case-or-controversy requirement must always be met, prudential rules may be subject to exceptions. Williamson v. Mont. Pub. Serv. Commn., 2012 MT 32, ¶ 28, 364 Mont. 128, 272 P.3d 71. ¶ 54 The central concepts of justiciability have been elaborated into more specific doctrinesadvisory opinions, feigned and collusive cases, standing, ripeness, mootness, political questions, and administrative questionseach of which is governed by its own set of substantive rules. Greater Missoula, ¶ 23. At issue here is ripeness, which is concerned with whether the case presents an actual, present controversy. Mont. Power Co. v. Mont. Pub. Serv. Commn., 2001 MT 102, ¶ 32, 305 Mont. 260, 26 P.3d 91. The basic purpose of the ripeness requirement is to prevent the courts, through avoidance of premature adjudication, from entangling themselves in abstract disagreements. Mont. Power Co., ¶ 32 (citing Portman v. County of Santa Clara, 995 F.2d 898, 902-03 (9th Cir.1993)). Ripeness is predicated on the central perception that courts should not render decisions absent a genuine need to resolve a real dispute; hence, cases are unripe when the parties point only to hypothetical, speculative, or illusory disputes as opposed to actual, concrete conflicts. Wis. C., Ltd. v. Shannon, 539 F.3d 751, 759 (7th Cir.2008); see also Mont. Power Co., ¶ 32. ¶ 55 In analyzing ripeness, it is helpful to understand its relationship to standing and mootness. To meet the constitutional case-or-controversy requirement for standing, the plaintiff must clearly allege a past, present, or threatened injury to a property or civil right, and the injury must be one that would be alleviated by successfully maintaining the action. Heffernan, ¶ 33. Note that standing may rest not only on past or present injury, but also on threatened injury. Gryczan v. State, 283 Mont. 433, 442-43, 942 P.2d 112, 118 (1997); Missoula City-County Air Pollution Control Bd. v. Bd. of Envtl. Rev., 282 Mont. 255, 261-63, 937 P.2d 463, 467-68 (1997). Ripeness and mootness, in turn, can be seen as the time dimensions of standing. Charles Alan Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure vol. 13B, § 3531.12, 163 (3d ed., Thomson/West 2008). Ripeness asks whether an injury that has not yet happened is sufficiently likely to happen or, instead, is too contingent or remote to support present adjudication, whereas mootness asks whether an injury that has happened is too far beyond a useful remedy. Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 3531.12, 163, § 3532.1, 383; see also see also Texas v. United States, 497 F.3d 491, 496 (5th Cir.2007) (In general terms, standing is concerned with whether a proper party is bringing suit, while ripeness is concerned with whether the suit is being brought at the proper time.); Greater Missoula, ¶ 23 ([M]ootness is the doctrine of standing set in a time frame: The requisite personal interest that must exist at the commencement of the litigation (standing) must continue throughout its existence (mootness). (internal quotation marks omitted)). ¶ 56 There is both a constitutional and a prudential component to the ripeness inquiry. Portman, 995 F.2d at 902; accord Natl. Park Hospitality Assn. v. Dept. of Int., 538 U.S. 803, 808, 123 S.Ct. 2026, 2030, 155 L.Ed.2d 1017 (the ripeness doctrine is drawn both from constitutional limitations on judicial power and from prudential reasons for refusing to exercise jurisdiction); Mont. Power Co., ¶ 32 (the ripeness doctrine is grounded in the Constitution as well as in judicial prudence). The constitutional component focuses on whether there is sufficient injury, and thus is closely tied to standing. Portman, 995 F.2d at 902-03. Whether framed as an issue of standing or ripeness, the [constitutional] inquiry is largely the same: whether the issues presented are definite and concrete, not hypothetical or abstract. Wolfson v. Brammer, 616 F.3d 1045, 1058 (9th Cir.2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). The prudential component, on the other hand, involves a weighing of the fitness of the issues for judicial decision and the hardship to the parties of withholding court consideration. Wolfson, 616 F.3d at 1060. The principal consideration under the fitness inquiry is whether there is a factually adequate record upon which to base effective review. Havre Daily News, LLC v. City of Havre, 2006 MT 215, ¶ 20, 333 Mont. 331, 142 P.3d 864; see also Portman, 995 F.2d at 903. The more the question presented is purely one of law, and the less that additional facts will aid the court in its inquiry, the more likely the issue is to be ripe, and vice-versa. Havre Daily News, ¶ 20.