920
Opinion of the Court
viding state officials with immediate review of the merits of their defense.10
Petitioners' arguments for pre-emption are not strong enough to overcome these considerable hurdles. Contrary to petitioners' assertions, Idaho's decision not to provide appellate review for the vast majority of interlocutory orders— including denials of qualified immunity in § 1983 cases—is not "outcome determinative" in the sense that we used that term when we held that Wisconsin's notice-of-claim statute could not be applied to defeat a federal civil rights action brought in state courts under § 1983. Felder, 487 U. S., at 153. The failure to comply with the Wisconsin statute in Felder resulted in a judgment dismissing a complaint that would not have been dismissed—at least not without a judicial determination of the merits of the claim—if the case had been filed in a federal court. One of the primary grounds for our decision was that, because the notice-of-claim requirement would "frequently and predictably produce different outcomes" depending on whether § 1983 claims were brought in state or federal court, it was inconsistent with the federal interest in uniformity. Id., at 138.11
10 It does warrant observation that Rule 12(a) of the Idaho Appellate Rules provides that the State Supreme Court may grant permission "to appeal from an interlocutory order or decree . . . which is not otherwise appealable under these rules, but which involves a controlling question of law as to which there is substantial grounds for difference of opinion and in which an immediate appeal . . . may materially advance the orderly resolution of the litigation." Presumably, petitioners could have sought review under this permissive provision, and the Idaho Supreme Court might have granted review if, in the view of that court, the officials' claim to immunity was so substantial that the suit should not proceed.
11 See also Brown v. Western R. Co. of Ala., 338 U. S. 294, 296-299 (1949) (Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA) pre-empted different state pleading requirements when effect was to defeat plaintiff's cause of action); Garrett v. Moore-McCormack Co., 317 U. S. 239, 243-244 (1942) (federal Jones Act pre-empted different state burden of proof regarding releases when effect was to defeat plaintiff's cause of action).
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