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    Civil Procedure

    SCOTUS Decides Plaintiff Can Defeat Removal by Amending Complaint to Delete Federal Claims

    Posted by Paul A. Ferrer on October 1, 2025 at 10:47 AM

    Paul Ferrer—Senior Attorney

            The United States Supreme Court decided a crucial question concerning a federal court’s removal jurisdiction in Royal Canin U.S.A., Inc. v. Wullschleger, 604 U.S. 22 (2025). If a complaint filed in a state court asserts a claim or claims under federal law, then the defendant may remove the case to the U.S. district court for the district and division embracing the place where the state action was filed. See 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a). And if the complaint also asserts a claim or claims under state law arising out of the same facts, then the federal court can exercise “supplemental jurisdiction” over those claims and adjudicate them too. See 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a). But what happens, as the Supreme Court put the question in Royal Canin, “if, after removal, the plaintiff amends her complaint to delete all the federal-law claims, leaving nothing but state-law claims behind? May the federal court still adjudicate the now purely state-law suit?” 604 U.S. at 25.

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    Topics: civil procedure, SCOTUS, amended complaint

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