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After Steel Co.: "Hypothetical Jurisdiction" In The Federal Appellate Courts, Joan Steinman

Washington and Lee Law Review

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After Steel Co.: 'Hypothetical Jurisdiction' In The Federal Appellate Courts, Joan E. Steinman

All Faculty Scholarship

In Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, the United States Supreme Court, sua sponte, denounced the doctrine of "hypothetical jurisdiction," a doctrine that, in some circumstances, allowed courts to assume, arguendo, the existence of jurisdiction and to address the merit questions presented by cases. Several of the Justices distanced themselves from the denunciation, however, and despite the vociferousness of the position taken by the majority, even it found that there were exceptional circumstances in which the Court had acted properly (and presumably in which other courts would act appropriately) in assuming jurisdiction arguendo and addressing merits questions. The …

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Fighting The Probate Mafia: A Dissection Of The Probate Exception To Federal Court Jurisdiction, Peter Nicolas

Articles

Despite the complexity and confusion surrounding the probate exception to federal court jurisdiction-or perhaps because of it-it has been given scant attention in the literature. This Article seeks to fill the gap. Part II of this Article sets forth the current application of the probate exception in the lower federal courts. Part III of this Article examines the statutory and constitutional constraints on the federal courts' exercise of subject matter jurisdiction over probate and probate related matters. Part III concludes that the probate exception is a mere gloss on the statutory grants of subject matter jurisdiction to the federal courts …