Supplemental Jurisdiction

Question 1

What does supplemental jurisdiction basically do?

Answer 1

It gets claims into a federal case, even though the claims cannot use diversity of citizenship or FQ SMJ.

Question 2

Supplemental J starting point

Answer 2

We must have a case that is already in federal court based on diversity or FQ question. So the case invoked diversity or FQ and is pending in federal court. In other words, there must be something to supplement.

Question 3

now focus on additional claims

Answer 3

in any case in federal court, additional claims might be asserted. Maybe the plaintiff has additional claims or maybe there are coounter-claims or crossclaims, etc. The importance thing is that the federal court must have SMJ over every single claim in a case.

Question 4

Important Steps:

Answer 4

1. check for diversity or FQ jurisdiction over the additional claim
2. check for supplemental jurisdiction if no diversity or FQ

Question 5

Step 1: check for diversity or FQ jurisdiction over the additional claim

Answer 5

if there is no SMJ over that claim it cannot be asserted. Each additional claim must be tested to see if it invokes diversity or FQ SMJ. If an additional claim satisfies either diversity or FQ SMJ, it can be heard in the federal court case.

Question 6

Step 2: check for supplemental jurisdiction if no diversity or FQ

Answer 6

federal court can still hear the claim if it can invoke supplemental jurisdiction. So supplemental jurisdiction gets claims into a federal court case, even though the claims do not meet the requirements for diversity or FQ SMJ.

Question 7

we want to get that claim into the case through supplemental jurisdiction:

Answer 7

1. the common nucleus test
2. the limitation on the use of supplemental jurisdiction in diversity cases.