Lower Courts Have Cited Little-Noticed 9-11 Decision 500 Times
The U.S. Supreme Court’s May decision against a cable TV installer suing over his Sept. 11 detention may have gotten little notice from the public, but it has gotten the attention of the lower courts.
Judges have cited the decision on federal pleading standards in civil lawsuits 500 times in just the last two months, the New York Times reports. The decision, Ashcroft v. Iqbal, held that Pakistani citizen Javaid Iqbal’s conclusory assertions that his detention was motivated by bias were insufficient to sustain a lawsuit. Instead, more factual enhancement is needed, the opinion said.
“Something much deeper and broader was going on in the decision, something that may unsettle how civil litigation is conducted in the United States,” the Times story says. The article cites dissenting Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who told federal judges last month that, in her view, the majority ruling “messed up the federal rules” governing civil litigation.
University of Pennsylvania law professor Stephen B. Burbank told the Times the opinion allows judges to make subjective judgments on the merits of lawsuits. “This is a blank check for federal judges to get rid of cases they disfavor,” he said.
The Times story linked to Ginsburg’s remarks.
