Federal Question Jurisdiction

AuthorCarole E. Goldberg-Ambrose
Pages1027-1028

Page 1027

Article III of the Constitution provides that the JUDICIAL POWER OF THE UNITED STATES shall extend to all "Cases? arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and Treaties.?" This power is called federal question jurisdiction, because typically it entails the construction, application, or enforcement of federal law, including federal COMMON LAW. Performance of this function includes interpretation of the Constitution itself; thus federal question jurisdiction provides the jurisdictional basis for the federal courts' important power of JUDICIAL REVIEW. It is also the means by which Congress can secure a sympathetic and uniform interpretation of federal laws.

Although Congress has the power to make exceptions to the Supreme Court's APPELLATE JURISDICTION over federal questions, it currently makes few of them. A few federal trial court decisions, such as those remanding cases to state court following removal, are unreviewable. The Supreme Court reviews state court decisions only when they are FINAL JUDGMENTS that have been rendered by the highest state court in which judgment is available. Such a judgment will not be reviewed if it rests on an independent and ADEQUATE STATE GROUND or if it lacks a substantial federal question (for example, raises only a federal issue already resolved in an earlier case).

Apart from these restrictions, the appellate federal question jurisdiction extends to every federal issue, factual or legal, part of the plaintiff's case or part of a defense, in either a civil or a criminal case. Even if federal law appears in a case solely because a state statute refers to and incorporates it, the Supreme Court may exercise its federal question jurisdiction if it finds an independent federal interest in assuring proper interpretation of the incorporated federal matter.

In contrast, when Congress first created the lower federal courts in 1789, it authorized them to hear only a few federal question cases of special importance, such as PATENT suits and suits involving treaty rights. After the CIVIL WAR, Congress realized that state courts would be reluctant to enforce newly created federal CIVIL RIGHTS, and authorized the federal courts to hear the enforcement actions. Then, in 1875, Congress used almost the exact language of Article III to empower federal courts to hear "all suits of a civil nature ? arising under the Constitution or laws of the United States, or treaties...

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