Federal question
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 317 U.S. 173 - Sola Electric Co. v. Jefferson Electric Co. · 1942Most cited · 967 citing opinions
statutory condemnation
When a federal statute condemns an act as unlawful the extent and nature of the legal consequences of the condemnation, though left by the statute to judicial determination, are nevertheless federal questions, the answers to which are to be derived from the statute and the federal policy which it has adopted.
How the Supreme Court has restated “Federal question”
Each Supreme Court definition of “Federal question,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Federal question”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “Federal question” — 1,209 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1870–1942
- ORIGINAL
if the State court gives such a construction to a State statute as to make it conflict with the Constitution or laws of the United States, and sustains its validity after giving it such construction, and thereby deprives a party of his rights under the said Constitution or laws, then a Federal question is raised
The mere fact that the title of plaintiff comes from a patent or under an act of Congress does not show that a Federal question arises. ... 'this court has frequently been vainly asked to hold that controversies in respect to lands, one of the parties to which had derived his title directly from an act of Congress, for that reason alone presented a Federal question.
land-patent suit