with whom MIKVA and RUTH BADER GINSBURG, Circuit Judges, and ROBINSON, Senior Circuit Judge, join, dissenting:
The issue in this case is whether a court of appeals is obliged to vacate its own decision when postjudgment contingencies allegedly render the underlying controversy moot. The panel in this case held that the First Amendment prohibits Congress from compelling appellees, members of the *710D.C. Council (“Council members”), to vote to enact a particular piece of legislation. After the panel issued its decision, Congress enacted the disputed legislation directly. Appellant United States subsequently moved to vacate the judgment of the panel as moot. Although the panel and en banc court decided not to rehear the merits of the panel’s decision, the court did decide to consider en banc the United States’ motion to vacate.
I would deny the motion without regard to whether the controversy between the United States and the Council members is now moot. Notwithstanding the rule that a court of appeals must ordinarily vacate a lower court decision when the case becomes moot pending appeal, see United States v. Munsingwear, 340 U.S. 36, 39, 71 S.Ct. 104, 106-07, 95 L.Ed. 36 (1950), a court of appeals has no duty to vacate its own decision once postjudgment contingencies arguably moot the case. See Armster v. United States District Court, 806 F.2d 1347, 1355-56, 1356 n. 12 (9th Cir.1986); Finberg v. Sullivan, 658 F.2d 93, 96 n. 4, 97 n. 6 (3d Cir.1980) (en banc) (dictum). In such a situation, the absence of a still live controversy poses no jurisdictional obstacle, because the court has already disposed of the case. Nor is vacatur necessary to protect the losing party from being bound by an unreviewable judgment. By that point, the loser has received all of the appellate review to which he is entitled as of right; if discretionary review would have been forthcoming from the Supreme Court, the losing party will be protected by the Court’s practice of vacating court of appeals decisions in cases that are certwor-thy but moot.
The only circumstance in which a court of appeals should vacate its own decision is where the court determines that, but for the mootness of the case, it would have revisited the merits of its decision. Insofar as we have already denied the United States’ petition for rehearing and suggestion for rehearing en banc, this condition is not satisfied here. Therefore, I dissent.
I.
This case arises from enactment of the Nation’s Capital Religious Liberty and Academic Freedom Act, Pub.L. No. 100-462, § 145, 102 Stat. 2269-14 (1988) (“Armstrong Amendment I”). Intended to overturn Gay Rights Coalition v. Georgetown University, 536 A.2d 1 (D.C.1987) (en banc), Armstrong Amendment I conditioned expenditure of the District’s 1989 appropriations on the Council’s enactment of an amendment to the D.C. Human Rights Act, D.C.Code §§ 1-2501 to 1-2557 (1989), to permit religiously affiliated educational institutions to discriminate against homosexuals. Congress chose to compel members of the Council to vote to enact the disputed legislation rather than amend the Human Rights Act itself; this was done in order to comply with parliamentary rules prohibiting “substantive” legislation in an appropriations bill. See United States v. Clarke, 886 F.2d 404, 408-09 (D.C.Cir.1989).
Instead of submitting to Armstrong Amendment I, the Council members decided to test in court Congress’ authority to compel members of the Council to vote to enact specific legislation. Ruling only hours before all municipal services in the District were to be shut down, the District Court held that Armstrong Amendment I violated the First Amendment rights of the Council members. See Clarke v. United States, 705 F.Supp. 605 (D.D.C.1988). A unanimous panel of this court affirmed, reasoning, inter alia, that Congress’ interest in protecting the integrity of its parliamentary procedures was insufficient to justify the abridgment of the Council members’ speech rights. See 886 F.2d at 414.
During the pendency of the appeal in Clarke, Congress began deliberations on the 1990 version of the D.C. appropriations act. Responding to the decision of the District Court, Senator Armstrong introduced legislation directly amending the D.C. Human Rights Act. See 135 Cong. Reo. Sll,104 (daily ed. Sept. 14, 1989) (“Armstrong Amendment II”). Senator Armstrong explained that he was “really tempted to simply offer [Armstrong *711Amendment I] again and leave the matter to the courts to decide.” Id. But because Congress’ authority to compel legislation by the Council was a “peripheral question,” he viewed it as more prudent simply to amend the Human Rights Act directly rather than let the pending legal dispute “play out, which is exactly what would happen if we were to reenact [Armstrong Amendment I].” Id. In sum, Armstrong Amendment II was designed, in Senator Armstrong’s words, to “short-circuit” the controversy surrounding the means Congress had selected to achieve the desired amendment of D.C. law. Id. The 1990 D.C. Appropriations Act, along with Armstrong Amendment II, was signed into law on November 21, 1989, Pub.L. No. 101-168, § 141, 103 Stat. 1284, fifty-five days after entry of judgment in this court and eight days after the United States had submitted its petition for rehearing on the merits.
On November 24,1989, the United States moved to vacate Clarke as moot under United States v. Munsingwear, 340 U.S. 36, 71 S.Ct. 104, 95 L.Ed. 36 (1950). On December 15, the panel voted to deny the United States’ petition for rehearing and its motion to vacate. On the same day, the full court voted to deny the United States’ suggestion of rehearing en banc on the merits, but to grant en banc rehearing on the motion to vacate on grounds of mootness.
II.
A.
Disposition of the United States’ motion turns largely on identifying the proper scope of the Munsingwear doctrine. In Munsingwear, the Supreme Court established that the proper disposition when
a civil case from a court in the federal system ... has become moot while on its way [to review by an appellate court] or pending [the appellate court’s] decision on the merits is to reverse or vacate the judgment below and remand with a direction to dismiss.
340 U.S. at 39, 71 S.Ct. at 106. The purpose of this rule is to protect the losing party from being bound by a judgment “review of which was prevented through happenstance.” Id. at 40, 71 S.Ct. at 107.1
It is generally accepted that Munsing-wear does not control all cases that become moot at some point after judgment in the district court. See United States v. Garde, 848 F.2d 1307, 1310 & n. 6 (D.C.Cir.1988). Although the onset of mootness prevents the reviewing court from taking further action on the merits of the case, courts of appeals have declined to apply Munsingwear’s vacatur remedy when the losing party’s interest in not being bound by an unreviewable judgment is inapplicable or is outweighed by competing considerations. An example is where a case settles prior to appellate court disposition. See National Union Fire Ins. Co. v. Seafirst Corp., 891 F.2d 762, 766 (9th Cir.1989); In re Memorial Hosp., 862 F.2d 1299, 1301-02 (7th Cir.1988); see also Clipper v. Takoma Park, 898 F.2d 18, 19 (4th Cir.1989) (declining to vacate court of appeals decision following postjudgment settlement). The courts in these cases have declined automatically to vacate judgments in this posture. There are two reasons for this: one is that the party who lost at trial has abandoned his interest in seeking appellate review; the other is that vacatur would undermine the interests of third parties and the judicial system as a whole in final resolution of a disputed legal question. See National Union Fire Ins. Co., 891 F.2d at 766, 768; In re Memorial Hosp., 862 F.2d at 1301-03.2
*712In addition, this court, following the lead of other circuits, has declined to apply Munsingwear in cases that become moot not because of “happenstance” but because of “the deliberate action of the losing party.” Center for Science v. Regan, 727 F.2d 1161, 1165 (D.C.Cir.1984); accord Garde, 848 F.2d at 1310; see also Ringsby Truck Lines, Inc. v. Western Conference of Teamsters, 686 F.2d 720, 721 (9th Cir.1982); Wisconsin v. Baker, 698 F.2d 1323, 1331 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 463 U.S. 1207, 103 S.Ct. 3537, 77 L.Ed.2d 1388 (1983). In this situation, too, because the losing party has forfeited his interest in appellate review, we have declined to vacate the judgment below “in order to avoid unfairness to [the] part[y] who prevailed in the lower court.” Garde, 848 F.2d at 1310 (emphasis added). We also have noted that to apply Munsingwear’s vacatur remedy in this setting would “encourage litigants who are dissatisfied with the decision of the trial court ‘to have the[] [decision] wiped from the books’ by merely filing an appeal, then complying with the order or judgment below and petitioning for a vacatur of the adverse trial court decision.” Garde, 848 F.2d at 1311 (quoting Ringsby, 686 F.2d at 721). See generally IB J. Moore, J. Luoas & T. Currier, supra note 1, 11 0.416[6], at 543 (“It would be quite destructive to the principle of judicial finality to put ... a litigant in a position to destroy the collateral conclusiveness of a judgment by destroying his own right of appeal.”).
Contrary to what the United States contends, the case now before the court also does not fit squarely within the Munsing-wear mold. Even assuming that the passage of Armstrong Amendment II ended the controversy between the United States and the Council members, the case did not become moot “on its way” to the Court of Appeals “or pending [the Court of Appeal’s] decision on the merits,” Munsingwear, 340 U.S. at 39, 71 S.Ct. at 106, but only after the panel had issued its decision and entered judgment. The question posed by the United States’ motion, then, is whether Munsingwear’s protective rationale takes hold in a case in this posture. In my view, the answer is no.
B.
In considered discussions of the issue, both the Ninth and the Third Circuits have concluded that Munsingwear does not compel a court of appeals to vacate its own decision when postjudgment contingencies render the underlying controversy moot. See Armster v. United States District Court, 806 F.2d 1347, 1355-56, 1356 n. 12 (9th Cir.1986); Finberg v. Sullivan, 658 F.2d 93, 96 n. 4, 97 n. 6 (3d Cir.1980) (en banc) (dictum). Instead, these courts have treated vacatur as only a discretionary remedy. See Armster, 806 F.2d at 1355; Finberg, 658 F.2d at 96 n. 4. Although one circuit apparently has adopted a different approach, see In re Ghandtchi, 705 F.2d 1315, 1316 (11th Cir.1983),3 I find the rea*713soning of the Ninth and Third Circuits persuasive.
The Munsingwear doctrine directs an appellate court to vacate a moot lower court disposition so that the losing party will not be bound by an “ ‘unreviewable’ judgment.” Karcher v. May, 484 U.S. 72, 82, 108 S.Ct. 388, 395, 98 L.Ed.2d 327 (1987). But if a ease does not become moot until after the appellate court has entered its judgment, the losing party has not been deprived of review. It is true that mootness would prevent further review of the merits in the Supreme Court, but because review at that stage is discretionary, it does not follow that the court of appeals should vacate its own decision. If the case is “certworthy” — a determination that the Supreme Court alone is in a position to make — the Supreme Court can grant cer-tiorari and summarily vacate. If the case does not warrant further consideration on the merits, the Court can simply deny cer-tiorari, permitting the judgment of the court of appeals to stand. The losing party in such a case remains bound by the judgment, but he has suffered no cognizable prejudice. For, by hypothesis, he has received all of the appellate review that was forthcoming.4
Indeed, as applied to those cases in which the Supreme Court would not have granted certiorari, a rule requiring the court of appeals to vacate its own decision would be unfair to the prevailing party. The court of appeals would be depriving that party of the collateral benefits of his judgment notwithstanding the absence of any legitimate expectation of review on the part of the losing party. Avoiding this injustice is a central aim of our policy of declining to vacate a decision when the losing party causes the case to become moot. See Garde, 848 F.2d at 1310; Center for Science, 727 F.2d at 1166.
A rule requiring a court of appeals to vacate its own decision on the basis of postjudgment contingencies would also risk the type of jurisdictional manipulation with which we were concerned in Garde. See 848 F.2d at 1311. As the Ninth Circuit points out,
[i]n the case of the government, heads of administrative agencies and other public officials could as a matter of course cause the withdrawal of decisions establishing unfavorable precedents or vindicating individual rights by complying with those decisions before the mandate issues. Such a result would be inconsistent with the manner in which our system of checks and balances is intended to operate.
Armster, 806 F.2d at 1356; see also Finberg, 658 F.2d at 97 n. 6 (expressing concern that rule requiring vacatur would “en-courag[e] the losing party on appeal to seek to delay the issuance of the mandate and in the interim bring about, for the sole purpose of evading the unfavorable decision, events which moot the case”).
Obviously, the Ninth and Third Circuit rule makes the most sense if we have reason to believe that the Supreme Court has taken upon itself the function of vacating moot court of appeals dispositions if, but only if, they are otherwise certworthy. All of the available evidence suggests that this is indeed the Court’s practice. It is clear that the Court vacates such cases only selectively. Compare, e.g., Tulare Lake Canal Co. v. United States, 459 U.S. 1095, 103 S.Ct. 712, 74 L.Ed.2d 943 (1983) (summarily vacating under Munsingwear) and Board of Governors v. Security Bancorp, 454 U.S. 1118, 102 S.Ct. 962, 71 L.Ed.2d 105 (1981) (same) with Velsicol Chem. Corp. v. *714United States, 435 U.S. 942, 98 S.Ct. 1521, 55 L.Ed.2d 538 (1978) (merely denying cer-tiorari without vacating) and Local 102, Int’l Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union v. United States, 439 U.S. 1070, 99 S.Ct. 840, 59 L.Ed.2d 36 (1979) (same).5 Because it summarily disposes of these cases, the Court has not expressly confirmed that it limits vacatur to cases that would have been reviewed on the merits but for the intervening mootness. Nonetheless, the Court has been so understood by both lower courts and commentators. See, e.g., Armster, 806 F.2d 1347, 1356 n. 12; Commodity Futures Trading Comm’n v. Board of Trade, 701 F.2d 653, 657 (7th Cir.1983); Greenbaum, Mootness on Appeal in Federal Courts: A Reexamination of the Consequences of Appellate Disposition, 17 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 7, 47-48 & 48 n. 196 (1983); Note, Collateral Estop-pel and Supreme Court Disposition of Moot Cases, 78 Mich.L.Rev. 946, 951 (1980).6
This explanation of the Court’s selective use of vacatur also comports with the Supreme Court’s practice in the analogous area of abatement. It is well established that the death of a criminal defendant abates the prosecution, and requires his conviction to be vacated if the defendant dies while his case is pending review by the court of appeals. See, e.g., United States v. Oberlin, 718 F.2d 894, 895 (9th Cir.1983). If, however, the defendant dies after the court of appeals affirms his conviction, the Supreme Court merely dismisses any outstanding petition for certiorari without vacating the conviction. See Dove v. United States, 423 U.S. 325, 96 S.Ct. 579, 46 L.Ed.2d 531 (1976), overruling Durham v. United States, 401 U.S. 481, 91 S.Ct. 858, 28 L.Ed.2d 200 (1971); accord Warden v. Palermo, 431 U.S. 911, 97 S.Ct. 2166, 53 L.Ed.2d 221 (1977). The reason for the different dispositions is that a criminal defendant’s interest in not standing convicted without appellate review is deemed to be exhausted once he has availed himself of his appeal as of right to the court of appeals. See Durham, 401 U.S. at 484, 91 S.Ct. at 860 (Blackmun, J., dissenting); United States v. Pauline, 625 F.2d 684, 685 (5th Cir.1980); United States v. Moehlenkamp, 557 F.2d 126, 128 (7th Cir.1977). There is no reason to impute to the Supreme Court a different philosophy about discretionary appeals in the civil setting.
Indeed, until this case, the United States was the primary proponent of limiting the vacatur remedy to certworthy moot civil appeals. For over a decade, the Government has consistently urged the Court not to apply Munsingwear but merely to deny certiorari in cases that have become moot following judgment in the court of appeals *715but that are not otherwise worthy of review on the merits.7 The Court’s simple denial of certiorari in various of these eases forms the basis of the inference that the Court does not view Munsingwear as controlling once the losing party has exhausted his appeals as of right. See Commodity Futures Trading Comm’n, 701 F.2d at 657; Greenbaum, supra, at 47-48, 48 n. 196.
When confronted with the question at oral argument, the United States was unable to reconcile this position with its contention in this case that the court of appeals should automatically vacate its decision if the case becomes moot during the period for seeking review in the Supreme Court. This abrupt and unexplained about face only highlights that the real basis of the United States’ motion is its displeasure with the merits of the panel’s decision, not its concern to protect its right to be free of an unreviewable judgment.
C.
The United States makes much of the fact that this case supposedly became moot during the pendency of the United States’ petition for rehearing. According to the United States, the case remains pending before us until the petition is disposed of and our mandate has issued. Consequently, the United States contends, the court is obliged to vacate its judgment on jurisdictional grounds. I disagree.
If the principles underlying the Third and Ninth Circuit rule are sound — as I believe they are — the onset of mootness during the pendency of a petition for rehearing does not by itself require vacatur. The purpose of a petition for rehearing is to raise some defect in the decision meriting the court’s reconsideration. See Fed.R.App.P. 40(a). Postjudgment mootness does not in itself constitute such a defect, for at the time at which the panel issued its opinion, the case was, by hypothesis, fully live. See Armster, 806 F.2d at 1356-57. “[Ejvents occurring subsequent to a decision on the merits do not usually deprive a court of jurisdiction retroactively.” Id. at 1353.
Postjudgment mootness does deprive the court of the power to grant the petition and re-evaluate its judgment on the merits. But, again, because a party does not have a right to such review, this consideration does not warrant vacatur as a matter of course. The losing party is prejudiced by our inability to grant a petition for rehearing only when the party is able to raise points that would have warranted the exercise of our rehearing power. Thus, like the Supreme Court when it considers a case that has become moot during the pendency of a petition for certiorari, we should vacate a case that becomes moot during the pendency of a petition for rehearing only if we would have granted the petition. See Armster, 806 F.2d at 1356 n. 12; Finberg, 658 F.2d at 96 n. 4.
It is also immaterial that we have not yet issued the mandate in this case. A court of appeals’ decision is “final” from the issuance of the judgment,8 not from the issuance of the mandate. See, e.g., S.Or.R. 13.4 (“The time for filing a petition for a writ of certiorari runs from the date the judgment or decree sought to be reviewed is rendered, and not from the date of the issuance of the mandate_”). The mandate, which in this circuit as in others consists solely of a certified copy of the judgment and the opinion, see D.C.Cir. Handbook 64 (Aug. 1, 1987); 16 C. Wright, A. Miller, E. Cooper & E. Gressman, Federal *716PRACTICE AND PROCEDERE § 3987, at 474 (1977), is merely the formal vehicle for conveying the terms of our disposition to the District Court. Issuance of the mandate is a purely ministerial function that ordinarily occurs automatically twenty-one days after entry of judgment or seven days after denial of a petition for rehearing. See Fed.R.App.P. 41(a).
Insofar as our issuance of the mandate is wholly separate from our consideration of the merits, it serves no purpose to tie the exercise of this function to the continued existence of the underlying controversy. See Armster, 806 F.2d at 1355 n. 9; Finberg, 658 F.2d at 96 n. 5, 97 n. 6. It is true that we can reopen our consideration of the merits by recalling the mandate where necessary “to avoid injustice.” Greater Boston Television Corp. v. FCC, 463 F.2d 268, 277 (D.C.Cir.1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 950, 92 S.Ct. 2042, 32 L.Ed.2d 338 (1972). But that power, too, is discretionary, see id., and thus its potential foreclosure by mootness does not warrant vaca-tur as a matter of course.
III.
The majority appears to accept that our decision whether to vacate on the basis of postjudgment contingencies is discretionary rather than mandatory under Munsing-wear. It is the majority’s view of when that discretion is appropriately exercised with which I have the greatest disagreement.
To classify a particular remedy as “discretionary” is not to say that the remedy can be afforded for any reason that a court happens to give. See, e.g., United States v. Kramer, 827 F.2d 1174, 1179 (8th Cir.1987) (“An abuse of discretion occurs when a relevant factor that should have been given significant weight is not considered [or] when an irrelevant or improper factor is considered_” (emphasis added)). “Discretion ... does not exist except as an area left open by a surrounding belt of restriction.” R. Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously 31 (1977). In any given context, then, the proper exercise of discretion must be guided by the reasons that make it appropriate to vest the court with discretion in the first instance.
As I have indicated, the reason that vaca-tur on the basis of postjudgment mootness is discretionary rather than mandatory is that the losing party in such a situation is not invariably prejudiced in the manner that Munsingwear envisions. The losing party has a legitimate claim to be spared from the collateral effects of the judgment only if further review of the merits would have been forthcoming but for the intervening mootness. Moreover, because only the Supreme Court is in a position to determine whether it would have granted certio-rari, vacatur to protect the losing party’s interest in Supreme Court review should be the responsibility of the Supreme Court, not the court of appeals.
It follows that the only circumstance in which the court of appeals should exercise its discretion to vacate is when it determines that it would have revisited the merits of its decision — either by rehearing or by recall of the mandate — had the case not become moot. That is the only situation in which the court of appeals is in a position both to determine that the losing party has been prejudiced by postjudgment mootness and to nullify that prejudice. The exercise of the discretion to vacate in any other setting not only does nothing to protect the losing party’s interest in further review, but also deprives the prevailing party of the collateral benefits of his judgment and creates an incentive for the losing party deliberately to moot the case by compliance with the judgment — the very factors we identified in Garde as warranting a departure from the Munsingwear doctrine. See 848 F.2d at 1311.
In rejecting the Government’s petition for rehearing and suggestion for rehearing en banc in this case, a majority of this court has already indicated that the United States has furnished no reason to revisit the merits of the panel’s decision. That determination should be decisive in our consideration of the United States’ motion to vacate.
The majority invokes a more expansive view of our discretion. It notes that the *717question of Congress’ power to compel legislative action by the Council members is “important” to the District’s scheme of governance, and that answering the question requires us to confront an issue of constitutional law. These considerations, the majority concludes, counsel us to leave for another occasion final resolution of the underlying legal dispute.
In my view, the alleged importance and/or constitutional status of the issues resolved in the case cannot possibly be proper factors on which to base the exercise of the court’s discretion to vacate, because they have nothing to do with the reasons that the court is vested with that power. In the absence of any conclusion that the merits of the panel decision should be reconsidered — a course that a majority of the full court has already rejected — the mere importance or constitutional status of the issues resolved does not justify relieving the United States of the collateral effects of the panel’s judgment. Nor does the importance or constitutional status of the issues mitigate either the unfairness of depriving the Council members of the benefits of their victory or the incentive for post-judgment manipulation of our jurisdiction.
If anything, the importance and constitutional status of the issues only aggravate these concerns, as the facts of this case well illustrate. The Council members retain a substantial interest in the ‘preclusive effect of the panel’s decision precisely because the issues resolved- in the case are important to the District’s scheme of governance. See Garde, 848 F.2d at 1311 (emphasizing importance of “avoiding] any prejudice to appellees by possibly subjecting them to a relitigation of the same issues”).9 Enactment of Armstrong II may have mooted the controversy surrounding Armstrong I, but it by no means signalled Congress’ renunciation of its right to coerce legislative action by the Council members in the future. Cf. 135 Cong.Rec. S11,103, S11,104 (daily ed. Sept. 14, 1989) (statement of Sen. Armstrong) (expressing his astonishment with view “that Congress cannot use funding as a coercive device to require local policymakers to hew to some particular national standard” and suggesting that “this is a parliamentary formulation that we have used 50 times or 100 times or 1,000 times”). In expedited proceedings before the District Court, the Council members succeeded in obtaining a declaration of the invalidity of Armstrong Amendment I only hours before the law would have caused a complete shut-down of municipal services in the District — from public hospitals and public schools, to garbage collection, law enforcement and virtually all other services essential to the health, safety and welfare of the District’s residents. The Council members and the citizens of the District should not be obliged to endure this uncertainty and disruption again.
The importance and constitutional status of the issues resolved in the case also directly contributed to the allegedly mooting episode — enactment of Armstrong Amendment II. Congress was perfectly aware of the constitutional challenge to its authority to compel legislative action by the Council. Rather than “let [the case] play out,” Senator Armstrong introduced Armstrong Amendment II in order to “short-circuit” the ongoing legal controversy. 135 Cong. Reg at Sll,104. We are in no position, of course, to attribute this decision to the entire Congress or to assume that it was made in bad faith; indeed, a majority of the members of Congress may well have decided to go along with Armstrong Amendment II because they agreed that it was improper to coerce the Council members’ votes. But whatever Congress’ motives, the enactment of Armstrong Amendment II constitutes precisely the kind of postdecision compliance with the judgment that we indicated in Garde should not form the basis for vacatur.
*718IV.
This case was fully live through entry of judgment by the panel. Because the full court has determined that the United States is not entitled to further consideration of the merits at this stage of the appellate process, the alleged postjudgment mootness has not prejudiced the United States in any manner properly redressed by this court. I therefore dissent from the court’s decision to grant the United States’ motion.
. Notwithstanding mootness in this setting, both parties retain an interest in the collaterally pre-clusive effects of the lower court’s judgment. Munsingwear, then, addresses the question of when it is fair to relieve the losing party from these effects because of the unavailability of appellate review. See id. at 39-40, 71 S.Ct. at 106-07. See generally IB J. Moore, J. Lucas & T. Currier, Moore’s Federal Practice § 0.416[6] (2d ed. 1988).
. The practice of these circuits is consistent with that of the Supreme Court, which also merely dismisses without vacating cases that settle pending disposition in that court. See, e.g., Minnesota Newspaper Ass'n, Inc. v. Postmaster *712General, 488 U.S. 998, 109 S.Ct. 632, 102 L.Ed.2d 766 (1989) (dismissing appeal); St. Lukes Fed'n v. Presbyterian/St. Lukes Medical Center, 459 U.S. 1025, 103 S.Ct. 433, 74 L.Ed.2d 522 (1982) (dismissing petition for writ of certiorari). The Second Circuit follows a different rule. See Long Island Lighting Co. v. Cuomo, 888 F.2d 230, 233-34 (2d Cir.1989). This circuit has yet to resolve the issue definitively. Compare Garde, 848 F.2d at 1310 (declining to apply Munsingwear in case in which the losing party “essentially settled” by accepting less than full amount of information sought in subpoena not enforced by District Court) with Douglas v. Donovan, 704 F.2d 1276, 1280 (D.C.Cir.1983) (applying Munsingwear without discussion to case mooted by settlement).
. The United States cites four other cases from outside the Eleventh Circuit in support of its claim that circuit courts "generally concur” that Munsingwear applies when a case moots after judgment in the court of appeals. Brief for Appellant on Consideration En Banc at 37 & n. 4. In two of the cases, the mooting episode had, without the courts’ knowledge, occurred before the courts entered their judgments. See Bumpus v. Clark, 702 F.2d 826, 826-27 (9th Cir.1983); Ruiz v. Estelle, 688 F.2d 266, 267 (5th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1042, 103 S.Ct. 1438, 75 L.Ed.2d 795 (1983). Vacatur was therefore necessary because the courts lacked subject matter jurisdiction at the time they issued their decisions. In another, it is unclear whether the mooting episode occurred before or after the court issued its opinion. See United States v. Miller, 685 F.2d 123, 124 (5th Cir. Unit B 1982). Finally, in the fourth case, the court had not issued a decision on the merits, and instead routinely applied Munsingwear to a case *713that had become moot pending appeal. See Kitlutsisti v. ARCO Alaska, Inc., 782 F.2d 800, 801 (9th Cir.1986). The United States omits any mention of the Ninth and Third Circuit rule in its brief.
. Obviously, the analysis would be different if the losing party had an appeal as of right to the Supreme Court. In that situation, it could be said with absolute confidence that the losing party had been prejudiced in the way that Mun-singwear envisions — the loss of an opportunity to secure appellate review — whenever a case became moot after the court of appeals’ judgment. With the repeal of 28 U.S.C. § 1252 (1982), however, all appeals from the circuit courts are now by certiorari. See Supreme Court Cases Selections Act, Pub.L. No. 100-352, § 1, 102 Stat. 662 (1988).
. In Velsicol, the losing party in the court of appeals petitioned for a writ of certiorari, requesting that the Supreme Court grant review and summarily vacate as moot under Munsing-wear. See Petition for Writ of Certiorari at 5-6, 12, Velsicol Chem. Corp. v. United States, 435 U.S. 942, 98 S.Ct. 1521, 55 L.Ed.2d 538 (1978) (No. 77-900). The Government did not contest the claim of mootness, but argued that the Court should merely deny the losing party's petition because the case would not have merited review had it remained live. See Brief for the United States in Opposition at 4-8, Velsicol Chem. Corp. v. United States, 435 U.S. 942, 98 S.Ct. 1521, 55 L.Ed.2d 538 (1978) (No. 77-900). In Local 102, the case had apparently mooted when the losing parties complied with a court order to testify before a grand jury notwithstanding their claim of privilege; the Government again urged that the Court merely deny certiorari without vacating. See Memorandum for the United States in Opposition at 4 & n. 4, Local 102, Int’l Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union v. United States, 439 U.S. 1070, 99 S.Ct. 840, 59 L.Ed.2d 36 (1979) (No. 78-633).
. As the Court’s practice of selective vacatur demonstrates, mootness of the underlying controversy does not prevent the losing party from seeking certiorari for the purpose of securing vacatur. In effect, even a case that is moot as to the merits remains live as to the appropriateness of a vacatur remedy. Cf. Munsingwear, 340 U.S. at 40-41, 71 S.Ct. at 107 (noting that Court has power to review "[d]enial of a motion to vacate" and "commonly" uses its broad supervisory powers over federal courts "to prevent a judgment, unreviewable because of mootness, from spawning any legal consequence"). Moreover, because both parties retain an interest in the collaterally preclusive effect of the judgment, see note 1 supra, the Court can rely on effective adversary presentation of all issues relevant to determining whether the remedy should be granted, including whether the case would have been otherwise certworthy.
. See, e.g., Brief for the United States in Opposition at 4-8, Velsicol Chem. Corp. v. United States, 435 U.S. 942, 98 S.Ct. 1521, 55 L.Ed.2d 538 (1978) (No. 77-900); Brief for the Federal Trade Commission in Opposition at 11 n. 11, Dairymen, Inc. v. FTC, 462 U.S. 1106, 103 S.Ct. 2452, 77 L.Ed.2d 1332 (1983) (No. 82-1428) (construing disposition in Velsicol to signal Court's adoption of rule limiting vacatur to cert-worthy cases); Memorandum for the Secretary of Commerce in Opposition at 10 n. 4, Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U.S. 448, 100 S.Ct. 2758, 65 L.Ed.2d 902 (1980) (No. 78-1007). Memorandum for the United States in Opposition at 4 n. 4, Local 102, Int’l Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union v. United States, 439 U.S. 1070, 99 S.Ct. 840, 59 L.Ed.2d 36 (1979) (No. 78-633).
. Under the Federal Rules, the court ordinarily enters judgment upon issuance of its opinion. See Fed.R.App.P. 36. This procedure was followed here.
. As we recognized in Garde, moreover, the court’s interest in preventing postjudgment manipulation of its jurisdiction survives the court’s determination that the case does not come within the "voluntary cessation of illegal conduct” exception to mootness. See id. at 1309 & n. 5, 1311.