Federal Courts Have an Obligation to Decide Cases.
One of the most fundamental obligations of the federal courts is to decide the cases before them. This is implied from Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution, which provides that the court’s judicial power extends to cases and controversies. As one court stated: “a federal judge has a duty to sit where not disqualified which is equally as strong as the duty to not sit where disqualified.” Laird v. Tatum, 409 U.S. 824, 837 (1972) (Mem. of Rehnquist, J.) (collecting cases).