ABSTRACT, CONTINGENT, AND HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS
Closely related to the requirements of adverse parties and substantial interests is that of a real issue as contrasted with speculative, abstract, hypothetical, or moot cases. As put by Chief Justice Stone in Alabama State Federation of Labor v. McAdory,[178] it has long been the Court's "considered practice not to decide abstract, hypothetical or contingent questions," or as Justice Holmes said years earlier by way of dictum, a party cannot maintain a suit "for a mere declaration in the air."[179] Texas v. Interstate Commerce Commission,[180] presents a good illustration of an abstract question. Here, Texas attempted to enjoin the enforcement of the Transportation Act of 1920 on the ground that it invaded the reserved rights of the State. The Court dismissed the complaint as presenting no case or controversy, declaring: "It is only where rights, in themselves appropriate subjects of judicial cognizance, are being, or about to be, affected prejudicially by the application or enforcement of a statute that its validity may be called in question by a suitor and determined by an exertion of the judicial power."[181] Again in Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority,[182] the Court refused to decide any issue save that of the validity of the contracts between the Authority and the Company because, "The pronouncements, policies and program of the Tennessee Valley Authority and its directors, their motives and desires, did not give rise to a justiciable controversy save as they had fruition in action of a definite and concrete character constituting an actual or threatened interference with the rights of the persons complaining." Chief Justice Hughes cited New York v. Illinois,[183] where the Court dismissed a suit as presenting abstract questions "as to the possible effect of the diversion of water from Lake Michigan upon hypothetical water power developments in the indefinite future."[184] He also cited among other cases Arizona v. California,[185] where it was held that claims based merely upon assumed potential invasions of rights were not enough to warrant judicial intervention.
The concepts of real interests and abstract questions again appear prominently in United Public Workers of America v. Mitchell.[186] Here a number of government employees sued to enjoin the Civil Service Commission from enforcing the prohibitions of the Hatch Act against activity in political management or campaigns, and to obtain a declaratory judgment that the act was invalid. Except for one of the employees none had violated the act, but they did state that they desired to engage in the forbidden political activities. The Court held that as to all the parties save the one who had violated the act there was no justiciable controversy. "Concrete legal issues, presented in actual cases, not abstractions" were declared to be requisite. The generality of their objection was regarded as really an attack on the political expediency of the Hatch Act.[187]
From the rule that courts will not render advisory opinions or write essays in political theory on speculative issues, it follows logically that they will not determine moot cases or suits arranged by collusion between parties who have no opposing interests. A moot case has been defined as "one which seeks to get a judgment on a pretended controversy, when in reality there is none, or a decision in advance about a right before it has been actually asserted and contested, or a judgment upon some matter which, when rendered, for any reason, cannot have any practical legal effect upon a then existing controversy."[188] Cases may become moot because of a change in the law, or the status of the litigants, or because of some act of the parties which dissolves the controversy.[189] Just as courts will not speculate an hypothetical question, so they will not analyze dead issues.[190] The duty of every federal court, said Justice Gray, "is to decide actual controversies by a judgment which can be carried into effect, and not give opinions upon moot questions or abstract propositions, or to declare principles or rules of law which cannot affect the matter at issue in the case before it."[191]
The rule has been long established that the courts have no general supervisory power over the executive or administrative branches of government.[192] In Decatur v. Paulding,[193] which involved an attempt by mandamus to compel the Secretary of the Navy to pay a pension, the Supreme Court in sustaining denial of relief stated: "The interference of the courts with the performance of the ordinary duties of the executive departments of the government, would be productive of nothing but mischief; and we are quite satisfied, that such a power was never intended to be given to them."[194] It follows, therefore, that mandamus will lie against an executive official only to compel the performance of a ministerial duty which admits of no discretion as contrasted with executive or political duties which admit of discretion.[195] It follows, too, that an injunction will not lie against the President,[196] or against the head of an executive department to control the exercise of executive discretion.[197] These principles are well illustrated by Georgia v. Stanton,[198] Mississippi v. Johnson,[199] and Kendall v. United States ex rel. Stokes.[200]
Origin of the Concept
The concept of "political question" is an old one. As early as Marbury v. Madison,[201] Chief Justice Marshall stated: "The province of the court is, solely, to decide on the rights of individuals, not to inquire how the executive, or executive officers, perform duties in which they have a discretion. Questions in their nature political, or which are, by the constitution and laws, submitted to the executive, can never be made in this court." The concept, as distinguished from that of interference with executive functions, was first elaborated in Luther v. Borden,[202] which involved the meaning of "a republican form" of government and the question of the lawful government of Rhode Island among two competing groups purporting to act as the lawful authority. "It is the province of a court to expound the law, not to make it," declared Chief Justice Taney. "And certainly it is no part of the judicial functions of any court of the United States to prescribe the qualification of voters in a State, * * *; nor has it the right to determine what political privileges the citizens of a State are entitled to, unless there is an established constitution or law to govern its decision."[203] The Court went on to hold that such matters as the guaranty to a State of a republican form of government and of protection against invasion and domestic violence are political questions committed to Congress and the President whose decisions are binding upon the courts.[204]
Exemplifications of the Doctrine