Allen v. Milligan · ¶51
Second, the Court should not have rewarded Alabama's defance of court orders and blatant gamesmanship throughout this litigation. It is long established that “ `he who comes into equity must come with clean hands.' ” Precision Instrument Mfg. Co. v. Automotive Maintenance Machinery Co., 324 U. S. 806, 814 (1945). Under this principle, to obtain equitable relief like a stay pending appeal, a movant must “have acted fairly and without fraud or deceit as to the controversy in issue.” Id., at 814–815; see New Hampshire v. Maine, 532 U. S. 742, 749 (2001) (“ `[A]bsent any good explanation, a party should not be allowed to gain an advantage by litigation on one theory, and then seek an inconsistent advantage by pursuing an incompatible theory' ”). Ala- bama's hands, however, are far from clean. Instead, it defed the District Court's order in these cases even after this Court affirmed it, and…Read in context ›
preliminary print (page proof)
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.