Cite as: 522 U. S. 156 (1997)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
a state proceeding." Id., at 581.2 Cross-system appellate authority is entrusted to this Court, we said in Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co., 263 U. S. 413 (1923), but it is outside the domain of the lower federal courts. Interpreting the statutory predecessors of 28 U. S. C. §§ 1331 and 1257, we held in Rooker that a federal district court could not modify a decision of the Indiana Supreme Court, for only this Court could exercise such authority. 263 U. S., at 416.
Today, the Court holds that Congress, by enacting § 1367, has authorized federal district courts to conduct deferential, on-the-record review of local agency decisions whenever a federal question is pended to the agency review action. Dismissing, as irrelevant to jurisdiction, the distinction between de novo and deferential review, the Court also provides easy access to federal court whenever the dissatisfied party in a local agency proceeding has the requisite diverse citizenship. The Court does all this despite the overwhelming weight of lower federal court decisions disclaiming cross-system appellate authority, and without even a hint from Congress that so startling a reallocation of power from state courts to federal courts was within the national lawmakers' contemplation.3
2 The Court in Stude also made the following statement: "When the proceeding has reached the stage of a perfected appeal and the jurisdiction of the state district court is invoked, it then becomes in its nature a civil action and subject to removal by the defendant to the United States District Court." Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. v. Stude, 346 U. S., at 578-579. This statement, made on the way to the Court's conclusion that the District Court lacked removal jurisdiction, does not carry great weight. It suggests that while the plaintiff in Stude could not have filed the action in federal court initially under § 1332, the defendant could have removed the action to federal court pursuant to § 1441(a). That suggestion is incorrect, for "[o]nly state-court actions that originally could have been filed in federal court may be removed to federal court by the defendant." Caterpillar Inc. v. Williams, 482 U. S. 386, 392 (1987).
3 The Court's holding can embrace the decisions of state, as opposed to local, agencies, only if the State consents to the district court's jurisdiction. In Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U. S. 89 (1984),
177
Page: Index Previous 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007