Federal courts lack power to decide cases that have become, in legal parlance, “moot.”[1] A court case becomes “moot” when its ultimate judgment ceases to have any practical significance.[2] Sometimes a defendant can make a case “moot” by voluntarily giving the plaintiff everything the plaintiff has asked for in the case. In Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Firke, decided on March 19, 2024, the Court held that a defendant’s voluntary acquiescence to its plaintiff’s demand for specific injunctive relief does not make the case “moot” unless the defendant reasonably demonstrates that the case will not come back to court after it is dismissed.
In the Firke Case, the FBI had placed Mr. Firke on its “no-fly” list, essentially prohibiting him from flying over the United States in a commercial airliner. Mr. Firke sued the FBI in federal court, demanding that he be taken off the “no-fly” list because there were no legitimate grounds for keeping him on it. After years of preliminary maneuvering in the case, the FBI voluntarily took Mr. Firke off the “no-fly” list and swore under oath that he would not be put back on it based on the FBI’s current, but undisclosed information. The Court held that the FBI’s affidavit was insufficient to “moot” the case because it did not preclude the FBI from putting Mr. Firke back on the list if new, but still undisclosed knowledge about Mr. Firke’s activities came to its attention. Thus, according to the unanimous Court’s reasoning, the FBI had failed to show a “reasonable” expectation that Mr. Firke would stay off the list in the future.
COMMENT: To keep a lawsuit in a federal court, at least one of the jurisdictional criteria listed in Article III, Section 2 of the United States Constitution[3] must continually be met until the court finally disposes of the case on its merits in a final judgment.[4] If that condition fails during a case, a federal court must dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction. The Court’s unanimous Opinion in the Firke Case honors that implicit principle of law in the United States Constitution.
Dan Rhea
[1] See U.S. Const., Art. III, § 2, granting federal courts jurisdiction over cases “arising under” federal laws.
[2] See definition two of adjective “moot,” Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, s.v. “moot,” accessed March 27, 2024, https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/moot.
[3] other than the two criteria partially repealed by the 11th Amendment.
[4] See footnote 1, supra.
RECENT RULINGS 