Court Opinion

ID: 9494228
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:32:41.412132+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:17.803474
License: Public Domain

HANSEN, Circuit Judge,
concurring specially.
I join the court’s opinion with respect to Parts I and II, and I concur in those portions of Part IV that address the issue of an advisory ruling, upon which, in my view, this case turns. I also concur in the court’s judgment. “Under Article III of the Constitution, federal courts may adjudicate only actual, ongoing cases or controversies. It is of no consequence that the controversy was live at earlier stages in this case; it must be live when we decide the issues.” Doe v. LaFleur, 179 F.3d 613, 615 (8th Cir.1999) (internal quotations omitted). Here, the State acknowledges that resolution of the issue of remand has no effect because no further action can be taken in the case before us. As the court’s opinion points out, the State does not contest the district court’s Rule 12(b) dismissal.
[A] federal court has neither the power to render advisory opinions nor to decide questions that cannot affect the rights of litigants in the case before them. Its judgments must resolve a real and substantial controversy admitting of specific relief through a decree of a conclusive character, as distinguished from an opinion advising what the law would be upon a hypothetical state of facts.
Preiser v. Newkirk, 422 U.S. 395, 401, 95 S.Ct. 2330, 45 L.Ed.2d 272 (1975) (internal quotations omitted). Therefore, I agree that we should decline to issue an advisory opinion with respect to how the district court should handle an expected similar, future remand motion which may be filed in the follow-up case now pending in the district court. However, I respectfully decline to join Part III because, in my view, that part is unnecessary for our court’s holding.