73 Opinion of the Court. The statute also contained its own provision for direct appeal to this Court from an order granting or denying an interlocutory injunction. The objective of § 266 was clearly articulated by Mr. Chief Justice Taft in Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Louisiana Public Service Comm'n, 260 U. S. 212: "The legislation was enacted for the manifest purpose of taking away the power of a single United States Judge, whether District Judge, Circuit Judge or Circuit Justice holding a District Court of the United States, to issue an interlocutory injunction against the execution of a state statute by a state officer or of an order of an administrative board of the State pursuant to a state statute, on the ground of the federal unconstitutionality of the statute. Pending the application for an interlocutory injunction, a single judge may grant a restraining order to be in force until the hearing of the application, but thereafter, so far as enjoining the state officers, his power is exhausted. The wording of the section leaves no doubt that Congress was by provisions ex industria seeking to make interference by interlocutory injunction from a federal court with the enforcement of state legislation, regularly enacted and in course of execution, a matter of the adequate hearing and the full deliberation which the presence of three judges, one of whom should be a Circuit Justice or Judge, was likely to secure. It was to prevent the improvident granting of such injunctions by a single judge, and the possible unnecessary conflict between federal and state authority always to be deprecated." 260 U. S., at 216. In 1925, § 266 was amended to require a three-judge court for issuance of a permanent as well as an interlocutory injunction, and § 238 of the Judicial Code (a broad statute governing direct appeals to this Court from District Opinion of the Court. 362 U.S. Courts) was amended, so far as here pertinent, to incorporate the provision for direct appeals to this Court from the orders of three-judge courts granting or denying an injunction in a § 266 case. 43 Stat. 938. Such is the present scheme of §§ 2281 and 1253. With this background, it seems entirely clear that the central concern of Congress in 1910 was to prevent one federal judge from granting an interlocutory injunction against state legislation on grounds of federal unconstitutionality. And the 1925 amendment requiring a court of three judges for issuance of a permanent as well as an interlocutory injunction "was designed to end the anomalous situation in which a single judge might reconsider and decide questions already passed upon by three judges on the application for an interlocutory injunction." Stratton v. St. Louis Southwestern R. Co., 282 U. S. 10, 14. Section 2281, read in the light of this background, seems clearly to require that when, in any action to enjoin enforcement of a state statute, the injunctive decree may issue on the ground of federal unconstitutionality of the state statute, the convening of a three-judge court is necessary; and the joining in the complaint of a nonconstitutional attack along with the constitutional one does not dispense with the necessity to convene such a court. To hold to the contrary would be to permit one federal district judge to enjoin enforcement of a state statute on the ground of federal unconstitutionality whenever a nonconstitutional ground of attack was also alleged, and this might well defeat the purpose of § 2281. Cases in this Court since Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Garrett, 231 U. S. 298 (1913), have consistently adhered to the view that, in an injunction action challenging a state statute on substantial federal constitutional grounds, a three-judge court is required to be convened and has just as we have on a direct appeal from its action-jurisdiction over all claims raised against the 73 Opinion of the Court. statute. These cases represent an unmistakable recognition of the congressional policy to provide for a threejudge court whenever a state statute is sought to be enjoined on grounds of federal unconstitutionality, and this consideration must be controlling. 7 See, e. g., Van Dyke v. Geary, 244 U. S. 39; Cavanaugh v. Looney, 248 U. S. 453; Lemke v. Homer Farmers Elevator Co., 258 U. S. 65 (Lemke II); Chicago, Great Western R. Co. v. Kendall, 266 U. S. 94; Shafer v. Farmers Grain Co., 268 U. S. 189; Herkness v. Irion, 278 U. S. 92; Sterling v. Constantin, 287 U. S. 378; Spielman Motor Sales Co. v. Dodge, 295 U. S. 89; Railroad Comm'n of California v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 302 U. S. 388; Public Service Comm'n v. Brashear Freight Lines, 312 U. S. 621; Parker v. Brown, 317 U. S. 341. In the Garrett case, the following observations were made by Mr. Justice Hughes: "Because of the Federal questions raised by the bill the Circuit [District] Court had jurisdiction and was authorized to determine all the questions in the case, local as well as Federal. Siler v. Louisville & Nashville R. R., 213 U. S. 175, 191. A similar rule must be deemed to govern the application for preliminary injunction under the statute which requires a hearing before three judges, and authorizes an appeal to this court. 36 Stat. 557. This statute applies to cases in which the preliminary injunction is sought in order to restrain the enforcement of a state enactment upon the ground of its 'unconstitutionality.' The reference, undoubtedly, is to an asserted conflict with the Federal Constitution, and the question of unconstitutionality, in this sense, must be a substantial one. But, where such a question is presented, the application is within the provision, and this being so, it cannot be supposed that it was the intention of Congress to compel the exclusion of other grounds and thus to require a separate motion for preliminary injunction, and a separate hearing and appeal, with respect to the local questions which are involved in the case and would properly be the subject of consideration in determining the propriety of granting an injunction pending suit. The local questions arising under the state constitution and statutes were therefore before the Circuit [District] Court and the appeal brings them here." 231 U. S., at 303-304. 8 In Sterling v. Constantin, 287 U. S. 378, for example, certain state administrative orders were sought to be enjoined on the ground that they violated both the State and Federal Constitutions. The Opinion of the Court. 362 U.S. Appellees place some reliance on Ex parte Buder, 271 U. S. 461, and Lemke v. Farmers Grain Co., 258 U. S. 50 (Lemke I), in support of their position. Buder held merely that a claim of conflict between a state statute and a federal statute was not a constitutional claim requiring the convening of a three-judge court under § 266, and thus there could be no direct appeal here. Buder did not, however, require that a constitutional claim be the sole claim before the three-judge court. Lemke I held that it was permissible to appeal to the Court of Appeals rather than directly to this Court from the final order of a single district judge in a case in which a state statute was attacked on the grounds that it was both unconstitutional Governor of the State had declared martial law in an effort to enforce the orders, and his action was also challenged on the ground that any statute purporting to confer such authority on him was in violation of the State and Federal Constitutions. With regard to the jurisdiction of the three-judge court which had been convened for the purpose of considering an application for injunction, Mr. Chief Justice Hughes said: "As the validity of provisions of the state constitution and statutes, if they could be deemed to authorize the action of the Governor, was challenged, the application for injunction was properly heard by three judges. Stratton v. St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co., 282 U. S. 10. The jurisdiction of the District Court so constituted, and of this Court upon appeal, extends to every question involved, whether of state or federal law, and enables the court to rest its judgment on the decision of such of the questions as in its opinion effectively dispose of the case." 287 U. S., at 393-394. In Phillips v. United States, 312 U. S. 246, it was held that a suit by the United States to enjoin the action of a Governor in interfering with the construction of a state power project using federal funds was not within § 266 because the validity of a state statute or order had not been challenged. Sterling v. Constantin was distinguished on the ground that it involved an attempt to restrain the action of a Governor as part of a main objective to enjoin execution of certain administrative orders as violative of the State and Federal Constitutions. As such, Sterling was said to have been "indubitably within § 266." 312 U. S., at 253. 73 Opinion of the Court. and in conflict with a federal statute. The case was decided under § 238, which, until 1925, was a broad statute calling for a direct appeal to this Court from the action of a District Court "in any case that involves the construction or application of the Constitution of the United States. . . and in any case in which the constitution or law of a State is claimed to be in contravention of the Constitution of the United States." The breadth of § 238 had led the Court on several occasions to construe this provision to mean that a direct appeal to this Court was required only when the sole ground of District Court jurisdiction was the federal constitutional claim involved, Union & Planters' Bank v. Memphis, 189 U. S. 71, 73; Carolina Glass Co. v. South Carolina, 240 U. S. 305, 318, but if jurisdiction was based both on a constitutional ground and some other federal ground the appeal might properly be taken either to this Court or to the Court of Appeals. Spreckels Sugar Refining Co. v. McClain, 192 U. S. 397, 407-408; Macfadden v. United States, 213 U. S. 288, 293. Lemke I, decided in 1922, merely followed this line of decisions, and was not in any way concerned with a direct appeal to this Court under § 266 from the order of a three-judge court-the question now before us. The distinction between the scope of our direct appellate jurisdiction under § 238 and § 266 prior to 1925 was effectively illustrated by the differing course of events in Lemke I and Lemke v. Homer Farmers Elevator Co., 258 U. S. 65 (Lemke II). Both cases involved an attack on a state statute on grounds of federal unconstitutionality and conflict with a federal statute. In both, interlocutory injunctions were sought before three-judge courts, and the injunctions were granted. Lemke I, however, also sought a permanent injunction before a single district judge, and, from his order denying the injunction, the case was appealed to the Court of Appeals before coming here. Lemke II, on the other hand, was directly |