Carol Ankenbrandt, As Next Friend and Mother of L. R. and S. R. v. Jon A. Richards and Debra Kesler (504 U.S. 689)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 15, 1992 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 504 U.S. 689 · 112 S. Ct. 2206
- Decided
- June 15, 1992
- Term
- October Term 1991
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice White
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents the issue whether the federal courts have jurisdiction or should abstain in a case involving alleged torts committed by the former husband of petitioner and his female companion against petitioner’s children, when the sole basis for federal jurisdiction is the diversity-of-citizenship provision of 28 U. S. C. § 1332. HH Petitioner Carol Ankenbrandt, a citizen of Missouri, brought this lawsuit on September 26, 1989, on behalf of her daughters L. R. and S. R. against respondents Jon A. Richards and Debra Kesler, citizens of Louisiana, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Alleging federal jurisdiction based on the diversity-of-citizenship provision of §1332, Ankenbrandt’s complaint sought monetary damages for alleged sexual and physical abuse of the children committed by Richards and Kesler. Richards is the divorced father of the children and Kesler his female companion. On December 10, 1990, the District Court granted respondents’ motion to dismiss this lawsuit. Citing In re Burrus, 136 U. S. 586, 593-594 (1890), for the proposition that “[t]he whole subject of the domestic relations of husband and wife, parent and child, belongs to the laws of the States and not to the laws of the United States,” the court concluded that this case fell within what has become known as the…
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