In legal cases where there is a pleading regarding violation of a constitutional right, these cases are always heard in Federal Court, and the rules regarding these legal cases are covered by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Click on the post for the Wikipedia resources.
Historically there are some very interesting cases in the Federal cases since under Federal Rules, the objective is to provide "simplified pleading", and every effort is made to get to the issue that the person, even without a lawyer, such as a prison inmate, might complain about. The theory is that every citizen should have the right to be heard and responded to regarding his complaint of a violation of civil rights.
Click on the post for all the details.
Friday, November 02, 2007
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That fact that a complaint states a claim based on the U.S. Constitution might give a federal court subject matter jursidiction (as discussed in the wikipedia article), which would allow the plaintiff to have the law suit determined by a federal court. But state courts have authority to decide cases that rise and fall based on the court's intepretation of the U.S. Constitution, and they do so all the time. If a federal court has subject matter jurisdiction, the plaintiff gets to choose whether she wants the lawsuit determined by the state court or the federal court, and if the plaintiff chooses the state court, the defendant has the option to move the case to the federal court.
ReplyDeleteBill Connors