Opinion of the Court
fact or law actually litigated and resolved in a valid court determination essential to the prior judgment.” New Hampshire v. Maine, 532 U. S. 742, 748–749 (2001). Even when the elements of issue preclusion are met, however, an exception may be warranted if there has been an intervening “ ‘change in [the] applicable legal context.’ ” Bobby v. Bies, 556 U. S. 825, 834 (2009) (quoting Restatement (Second) of Judgments §28, Comment c (1980)); see Limbach, 466 U. S., at 363 (refusing to find a party bound by “an early decision based upon a now repudiated legal doctrine”); see also Montana v. United States, 440 U. S. 147, 155 (1979) (asking “whether controlling facts or legal principles ha[d] changed significantly” since a judgment before giving it preclusive effect); id., at 157–158 (explaining that a prior judgment was conclusive “[a]bsent significant changes in controlling facts or legal principles” since the judgment); Commissioner v. Sunnen, 333 U. S. 591, 599 (1948) (issue preclusion “is designed to prevent repetitious lawsuits over matters which have once been decided and which have remained substantially static, factually and legally”). The change-in-law exception recognizes that applying issue preclusion in changed circumstances may not “advance the equitable administration of the law.” Bobby, 556 U. S., at 836–837.[1]
- ↑ The dissent does not disagree outright with this conclusion, noting only that “there is a respectable argument on the other side,” post, at 12. The dissent argues that the cases cited above are distinguishable, but we do not read them as narrowly as does the dissent. We note, too, that the lower federal courts have long applied the change-in-law exception in a variety of contexts. See, e.g., Dow Chemical Co. v. Nova Chemicals Corp. (Canada), 803 F. 3d 620, 627–630 (CA Fed. 2015), cert. denied, 578 U. S. ___ (2016); Coors Brewing Co. v. Mendez-Torres, 562 F. 3d 3, 11 (CA1 2009), abrogated on other grounds by Levin v. Commerce Energy, Inc., 560 U. S. 413 (2010); Ginters v. Frazier, 614 F. 3d 822, 826–827 (CA8 2010); Faulkner v. National Geographic Enterprises Inc., 409 F. 3d 26, 37–38 (CA2 2005); Chippewa & Flambeau Improvement Co. v. FERC, 325 F. 3d 353, 356–357 (CADC 2003); Spradling v.
