Deference to Other Authority

Abstract

Abstract The irreparable injury rule is often invoked to serve its original purpose of allocating jurisdiction among decision makers. Litigants frequently seek to move disputes from the forum their adversary selected to the forum they would have selected. They ask courts to enjoin administrative agencies1 and arbitrators;2 they ask federal courts to enjoin proceedings in state courts; they ask state courts to enjoin proceedings in other states;4 they ask courts with equity powers to prevent proceedings in courts without equity powers, even in the same court system; they ask appellate courts to prevent proceedings in trial courts;6 and they ask courts to prevent the collection of taxes7 and enjoin improper conduct by the executive branch.