MLB removes A-Rod suit to Federal Court

When I first read about A-Rod's lawsuit against MLB, I immediately started thinking about removal to federal court on diversity grounds (looking for a good problem for Civ Pro next semester). It was clear that, as an unincorporated association, MLB is almost certainly a citizen of New York (among other states), thus not diverse from Rodriguez and unable to remove to federal court in New York on diversity grounds under the Forum-Defendant Rule.

But I did not think it all the way through. Today, MLB and Selig removed the case to the Southern District of New York based on federal question jurisdiction. MLB argues that the claims are preempted by § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act; that statute is said to have "unusually powerful preemptive force," such that any state-law claims are converted into federal claims arising under the act and are deemed to arise under the laws of the United States.

From federal court, of course, MLB will argue that the claims are preempted by the CBA and should be sent to arbitration.

Cert. denied in Duke lacrosse

SCOTUS this morning denied cert. in Evans v. Durham, the § 1983 action by the three indicted-but-exonerated members of the 2005 Duke men's lacrosse team. The Fourth Circuit rejected (which I discussed here) claims against the city and the investigating police officers involved; the plainitffs tried to get to SCOTUS on the issue of whether the prosecutor's conduct (which enjoys prosecutorial immunity) breaks the causal chain and cleanses the officers' misconduct when they conspired together. Interestingly, they did not seek cert on the "stigma-plus" theory of liability for other officer misconduct (on which the causal chain was not broken).

The plaintiffs still have state-law malicious prosecution claims pending. The next question may be whether the district court declines supplemental jurisdiction over those claims or decides to keep them, seeing as how this litigation is now 6+ years old.