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Removed Cases And Uninvoked Jurisdictional Grounds, Jeannette Cox

School of Law Faculty Publications

Traditionally understood, a congressional grant of federal subject matter jurisdiction alone does not confer authority on a federal court to hear a case; a party to the case must also affirmatively invoke the applicable jurisdictional ground. In a sharp break from this traditional understanding, federal courts have recently begun to exercise jurisdiction over cases based on jurisdictional grounds no party has invoked. Courts adopting this practice have concluded that a district court must retain removed cases that meet the requirements of a congressionally-authorized ground of subject matter jurisdiction even when an arguably antecedent requirement - party invocation of that jurisdictional …