Court Opinion

ID: 9429008
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:25:26.62657+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:16.790542
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
with whom Justice Marshall joins,
dissenting.
The Court is understandably anxious to do its part in curtailing the “carnage caused by drunk drivers.” Ante, at 558. I sympathize with that concern, but it does not justify the rendition of an advisory opinion on a constitutional issue. In *567this case, . íe Court has no power to reverse the judgment of the South Dakota Supreme Court, because its decision rests on an adequate and independent state ground. I therefore cannot join the Court’s opinion.
The South Dakota Supreme Court framed the question before it on appeal as “whether SDCL 32-23-10.1 is a violation of Neville’s federal and state constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. U. S. Const. Amend. V; S. D. Const, art. VI, §9.” 312 N. W. 2d 723, 725 (1981). After analyzing both federal and state cases, the South Dakota Supreme Court concluded:
“We hold that evidence of the accused’s refusal to take a blood test violates the federal and state privilege against self-incrimination and therefore SDCL 32-23-10.1 is unconstitutional.” Id., at 726.
Thus, the South Dakota Supreme Court unambiguously held that the statute violated the State Constitution. That holding is certainly adequate to support its judgment and is beyond our power to review.
Given the existence of an adequate state ground, it is established beyond dispute that this Court may not take jurisdiction if the state ground is independent.1 In this case, we lack jurisdiction because the South Dakota Supreme Court has not indicated, explicitly or implicitly, that its construction of Art. VI, § 9, of the South Dakota Constitution was contin*568gent on our agreement with its interpretation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.2 There is no general presumption of federal law, no general presumption of state law, and no specific language in the opinion below to suggest that the South Dakota Court harbored such an opinion.
Unless we have explicit notice that a provision of a State Constitution is intended to be a mere shadow of the comparable provision in the Federal Constitution, it is presumptuous — if not paternalistic — for this Court to make that assumption on its own. No matter how eloquent and persuasive our analysis of the Federal Constitution may be, we cannot simply presume that the highest court of a sovereign State will modify its interpretation of its own law whenever we interpret comparable federal law differently. Even when a state tribunal misconceives federal law, this Court cannot vacate its judgment merely to give it an unsolicited opportunity to reanalyze its own law.3 If a state-court judg*569ment is premised on an adequate state ground, that ground must be presumed independent unless the state court suggests otherwise.4
Nothing in South Dakota law establishes a presumption that the State Constitution adds no additional protections for South Dakota residents beyond those already provided by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Indeed, the South Dakota Supreme Court has explicitly established a contrary presumption:
“This court is the final authority on interpretation and enforcement of the South Dakota Constitution. We have always assumed the independent nature of our state constitution regardless of any similarity between the language of that document and the federal constitution.” State v. Opperman, 247 N. W. 2d 673, 674 (1976).5
*570Thus, both federal and South Dakota law establish the presumption that an adequate state ground is independent. That presumption is reinforced in this case. For the opinion of the South Dakota Supreme Court explicitly noted that the language of the South Dakota Constitution is “more liberal” than the comparable federal language. 312 N. W. 2d, at 726, n.6 It was willing to rest the judgment on federal as well as state grounds, however, because this Court’s opinion in Schmerber v. California, 384 U. S. 757, 761-762, n. 6 (1966), had assumed that the Fifth Amendment should be construed as broadly as the more liberal state language. 312 N. W. 2d, at 726, n. It concluded that federal law is “broad enough” to exclude the evidence in this case, and it therefore saw “no need to draw a distinction at this time” between state and federal law. Ibid, (emphasis added). Those words plainly suggest that the State Supreme Court did not understand its holding to be “dependent” on this Court’s view of federal law.7
*571Because there exists an independent and adequate state ground for the judgment below, I would dismiss the writ of certiorari.8

 “[W]e will not review a judgment of a state court that rests on an adequate and independent ground in state law. Nor will we review one until the fact that it does not do so appears of record.” Herb v. Pitcairn, 324 U. S. 117, 128 (1945). Accord, Jankovich v. Indiana Toll Road Comm’n, 379 U. S. 487 (1965); Honeyman v. Hanan, 300 U. S. 14, 18-19 (1937); Fox Film Corp. v. Muller, 296 U. S. 207 (1935); Lynch v. New York ex rel. Pierson, 293 U. S. 52 (1934); McCoy v. Shaw, 277 U. S. 302 (1928); Petrie v. Nampa and Meridian Irrigation District, 248 U. S. 154, 157 (1918); Enterprise Irrigation District v. Farmers Mutual Canal Co., 243 U. S. 157, 163-166 (1917); Eustis v. Bolles, 150 U. S. 361 (1893); Murdock v. Memphis, 20 Wall. 590 (1875).

 As Justice Harlan wrote for the Court in Mental Hygiene Dept. v. Kirchner, 380 U. S. 194, 198 (1965):
“[W]e would have jurisdiction to review only if the federal ground had been the sole basis for the decision, or the State Constitution was interpreted under what the state court deemed the compulsion of the Federal Constitution” (emphasis in original) (footnote omitted).

 “[0]ur power is to correct wrong judgments, not to revise opinions. We are not permitted to render an advisory opinion, and if the same judgment would be rendered by the state court after we corrected its views of federal laws, our review could amount to nothing more than an advisory opinion.” Herb v. Pitcairn, supra, at 126. Accord, Minnick v. California Dept. of Corrections, 452 U. S. 105, 120-123 (1981); Rescue Army v. Municipal Court, 331 U. S. 549, 568-569 (1947); United States v. Hastings, 296 U. S. 188, 193 (1935).
The policy of avoiding advisory opinions on federal constitutional issues is a consistent theme throughout our jurisprudence. Paschall v. Christie-Stewart, Inc., 414 U. S. 100 (1973) (per curiam), is especially instructive. In that case, our independent review of the record turned up a state ground supporting the Supreme Court of Oklahoma’s judgment that had not even been mentioned in the state court’s opinion. Observing that if *569the argument proved solid, “any decision by this Court would be advisory and beyond our jurisdiction,” we remanded for analysis of the state-law claim. Id., at 102.
Even in cases arising through the federal courts, we have always been alert to opportunities to avoid federal constitutional issues by means of a state-law disposition. E. g., Mills v. Rogers, 457 U. S. 291, 302-306 (1982); City of Mesquite v. Aladdin’s Castle, Inc., 455 U. S. 283, 294-295 (1982); Siler v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 213 U. S. 175 (1909). See generally Hagans v. Lavine, 415 U. S. 528, 546-547, and nn. 12-13 (1974).

 The burden is on the petitioner or appellant to establish our jurisdiction. We have therefore regularly dismissed cases when the state judgment might have rested on an independent and adequate state ground. E. g., Durley v. Mayo, 351 U. S. 277, 285 (1956); Stembridge v. Georgia, 343 U. S. 541, 547 (1952); Lynch v. New York ex rel. Pierson, supra; Johnson v. Risk, 137 U. S. 300 (1890).

 The South Dakota Supreme Court was speaking on remand from this Court. The state court had previously held certain police conduct unconstitutional, relying solely on the Fourth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. State v. Opperman, 89 S. D. 25, 228 N. W. 2d 152 (1975). This Court had reversed. South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U. S. 364 (1976). The passage in text is excerpted from the South Dakota Supreme Court’s reaffirmation of the rationale of its prior opinion, relying on the State Constitution. In reaching its conclusion, the court noted that the language of *570the relevant state provision “is almost identical to that found in the Fourth Amendment,” 247 N. W. 2d, at 674, and was unmoved by the prosecutor’s observation that the defendant had not argued in his first appeal that state and federal law were different, id., at 675.

 After quoting a footnote from our opinion in Schmerber v. California, 384 U. S. 757, 761-762, n. 6 (1966), the South Dakota Supreme Court stated:
“This footnote indicates that Schmerber was decided in light of the more liberal definition of ‘evidence’ as used in our state constitution. Since the Fifth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution is broad enough to exclude this evidence, there is no need to draw a distinction at this time between S. D. Const, art. VI, § 9 and the Fifth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution.” 312 N. W. 2d, at 726, n.

 In Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U. S. 648, 651-653 (1979), we did not so interpret the opinion of the Delaware Supreme Court. Although I must confess that I now have some misgivings about our reaching that conclusion without further clarification, see n. 8, infra, there was far more indication in that case than in this one that the state court’s analysis was contingent on the correctness of its understanding of federal law. The opinion there began with a statement that the police stops “violate Federal and State *571constitutional guarantees,” State v. Prouse, 382 A. 2d 1359, 1361 (1978), but then went on to say that the State and Federal Constitutions are “substantially similar” and that “a violation of the latter is necessarily a violation of the former,” id., at 1362. The opinion drew to a close with the statement: “We hold, therefore, that a random stop of a motorist [absent reasonable suspicion] is constitutionally impermissible and violative of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.” Id., at 1364.

 In cases where an apparent adequate state ground was arguably not independent, this Court has occasionally vacated the state-court judgment and remanded for clarification of the basis for the decision. E. g., Air Pollution Variance Board v. Western Alfalfa Corp., 416 U. S. 861, 866 (1974); California v. Krivda, 409 U. S. 33 (1972); Mental Hygiene Dept. v. Kirchner, 380 U. S. 194 (1965); Minnesota v. National Tea Co., 309 U. S. 551 (1940); State Tax Comm’n v. Van Cott, 306 U. S. 511 (1939). Cf. Herb v. Pitcairn, 324 U. S. 117 (1945) (case held while parties sought a certificate from the state court clarifying the basis for judgment). The Court should, at the very least, follow that course today. “[I]n cases where the answer is not clear to us, it seems consistent with the respect due the highest courts of states of the Union that they be asked rather than told what they have intended.” Id., at 127-128.
Some of us have pointed out that even this practice may be overused, because it “tak[es] from appellants the normal burden of demonstrating that we have jurisdiction and plac[es] it on the Supreme Court of [the State].” Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. v. Jerome, 434 U. S. 241, 244 (1978) (Rehnquist, J., joined by Stevens, J., dissenting). See also Department of Motor Vehicles of California v. Rios, 410 U. S. 425, 427-430 (1973) (Douglas, J., joined by Brennan, Stewart, and Marshall, JJ., dissenting).