Keith Smith, et al., Petitioners v. Bayer Corporation (564 U.S. 299)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 16, 2011 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 564 U.S. 299 · 131 S. Ct. 2368
- Decided
- June 16, 2011
- Term
- October Term 2010
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Kagan
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kagan delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, a Federal District Court enjoined a state court from considering a plaintiff’s request to approve a class action. The District Court did so because it had earlier denied a motion to certify a class in a related case, brought by a different plaintiff against the same defendant alleging similar claims. The federal court thought its injunction appropriate to prevent relitigation of the issue it had decided. We hold to the contrary. In issuing this order to a state court, the federal court exceeded its authority under the “relitigation exception” to the Anti-Injunction Act. That statutory provision permits a federal court to enjoin a state proceeding only in rare cases, when necessary to “protect or effectuate [the federal court’s] judgments.” 28 U. S. C. §2283. Here, that standard was not met for two reasons. First, the issue presented in the state court was not identical to the one decided in the federal tribunal. And second, the plaintiff in the state court did not have the requisite connection to the federal suit to be bound by the District Court’s judgment. I Because the question before us involves the effect of a former adjudication on this case, we begin our statement of the facts not with this lawsuit, but with another. In August 2001, George McCollins sued respondent Bayer Corporation in the Circuit Court of…
Excerpt of a 35,778-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.