plainly unsubstantial
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 289 U.S. 103 - Levering & Garrigues Co. v. Morrin · 1933Most cited · 1,067 citing opinions
jurisdiction, as distinguished from merits, is wanting where the claim set forth in the pleading is plainly unsubstantial. The federal question averred may be plainly unsubstantial either because obviously without merit, or 'because its unsoundness so clearly results from the previous decisions of this court as to foreclose the subject and leave no room for the inference that the questions sought to be raised can be the subject of controversy.
How often courts cite the case defining “plainly unsubstantial”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “plainly unsubstantial” — 1,063 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case 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.