justiciable controversy
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 300 U.S. 227 - Aetna Life Ins Co of Hartford Conn v. Haworth · 1937Most cited · 6,465 citing opinions
A justiciable controversy is thus distinguished from a difference or dispute of a hypothetical or abstract character; from one that is academic or moot. The controversy must be definite and concrete, touching the legal relations of parties having adverse legal interests. It must be 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.
How the Supreme Court has restated “justiciable controversy”
Each Supreme Court definition of “justiciable controversy,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “justiciable controversy”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “justiciable controversy” — 9,618 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1935–1952
- ORIGINAL
Until the right asserted is threatened with invasion by acts of the state, which serve both to define the controversy and to establish its existence in the judicial sense, there is no question presented which is justiciable by a federal court
The controversy must be definite and concrete, touching the legal relations of parties having adverse legal interests. It must be 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.