# Iron Arrow Honor Society v. Heckler

> Supreme Court of the United States · November 14, 1983 · 464 U.S. 67

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9429397

## Case

- **Full name:** IRON ARROW HONOR SOCIETY Et Al. v. HECKLER, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, Et Al.
- **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States
- **Decided:** November 14, 1983
- **Citations:** 464 U.S. 67; 52 U.S.L.W. 3384; 104 S. Ct. 373; 78 L. Ed. 2d 58; 1983 U.S. LEXIS 119
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Brennan
- **Judges:** Brennan, Stevens, Marshall, Blackmun
- **Cited by:** 483 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9429397

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that university’s new policy against discriminatory acts of all-male honorary society mooted the society’s appeal seeking to prevent Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare from interpreting the law to require the university to ban society’s activities from campus
- holding that the voluntary cessation exception does not apply when the case is mooted by the “voluntary acts of a third party non-defendant”
- explaining that mootness is jurisdictional and the court must consider it even when no party has raised the issue
- affirming the district court's grant of dismissal under Rule 12(b)(1) because the plaintiffs lacked Article III standing
- holding that without an actual case or controversy, an issue is moot and therefore the federal court lacks jurisdiction

## Opinion text

Justice Brennan,
dissenting.
In my view, the issue of mootness is sufficiently dependent on uncertain factual issues concerning the University’s present intention and future conduct that I would grant the petition for certiorari, vacate the decision of the Court of Appeals, and remand for resolution of this issue.

---

Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9429397. Public record. Not legal advice.
