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Grable & Sons Reaffirms the Smith Approach to Federal Question Jurisdiction

The Supreme Court's recent unanimous decision in <i>Grable &amp; Sons Metal Products, Inc. v. Darue Engineering &amp; Manufacturing</i>, 125 S. Ct. 2363 (2005), put to rest almost 20 years of uncertainty regarding the scope of federal question jurisdiction. Responding to a split within the Courts of Appeals, the Supreme Court at long last addressed its holding in <i>Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Thompson</i>, 478 U.S. 804 (1986), that continued to baffle lower federal courts and legal scholars ' namely, whether <i>Merrell Dow</i> required a federal cause of action as a condition for exercising federal question jurisdiction. <i>Grable &amp; Sons</i> not only responded with a resounding "no," concluding that federal question jurisdiction does not require a federal private right of action, but it also reaffirmed the Court's longstanding commitment to the broader and more flexible <i>Smith v. Kansas City Title &amp; Trust Co.</i>, 255 U.S. 180 (1921), approach to federal question jurisdiction.

35 minute read September 02, 2005 at 09:38 AM
By
Lisa M. Norrett
Grable & Sons Reaffirms the Smith Approach to Federal Question Jurisdiction

The Supreme Court's recent unanimous decision in Grable & Sons Metal Products, Inc. v. Darue Engineering & Manufacturing, 125 S. Ct. 2363 (2005), put to rest almost 20 years of uncertainty regarding the scope of federal question jurisdiction.

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