Evan Tsen Lee

On the Received Wisdom in Federal Courts

The received wisdom in federal courts law is that the United States Supreme Court should actively preserve the state courts as an important forum for the adjudication of federal constitutional claims.I According to this wisdom, the Court must actively maintain a balance in the allocation of constitutional litigation between state and federal courts. Left on their own, many federal constitutional claimants would elect litigation or relitigation in a federal forum. The delicate balance between state and federal courts would be upset. Informed by this wisdom, the Court has built several important doctrinal walls around federal courts, including the rules barring federal courts from enjoining parallel actions in state courts,2 the rule according state court judgments preclusive effect in federal courts deciding civil rights claims, and the increasingly restrictive doctrines of federal habeas corpus.4