Ruhrgas Ag v. Marathon Oil Co.
- Decided
- May 17, 1999
- Docket
- 98-470
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 3,295 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- holding that “there is no unyielding jurisdictional hierarchy” with respect to the order in which a court must address jurisdictional questions — Athanasios Theodoropoulos v. Immigration and Naturalization Service (2004)
- holding that there is no hierarchy in the order of decision of issues of personal and subject matter jurisdiction — United States v. Swiss American Bank, Ltd. (1999)
- holding that the doctrine of separation of powers typically requires resolution of jurisdictional issues before a court examines the merits of an action — Daventree Ltd. v. Republic of Azerbaijan (2004)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
[*577] Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case concerns the authority of the federal courts to adjudicate controversies. Jurisdiction to resolve cases on the merits requires both authority over the category of claim in suit (subject-matter jurisdiction) and authority over the parties (personal jurisdiction), so that the court’s decision will bind them. In Steel Co. v. Citizens for Better Environment, 523 U. S. 83 (1998), this Court adhered to the rule that a federal court may not hypothesize subject-matter jurisdiction for the purpose of deciding the merits.
Steel Co. rejected a doctrine, once approved by several Courts of Appeals, that allowed federal tribunals to pretermit jurisdictional objections “where (1) the merits question is more readily resolved, and (2) the prevailing party on the merits would be the same as the prevailing party were jurisdiction denied.”
Statutes cited
Cite this
Ruhrgas Ag v. Marathon Oil Co., 526 U.S. 574 (1999)Read the full opinion
Reading the library on this site uses your account’s daily calls, the same as the connector and the API. The Free plan needs no card. Calls a day on each plan.