Justice Scalia, delivered the opinion of the Court.
In his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, Randy G. Spencer seeks to invalidate a September 24, 1992, order revoking his parole. Because Spencer has completed the entire term of imprisonment underlying the parole revocation, we must decide whether his petition is moot.
I
On October 17, 1990, petitioner began serving concurrent 3-year sentences in Missouri on convictions of felony stealing and burglary. On April 16, 1992, he was released on parole, but on September 24, 1992, the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole, after hearing, issued an Order of Revocation revoking the parole. The order concluded that petitioner had violated three of the conditions, set forth in Missouri's Code of Regulations, Title 14, § 80-3.010 (1992), that a Missouri inmate must comply with in order to remain on parole:
The specific conduct that violated these conditions was described only by citation of the parole violation report that the board used in making its determination: "Evidence relied upon for violation is from the Initial Violation Report dated 7-27-92." Id., at 56.
That report, prepared by State Probation and Parole Officer Jonathan Tintinger, summarized a June 3, 1992, police report prepared by the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, according to which a woman had alleged that petitioner, after smoking crack cocaine with her at a local crack house and later at his own home, pressed a screwdriver against her side and raped her. According to the Kansas City report, petitioner had admitted smoking crack cocaine with the woman, but claimed that the sexual intercourse between them had been consensual. Officer Tintinger's report then described his own interview with petitioner, at which petitioner again admitted smoking crack cocaine with the woman, denied that he had pressed a screwdriver to her side, and did not respond to the allegation of rape. Finally, after noting that "Spencer [was] a registered sex offender, having been given a five-year prison sentence for Sodomy in 1983," id., at 75, Officer Tintinger's report tentatively recommended that petitioner's parole be continued, but that he be
On being returned to prison, petitioner began his efforts to invalidate the Order of Revocation. He first sought relief in the Missouri courts, but was rejected by the Circuit Court of De Kalb County, the Missouri Court of Appeals, and, finally, the Missouri Supreme Court. Then, on April 1, 1993, just over six months before the expiration of his 3-year sentence, petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, see 28 U. S. C. § 2254, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, alleging that he had not received due process in the parole revocation proceedings.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the District Court's judgment,
II
The District Court's conclusion that Spencer's release from prison caused his petition to be moot because it no longer satisfied the "in custody" requirement of the habeas statute was in error. Spencer was incarcerated by reason of the parole revocation at the time the petition was filed, which is all the "in custody" provision of 28 U. S. C. § 2254 requires. See Carafas v. LaVallee, 391 U.S. 234, 238 (1968); Maleng v. Cook, 490 U.S. 488, 490-491 (1989) (per curiam). The more substantial question, however, is whether petitioner's subsequent release caused the petition to be moot because it no longer presented a case or controversy under Article III, § 2, of the Constitution. "This case-or-controversy requirement subsists through all stages of federal judicial proceedings, trial and appellate. . . . The parties must continue to have a `personal stake in the outcome' of the lawsuit." Lewis v. Continental Bank Corp., 494 U.S. 472, 477-478 (1990). See also Preiser v. Newkirk, 422 U.S. 395, 401 (1975). This means that, throughout the litigation, the plaintiff "must have suffered, or be threatened with, an actual injury traceable to the defendant and likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision." Lewis, supra, at 477.
An incarcerated convict's (or a parolee's) challenge to the validity of his conviction always satisfies the case-orcontroversy requirement, because the incarceration (or the restriction imposed by the terms of the parole) constitutes a concrete injury, caused by the conviction and redressable by invalidation of the conviction. Once the convict's sentence has expired, however, some concrete and continuing injury other than the now-ended incarceration or parole—some "collateral consequence" of the conviction—must exist if the suit is to be maintained. See, e. g., Carafas, supra, at 237—
The present petitioner, however, does not attack his convictions for felony stealing and burglary, which he concedes were lawful; he asserts only the wrongful termination of his parole status. The reincarceration that he incurred as a result of that action is now over, and cannot be undone. Subsistence of the suit requires, therefore, that continuing "collateral consequences" of the parole revocation be either proved or presumed. And the first question we confront is whether the presumption of collateral consequences which is applied to criminal convictions will be extended as well to revocations of parole. To answer that question, it is helpful to review the origins of and basis for the presumption.
Originally, we required collateral consequences of conviction to be specifically identified, and we accepted as sufficient to satisfy the case-or-controversy requirement only concrete disadvantages or disabilities that had in fact occurred, that were imminently threatened, or that were imposed as a matter of law (such as deprivation of the right to vote, to hold office, to serve on a jury, or to engage in certain businesses). Thus, in St. Pierre v. United States, 319 U.S. 41 (1943) (per curiam), one of the first cases to recognize collateral consequences of conviction as a basis for avoiding mootness, we refused to allow St. Pierre's challenge to a contempt citation after he had completed his 5-month sentence, because "petitioner [has not] shown that under either state or federal law further penalties or disabilities can be imposed on him as a result of the judgment which has now been satisfied," id., at 43. We rejected St. Pierre's argument that the possibility that "the judgment [could] impair his credibility as [a] witness in any future legal proceeding" was such a penalty or disability, because "the moral stigma of a judgment which no
See also Fiswick v. United States, 329 U.S. 211, 221-223 (1946) (conviction rendered petitioner liable to deportation and denial of naturalization, and ineligible to serve on a jury, vote, or hold office); United States v. Morgan, 346 U.S. 502 (1954) (conviction had been used to increase petitioner's current sentence under state recidivist law); Parker v. Ellis, 362 U.S. 574, 576 (1960) (Harlan, J., concurring) (since petitioner's other, unchallenged convictions took away the same civil rights as the conviction under challenge, the challenge was moot); Ginsberg v. New York, 390 U.S. 629, 633, n. 2 (1968) (conviction rendered petitioner liable to revocation of his license to operate luncheonette business). Cf. Tannenbaum v. New York, 388 U.S. 439 (1967) (per curiam); Jacobs v. New York, 388 U.S. 431 (1967) (per curiam).
The gateway to abandonment of this fastidious approach to collateral consequences was Pollard v. United States, 352 U.S. 354 (1957). There, in allowing a convict who had already served his time to challenge the length of his sentence, we said, almost offhandedly, that "[t]he possibility of consequences collateral to the imposition of sentence [was] sufficiently substantial to justify our dealing with the merits," id., at 358—citing for that possibility an earlier case involving consequences for an alien (which there is no reason to
There are several relevant observations to be made regarding these developments: First, it must be acknowledged that the practice of presuming collateral consequences (or of accepting the remote possibility of collateral consequences as adequate to satisfy Article III) sits uncomfortably beside the "long-settled principle that standing cannot be `inferred argumentatively from averments in the pleadings,' but rather
For these reasons, perhaps, we have hitherto refused to extend our presumption of collateral consequences (or our willingness to accept hypothetical consequences) to the area of parole revocation. In Lane v. Williams, 455 U.S. 624 (1982), we rejected the contention of convicted felons who had completed their sentences that their challenges to their sentences of three years' mandatory parole at the conclusion of their fixed terms of incarceration (which parole they had violated) were not moot because the revocations of parole could be used to their detriment in future parole proceedings should they ever be convicted of other crimes. We said:
III
Petitioner asserts four concrete injuries-in-fact attributable to his parole revocation. First, he claims that the revocation could be used to his detriment in a future parole proceeding. This possibility is no longer contingent on petitioner's again violating the law; he has already done so, and is currently serving a 7-year term of imprisonment. But it is, nonetheless, still a possibility rather than a certainty or even a probability. Under Missouri law, as under the Illinois law addressed in Lane, a prior parole revocation "[does] not render an individual ineligible for parole[,] [but is] simply one factor, among many, that may be considered by the parole authority in determining whether there is a substantial risk that the parole candidate will not conform to reasonable conditions of parole." 455 U. S., at 633, n. 13. Under Missouri law, "[w]hen in its opinion there is reasonable probability that an offender . . . can be released without detriment to the community or himself, the board may in its discretion release or parole such person." Mo. Rev. Stat. § 217.690 (1996). The Missouri Supreme Court has said that this statute "giv[es] the Board `almost unlimited discretion' in whether to grant parole release." Shaw v. Missouri Board of Probation and Parole, 937 S.W.2d 771, 772 (1997).
For similar reasons, we reject petitioner's third and fourth contentions, that the parole revocation (and, specifically, the "finding of a parole violation for forcible rape and armed criminal action," see Brief for Petitioner 34) could be used to impeach him should he appear as a witness or litigant in a future criminal or civil proceeding; or could be used against him directly, pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 405
IV
Petitioner raises three more arguments, none of which seems to us well taken. First, he contends that since our decision in Heck v.Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), would foreclose him from pursuing a damages action under Rev. Stat. § 1979, 42 U. S. C. § 1983, unless he can establish the invalidity of his parole revocation, his action to establish that invalidity cannot be moot. This is a great non sequitur, unless one believes (as we do not) that a § 1983 action for damages must always and everywhere be available. It is not certain, in any event, that a § 1983 damages claim would be foreclosed. If, for example, petitioner were to seek damages "for using the wrong procedures, not for reaching the wrong result," see Heck, 512 U. S., at 482-483, and if that procedural defect did not "necessarily imply the invalidity of" the revocation, see id., at 487, then Heck would have no application all. See also Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641, 645-649 (1997); id., at 649-650 (Ginsburg, J., concurring).
Secondly, petitioner argues in his reply brief that this case falls within the exception to the mootness doctrine for cases that are "capable of repetition, yet evading review." Reply Brief for Petitioner 5. "[T]he capable-of-repetition doctrine applies only in exceptional situations," Lyons, supra, at 109, "where the following two circumstances [are] simultaneously present: ` "(1) the challenged action [is] in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to cessation or expiration, and (2) there [is] a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party [will] be subject to the same action again,"` " Lewis, 494 U. S., at 481 (quoting Murphy v. Hunt, 455 U.S. 478, 482 (1982) (per curiam), in turn quoting Weinstein v.
Finally, petitioner argues that, even if his case is moot, that fact should be ignored because it was caused by the dilatory tactics of the state attorney general's office and the delay of the District Court. But mootness, however it may have come about, simply deprives us of our power to act; there is nothing for us to remedy, even if we were disposed to do so. We are not in the business of pronouncing that past actions which have no demonstrable continuing effect were right or wrong. As for petitioner's concern that law enforcement officials and district judges will repeat with impunity the mootness-producing abuse that he alleges occurred here: We are confident that, as a general matter, district courts will prevent dilatory tactics by the litigants and will not unduly delay their own rulings; and that, where appropriate, corrective mandamus will issue from the courts of appeals.
* * *
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
It is so ordered.
Justice Souter, with whom Justice O'Connor, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer join, concurring.
I join the Court's opinion as well as the judgment, though I do so for an added reason that the Court does not reach, but which I spoke to while concurring in a prior case. One of Spencer's arguments for finding his present interest adequate
The petitioner in Heck was an inmate with a direct appeal from his conviction pending, who brought a § 1983 action for damages against state officials who were said to have acted unconstitutionally in arresting and prosecuting him. Drawing an analogy to the tort of malicious prosecution, we ruled that an inmate's § 1983 claim for damages was unavailable because he could not demonstrate that the underlying criminal proceedings had terminated in his favor.
To be sure, the majority opinion in Heck can be read to suggest that this favorable-termination requirement is an element of any § 1983 action alleging unconstitutional conviction, whether or not leading to confinement and whether or not any confinement continued when the § 1983 action was filed. Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U. S., at 483-484, 486-487. Indeed, although Heck did not present such facts, the majority acknowledged the possibility that even a released prisoner might not be permitted to bring a § 1983 action implying
Concurring in the judgment in Heck, I suggested a different rationale for blocking an inmate's suit with a requirement to show the favorable termination of the underlying proceedings. In the manner of Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475 (1973), I read the "general" § 1983 statute in light of the "specific" federal habeas statute, which applies only to persons "in custody," 28 U. S. C. § 2254(a), and requires them to exhaust state remedies, § 2254(b). Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U. S., at 497. I agreed that "the statutory scheme must be read as precluding such attacks," id., at 498, not because the favorable-termination requirement was necessarily an element of the § 1983 cause of action for unconstitutional conviction or custody, but because it was a "simple way to avoid collisions at the intersection of habeas and § 1983." Ibid.
I also thought we were bound to recognize the apparent scope of § 1983 when no limitation was required for the sake of honoring some other statute or weighty policy, as in the instance of habeas. Accordingly, I thought it important to read the Court's Heck opinion as subjecting only inmates seeking § 1983 damages for unconstitutional conviction or confinement to "a requirement analogous to the maliciousprosecution tort's favorable-termination requirement," id., at 500, lest the plain breadth of § 1983 be unjustifiably limited at the expense of persons not "in custody" within the meaning of the habeas statute. The subsequent case of Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641 (1997), was, like Heck itself, a suit by a prisoner and so for present purposes left the law where it was after Heck. Now, as then, we are forced to recognize that any application of the favorable-termination requirement to § 1983 suits brought by plaintiffs not in custody would produce a patent anomaly: a given claim for relief from unconstitutional injury would be placed beyond the scope of
The better view, then, is that a former prisoner, no longer "in custody," may bring a § 1983 action establishing the unconstitutionality of a conviction or confinement without being bound to satisfy a favorable-termination requirement that it would be impossible as a matter of law for him to satisfy. Thus, the answer to Spencer's argument that his habeas claim cannot be moot because Heck bars him from relief under § 1983 is that Heck has no such effect. After a prisoner's release from custody, the habeas statute and its exhaustion requirement have nothing to do with his right to any relief.
Justice Stevens, dissenting.
An official determination that a person has committed a crime may cause two different kinds of injury. It may result in tangible harms such as imprisonment, loss of the right to vote or to bear arms, and the risk of greater punishment if another crime is committed. It may also severely injure the person's reputation and good name.
In holding that petitioner's case is moot, the Court relies heavily on our opinion in Lane v. Williams, 455 U.S. 624 (1982) (opinion of Stevens, J.). See ante, at 12-16. Lane, however, is inapposite. In Lane, the respondents did not seek to challenge the factual findings underlying their parole revocations. 455 U. S., at 633. Instead, they simply sought to challenge their sentences; yet because they had been released by the time the case reached us, the case was moot. Id., at 631. "Through the mere passage of time, respondents ha[d] obtained all the relief that they sought." Id., at 633.
In this case, petitioner challenges the factual findings on which his parole revocation was based. His parole was revoked based on an official determination that he committed the crime of forcible rape.
Given the serious character of a finding that petitioner is guilty of forcible rape, that question must be answered affirmatively. It may well be true that many prisoners have already caused so many self-inflicted wounds to their good names that an additional finding of guilt may have only a de minimis impact on their reputations. I do not believe, however, that one can say that about a finding that an individual has committed a serious felony.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
FootNotes
Indeed, vindicating one's reputation is the main interest at stake in a defamation case, and that interest has always been held to constitute a sufficient "personal stake." See, e. g., Paul, 424 U. S., at 697 ("[R]espondent's complaint would appear to state a classical claim for defamation actionable in the courts of virtually every State. Imputing criminal behavior to an individual is generally considered defamatory per se, and actionable without proof of special damages"); Gertz, 418 U. S., at 349-350 ("We need not define `actual injury' . . . . Suffice it to say that actual injury is not limited to out-of-pocket loss. Indeed, the more customary types of actual harm inflicted by defamatory falsehood include impairment of reputation and standing in the community, personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering"); L. Eldredge, Law of Defamation § 53, pp. 293-294 (1978) ("There is no doubt about the historical fact that the interest in one's good name was considered an important interest requiring legal protection more than a thousand years ago; and that so far as Anglo-Saxon history is concerned this interest became a legally protected interest comparatively soon after the interest in bodily integrity was given legal protection").
I also believe that, on the facts of this case, there are sufficient tangible consequences to the parole board's findings so as to defeat a claim of mootness.
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