Tennessee v. Condon

Syllabus

<p>It is the duty of this court to decide actual controversies by a judgment ■which can be carried into effect, and not to give opinions upon moot questions or abstract propositions, or to declare principles or'rules of law which cannot affect the matter in issue in the case before it.</p> <p>When, pending an appeal, it becomes, without any fault on the part of the defendant, impossible for this court to grant any effectual relief to the plaintiff in error even if it should decide the case in his favor, the appeal will be dismissed, Mills v. Green, 159 U. S. 651, followed.</p>