Cite as: 524 U. S. 381 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
the lower court opinions rest. A case such as this one is more closely analogous to cases in which a later event, say, the change in the citizenship of a party or a subsequent reduction of the amount at issue below jurisdictional levels, destroys previously existing jurisdiction. In such cases, a federal court will keep a removed case. See St. Paul Mercury Indemnity Co., supra, at 293-295; Phelps v. Oaks, 117 U. S. 236, 240-241 (1886); Kanouse v. Martin, 15 How. 198, 207-210 (1854). See also Carnegie-Mellon Univ. v. Cohill, 484 U. S. 343, 350, and n. 7 (1988) (federal court may exercise jurisdiction over remaining state-law claims under supplemental jurisdiction, if all federal-law claims are eliminated before trial). Here, too, at the time of removal, this case fell within the "original jurisdiction" of the federal courts. The State's later invocation of the Eleventh Amendment placed the particular claim beyond the power of the federal courts to decide, but it did not destroy removal jurisdiction over the entire case.
III
We must consider one further argument that respondent has made. That argument is not based upon an analogy but upon the specific language of a particular statutory provision, 28 U. S. C. § 1447(c). The provision says: "If at any time before final judgment it appears that the district court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, the case shall be remanded." Ibid. Respondent argues that, at least after the State asserted its Eleventh Amendment defense, the federal court "lacked subject matter jurisdiction." Brief for Respondent 19. He points out that the statute says that the entire "case shall be remanded" to the state court. That is to say, he contends that, if the "district court lacks subject matter jurisdiction" over any claim, then every claim, i. e., the entire "case," must be "remanded" to the state court.
Even making the assumption that Eleventh Amendment immunity is a matter of subject-matter jurisdiction—a question we have not decided—we reject respondent's argument
391
Page: Index Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007