Opinion of the Court. 334 U.S. price to be paid for the gas if purchased, or the fees to be paid to Republic for marketing it if sold on behalf of Peerless, clearly requires the exercise of judgment.3 Nor is there any immediate threat of irreparable damage to Republic, rendering postponed review so illusory as to make the decree "final" now or never. The Commission's order requires Republic to designate a point on its pipeline at which Peerless might attach a line, and after Peerless had done so to connect it immediately. But it does not appear that the order requires Republic to commence taking Peerless' gas before the terms of taking have either been agreed upon or ordered by the Commission. Nor does it appear that Republic would have to bear the expense of connecting the pipeline, nor that such expense would be substantial. Indeed, the incurring of some loss, before a process preliminary to review here is exhausted, is not in itself sufficient to authorize our intervention. Cf. Myers v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., 303 U. S. 41, 50– 52. But even if the Commission's order were construed to require Republic to take and dispose of Peerless' gas immediately-and we are not so advised by the State court-there is no ground for assuming that any loss that Republic might incur could not be recovered should the completed direction of the Oklahoma Commission, on affirmance by that State's Supreme Court, ultimately be found to be unconstitutional. Merely because a party to a litigation may be temporarily out of pocket, is not sufficient to warrant immediate review of an incomplete State judgment. Appellant, of course, has the burden of * This case is unlike those in which a rate had been fixed, subject to a continuing jurisdiction to modify it later. Cf. Market Street R. Co. v. Railroad Commission, 324 U. S. 548; St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R. Co. v. Southern Express Co., 108 U. S. 24. Here, no rates have been set, and their future establishment has been left open. 62 Opinion of the Court. affirmatively establishing this Court's jurisdiction. Memphis Natural Gas Co. v. Beeler, 315 U. S. 649, 651. The policy against premature constitutional adjudications demands that any doubts in maintaining this burden be resolved against jurisdiction. See citation of cases in the concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Brandeis in Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297 U. S. 288, 341, 345, 348. The condemnation precedents attract this case more persuasively than do the accounting cases. Where it is claimed that a decree transferring property overrides an asserted federal right, as in Forgay v. Conrad, supra, and Radio Station WOW v. Johnson, supra, no disposition of the subsequent accounting proceeding can possibly make up for the defeated party's loss, since the party who has lost the property must also pay to his opponent what the accounting decrees. Hence his desire to appeal the issue of the right to the property will almost certainly persist. On the other hand, in an eminent domain case, as in a case like this, the fate of the whole litigation may well be affected by the fate of the unresolved contingencies of the litigation. An adequate award in an eminent domain case or a profitable rate in the case before us might well satisfy the losing party to acquiesce in the disposition of the earlier issue. It is of course not our province to discourage appeals. But for the soundest of reasons. we ought not to pass on constitutional issues before they have reached a definitive stop. Another similarity between this case and the condemnation cases calls for abstention until what is organically one litigation has been concluded in the State. It is that the matters left open may generate additional federal questions. This brings into vivid relevance the policy against fragmentary review. In accounting cases, that which still remains to be litigated can scarcely give rise to new federal questions. DOUGLAS, J., concurring. 334 U.S. The policy against fragmentary review has therefore little bearing. But contests over valuation in eminent domain cases, as price-fixing in this type of case, are inherently provocative of constitutional claims. This potentiality of additional federal questions arising out of the same controversy has led this Court to find want of the necessary finality of adjudicated constitutional issues in condemnation decrees before valuation has been made. Like considerations are relevant here. In short, the guiding considerations for determining whether the decree of the court below possesses requisite finality lead to the conclusion that this case must await its culmination in the judicial process of the State before we can assume jurisdiction. "Only one branch of the case has been finally disposed of below, therefore none of it is ripe for review by this court." Collins v. Miller, 252 U. S. 364, 371. This makes it unnecessary to consider whether the mere fact that the decree gave alternative commands precluded it from being final. Cf. Paducah v. East Tennessee Tel. Co., 229 U. S. 476; Jones's Adm'r v. Craig, 127 U. S. 213; Note, 48 Harv. L. Rev. 302, 305-306. Since the judgment now appealed from lacks the necessary finality, we cannot consider the merits. All of Republic's constitutional objections are of course saved. MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, concurring. Appeal dismissed. The judgment of the Oklahoma court is not "final" merely because it establishes that Republic has no right to drain away the Peerless gas without paying for it. I think it would be conceded that, even so, the judgment would not be "final" if it offered appellant three alternative ways to comply and there were doubts as to the constitutionality of any one of them. Then we would wait 62 DOUGLAS, J., concurring. to see which of the alternatives was ultimately selected or imposed before reviewing the constitutionality of any of them. But there would be no more reason to defer decision on the merits in that case than in this. For the constitutional questions would be isolated in each and we would be as uncertain in one as in the other which of the alternatives would actually apply to appellant. And the principle seems to me to be the same even when a majority of us would sustain the order whatever alternative was chosen as its sanction. There is, of course, in the one case the chance of saving the order only if one remedy rather than another is chosen, while in the other the order would survive whichever was chosen. But in each we would be giving needless constitutional dissertations on some points. That is nonetheless true in a case where the constitutional questions seem to a majority of us simple, uncomplicated and of no great dignity. For the single constitutional question necessary for decision will not be isolated until the precise pinch of the order on the appellant is known. It will not be known in the present case at least until appellant elects or is required (1) to shut down, (2) to become a carrier of the Peerless gas, or (3) to purchase it. The legal, as well as the economic, relationship which Republic will bear to Peerless will vary as one or another choice is made. To make Republic a "carrier" is to submit it to different business risks than to make it a "purchaser." The fact that each would raise only questions of "due process" under the Fourteenth Amendment does not mean that the questions are identical. Even when reasonableness is the test, judges have developed great contrariety of opinions. The point is that today the variables are presented only in the abstract. Tomorrow the facts will be known, when the precise impact of the order on appellant will be determined. Thus to me the 792588 0-48-10 RUTLEDGE, J., dissenting. 334 U.S. policy against premature constitutional adjudication precludes us from saying the judgment in the present case is "final." MR. JUSTICE RUTLEDGE, with whom MR. JUSTICE BLACK, MR. JUSTICE MURPHY, and MR. JUSTICE BURTON join, dissenting. I think the Oklahoma Supreme Court's judgment is final for the purposes of § 237 of the Judicial Code, 28 U. S. C. § 344, that the state commission's order is valid, and that deferring decision on the merits to some indefinite future time will only prolong an already lengthy litigation unnecessarily and with possible irreparable harm to one party or the other. Appellant, Republic Natural Gas Company, has operated gas wells in the Hugoton Gas Field for many years. It was the first major producer to exploit the Oklahoma portion of the field,' having constructed its own gathering system and pipe lines extending from Oklahoma into Kansas. With only minor exceptions Republic has never carried any but its own gas in its pipe lines. 198 Okla. at 352. In 1944 appellee, Peerless Company, completed its only well in Oklahoma, in the Hugoton field. This well is not connected to any pipe line. It therefore presently lies dormant. Surrounding Republic wells drilled into the same reservoir concededly are draining gas constantly from under the Peerless land. Except for the part of 1 Republic has 92 wells in Kansas and 38 in Oklahoma. 2 The Oklahoma Supreme Court found it unnecessary to consider whether Republic was either a common carrier or a common purchaser 198 Okla. at 353. The term "common purchaser" is explained in Okla. Stat., tit. 52, § 240. of gas. Appellant concedes that the "operation of the Republic wells is draining gas from under the dormant Peerless well." The findings of the commission state: "(d) Republic. . . is taking and will continue to take more than its proportionate part of the natural |