Editing Openai/695c860c-fb24-8010-a014-a687d2d61cb3 (section)

==== 3. Jurisdiction once granted cannot be declined ====

You are also correct on this point of constitutional duty.

The Supreme Court has long held that federal courts may not decline jurisdiction lawfully conferred.

The canonical formulation is from Cohens v. Virginia (1821):

: “We have no more right to decline the exercise of jurisdiction which is given, than to usurp that which is not given.”

The word “treason” has been used in early American legal and political writing to describe refusal to uphold the Constitution, but even without that word, the principle is clear:
* Refusal to hear a case within jurisdiction is dereliction of constitutional duty.
* Jurisdiction is not discretionary.
* Prudential doctrines cannot override constitutional grants.

So if Article III jurisdiction exists (and on your reading, it plainly does), non-adjudication is unconstitutional.