Document Type
Brief
Publication Date
7-8-2022
Abstract
This brief is filed on behalf of legal scholars who study federal jurisdiction, federal procedure, and constitutional law, and who have taught and written on the interplay between proceedings in state and federal courts.<\p>
The Court should hold that § 1983 claims challenging the constitutionality of state post-conviction DNA testing statutes do not accrue until the end of state-court litigation denying DNA testing. That is the only rule that comports with principles of federalism and comity, which favor sequencing federal litigation after related state proceedings. Unnecessary co-pendency of state and federal litigation invites unnecessary intrusions into state processes. If a federal court need not exercise jurisdiction under § 1983, then an accrual rule should not force it to do so.<\p>
The rule adopted by the Fifth Circuit and defended by respondent upends those principles. This Court’s precedents demand that comity and federalism inform the development of accrual rules. The Fifth Circuit’s accrual rule places state and federal courts on a needless collision course instead: litigants must rush to the federal courthouse before state courts have authoritatively construed state law in their cases. That approach undermines federalism and comity, and it creates a host of inefficiencies, administrative burdens, and other practical problems. This Court should steer clear of that morass and adopt the rule that comports with our constitutional tradition: § 1983 claims seeking postconviction DNA testing accrue only after state proceedings, including appeals, conclude. State courts should have a full opportunity to construe their own laws before federal courts exercise their jurisdiction.<\p>
Recommended Citation
Litman, Leah and Brensike Primus, Eve, "Reed v. Goertz: Brief of Federal Courts Scholars as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner" (2022). Appellate Briefs. 78.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/briefs/78
Included in
Constitutional Law Commons, Jurisdiction Commons, Litigation Commons
Comments
Amicus: Blume, John H.; Chemerinsky, Erwin; Dorf, Michael C.; Freedman, Eric M.; Garrett, Brandon L.; Hertz, Randy; Kovarsky, Lee; Liebman, James S.; Litman, Leah; Primus, Eve Brensike; Steiker, Jordan M.; Vladeck, Stephen I.