Page:Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer.pdf/18

18 adjudication, the rulings that Article III judges have issued in those cases remain good law. “[T]here is no particular reason to assume that a decision, later mooted, is any less valid as precedent than any other opinion of a court.” Mahoney v. Babbitt, 113 F. 3d 219, 222 (CADC 1997).

Why, then, does the possibility of nullifying a lower court’s judgment by ordering Munsingwear vacatur exist? I submit that it serves a specific, equitable function: to address any unjust circumstances or unfairness that might stem from the inability to appeal a particular lower court decision, notwithstanding its presumptive validity. And just as in Munsingwear itself, “the party seeking relief from the status quo of the appellate judgment” bears the burden of establishing “equitable entitlement to [this] extraordinary remedy.” Bancorp, 513 U. S., at 26.

Thus, in my view, sound vacatur arguments must be rooted in fairness. Likewise, I believe that a court’s Munsingwear determination should involve a particularized assessment of whether “the conditions and circumstances of the particular case” warrant vacatur of the lower court’s judgment. Garza, 584 U. S., at 729 (internal quotation marks omitted).