On Issue of Significant Import to Companies, Supreme Court to Consider Whether State Attorney General Action Properly Removed to Federal Court

Summary: Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to address the question of:  “Whether a state’s parens patriae action is removable as a ‘mass action’ under the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA) when the state is the sole plaintiff, the claims arise under state law, and the state attorney general possesses statutory and common-law authority to assert all claims in the complaint.”

This is an issue of significant import to many companies who may find themselves as the targets of actions by state attorneys general for alleged deceptive practices or consumer fraud, which are generally filed in state, rather than in federal, court.  The state attorneys general often argue that the cases are not removable on the ground that a state does not have citizenship for purposes of federal diversity jurisdiction.