Opinion of the Court claims that fail to comply with the citizen suit notification requirement of 16 U. S. C. § 1540(g)(2), which states that "[n]o action may be commenced" until an agency has declined to act after being given written notice). More generally, statutory references to an "action" have not typically been read to mean that every claim included in the action must meet the pertinent requirement before the "action" may proceed. See, e. g., Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapattah Services, Inc., 545 U. S. 546, 560–563 (2005) (District Court had jurisdiction over a "civil action" under 28 U. S. C. § 1367(a), even if it might not have jurisdiction over each separate claim pressed in the action); Chicago v. International College of Surgeons, 522 U. S. 156, 166 (1997) (District Court had jurisdiction over removed "civil action" even if every claim did not satisfy jurisdictional prerequisites). As a general matter, if a complaint contains both good and bad claims, the court proceeds with the good and leaves the bad. "[O]nly the bad claims are dismissed; the complaint as a whole is not. If Congress meant to depart from this norm, we would expect some indication of that, and we find none." Robinson v. Page, 170 F. 3d 747, 748-749 (CA7 1999) (considering § 1997e(e)). Respondents note an exception to this general rule, the total exhaustion rule in habeas corpus. In Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 522 (1982), we held that "mixed" habeas petitions-containing both exhausted and unexhausted claimscannot be adjudicated. This total exhaustion rule applied in habeas was initially derived from considerations of "comity and federalism," not any statutory command. Rhines v. Weber, 544 U. S. 269, 273 (2005); id., at 274 (noting that Congress "preserved Lundy's total exhaustion requirement" in 28 U.S. C. § 2254(b)(1)(A)). Separate claims in a single habeas petition generally seek the same relief from custody, and success on one is often as good as success on another. In such a case it makes sense to require exhaustion of all claims in state court before allowing the federal action to Opinion of the Court proceed. A typical PLRA suit with multiple claims, on the other hand, may combine a wide variety of discrete complaints, about interactions with guards, prison conditions, generally applicable rules, and so on, seeking different relief on each claim. There is no reason failure to exhaust on one necessarily affects any other. In any event, even if the habeas total exhaustion rule is pertinent, it does not in fact depart from the usual practice—as we recently held, a court presented with a mixed habeas petition "should allow the petitioner to delete the unexhausted claims and to proceed with the exhausted claims Rhines, supra, at 278. This is the opposite of the rule the Sixth Circuit adopted, and precisely the rule that respondents argue against. 99 Respondents' reading of 42 U. S. C. § 1997e(a) to contain a total exhaustion rule is bolstered by the fact that other sections of the PLRA distinguish between actions and claims. Section 1997e(c)(1), for example, provides that a court shall dismiss an action for one of four enumerated deficiencies, while § 1997e(c)(2) allows a court to dismiss a claim for one of these reasons without first determining whether the claim is exhausted. Similarly, 28 U. S. C. § 1915A(b) directs district courts to dismiss "the complaint, or any portion of the complaint," before docketing under certain circumstances. This demonstrates that Congress knew how to differentiate between the entire action and particular claims when it wanted to, and suggests that its use of "action" rather than "claim" in 42 U. S. C. § 1997e(a) should be given effect. But the interpretation respondents advocate creates its own inconsistencies. Section 1997e(e) contains similar language, “"[n]o . . . action may be brought . . . for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of physical injury," yet respondents cite no case interpreting this provision to require dismissal of the entire lawsuit if only one claim does not comply, and again we see little reason for such an approach. Accord, Cassidy v. Indiana Dept. of Corrections, 199 F. 3d 374, 376-377 (CA7 2000) Opinion of the Court (dismissing only the portions of the complaint barred by § 1997e(e)); see also Williams v. Ollis, 230 F. 3d 1361 (CA6 2000) (unpublished table decision) (same). Interpreting the phrase "no action shall be brought" to require dismissal of the entire case under § 1997e(a) but not § 1997e(e) would contravene our normal rules of statutory construction. National Credit Union Admin. v. First Nat. Bank & Trust Co., 522 U. S. 479, 501-502 (1998). In pressing the total exhaustion argument, respondents also marshal the policy and purpose underlying the PLRAthis time in a supporting rather than lead role. The invigorated exhaustion requirement is a "centerpiece" of the statute, Woodford, 548 U. S., at 84, and if the exhaustion requirement of § 1997e(a) is not effectuated by a total exhaustion rule, they argue, inmates will have little incentive to ensure that they have exhausted all available administrative remedies before proceeding to court. The PLRA mandated early judicial screening to reduce the burden of prisoner litigation on the courts; a total exhaustion rule allows courts promptly to dismiss an action upon identifying an unexhausted claim. The alternative approach turns judges into editors of prisoner complaints, rather than creating an incentive for prisoners to exhaust properly. See Ross v. County of Bernalillo, 365 F. 3d 1181, 1190 (CA10 2004). We are not persuaded by these policy arguments. In fact, the effect of a total exhaustion rule could be that inmates will file various claims in separate suits, to avoid the possibility of an unexhausted claim tainting the others. That would certainly not comport with the purpose of the PLRA to reduce the quantity of inmate suits. Additionally, district judges who delve into a prisoner complaint only to realize it contains an unexhausted claim, requiring dismissal of the entire complaint under the total exhaustion rule, will often have to begin the process all over again when the prisoner refiles. In light of typically short prison grievance time limits, prisoners' refiled complaints will often be identical to Opinion of the Court what the district court would have considered had it simply dismissed unexhausted claims as it encountered them and proceeded with the exhausted ones. Perhaps filing fees and concerns about the applicability of the "three strikes" rule, 28 U. S. C. § 1915(g), would mitigate these effects, but the debate about consequences is close enough that there is no clear reason to depart from the more typical claim-by-claim approach. * We are not insensitive to the challenges faced by the lower federal courts in managing their dockets and attempting to separate, when it comes to prisoner suits, not so much wheat from chaff as needles from haystacks. We once again reiterate, however—as we did unanimously in Leatherman, Swierkiewicz, and Hill-that adopting different and more onerous pleading rules to deal with particular categories of cases should be done through established rulemaking procedures, and not on a case-by-case basis by the courts. The judgments of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit are reversed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered. Syllabus OSBORN v. HALEY ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT No. 05-593. Argued October 30, 2006-Decided January 22, 2007 The federal statute commonly known as the Westfall Act accords federal employees absolute immunity from tort claims arising out of acts undertaken in the course of their official duties, 28 U. S. C. § 2679(b)(1), and empowers the Attorney General to certify that a federal employee sued for wrongful or negligent conduct "was acting within the scope of his office or employment at the time of the incident out of which the claim arose," § 2679(d)(1), (2). Upon such certification, the United States is substituted as defendant in place of the employee, and the action is thereafter governed by the Federal Tort Claims Act. If the action commenced in state court, the Westfall Act calls for its removal to a federal district court, and renders the Attorney General's certification "conclusiv[e]... for purposes of removal." § 2679(d)(2). Plaintiff-petitioner Pat Osborn sued federal employee Barry Haley in state court. Osborn alleged that Haley tortiously interfered with her employment with a private contractor, that he conspired to cause her wrongful discharge, and that his efforts to bring about her discharge were outside the scope of his employment. The United States Attorney, serving as the Attorney General's delegate, certified that Haley was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of the conduct alleged in Osborn's complaint. She thereupon removed the case to a Federal District Court, where she asserted that the alleged wrongdoing never occurred. The District Court, relying on Osborn's allegations, entered an order that rejected the Westfall Act certification, denied the Government's motion to substitute the United States as defendant in Haley's place, and remanded the case to the state court. The Sixth Circuit vacated the District Court's order, holding that a Westfall Act certification is not improper simply because the United States denies the occurrence of the incident on which the plaintiff centrally relies. Based on § 2679(d)(2)'s direction that certification is "conclusiv[e]... for purposes of removal," the Court of Appeals instructed the District Court to retain jurisdiction over the case. Held: 1. The Attorney General's certification is conclusive for purposes of removal, i. e., once certification and removal are effected, exclusive com |