Court Opinion

ID: 9425896
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:16:08.431039+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:58.175233
License: Public Domain

Mb. Justice White,
dissenting.
It is axiomatic that Art. Ill of the Constitution imposes a “threshold requirement . . . that those who seek to invoke the power of federal courts must allege an actual case or controversy.” O’Shea v. Littleton, 414 U. S. 488, 493 (1974); Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S. 83, 94-101 (1968); Jenkins v. McKeithen, 395 U. S. 411, 421-425 (1969) (opinion of Marshall, J.). To satisfy the requirement, plaintiffs must allege “some threatened or actual injury,” Linda R. S. v. Richard D., 410 U. S. 614, 617 (1973), that is “real and immediate” and not con*411jectural or hypothetical. Golden v. Zwickler, 394 U. S. 103, 108-109 (1969); Maryland Casualty Co. v. Pacific Coal & Oil Co., 312 U. S. 270, 273 (1941); Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U. S. 75, 89-91 (1947). Furthermore, and of greatest relevance here:
“The fundamental aspect of standing is that it focuses on the party seeking to get his complaint before a federal court and not on the issues he wishes to have adjudicated. The 'gist of the question of standing’ is whether the party seeking relief has ‘alleged such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the court so largely depends for illumination of difficult constitutional questions.’ Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186, 204 (1962). In other words, when standing is placed in issue in a case, the question is whether the person whose standing is challenged is a proper party to request an adjudication of a particular issue and not whether the issue itself is justi-ciable.” Flast v. Cohen, supra, at 99-100 (footnote omitted).
All of this the Court concedes. It is conceded as well that had the named plaintiff in this case not brought a class action, the case would now be dismissed as moot because the plaintiff, appellant here, has now satisfied the Iowa residency requirement and, what is more, has secured a divorce in another State. Appellant could not have begun this suit either for herself or for a class if at the time of filing she had been an Iowa resident for a year or had secured a divorce in another jurisdiction. There must be a named plaintiff initiating the action who has an existing controversy with the defendant, whether the plaintiff is suing on his own behalf or on behalf of a class as well. However unquestioned it may *412be that a class of persons in the community has a “real” dispute of substance with the defendant, an attorney may not initiate a class action without having a client with a personal stake in the controversy who is a member of the class, and who is willing to be the named plaintiff in the case. The Court recently made this very clear when it said that “if none of the named plaintiffs purporting to represent a class establishes the requisite of a case or controversy with the defendants, none may seek relief on behalf of himself or any other member of the class.” O’Shea v. Littleton, supra, at 494 (footnote omitted).
The Court nevertheless holds that once a case is certified as a class action, the named plaintiff may lose that status which had qualified him to bring the suit and still be acceptable as a party to prosecute the suit to conclusion on behalf of the class. I am unable to . agree. The appellant now satisfies the Iowa residence requirement and has secured a divorce. She retains no real interest whatsoever in this controversy, certainly not. an interest that would have entitled her to be a plaintiff in the first place, either alone or as representing a class. In reality, there is no longer a named plaintiff in the case, no member of the class before the Court. The unresolved issue, the attorney, and a class of unnamed litigants remain. None of the anonymous members of the class is present to direct counsel and ensure that class interests are being properly served. For all practical purposes, this case has become one-sided and has lost the adversary quality necessary to satisfy the constitutional “case or controversy” requirement. A real issue unquestionably remains, but the necessary adverse party to press it has disappeared.
The Court thus dilutes the jurisdictional command of Art. Ill to a mere prudential guideline. The only specific, identifiable individual with an evident continuing *413interest in presenting an attack upon- the residency-requirement is appellant’s counsel. The Court in reality holds that an attorney’s competence in presenting his case, evaluated post hoc through a review of his performance as revealed by the record, fulfills the “case or controversy” mandate. The legal fiction employed to cloak this reality is the reification of an abstract entity, “the class,” constituted of faceless, unnamed individuals who are deemed to have a live case or controversy with appellees.1
*414No prior decision supports the Court’s broad rationale. In cases in which the inadequacy of the named representative’s claim has become apparent prior to class certifi-fication, the Court has been emphatic in rejecting the argument that the class action could still be pursued. O’Shea v. Littleton, supra, at 494-495; Bailey v. Patterson, 369 U. S. 31, 32-33 (1962). Cf. Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U. S. 24 (1974); Hall v. Beals, 396 U. S. 45, 48-49 (1969).
It is true that Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U. S. 330, 333 n. 2 (1972), looks in the other direction. There, by the time the Court rendered its decision, the class representative in an action challenging a durational residency requirement for voting had satisfied the requirement and was eligible to vote in the next election. The Court indicated that the case was not moot, saying that the issue was “capable of repetition, yet evading review.” But the question was not contested between the parties and was noted only in passing. Its ramifications for the question of mootness in a class action setting were not explored. Although I joined the opinion in that case, I do not deem it dispositive of the jurisdictional issue here, especially in light of Indiana Employment Division v. Burney, 409 U. S. 540 (1973). There the class representative’s claim had been fully settled, and the Court remanded the case to the District Court for consideration of mootness, a course which the majority, relying on Dunn, rejects here. As I see it, the question of whether a class action survives after the representative’s claim has been mooted remains unsettled by prior decisions. Indeed, what authority there is provides more support for a conclusion that when the personal stake of the named plaintiff terminates, the class action fails.
*415Although the Court cites Dunn v. Blumstein, supra, as controlling authority, the principal basis for its approach is a conception of the class action that substantially dissipates the case-or-controversy requirement as well as the necessity for adequate representation under Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 23(a)(4). In the Court’s view, the litigation before us is saved from mootness only by the fact that class certification occurred prior to appellant’s change in circumstance. In justification, the Court points to two significant consequences of certification. First, once certified, the class action may not be settled or dismissed without the district court’s approval. Second, if the action results in a judgment on the merits, the decision will bind all members found at the time of certification to be members of the class. These are significant aspects of class-action procedure, but it is not evident and not explained how and why these procedural consequences of certification modify the normal mootness considerations which would otherwise attach. Certification is no substitute for a live' plaintiff with a personal interest in the case sufficient to make it an adversary proceeding. Moreover, certification is not irreversible or inalterable; it “may be conditional, and may be altered or amended before the decision on the merits.” Rule 23(c)(1).2 Furthermore, under Rule 23(d) the court may make various types of orders in conducting the litigation, including an order that notice be given “of the opportunity of members to signify whether they consider the representation fair and adequate, to intervene and present claims or defenses, or otherwise to come into the action” and “requiring that the pleadings be amended to eliminate therefrom allegations as to representation *416of absent persons . 3 Class litigation is most often characterized by its complexity and concomitant flexibility of a court in managing it, and emphasis upon one point in the process flies in the face of that reality.
The new certification procedure of Rule 23 (c)(1), as amended in 1966, was not intended to modify the strictures of Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 82 that “[t]hese rules shall not be construed to extend ... the jurisdiction of the United States district courts . . ..” Cf. Snyder v. Harris, 394 U. S. 332, 337-338 (1969). The intention behind the certification amendment, which had no counterpart in the earlier version of the rule, was merely “to give clear definition to the action . . . ,” Advisory Committee Note, 28 U. S. C. App., p. 7767; 3B J. Moore, Federal Practice ¶ 23.50, pp. 23-1101 to 23-1102 (1974), not as the Court would now have it, to avoid jurisdictional problems of mootness.4
It is claimed that the certified class supplies the necessary adverse parties for a continuing case or controversy *417with appellees. This is not true; but even if it were, the Court is left with the problem of determining whether the class action is still a good one and whether under Rule 23 (a) (4) appellant is a fair and adequate representative of the class. That appellant can no longer in any realistic sense be considered a member of the class makes these determinations imperative. The Court disposes of the problem to its own satisfaction by saying that it is unlikely that segments of the class appellant represents would have conflicting interests with those she has sought to advance and that because the interests of the class have been competently urged at each level of the proceeding the test of Rule 23 (a) (4) is met. The Court cites no authority for this retrospective decision as to the adequacy of representation which seems to focus on the competence of counsel rather than a party plaintiff who is a representative member of the class.5 At the very least, the case should be remanded to the District Court where these considerations could be explored and the desirability of issuing orders under Rule 23 (d) to protect the class might be considered.
The Court’s refusal to remand for consideration of mootness and adequacy of representation can be explained only by its apparent notion that there may be categories of issues which will permit lower courts to pass upon them but which by their very nature will become moot before this Court can address them. Thus it is said that "no single challenger will remain subject to [the residency requirement] for the period necessary to see such a lawsuit to its conclusion.” Ante, at 400. Hence, *418the Court perceives the need for a general rule which will eliminate the problem. Article III, however, is an “awkward” limitation. It prevents all federal courts from addressing some important questions; there is nothing surprising in the fact that it may permit only the lower federal courts to address other questions. Article III is not a rule always consistent with judicial economy. Its overriding purpose is to define the boundaries separating the branches and to keep this Court from assuming a legislative perspective and function. See Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S. 83, 96 (1968). The ultimate basis of the Court’s decision must be a conclusion that the issue presented is an important and recurring one which should be finally resolved here. But this notion cannot override constitutional limitations.
Because I find that the case before the Court has become moot, I must respectfully dissent.

 The Court contends that its rationale is the prevailing view in the circuits and lists five Circuits in support and two opposing. Ante, at 401-402, n. 10. Of the five decisions cited in support, four are without weight or inapposite in the present context. Conover v. Montemuro, 477 F. 2d 1073, 1081-1082 (CA3 1973), contains only dictum. Makres v. Askew, 500 F. 2d 577 (CA5 1974), is only an affirmance of a District Court decision without discussion of mootness. Two other cases, Moss v. Lane Co., Inc., 471 F. 2d 853 (CA4 1973), and Roberts v. Union Co., 487 F 2d 387 (CA6 1973), deal with claims of racial and sexual discrimination, respectively, in employment practices, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 253, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e et seq. In such cases, Congress has expressed an intention and provided that any person “claiming to be aggrieved” could bring suit under Title VII to challenge discriminatory employment practices. 42 U. S. C. §2000e-5; Trafficante v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 409 U. S. 205, 209 (1972). Since any discrimination in employment based upon sexual or racial characteristics aggrieves an employee or an applicant for employment having such characteristics by stigmatization and explicit or implicit application of a badge of inferiority, Congress gave such persons standing by statute to continue an attack upon such discrimination even though they fail to establish particular injur}' to themselves in being denied employment unlawfully. Cf. Traficante, supra. Congress has expressed no similar intention as to the subject matter of the instant litigation, that is, to allow suits by “ ‘private attorneys general in vindicating a policy that Congress considered to be of the highest priority/ ” 409 U. S., at 211, nor are the circumstances present here analogous to a case of racial or sexual discrimination which inherently is class based. Hence, these eases provide no *414authority for the Court’s expansive construction of Art. Ill’s case- or-controversy requirement.

 See 7A C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1785, pp. 137-138 (1972); 3B J. Moore, Federal Practice ¶23.50, p. 23-1103 (1974).

 See 7A Wright & Miller, supra, n. 2, §§ 1793, 1974; 3B Moore, supra, n. 2, ¶¶ 23.72-23.74.

 The Court apparently also does not view certification as the key to its holding since it mentions in dicta that some class actions will not be moot even though the named representatives’ claims become moot prioT to certification. If the district court does not have a reasonable amount of time within which to decide the certification question prior to the mooting of the named parties’ controversies, the Court says, “[i]n such instances, whether the certification can be said to ‘relate back’ to the filing of the complaint may depend upon the circumstances of the particular case and especially the reality of the claim that otherwise the issue would evade review.” Ante, at 402 n. 11. If certification is not the factor which saves the case from mootness, it appears that the Court is satisfied that the case is a live controversy as long as an issue would otherwise not be reviewable here. The Court does not say whether the same flexible standard of mootness applies to cases appealable to the courts of appeals.

The general rule has been that the “[q]uality of representation embraces both the competence of the legal counsel of the representatives and the stature and interest of the named parties themselves.” 7 Wright & Miller, supra, n. 2, § 1766, pp. 632-633 (footnotes omitted). The decisions in the past have rested on several considerations. See id., at 633-635.