Federal Jurisdiction

This course is about the power of federal courts. It examines how that power is shaped and limited by the Constitution, by Congress, and by the courts themselves. In a variety of settings, we will consider the manner in which these sources of law apportion authority between state and federal courts and among coordinate branches of the federal government. Among the topics to be considered are the "case" and "controversy" requirements of Article III, state immunity from federal suit under the Eleventh Amendment, the authority of Congress under Article III to regulate the original jurisdiction of lower federal courts and the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the authority of federal courts to exercise either less or more subject matter jurisdiction than Congress has enacted, and the responsibility of federal courts to supervise state criminal judgments under habeas corpus.