Private: High Court Decision Said to Prompt Major Shift on Civil Lawsuits

One of the high court's "most consequential," but little noticed decisions from its latest term involved a lawsuit lodged against Bush administration officials over their treatment of Muslims detained following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But, The New York Times' Adam Liptak reports that Ashcroft v. Iqbal was so consequential because it changes the way lawsuits can be filed, noting that the decision, "makes it easier for judges to dismiss civil lawsuits right after they are filed," and has already been cited "more than 500 times" since it was issued in mid-May. Tom Goldstein, founder of SCOTUSblog, told Liptak that "Iqbal is the most significant Supreme Court decision in a decade for day-to-day litigation in federal courts."

Liptak writes that for decades all a plaintiff had to do to lodge a lawsuit was file a complaint outlining a claim. But the high court in Iqbal, Liptak writes, "now requires plaintiffs to come forward with concrete facts at the outset, and it instructs lower court judges to dismiss lawsuits that strike them as implausible."

Stephen B. Burbank, a University of Pennsylvania Law School professor, told the newspaper that "It obviously licenses highly subjective judgments. This is a blank check for federal judges to get rid of cases they disfavor."

In a guest post for ACSblog, Vermont Law School Professor Anthony F. Renzo wrote that "The most ominous import of the Iqbal decision, however, is that it provides a blueprint for like-minded lower federal court judges to justify denying access to the courts to future victims of constitutional torts seeking redress for injuries caused by high-ranking federal officials." Renzo's blog post analyzing Iqbal is here.

Earlier this month, a panel of constitutional law experts, including Goldstein, explored a number of decisions from the high court's latest term at a national ACS event. Video of the discussion is here. Following the event, Goldstein talked with ACSblog about the high court's term, and the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. His interview is available here.

Access to Justice, Procedural Barriers to Court, Supreme Court