Ripeness and Mootness

A case is ripe if the injury has already occurred or is imminently about to occur.  The Court does not like to hear cases where the harm is speculative, or has not yet occurred, because there is a risk that the harm may never occur.  This would render any opinion by the Court advisory.

Mootness comes at the issue from the other direction.  A case is moot if the controversy that gave rise to the claims is no longer an issue.  For example, in the above car accident example, if I were to pay you as part of a settlement, the issue would be moot.  Therefore, the Court would refuse to hear the case.

There are three exceptions to the mootness doctrine.  First, a party cannot claim the protection of mootness if the only reason the case is moot is because the defendant voluntarily ceased their illegal activities.  Thus, if you sue a chemical plant for dumping waste into a lake, they cannot avoid your lawsuit by stopping the dumping on their own.  This is an exception because they could always restart dumping once the case is dismissed.

Second is a class of cases which are “capable of repetition, yet evading review.”  Cases take years to reach the US Supreme Court, but some issues will come to fruition before the Court can hear the case.  The classic example of this is Roe v. Wade.  Jane Roe was suing for the right to terminate her pregnancy.  However, because it only takes nine months to have a baby, Jane Roe’s baby was born before the case reached the US Supreme Court.  If the Court were unable to hear her case, they could never rule on the issue, because no one has a long enough pregnancy.  But because Jane Roe could become pregnant again, the Court decided to hear the case.

Finally, members of a class action lawsuit may join and leave the class over time, even the named plaintiff.  In that case, the lawsuit may continue, so long as some member of the class has standing.  An example of this would be the lawsuits against the tobacco companies.  The named plaintiff, and others, may die of lung cancer during the course of the lawsuit, which would normally moot the suit between the individual and the tobacco companies.  But new people are getting lung cancer from smoking every day.  Thus, so long as some members remain in the class, the Court will hear the case.