Court Opinion

ID: 9428560
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:24:07.950724+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:14.262876
License: Public Domain

Justice Rehnquist,
with whom The Chief Justice and Justice White join,
dissenting.
The per curiam reverses the decision of the Court of Appeals in this case because neither it nor the District Court articulated a proper basis for dismissing the petitioner’s complaint. While I agree with the per curiam’s conclusion that the case is not moot and that the complaint, construed liberally, alleges a cause of action, I find a sufficient basis to support the decision below. More importantly, I find this to be a good example of the kind of cases the Court should not decide.
The record shows that petitioner failed to comply with the local rules of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, Phoenix Division, in which his complaint was filed. As part of his claim, petitioner filed a typewritten document entitled “Form To Be Used By Prisoner In Filing a Complaint Under The Civil Rights Act, 42 U. S. C. § 1983.”
*367Section I of the document was headed “Previous Lawsuits,” and subsection A required the plaintiff to answer:
“Have you begun other lawsuits in state or federal court dealing with the same facts in this action or otherwise relating to your imprisonment? Yes (-) No (-)•”
Petitioner failed to check either the “Yes” or the “No” space and did not answer the next seven questions about previous filings, thereby violating the local rules of the District Court. Rule 53(a), Local Rules of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. There appears to have been good reason for this omission. Records of the District Court, of which we may take judicial notice, Wells v. United States, 318 U. S. 257, 260 (1943), indicate that petitioner had in the past filed at least 10 prisoner civil rights suits and had been denied leave to proceed informa pauperis in at least 2 others.
In my view, the District Court was justified in dismissing the complaint, if for no other reason, on the ground that petitioner had simply refused to comply with local rules regarding the disclosure of previous lawsuits. The fact that neither lower court relied upon this ground for dismissal does not remove it from our consideration. A respondent may seek af-firmance in this Court on any ground disclosed by the record which would not expand the relief granted. United States v. New York Telephone Co., 434 U. S. 159, 166, n. 8 (1977); Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S. 471, 475, n. 6 (1970); Ryerson v. United States, 312 U. S. 405, 408 (1941). By reversing the decision below without first permitting the parties to brief the merits of this case, the per curiam precludes respondent from seeking affirmance on this or any other basis.
Even if there were no grounds for affirmance, I would find this case unworthy of the Court’s attention. In our zeal to *368provide “equal justice under law,” we must never forget that this Court is not a forum for the correction of errors. As was said by Chief Justice Vinson:
“The Supreme Court is not, and never has been, primarily concerned with the correction of errors in lower court decisions. In almost all cases within the Court’s appellate jurisdiction, the petitioner has already received one appellate review of his case. The debates in the Constitutional Convention make clear that the purpose of the establishment of one supreme national tribunal was, in the words of John Rutledge of South Carolina, ‘to secure the national rights & uniformity of Judgmts.’ The function of the Supreme Court is, therefore, to resolve conflicts of opinion on federal questions that have arisen among lower courts, to pass upon questions of wide import under the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States, and to exercise supervisory power over the lower federal courts. If we took every case in which an interesting legal question is raised, or our prima facie impression is that the decision below is erroneous, we could not fulfill the Constitutional and statutory responsibilities placed upon the Court. To remain effective, the Supreme Court must continue to decide only those cases which present questions whose resolution will have immediate importance far beyond the particular facts and parties involved. ”*
It cannot be doubted that this case will have no importance beyond the facts and parties involved.
Finally, it is worth emphasizing what the Court is not saying in this case. The statutory provision under which petitioner was permitted to proceed in forma pauperis, *36928 U. S. C. § 1915(d), expressly authorizes courts to dismiss such suits “if satisfied that the action is frivolous or malicious.” This especially broad dismissal power, recognized in the footnote to the per curiam, safeguards the public and the courts from abuses of the in forma pauperis privilege by those who are not restrained by the costs of litigation. I do not read the per curiam as narrowing that power. Nor does the per curiam equate the dismissal power of § 1915(d) with that of Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Rather, the per curiam simply holds that the legal conclusions of the lower courts were erroneous. From reversal on that basis, in this case, I respectfully dissent.

Address of Chief Justice Vinson before the American Bar Association, Sept. 7, 1949 (quoted in R. Stern & E. Gressman, Supreme Court Practice 258-259 (5th ed. 1978)).