Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/165

 502us1$$1Z 08-26-96 14:36:33 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 1 (1991)

7

Per Curiam

better if litigants pursuing such motions were made to go sooner, rather than later, on their fruitless way to the appellate court. But there is no certain way of deciding in advance which motions for reconsideration have the requisite degree of merit, and which do not. Given this, it is far better that all such motions be subsumed under one general rule—the rule laid down in Healy. Without a clear general rule litigants would be required to guess at their peril the date on which the time to appeal commences to run. Prudent attorneys would be encouraged to file notices of appeal from orders of the district court, even though the latter court is in the course of considering a motion for rehearing of the order. Cf. United States v. Ladson, 774 F. 2d 436, 438–439, n. 3 (CA11 1985). Less prudent attorneys would find themselves litigating in the courts of appeals whether a motion for reconsideration filed in the district court had sufficient potential merit to justify the litigant’s delay in pursuing appellate review. Neither development would be desirable. The Court of Appeals’ opinion can be read to hold that because the Government did not initially urge the argument which it made in its motion for reconsideration, that motion was not a “true” motion for reconsideration which would extend the time for appeal. But this method of analysis, too, would break down into subcategories the more general category of “motions for reconsideration” described in our previous opinions. Here, the Government’s motion before the District Court sought to “ ‘reconsider [a] question decided in the case’ in order to effect an ‘alteration of the rights adjudicated.’ ” Dieter, 429 U. S., at 8–9 (quoting Department of Banking of Neb. v. Pink, 317 U. S. 264, 266 (1942)). That is sufficient under Healy and Dieter.3 3 Two other concerns that animate the Tenth Circuit’s decision are simply inapposite to the present case. First, there is no assertion that the Government’s abandonment and reassertion of the consensual search theory was done in bad faith. We thus have no occasion to consider whether instances of bad faith might require a different result. See United States