delivered the opinion of the Court.
Federal courts lack competence to rule definitively on the meaning of state legislation, see,
e. g., Reetz
v.
Bozanich,
Yniguez commenced and maintained her suit as an individual, not as a class representative. A state employee at the time she filed her complaint, Yniguez voluntarily left the State’s employ in 1990 and did not allege she would seek to return to a public post. Her departure for a position in the private sector made her claim for prospective relief moot. Nevertheless, the Ninth Circuit held that a plea for nominal damages could be read into Yniguez’s complaint to save the case, and therefore pressed on to an ultimate decision. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals declared Article XXVIII unconstitutional in 1994,. and a divided en banc court, in 1995, adhered to the panel’s position.
The Ninth Circuit had no warrant to proceed as it did. The case had lost the essential elements of a justiciable controversy and should not have been retained for adjudication on the merits by the Court of Appeals. We therefore *49 vacate the Ninth Circuit’s judgment, and remand the case to that court with directions that the action be dismissed by the District Court. We express no view on the correct interpretation of Article XXVIII or on the measure’s constitutionality.
I
A 1988 Arizona ballot initiative established English as the official language of the State. Passed on November 8, 1988, by a margin of one percentage point, 1 the measure became effective on December 5 as Arizona State Constitution Article XXVIII. Among key provisions, the Article declares that, with specified exceptions, the State “shall act in English and in no other language.” Ariz. Const., Art. XXVIII, §3(l)(a). The enumerated exceptions concern compliance with federal laws, participation in certain educational programs, protection of the rights of criminal defendants and crime victims, and protection of public health or safety. Id., § 3(2). In a final provision, Article XXVIII grants standing to any person residing or doing business in the State “to bring suit to enforce th[e] Article” in state court, under such “reasonable limitations” as “[t]he Legislature may enact.” Id., §4. 2
Federal-court litigation challenging the constitutionality of Article XXVIII commenced two days after the ballot initiative passed. On November 10, 1988, Maria-Kelly F. Yniguez, then an insurance claims manager in the Arizona Department of Administration’s Risk Management Division, sued the State of Arizona in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. Yniguez invoked 42 U. S. C. *50 § 1983 as the basis for her suit. 3 Soon after the lawsuit commenced, Yniguez added as defendants, in their individual and official capacities, Arizona Governor Rose Mofford, Arizona Attorney General Robert K. Corbin, and the Director of Arizona’s Department of Administration, Catherine Eden. Yniguez brought suit as an individual and never sought designation as a class representative.
Fluent in English and Spanish, Yniguez was engaged primarily in handling medical malpractice claims against the State. In her daily service to the public, she spoke English to persons who spoke only that language, Spanish to persons who spoke only that language, and a combination of English and Spanish to persons able to communicate in both languages. Record, Doc. No. 62, ¶¶8, 13 (Statement of Stipulated Facts, filed Feb. 9, 1989). Yniguez feared that Article XXVIII’s instruction to “act in English,” §3(l)(a), if read broadly, would govern her job performance “every time she [did] something.” See Record, Doc. No. 62, ¶ 10. She believed she would lose her job or face other sanctions if she did not immediately refrain from speaking Spanish while serving the State. See App. 58, ¶ 19 (Second Amended Complaint). Yniguez asserted that Article XXVIII violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 252, 42 U. S. C. § 2000d. She requested injunctive and declaratory relief, counsel fees, and “all other relief that the *51 Court deems just and proper under the circumstances.” App. 60.
All defendants named in Yniguez’s complaint moved to dismiss all claims asserted against them. 4 The State of Arizona asserted immunity from suit under the Eleventh Amendment. The individual defendants asserted the absence of a case or controversy because “none of [them] ha[d] threatened [Yniguez] concerning her use of Spanish in the performance of her job duties [or had] ever told her not to use Spanish [at work].” Record, Doc. No. 30, p. 1. The defendants further urged that novel state-law questions concerning the meaning and application of Article XXVIII should be tendered first to the state courts. See id., at 2. 5
Trial on the merits of Yniguez’s complaint, the parties agreed, would be combined with the hearing on her motion for a preliminary injunction. 6 Before the trial occurred, the State Attorney General, on January 24, 1989, released an opinion, No. 189-009, construing Article XXVIII and explaining why he found the measure constitutional. App. 61-76.
*52 In Opinion No. 189-009, the Attorney General said it was his obligation to read Article XXVIII “as a whole,” in line “with the other portions of the Arizona Constitution” and “with the United States Constitution and federal laws.” App. 61. While Article XXVIII requires the performance of “official acts of government” in English, it was the Attorney General’s view that government employees remained free to use other languages “to facilitate the delivery of governmental services.” Id., at 62. Construction of the word “act,” as used in Article XXVIII, to mean more than an “official ac[t] of government,” the Attorney General asserted, “would raise serious questions” of compatibility with federal and state equal protection guarantees and federal civil rights legislation. Id., at 65-66. 7
On February 9,1989, two weeks after release of the Attorney General’s opinion, the parties filed a statement of stipulated facts, which reported Governor Mofford’s opposition to the ballot initiative, her intention nevertheless “to comply with Article XXVIII,” and her expectation that “State service employees [would] comply” with the measure. See Record, Doc. No. 62, ¶¶35, 36, 39. The stipulation confirmed the view of all parties that “[t]he efficient operation [and administration] of the State is enhanced by permitting State service employees to communicate with citizens of the State in languages other than English where the citizens are not proficient in English.” Id., ¶¶ 16, 17. In particular, the parties recognized that “Yniguez’[s] use of a language other *53 than English in the course of her performing government business contributes to the efficient operation . . . and . . . administration of the State.” Id., ¶ 15. The stipulation referred to the Attorney General’s January 24, 1989, opinion, id., ¶ 46, and further recounted that since the passage of Article XXVIII, “none of [Yniguez’s] supervisors ha[d] ever told her to change or cease her prior use of Spanish in the performance of her duties,” id., ¶ 48. 8
The District Court heard testimony on two days in February and April 1989, and disposed of the case in an opinion and judgment filed February 6, 1990.
Yniguez
v.
Mofford,
The District Court determined first that, among the named defendants, only the Governor, in her official capacity, was a proper party. The Attorney General, the District Court found, had no authority under Arizona law to enforce provisions like Article XXVIII against state employees.
The Attorney General “ha[d] formally interpreted Article XXVIII as not imposing any restrictions on Yniguez’s continued use of Spanish during the course of her official duties,”
id.,
at 312, and indeed all three named defendants— Mofford as well as Corbin and Eden, see
supra,
at 50— “ha[d] stated on the record that Yniguez may continue to speak Spanish without fear of official retribution.”
Proceeding to the merits, the District Court found Article XXVIII fatally overbroad. The measure, as the District Court read it, was not merely a direction that all official acts be in English, as the Attorney General’s opinion maintained; instead, according to the District Court, Article XXVIII imposed a sweeping ban on the use of any language other than English by all of Arizona officialdom, with only limited exceptions.
Id.,
at 314. The District Court adverted to the Attorney General’s confining construction, but found it unpersuasive. Opinion No. 189-009, the District Court observed, is “merely . . . advisory,” not binding on any
*55
court.
The view that Article XXVIII’s text left no room for a moderate and restrained interpretation led the District Court to decline “to allow the Arizona courts the initial opportunity to determine the scope of Article XXVIII.” Id., at 316. The District Court ultimately dismissed all parties save Yniguez and Governor Mofford in her official capacity, then declared Article XXVIII unconstitutional as violative of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, but denied Yniguez’s request for an injunction because “she ha[d] not established an enforcement threat sufficient to warrant [such] relief.” Id., at 316-317.
Postjúdgment motions followed, sparked by Governor Mofford’s announcement that she would not pursue an appeal. See App. 98. The Attorney General renewed his request to certify the pivotal state-law question — the correct construction of Article XXVIII — to the Arizona Supreme Court. See Record, Doc. No. 82. He also moved to intervene on behalf of the State, pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 2403(b), 10 in order to contest on appeal the District Court’s declaration that a provision of Arizona’s Constitution violated the Federal Constitution. Record, Doc. Nos. 92, 93.
*56 Two newcomers also appeared in the District Court after judgment: the Arizonans for Official English Committee (AOE) and Robert D. Park, Chairman of AOE. Invoking Rule 24 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, AOE and Park moved to intervene as defendants in order to urge on appeal the constitutionality of Article XXVIII. App. 94-102. AOE, an unincorporated association, was principal sponsor of the ballot initiative that became Article XXVIII. AOE and Park alleged in support of their intervention motion the interest of AOE members in enforcement of Article XXVIII and Governor Mofford’s unwillingness to defend the measure on appeal. Responding to the AOE/Park motion, Governor Mofford confirmed that she did not wish to appeal, but would have no objection to the Attorney General’s intervention to pursue an appeal as the State’s representative, or to the pursuit of an appeal by any other party. See Record, Doc. No. 94.
Yniguez expressed reservations about proceeding further. “She ha[d] won [her] suit against her employer” and had “obtained her relief,” her counsel noted. Record, Doc. No. 114, p. 18 (Tr. of Proceeding on Motion to Intervene and Motion to Alter or Amend Judgment, Mar. 26, 1990). If the litigation “goes forward,” Yniguez’s counsel told the District Court, “I guess we do, too,” but, counsel added, it might be in Yniguez’s “best interest ... if we stopped it right here.” Ibid. The District Court agreed.
In an opinion filed April 3, 1990, the District Court denied all three postjudgment motions. Yniguez v. Mofford, 130 F. R. D. 410. Certification was inappropriate, the District Court ruled, in light of the court’s prior rejection of the Attorney General’s narrow reading of Article XXVIII. See id., at 412. As to the Attorney General’s intervention application, the District Court observed that § 2403(b) addresses only actions “ 'to which the State or any agency, officer, or employee thereof is not a party.’ ” See id., at 413 (quoting § 2403(b)). Yniguez’s action did not fit the § 2403(b) de *57 scription, the District Court said, because the State and its officers were the very defendants — the sole defendants— Yniguez’s complaint named. Governor Mofford remained a party throughout the District Court proceedings. If the State lost -the opportunity to defend the constitutionality of Article XXVIII on appeal, the District Court reasoned, it was “only because Governor Mofford determine^] that the state’s sovereign interests would be best served by foregoing an appeal.” Ibid.
Turning to the AOE/Park intervention motion, the District Court observed first that the movants had failed to file a pleading “setting forth the[ir] claim or defense,” as required by Rule 24(c). Ibid. But that deficiency was not critical, the District Court said. Ibid. The insurmountable hurdle was Article III standing. The labor and resources AOE spent to promote the ballot initiative did not suffice to establish standing to sue or defend in a federal tribunal, the District Court held. Id., at 414-415. Nor did Park or any other AOE member qualify for party status, the District Court ruled, for the interests of voters who favored the initiative were too general to meet traditional standing criteria. Id., at 415.
In addition, the District Court was satisfied that AOE and Park could not tenably assert practical impairment of their interests stemming from the precedential force of the decision. As nonparticipants in the federal litigation, they would face no issue preclusion. And a lower federal-court judgment is not binding on state courts, the District Court noted. Thus, AOE and Park would not be precluded by the federal declaration from pursuing “any future state court proceeding [based on] Article XXVIII.” Id., at 415-416.
r-H J — <
The Ninth Circuit viewed the matter of standing to appeal differently. In an opinion released July 19, 1991,
Yniguez
v.
Arizona,
Concerning AOE’s standing, the Court of Appeals reasoned that the Arizona Legislature would have standing to defend the constitutionality of a state statute; by analogy, the Ninth Circuit maintained, AOE, as principal sponsor of the ballot initiative, qualified to defend Article XXVIII on appeal. Id., at 732-733; see also id., at 734, n. 5 (“[W]e hold that AOE has standing in the same way that a legislature might.”). AOE Chairman Park also had standing to appeal, according to the Ninth Circuit, because Yniguez “could have had a reasonable expectation that Park (and possibly AOE as well) would bring an enforcement action against her” under §4 of Article XXVIII, which authorizes any person residing in Arizona to sue in state court to enforce the Article. Id., at 734, and n. 5. 11
*61 the Ninth Circuit, explicitly, the issue of nominal damages. Id., at 647, and n. 2. 15
In line with the Ninth Circuit’s instructions, the case file was returned to the District Court on November 5, 1992; AOE and Park filed their second notice of appeal on December 3, App. 206-208, and Yniguez cross-appealed on December 15, App. 209.
16
The Ninth Circuit heard argument on the merits on May 3, 1994. After argument, on June 21, 1994, the Ninth Circuit allowed Arizonans Against Constitutional Tampering (AACT) and Thomas Espinosa, Chairman of AACT, to intervene as plaintiffs-appellees. App. 14;
Yniguez
v.
Arizona,
In December 1994, the Ninth Circuit panel that had superintended the case since 1990 affirmed the judgment declaring Article XXVIII unconstitutional and remanded the case, directing the District Court to award Yniguez nominal dam
*62
ages.
Adopting the District Court’s construction of Article XXVIII, the en banc court read the provision to prohibit
“‘the use of any language other than English by all officers and employees of all political subdivisions in Arizona while performing their official duties, save to the extent that they may be allowed to use a foreign language by the limited exceptions contained in § 3(2) of Article XXVIII.’”69 F. 3d, at 928 (quoting730 F. Supp., at 314 ).
Because the court found the “plain language” dispositive,
After construing Article XXVIII as sweeping in scope, the en banc Court of Appeals condemned the provision as manifestly overbroad, trenching untenably on speech rights of Arizona officials and public employees. See id., at 931-948. For prevailing in the § 1983 action, the court ultimately announced, Yniguez was “entitled to nominal damages.” Id., at 949. On remand, the District Court followed the en banc Court of Appeals’ order and, on November 3, 1995, awarded Yniguez $1 in damages. App. 211.
AOE and Park petitioned this Court for a writ of certiorari to the Ninth Circuit.
19
They raised two questions: (1) Does Article XXVIII violate the Free Speech Clause of the First
*64
Amendment by “declaring English the official language of the State and requiring English to be used to perform official acts”?; (2) Do public employees have “a Free Speech right to disregard the [State’s] official language” and perform official actions in a language other than English? This Court granted the petition and requested the parties to brief as threshold matters (1) the standing of AOE and Park to proceed in this action as defending parties, and (2) Yniguez’s continuing satisfaction of the case-or-controversy requirement.
) — 4 t — <
Article III, § 2, of the Constitution confines federal courts to the decision of “Cases” or “Controversies.” Standing to sue or defend is an aspect of the case-or-controversy requirement.
Northeastern Fla. Chapter, Associated Gen. Contractors of America
v.
Jacksonville,
The standing Article III requires must be met by persons seeking appellate review, just as it must be met by persons appearing in courts of first instance.
Diamond,
In granting the petition for a writ of certiorari in this case, we called for briefing on the question whether AOE and Park have standing, consonant with Article III of the Federal Constitution, to defend in federal court the constitutionality of Arizona Constitution Article XXVIII. Petitioners argue primarily that, as initiative proponents, they have a quasi-legislative interest in defending the constitutionality of the measure they successfully sponsored. AOE and Park stress the funds and effort they expended to achieve adoption of Article XXVIII. We have recognized that state legislators have standing to contest a decision holding a state statute unconstitutional if state law authorizes legislators to represent the State’s interests. See
Karcher
v.
May,
AOE also asserts representational or associational standing. An association has standing to sue or defend in such
*66
capacity, however, only if its members would have standing in their own right. See
Food and Commercial Workers
v.
Brown Group, Inc.,
We thus have grave doubts whether AOE and Park have standing under Article III to pursue appellate review. Nevertheless, we need not definitively resolve the issue. Rather, we will follow a path we have taken before and inquire, as a primary matter, whether originating plaintiff Yniguez still has a case to pursue. See
Burke
v.
Barnes,
IV
To qualify as a case fit for federal-court adjudication, “an actual controversy must be extant at all stages of review, not merely at the time the complaint is filed.”
Preiser
v.
Newkirk,
*68
The Attorney General suggested mootness,
22
but Yniguez resisted, and the Ninth Circuit adopted her proposed method of saving the case. See
supra,
at 60-61.
23
It was not dis-positive, the court said, that Yniguez “may no longer be affected by the English only provision,”
Yniguez’s complaint rested on 42 U. S. C. § 1983. See
supra,
at 49-50, and n. 3. Although Governor Mofford in her official capacity was the sole defendant against whom the
*69
District Court’s February 1990 declaratory judgment ran, see
supra,
at
55,
the Ninth Circuit held the State answerable for the nominal damages Yniguez requested on appeal. See
Furthermore, under the Ninth Circuit’s ruling on intervention, the State of Arizona was permitted to participate in the appeal, but not as a party.
True, Yniguez and the Attorney General took the steps the Ninth Circuit prescribed: Yniguez filed a cross-appeal notice, see
supra,
at 61; the Attorney General waived the State’s right to assert the Eleventh Amendment as a defense to an award of nominal damages, see
*71
In advancing cooperation between Yniguez and the Attorney General regarding the request for and agreement to pay nominal damages, the Ninth Circuit did not home in on the federal courts’ lack of authority to act in friendly or feigned proceedings. Cf.
United States
v.
Johnson,
When a civil case becomes moot pending appellate adjudication, “[t]he established practice ... in the federal system ... is to reverse or vacate the judgment below and remand with a direction to dismiss.”
United States
v.
Munsingwear, Inc.,
As just explained, Yniguez’s changed circumstances — her resignation from public sector employment to pursue work in the private sector — mooted the case stated in her complaint. 27 We turn next to the effect of that development on the judgments below. Yniguez urges that vacatur ought not occur here. She maintains that the State acquiesced in the Ninth Circuit’s judgment and that, in any event, the District Court judgment should not be upset because it was entered before the mooting event occurred and was not properly appealed. See Brief for Respondent Yniguez 23-25.
Concerning the Ninth Circuit’s judgment, Yniguez argues that the State’s Attorney General effectively acquiesced in that court’s dispositions when he did not petition for this Court’s review. See
id.,
at 24-25; Brief for United States as
Amicus Curiae
10-11, and n. 4 (citing
Diamond
v.
Charles,
*73
We have taken up the case for consideration on the petition for certiorari filed by AOE and Park. Even if we were to rule definitively that AOE and Park lack standing, we would have an obligation essentially to search the pleadings on core matters of federal-court adjudicatory authority — to inquire not only into this Court’s authority to decide the questions petitioners present, but to consider, also, the authority of the lower courts to proceed. As explained in
Bender
v.
Williamsport Area School Dist.,
“[Ejvery federal appellate court has a special obligation to ‘satisfy itself not only of its own jurisdiction, but also that of the lower courts in a cause under review,’ even though the parties are prepared to concede it. Mitchell v. Maurer,293 U. S. 237 , 244 (1934). See Juidice v. Vail,430 U. S. 327 , 331-332 (1977) (standing). ‘And if the record discloses that the lower court was without jurisdiction this court will notice the defect, although the parties make no contention concerning it. [When the lower federal court] lack[s] jurisdiction, we have jurisdiction on appeal, not of the merits but merely for the purpose of correcting the error of the lower court in entertaining the suit.’ United States v. Corrick,298 U. S. 435 , 440 (1936) (footnotes omitted).” Id., at 541 (brackets in original).
See also
Iron Arrow Honor Soc.
v.
Heckler,
*74 As to the District Court’s judgment, Yniguez stresses that the date of the mooting event — her resignation from state employment effective April 25, 1990 — was some 2½ months after the February 6, 1990, decision she seeks to preserve. Governor Mofford was the sole defendant bound by the District Court judgment, and Mofford declined to appeal. Therefore, Yniguez contends, the District Court’s judgment should remain untouched.
But AOE and Park had an arguable basis for seeking appellate review, and the Attorney General promptly made known his independent interest in defending Article XXVIII against the total demolition declared by the District Court. First, the Attorney General repeated his plea for certification of Article XXVIII to the Arizona Supreme Court. See Record, Doc. No. 82. And if that plea failed, he asked, in his motion to intervene, “to be joined as a defendant so that he may participate in all post-judgment proceedings.” Record, Doc. No. 93, p. 2. Although denied party status, the Attorney General had, at a minimum, a right secured by Congress, a right to present argument on appeal “on the question of constitutionality.” See 28 U. S. C. § 2403(b). He was in the process of pursuing that right when the mooting event occurred.
We have already recounted the course of proceedings thereafter. First, Yniguez did not tell the Court of Appeals that she had left the State’s employ. See supra, at 68, n. 23. When that fact was disclosed to the court by the Attorney General, a dismissal for mootness was suggested, and rejected. A mootness disposition at that point was in order, we have just explained. Such a dismissal would have stopped in midstream the Attorney General’s endeavor, premised on § 2403(b), to defend the State’s law against a declaration of unconstitutionality, and so would- have warranted a path-clearing vacatur decree.
The State urges that its current plea for vacatur is compelling in view of the extraordinary course of this litigation.
*75
See Brief for Respondents State of Arizona et al. 34 (“It would certainly be a strange doctrine that would permit a plaintiff to obtain a favorable judgment, take voluntary action [that] moot[s] the dispute, and then retain the [benefit of the] judgment.”)- We agree. The “exceptional circumstances” that abound in this case, see
U. S. Bancorp Mortgage Co.,
V
In litigation generally, and in constitutional litigation most prominently, courts in the United States characteristically pause to ask: Is this conflict really necessary?
29
When anticipatory relief is sought in federal court against a state statute, respect for the place of the States in our federal-system calls for close consideration of that core question. See,
e. g., Poe
v.
Ullman,
Arizona’s Attorney General, in addition to releasing his own opinion on the meaning of Article XXVIII, see supra, at 52, asked both the District Court and the Court of Appeals to pause before proceeding to judgment; specifically, he asked both federal courts to seek, through the State’s certification process, an authoritative construction of the new measure from the Arizona Supreme Court. See supra, at 51, and n. 5, 55, 62-63, and nn. 17, 18.
Certification today covers territory once dominated by a deferral device called
“Pullman
abstention,” after the gen
*76
erative case,
Railroad Comm’n of Tex.
v.
Pullman Co.,
Certification procedure, in contrast, allows a federal court faced with a novel state-law question to put the question directly to the State’s highest court, reducing the delay, cutting the cost, and increasing the assurance of gaining an authoritative response. See Note, Federal Courts — Certification Before Facial Invalidation: A Return to Federalism, 12 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 217 (1990). Most States have adopted certification procedures. See generally 17A Wright, Miller, & Cooper, supra, §4248. Arizona’s statute, set out supra, at 51, n. 5, permits the State’s highest court to consider questions certified to it by federal district courts, as well as courts of appeals and this Court.
Both lower federal courts in this case refused to invite the aid of the Arizona Supreme Court because they found the language of Article XXVIII “plain,” and the Attorney General’s limiting construction unpersuasive. See
A more cautious approach was in order. Through certification of novel or unsettled questions of state law for authoritative answers by a State’s highest court, a federal court may save “time, energy, and resources and hel[p] build a cooperative judicial federalism.”
Lehman Brothers
v.
Schein,
The District Court and the Court of Appeals ruled out certification primarily because they believed Article XXVIII was not fairly subject to a limiting construction. See
At oral argument on December 4, 1996, counsel for petitioners AOE and Park informed the Court that, in petitioners' view, the Attorney General's reading of the Article was “the correct interpretation.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 6; see
id.,
at 5 (in response to the Court’s inquiry, counsel for petitioners stated: “[W]e agree with the Attorney General’s opinion as to [the] construction of Article XXVIII on [constitutional] grounds.”). The Ninth Circuit found AOE’s “explanations as to the initiative's scope . . . confused and self-contradictory,”
Federal courts, when confronting a challenge to the constitutionality of a federal statute, follow a “cardinal principle”: They “will first ascertain whether a construction ... is fairly possible” that will contain the statute within constitutional bounds. See
Ashwander
v.
TVA,
Warnings against premature adjudication of constitutional questions bear heightened attention when a federal court is asked to invalidate a State’s law, for the federal tribunal risks friction-generating error when it endeavors to construe a novel state Act not yet reviewed by the State’s highest court. See
Rescue Army,
Blending abstention with certification, the Ninth Circuit found “no unique circumstances in this case militating in favor of certification.”
The course of Yniguez’s case was complex. The complexity might have been avoided had the District Court, more than eight years ago, accepted the certification suggestion made by Arizona’s Attorney General. The Arizona Supreme Court was not asked by the District Court or the Court of Appeals to say what Article XXVIII means. But the State’s highest court has that very question before it in *80 Ruiz v. Symington, see supra, at 62-63, and n. 18, the case the Ninth Circuit considered no cause for federal-court hesitation.' In Ruiz, which has been stayed pending our decision in this case, see supra, at 63, n. 18, the Arizona Supreme Court may now rule definitively on-the proper construction of Article XXVIII. Once that court has spoken, adjudication of any remaining federal constitutional question may indeed become greatly simplified.
* * *
For the reasons stated, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is vacated, and the case is remanded to that court with directions that the action be dismissed by the District Court.
It is so ordered.
APPENDIX TO OPINION OF THE COURT
ARTICLE XXVIII. ENGLISH AS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
§ 1. English as the official language; applicability
Section 1. (1) The English language is the official language of the State of Arizona.
(2) As the official language of this State, the English language is the language of the ballot, the public schools and all government functions and actions. .
(3)(a) This Article applies to:
(i) the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government!,]
(ii) all political subdivisions, departments, agencies, organizations, and instrumentalities of this State, including local governments and municipalities,
(iii) all statutes, ordinances, rules, orders, programs and policies!,]
(iv) all government officials and employees during the performance of government business.
*81 (b)As used in this Article, the phrase “This State and all political subdivisions of this State” shall include every entity, person, action or item described in this Section, as appropriate to the circumstances.
§2. Requiring this state to preserve, protect and enhance English
Section 2. This State and all political subdivisions of this State shall take all reasonable steps to preserve, protect and enhance the role of the English language as the official language of the State of Arizona.
§ S. Prohibiting this state from using or requiring the use of languages other than English; exceptions
Section 3. (1) Except as provided in Subsection (2):
(a) This State and all political subdivisions of this State shall act in English and in no other language.
(b) No entity to which this Article applies shall make or enforce a law, order, decree or policy which requires the use of a language other than English.
(e) No governmental document shall be valid, effective or enforceable unless it is in the English language.
(2) This State and all political subdivisions of this State may act in a language other than English under any of the following circumstances:
(a) to assist students who are not proficient in the English language, to the extent necessary to comply with federal law, by giving educational instruction in a language other than English to provide as rapid as possible a transition to English.
(b) to comply with other federal laws.
(c) to teach a student a foreign language as a part of a required or voluntary educational curriculum.
(d) to protect public health or safety.
(e) to protect the rights of criminal defendants or victims of crime.
*82 §Jp. Enforcement; standing
Section 4. A person who resides in or does business in this State shall have standing to bring suit to enforce this Article in a court of record of the State. The Legislature may enact reasonable limitations on the time and manner of bringing suit under this subsection.
Notes
The measure, opposed by the Governor as “sadly misdirected,” App. 38, drew the affirmative votes of 50.5% of Arizonans casting ballots in the election, see
Yniguez
v.
Arizonans for Official English,
Article XXVIII, titled “English as the Official Language,” is set out in full in an appendix to this opinion.
Derived from § 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, Rev. Stat. § 1979, 42 U. S. C. § 1983 provides in relevant part:
“Civil action for deprivation of rights.
“Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State . . . , subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.”
Under Arizona law, the State Attorney General represents the State in federal court. See Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. §41-193(A)(3) (1992). Throughout these proceedings, the State and all state officials have been represented by the State Attorney General, or law department members under his supervision. See § 41 — 192(A).
Arizona law permits the State’s highest court to “answer questions of law certified to it by the supreme court of the United States, a court of appeals of the United States, a United States district court or a tribal court ... if there are involved in any proceedings before the certifying court questions of [Arizona law] which may be determinative of the cause then pending in the certifying court and as to which it appears to the certifying court there is no controlling precedent in the decisions of the supreme court and the intermediate appellate courts of this state.” Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 12-1861 (1994).
The District Court, on December 8,1988, had denied Yniguez’s application for a temporary restraining order, finding no “imminent danger of the imposition of sanctions” against her. Record, Doc. No. 23, p. 1.
Specifically addressing “[t]he handling of customer inquiries or complaints involving state or local government services,” the Attorney General elaborated:
“All official documents that are governmental acts must be in English, but translation services and accommodating communications are permissible, and may be required if reasonably necessary to the fair and effective delivery of services, or required by specific federal regulation. Communications between elected and other governmental employees with the public at large may be in a language other than English on the same principles.” App. 74.
Supplementing their pleas to dismiss for want of a ease or controversy, the defendants urged that Attorney General Opinion No. 189-009 “puts to rest any claim that [Yniguez] will be penalized by the State for using Spanish in her work.” Record, Doc. No. 51, p. 4, n. 1.
The second amended complaint added another plaintiff, Arizona State Senator Jaime Gutierrez. Senator Gutierrez alleged that Article XXVIII interfered with his rights to communicate freely with persons, including residents of his Senate district, who spoke languages other than English. App. 58-59. The District Court dismissed Gutierrez’s claim on the ground that the defendants, all executive branch officials, lacked authority to take enforcement action against elected legislative branch officials.
Yniguez
v.
Mofford,
Title 28 U. S. C. § 2403(b) provides:
“In any action, suit, or proceeding in a court of the United States to which a State or any agency, officer, or employee thereof is not a party, wherein the constitutionality of any statute of that State affecting the public interest is drawn in question, the court shall certify such fact to the attorney general of the State, and shall permit the State to intervene for presentation of evidence, if evidence is otherwise admissible in the case, and for argument on the question of constitutionality. The State shall, subject to the applicable provisions of law, have all the rights of a party and be subject to all liabilities of a party as to court costs to the extent necessary for a proper presentation of the facts and law relating to the question of constitutionality.”
In a remarkable passage, the Ninth Circuit addressed Yniguez’s argument, opposing intervention by AOE and Park, that the District Court’s judgment was no impediment to any state-court proceeding AOE and Park might wish to bring, because that judgment is not a binding precedent on Arizona’s judiciary. See
The Ninth Circuit made two further suggestions in the event that Yniguez failed to seek nominal damages: A new plaintiff “whose claim against the operation of the English only provision is not moot” might intervene; or Yniguez herself might have standing to remain a suitor if she could show that others had refrained from challenging the English-only provision in reliance on her suit. See
On March 16, 1993, the District Court awarded Yniguez nearly $100,000 in attorney’s fees. Record, Doe. No. 127. Governor Mofford and the State filed a notice of appeal from that award on April 8, 1993. Record, Doc. No. 128. Because the Ninth Circuit ultimately affirmed the District Court’s judgment on the merits, the appeals court did not reach the state defendants’ appeal from the award of fees.
The Court of Appeals contrasted
Virginia
v.
American Booksellers Assn., Inc.,
The
Ruiz
ease included among its several plaintiffs four elected officials and five state employees. After defeat in the court of first instance, the
Ruiz
plaintiffs prevailed in the Arizona Court of Appeals.
Ruiz
v.
Symington,
No. 1 CA-CV 94-0235,
The State did not oppose the petition and, in its Appearance Form, filed in this Court on January 10,1996, noted that “if the Court grants the Petition and reverses the lower court’s decision . . . Arizona will seek reversal of award of attorney’s fees against the State.” See supra, at 61, n. 16.
Cf.
INS
v.
Chadha,
As the District Court observed, the stare decisis effect of that court’s ruling was distinctly limited. The judgment was “not binding on the Arizona state courts [and did] not foreclose any rights of [AOE] or Park in any future state-court proceeding arising out of Article XXVIII.” Yniguez v. Mofford, 130 F. R. D. 410, 416 (D. Ariz. 1990).
Mootness has been described as “‘the doctrine of standing set in a time frame: The requisite personal interest that must exist at the commencement of the litigation (standing) must continue throughout its existence (mootness).’”
United States Parole Comm’n v. Geraghty,
Yniguez’s counsel did not inform the Court of Appeals of Yniguez’s departure from government employment, a departure effective April 25, 1990, the day before the appeal was docketed. See App. 7. It was not until September 1991 that the State’s Attorney General notified the Ninth Circuit of the plaintiff’s changed circumstances. See
id.,
at 187. Yni-guez’s counsel offered a laconic explanation for this lapse: First, “legal research disclosed that this case was not moot”; second, counsel for the State of Arizona knew of the resignation and “agreed this appeal should proceed.” App. 196, n. 2 (Appellee Yniguez’s Response Regarding Mootness Considerations). The explanation was unsatisfactory. It is the duty of counsel to bring to the federal tribunal’s attention,
“without delay,”
facts that may raise a question of mootness. See
Board of License Comm’rs of Tiverton
v.
Pastore,
State officers in their official capacities, like States themselves, are not amenable to suit for damages under § 1983. See
Will
v.
Michigan Dept. of State Police,
Section 2403(b) by its terms subjects an intervenor “to all liabilities of a party as to court costs” required “for a proper presentation of the facts and law relating to the question of constitutionality.” 28 U. S. C. § 2403(b) (emphasis added). It does not subject an intervenor to liability for damages available against a party defendant.
Endeavoring to meet the live ease requirement, petitioners AOE and Park posited in this Court several “controversies remaining between the parties.” Reply Brief for Petitioners 18-19. Tellingly, none of the asserted controversies involved Yniguez, sole plaintiff and prevailing party in the District Court. See ibid, (describing AOE and Park as adverse to intervenor Arizonans Against Constitution Tampering (AACT), see supra, at 61, AACT as adverse to the State, AOE and Park as adverse to the State).
It bears repetition that Yniguez did not sue on behalf of a class. See
supra,
at 50; cf.
Preiser
v.
Newkirk,
Designated a respondent in this Court, the State was not required or specifically invited to file a brief answering the AOE/Park petition. In his appearance form, filed January 10, 1996, Arizona’s Attorney General made this much plain: The State — aligned with petitioners AOE and Park in that Arizona defended Article XXVIII’s constitutionality — did not oppose certiorari; in the event Yniguez did not prevail here, Arizona would seek to recoup the attorney’s fees the District Court had ordered the State to pay her. See supra, at 61, n. 16.
The phrasing is borrowed from Traynor, Is This Conflict Really Necessary?, 37 Texas L. Rev. 657 (1959).
But cf.
Huggins
v.
Isenbarger,
Arizona itself requires no “unique circumstances.” It permits certification to the State’s highest court of matters “which may be determinative of the cause,” and as to which “no controlling precedent” is apparent to the certifying court. Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 12-1861 (1994).