Also known as: comity of nations · comity · international comity
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Courtesy among political entities such as nations, states, or courts of different jurisdictions. It involves mutual recognition of legislative, executive, and judicial acts.
State prosecutors charged Cassandra Cooper with a crime under a state statute. She filed a federal suit seeking to enjoin the ongoing prosecution on constitutional grounds. The federal court declined to intervene because principles of comity required deference to the state proceeding absent extraordinary circumstances.
Charles Cunningham obtained a judgment in State A against a debtor whose property lay in State B. When he sought enforcement in State B, the court honored the judgment under principles of comity even though the original court lacked direct power over the out-of-state land.
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Craig Caldwell sued in federal court on a federal claim and added related state claims. After the federal claim was dismissed early, the court declined to keep the state claims, citing comity and the preference that state courts resolve purely state-law disputes.
Charlotte Chung challenged a city zoning ordinance that restricted extended family living arrangements in her home. The court upheld the ordinance after weighing comity concerns and deferring to the state's traditional authority over local land-use rules.
Colin Chambers sued to enjoin a state education program that used federal funds for certain services. The court applied comity principles and allowed the program to continue while the state courts addressed the underlying statutory questions first.
Canyon Construction operated vessels under a federal license but faced conflicting state regulations. The court invoked comity to reconcile the overlapping rules rather than allowing one sovereign to nullify the other's legitimate authority.
A federal court may decline supplemental jurisdiction when the state claims raise novel or complex issues of state law, substantially predominate over federal claims, or when all federal claims have been dismissed. Comity favors allowing state courts to decide questions of state law in the first instance.
A state tribunal may recognize and enforce a foreign support order on the basis of comity even when the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act does not directly apply. The tribunal may then use the procedural and substantive provisions of the Act for enforcement.
Comity does not override constitutional state sovereign immunity. A state may not be sued for damages in another state's courts without its consent, and principles of comity cannot force recognition of jurisdiction over a nonconsenting sovereign.
…an elementary principle, that the laws of one State have no operation outside of its territory, except so far as is allowed by comity; and that no tribunal established by it can extend its process beyond that territory so as to subject either persons or property to its decisions. "Any exertion of authority of this sort…