Cite as: 522 U. S. 470 (1998)
Syllabus
392. Because a defense is not part of a plaintiff's properly pleaded statement of his or her claim, see, e. g., Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Taylor, 481 U. S. 58, 63, removal of a case to federal court may not be predicated on the presence of a federal defense, Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust for Southern Cal., 463 U. S. 1, 14. As a corollary to the well-pleaded defense rule, "a plaintiff may not defeat removal by omitting to plead necessary federal questions." Id., at 22. If the plaintiff thus "artfully pleads" a claim, a court may uphold removal even though no federal question appears on the face of the complaint. The artful pleading doctrine allows removal where federal law completely preempts an asserted state-law claim, see Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 481 U. S., at 65-66, for a claim of that preempted character is, from its inception, a claim that can arise only under federal, not state, law. Caterpillar, 482 U. S., at 393. Pp. 474-476.
(b) Removal was improper here. Claim preclusion, as Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 8(c) makes clear, is an affirmative defense. A case blocked by the preclusive effect of a prior federal judgment differs from a case preempted by a federal statute: The prior federal judgment does not transform the plaintiff's state-law claims into federal claims but rather extinguishes them altogether. Under the well-pleaded complaint rule, preclusion thus remains a defensive plea involving no recasting of the plaintiff's complaint, and is therefore not a proper basis for removal. The Court's marginal comment in Moitie noted that the Court declined, in that case-specific context, to "question . . . [the District Court's] factual finding" that the plaintiffs "had attempted to avoid removal jurisdiction by artfully casting their essentially federal[-]law claims as state-law claims." 452 U. S., at 397, n. 2 (internal quotation marks omitted). While the footnote placed Moitie in the "artful pleading" category, it created no preclusion exception to the rule, fundamental under currently governing legislation, that a defendant cannot remove on the basis of a federal defense. Pp. 476-478.
108 F. 3d 576, reversed and remanded.
Ginsburg, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
John Gregory Odom argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs were Stuart E. Des Roches and Linda V. Farrer.
Charles L. Stern, Jr., argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were John M. Landis and Michael H. Rubin.
471
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