104 Iowa L. Rev. 793 (2019)

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Abstract

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent activity in the domain of personal jurisdiction, defendants have greater leverage to challenge the forum choices made by plaintiffs when initiating litigation. This Article uncovers an unexpected way that defendants are deploying that leverage: by filing hybrid removals in federal court. Hybrid removals are filed in cases that lack facial diversity of citizenship and involve no federal question. Ordinarily, these characteristics would trigger a quick remand. To avoid that result, defendants have sought to make personal jurisdiction part of the removal analysis. This crossing of jurisdictional lines has the potential to facilitate expediency, but it may also undermine the relationship between federal and state courts. For that reason, the Article concludes that hybrid removal should be embraced with due care, and offers some guidelines for its implementation.