pleading-standard

53 cases — ← All topics

Case Title Lower Court Docketed Status Flags Tags Question Presented
25A541 United States and Georgia, ex rel. Barbara Senters v. Quest Diagnostics Inc. Eleventh Circuit 2025-11-10 Application circuit-split false-claims-act medical-billing medicare-fraud pleading-standard rule-9b Whether Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) requires False Claims Act plaintiffs to identify specific false claim submissions when pleading a fraudul…
25-550 Michael Fernandez, D.D.S., LTD., a Division of Atlantic Dental Care, PLC, et al. v. Stephen C. Brich, P.E., Commissioner of Highways, in His Individual and Official Capacity, et al. Fourth Circuit 2025-11-05 Denied Response Waived class-of-one comparator-analysis constitutional-claim equal-protection pleading-standard zoning-law Is Appellants' non-zoning related equal protection claim based upon a "class-of-one theory" subject to the heightened pleading standard for similarly …
25-295 WG/Welch Mechanical Contractors, LLC v. International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail & Transportation Workers, Local Union 100 - Sheet Metal Division, et al. Fourth Circuit 2025-09-15 Denied Response Waived civil-procedure defamation first-amendment malicious-speech pleading-standard subjective-intent Whether a plaintiff in a malicious defamation claim must plead facts revealing a defendant's subjective state of mind or if a plausible allegation of …
25A146 Winston R. Anderson, et al. v. Intel Corporation Investment Policy Committee, et al. Ninth Circuit 2025-08-05 Presumed Complete benchmark-comparison erisa fiduciary-duty investment-performance pleading-standard prudence-claim Whether a plaintiff must plead a 'meaningful benchmark' with similar objectives to state a claim for breach of fiduciary duty under ERISA's prudence s…
25A64 United States and Michigan, ex rel. Erik Olsen, et al. v. Tenet Healthcare Corporation, et al. Sixth Circuit 2025-07-16 Presumed Complete false-claims-act government-healthcare medicare-fraud pleading-standard qui-tam rule-9b Whether Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b)'s heightened pleading standard requires False Claims Act plaintiffs to identify specific false claim subm…
24-1297 Royal Merchant Holdings, LLC v. The Ferraro Law Firm, P.A., et al. Florida 2025-06-23 Denied Response Waived arbitration due-process federal-arbitration-act judicial-proceedings pleading-standard procedural-rules Whether a claim in arbitration must be asserted in a pleading at the outset of the case and whether the standard for procedural due process in arbitra…
24-1052 Open Justice Baltimore, et al. v. Baltimore City Law Department, et al. Fourth Circuit 2025-04-07 Denied Amici (1)Response Waived alternative-explanation burden-of-proof civil-procedure motion-to-dismiss plausibility-threshold pleading-standard Whether a defendant who offers a competing alternative explanation for conduct alleged in a plaintiff's complaint bears the burden of showing that the…
24-352 United States, et al., ex rel. Michael Angelo and MSP WB, LLC v. Allstate Insurance Company, et al. Sixth Circuit 2024-09-30 Denied Response Waived false-claims-act government-obligation pleading-standard qui-tam reverse-false-claim third-party-contractor Whether relators can state a reverse false claim based on defendants' impairment of third-party government contractors' obligations and whether knowle…
24-269 Lydia Olson, et al. v. California, et al. Ninth Circuit 2024-09-10 Denied Amici (2)Response Waived constitutional-challenge failure-to-state-claim hypothetical-facts judicial-review pleading-standard rational-basis-review Whether a court may dismiss for failure to state a claim a constitutional challenge to a law subject to rational-basis review based on hypothetical fa…
23-1039 Marlean A. Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services Sixth Circuit 2024-03-20 Judgment Issued Amici (12)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (3) burden-of-proof civil-rights discrimination disparate-treatment employment employment-discrimination majority-group pleading-standard standing title-vii Whether, in addition to pleading the other elements of Title VII, a majority-group plaintiff must show 'background circumstances to support the suspic…
23-1031 Deana Pollard Sacks v. Texas Southern University, et al. Fifth Circuit 2024-03-19 Denied Response Waived continuing-violations eeoc-charge hostile-work-environment pleading-standard pleading-standards summary-judgment title-vii Whether a federal court may reject the doctrine of continuing violations in a Title VII hostile-work-environment case and eliminate from consideration…
23-980 Facebook, Inc., et al. v. Amalgamated Bank, et al. Ninth Circuit 2024-03-06 Judgment Issued Amici (13)Relisted (2) circuit-split disclosure federal-rules-of-civil-procedure loss-causation materiality pleading-standard risk-disclosure securities-fraud What public companies must disclose in the 'risk factors' section of their 10-K filings
23-891 Deana Pollard Sacks v. Texas Southern University, et al. Fifth Circuit 2024-02-20 Denied Response Waived civil-rights constructive-termination discrimination equal-pay-act hostile-work-environment pleading-standard retaliation title-vii Whether the Fifth Circuit may disregard the doctrine of continuing violations and instead adopt a discrete-act factor test requiring subjective intent…
23-867 Republic of Hungary, et al. v. Rosalie Simon, et al. District of Columbia 2024-02-12 Judgment Issued Amici (4)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (3) asset-commingling burden-of-proof circuit-split commercial-nexus expropriation-exception foreign-sovereign-immunities-act international-law pleading-stage pleading-standard Whether historical commingling of assets suffices to establish that proceeds of seized property have a commercial nexus with the United States under t…
23A684 Sabrina Gibson v. Thomas F. Roupas, Jr., et al. Fourth Circuit 2024-01-24 Presumed Complete civil-procedure federal-courts motion-to-dismiss pleading-standard rule-12b6 sufficiently-alleged Whether a district court's dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim can be challenged when the court allegedly applied an improperly…
23A652 United States Ex Rel. 84Partners, LLC v. General Dynamics Electric Boat, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-01-16 Presumed Complete false-claims-act fraudulent-scheme pleading-standard qui-tam subsafe-standards whistleblower Whether the False Claims Act requires a qui tam relator to plead with particularity the actual submission of false claims at the pleading stage, beyon…
23-412 Seneca Lovett Engel v. Derek Engel, et al. Eighth Circuit 2023-10-19 Denied Response Waived civil-procedure civil-rights civil-rights-statute conspiracy-claim due-process federal-rules-procedure iqbal judicial-review motion-to-dismiss pleading-standard pleading-standards twombly Whether claims for conspiracy under 42 U.S.C. § 1985(8) and § 1983 are sufficiently stated under Fed. Rule Civ. P. 8(2)
22-1181 Evenflo Company, Inc. v. Mike Xavier, et al. First Circuit 2023-06-07 Denied Response Waived article-iii-standing civil-procedure civil-rights class-action concrete-harm consumer-protection due-process economic-injury judicial-inference pleading-standard standing Whether a plaintiff alleging economic injury must plead facts to support his theory of harm, as several circuits require, or whether a court may suppl…
22-1002 Austin Van Overdam v. Texas A&M University, et al. Fifth Circuit 2023-04-14 Denied Amici (1)Response Waived cross-examination due-process pleading-standard sex-discrimination sexual-assault title-ix Does constitutional due process require that students accused of sexual assault be permitted the opportunity for attorney-led cross-examination of the…
22-370 Percy Utley v. City of Houston, Texas, et al. Fifth Circuit 2022-10-19 Denied Response Waived 5th-circuit burden-of-proof civil-procedure civil-rights due-process fifth-circuit judicial-review pleading-standard probable-cause Whether the Fifth Circuit has so far departed from the accepted and usual application of the pleading standard as to require this Court's correction
22-137 BYD Company Ltd. v. Alliance for American Manufacturing, et al. District of Columbia 2022-08-11 Denied Response Waived actual-malice civil-rights defamation discovery first-amendment free-speech pleading-standard pleading-standards public-figure reckless-disregard Whether Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal sub silentio overturned the balance struck in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and its prog…
22-16 Business Exposure Reduction Group (BERG) Associates, LLC v. Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P. Second Circuit 2022-07-06 Denied Response Waived 12(b)(6) civil-procedure dismissal inference-drawing inferences judicial-discretion motion-to-dismiss pleading-standard pleadings rule-12b6 state-of-mind twombly-standard Whether the courts below deviated from and disregarded this Court's holding in Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly
21-1518 BYD Company Ltd. v. Vice Media LLC Second Circuit 2022-06-02 Denied actual-malice defamation discovery-rights first-amendment iqbal pleading-standard public-figure twombly Whether Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal sub silentio overturned the balance struck in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and its prog…
21-7989 Peter Vu v. San Francisco Police Department, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-05-27 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-procedure civil-rights constitutional-interpretation due-process federal-rules-of-civil-procedure judicial-review pleading-standard prison-litigation-reform-act stare-decisis u.s-constitution Whether the Iqbal & Twombly fact-pleading standard applied and extended in the Ninth Circuit through the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) in Hebbe …
21-1451 Elile Adams v. Raymond G. Dodge, Jr., Chief Judge, Tribal Court of the Nooksack, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-05-17 Denied Response Waived bad-faith-prosecution civil-procedure civil-rights court-remedies due-process exhaustion exhaustion-doctrine federal-plaintiffs habeas habeas-petition pleading-standard standing Whether federal plaintiffs seeking to challenge their non-federal prosecution on the basis of bad faith face a heightened pleading standard
21-1145 Molina Healthcare of Illinois, Inc., et al. v. Thomas Prose Seventh Circuit 2022-02-17 Denied Amici (3)Relisted (2) circuit-split false-claims-act implied-certification implied-false-certification material-noncompliance materiality pleading-requirements pleading-standard rule-9(b) rule-9b statutory-compliance Whether Rule 9(b) requires plaintiffs in False Claims Act cases to plead details of the alleged false claims
21-6678 Raul Mendez v. City of Boise, Idaho, et al. Ninth Circuit 2021-12-21 Denied IFP 1983-statute 42-usc-1983 administrative-procedure due-process mandatory-billing municipal-liability pleading-standard pro-se property-tax-roll utility-services Can local government entities take adverse actions against its citizens without Due Process for not using the provided utility services?
21-561 Elijah Anthony Olivarez v. T-Mobile USA, Incorporated, et al. Fifth Circuit 2021-10-18 Denied Response Waived 42-usc-2000e-2m adverse-employment-action discrimination employment-discrimination pleading-stage pleading-standard prima-facie-case protected-category swierkiewicz-v-sorema title-vii At the pleading stage of a Title VII discrimination claim, must the plaintiff show 'circumstances that support an inference of discrimination' by plea…
21-426 Elias Karkalas v. Linda Marks, et al. Third Circuit 2021-09-21 Denied Response Waived civil-procedure dismissal federal-complaint federal-rules-of-civil-procedure personal-knowledge pleading pleading-standard source-of-knowledge standing Is a federal complaint subject to dismissal when the plaintiff fails to identify the source of his knowledge of specific information contained in the …
21-146 Christine Clifford, as Administrator of the Estate of John Clifford, et al. v. Richard Federman, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2021-08-03 Denied Response Waived civil-procedure federal-courts federal-rules-of-civil-procedure pleading-standard pleadings rule-12 rule-8 shotgun-pleading twombly-and-iqbal Whether the Eleventh Circuit's 'shotgun pleading' rule used to strike pleadings with prejudice directly conflicts with the Twombly and Iqbal standard …
21-121 Christiana Tah, et al. v. Global Witness Publishing, Inc., et al. District of Columbia 2021-07-28 Denied Amici (1) actual-malice civil-rights defamation first-amendment free-speech inference-of-intent pleading-standard pleading-standards public-figure public-plaintiff Whether a complaint by a public plaintiff alleging defamation sufficiently pleads actual-malice, in-the-absence-of-direct-evidence, by-presenting-deta…
21-91 Wesley Perkins v. Whitney Brewster, Executive Director, Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, et al. Fifth Circuit 2021-07-22 Denied Response Waived civil-rights compelled-arbitration constitutional-challenge criminal-sanctions due-process pleading-standard standing statutory-challenge statutory-interpretation transportation-code vehicle-definition Is the TEX. TRANSP. CODE unconstitutional as applied?
20-7303 John Joseph Barrera v. Jessica Newsome, et al. Sixth Circuit 2021-03-02 Denied IFP civil-procedure civil-rights due-process federal-rules federal-rules-of-civil-procedure haines-v-kerner judicial-review pleading-standard prisoner-rights pro-se standing Whether the courts below held the pro se prisoner plaintiff to a higher pleading standard
20-1101 Taniesheia Harden v. Comcast Corporation Seventh Circuit 2021-02-10 Denied Response Waived 42-U.S.C.-§-1981 42-usc-1981 burden-of-proof civil-procedure commercial-establishment court-of-appeals pleading-standard summary-judgment unsettled-law Is the grant of summary judgment proper when the movant does not meet its burden?
20-6852 Cindy Bauer, fka Cindy Gamrat v. Edward McBroom, et al. Sixth Circuit 2021-01-13 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights constitutional-interpretation due-process fair-and-just-treatment fair-treatment legislative-immunity legislative-investigations-and-hearings pleading-standard pleading-standards sixth-circuit Whether Michigan's Article | § 17 affords Michigan citizens the protections of fair-and-just-treatment during legislative-investigations-and-hearings
20-786 United States, ex rel. Gwendolyn Porter v. Magnolia Health Plan, Inc. Fifth Circuit 2020-12-09 Denied Response Waived circuit-split civil-procedure false-claims-act materiality materiality-requirement motion-to-dismiss pleading-standard pleading-standards proof rule-12(b)(6) rule-12b6 Whether Escobar overruled or modified the Twombly/Iqbal pleading standard for Rule 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss in False Claims Act cases
20-226 Kenneth Ratliff v. Aransas County, Texas, et al. Fifth Circuit 2020-08-26 Denied Response Waived civil-procedure civil-rights due-process excessive-force municipal-liability pleading-standard qualified-immunity summary-judgment Should lower federal courts demand a heightened pleading standard for municipal liability claims?
19-1276 Michael B. White, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Darla K. White, Deceased v. Medtronic, Inc., et al. Sixth Circuit 2020-05-12 Denied 21-usc-360 adulteration buckman diversity-of-jurisdiction fda-regulations medical-device-preemption off-label off-label-use pleading pleading-standard private-causes-of-action riegel state-court-jurisdiction summary-disposition Whether the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals incorrectly affirmed the U.S. District Court's grant of summary disposition due to an incorrect application o…
19-1149 UPMC, et al. v. United States, ex rel. J. William Bookwalter, III, et al. Third Circuit 2020-03-19 Denied Amici (1)Response Waived ambiguity civil-penalty civil-procedure false-claims-act knowledge knowledge-standard pleading-standard regulatory-ambiguity regulatory-provision scienter treble-damages Whether a plaintiff plausibly alleges scienter—that a defendant knowingly submitted false claims—when the plaintiff does not allege any facts to sugge…
19-894 Michael Yamashita, et al. v. Scholastic Inc. Second Circuit 2020-01-17 Denied circuit-split copyright-infringement copyright-ownership feist-publication feist-publications pleading-standard prima-facie-case second-circuit seventh-circuit third-circuit unauthorized-copying Did the Second Circuit err in holding that a complaint for copyright infringement must be dismissed unless it alleges particular facts showing specifi…
19-892 United States, ex rel. Andrew Gelbman v. City of New York, et al. Second Circuit 2020-01-17 Denied Response Waived false-claims-act fraud inference-drawing medicaid medicaid-fraud pleading-standard private-sector public-sector public-sector-providers rule-9b-dismissal Whether the pleading standard should be different for False Claims Act claims against public sector Medicaid providers than it is for such claims agai…
19-784 University of Pennsylvania, et al. v. Jennifer Sweda, et al. Third Circuit 2019-12-18 Denied Amici (2)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2) breach-of-duty civil-procedure civil-rights due-process employee-benefits erisa fiduciary-duty investment-options iqbal pleading-standard twombly twombly-standard Whether Twombly's pleading standard governs breach of fiduciary duty claims under ERISA
19-460 Alexander Y. Usenko, Derivatively on Behalf of the SunEdison Semiconductor Ltd. Retirement Savings Plan v. MEMC LLC, et al. Eighth Circuit 2019-10-07 Denied asset-valuation context-sensitive-scrutiny erisa erisa-fiduciary-duty fiduciary-duty heightened-pleading-requirement pleading-requirements pleading-standard prudence prudence-standard publicly-traded-assets retirement-plan Whether Dudenhoeffer's 'context-sensitive scrutiny of a complaint's allegations' can be met where a court presumes an asset must be prudent if it is p…
19-297 H&M Hennes & Mauritz, LP v. Malibu Textiles, Inc. Ninth Circuit 2019-09-04 Denied access access-requirement copyright-infringement copyright-ownership copyright-registration copyright-validity plausibility-standard pleading-standard striking-similarity Whether conclusory statements of 'striking similarity' are sufficient to plead copyright infringement under the 'plausibility' standard
19-157 Eric Baggett v. Oncor Electric Delivery Company, LLC Fifth Circuit 2019-08-02 Denied Response Waived age-discrimination circuit-split civil-procedure civil-rights due-process employment employment-law federal-rules federal-rules-of-civil-procedure pleading-standard Whether the sufficiency of a pleading should be held to a heightened pleading standard requiring facts of each element of the claim when the claim is …
18-9753 Jason Brooks v. Colorado Department of Corrections, et al. Tenth Circuit 2019-06-21 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-procedure civil-rights civil-rights-access-to-courts,first-amendment,four court-access due-process first-amendment fourteenth-amendment free-speech lewis-v-casey pleading-standard prisoners-rights section-1983 standing Whether a federal district court's 30-page limit on unrepresented prisoners' § 1983 complaints violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments
18-1374 Chris Ann Jaye v. Oak Knoll Village Condominium Owners Association, Inc., et al. Third Circuit 2019-05-02 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2) appellate-procedure circuit-split civil-procedure civil-rights controlling-law due-process erickson-v-pardus federal-courts federal-question interlocutory-appeal pleading-standard pleading-standards statutory-interpretation subject-matter-jurisdiction Is the Third Circuit acting in opposition to controlling law and different from other circuits by implementing a heightened pleading standard?
18-1333 Ronald Jones, et al. v. Michael Keitz, et al. Ninth Circuit 2019-04-23 Denied Response Waived 42-usc-1983 ashcroft-v-iqbal civil-rights county-liability heightened-pleading iqbal-standard malicious-prosecution monell-claim municipal-liability pleading-standard section-1983 sheriff-liability What facts must a plaintiff allege to state a claim for malicious prosecution against a California county and its sheriff under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, espe…
18-1165 Retirement Plans Committee of IBM, et al. v. Larry W. Jander, et al. Second Circuit 2019-03-08 Judgment Issued Amici (8)Relisted (2) amgen-v-harris circuit-split erisa erisa-fiduciary-duty fiduciary-duty fifth-third-standard fifth-third-v-dudenhoeffer insider-information pleading-standard private-securities-litigation-reform-act prudence prudent-fiduciary securities-fraud securities-litigation Alleged-fraud-disclosure-harm
18-862 Michael J. Daugherty, et al. v. Alain H. Sheer, et al. District of Columbia 2019-01-07 Denied Response Waived circuit-split civil-procedure civil-rights due-process motion-to-dismiss pleading pleading-standard qualified-immunity rule-12(b)(6) standing May a court dismiss a complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) for failing to plead facts needed to overcome an anticipated qualified-immunity defense?
18-6689 Israel Sanchez v. Christian Pfeiffer, Warden Ninth Circuit 2018-11-15 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights due-process federal-jurisdiction habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel plea-bargaining plea-negotiations pleading-standard supreme-court-precedent Is California's stringent pleading standard to allege a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during plea negotiations contrary to the governing …
18-5883 Burdette Lowe v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. Eleventh Circuit 2018-09-05 Denied Response WaivedIFP ada-retaliation civil-rights disability due-process eeoc employment employment-discrimination judicial-procedure pleading-standard pleading-standards retaliation Whether lower courts can dismiss disability-related occupational injury civil complaints by omitting essential facts and misconstruing allegations, cr…
18-5741 George O. Riley v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., et al. Fifth Circuit 2018-08-24 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-procedure common-law constitutional-interpretation judicial-rulemaking motion-to-dismiss pleading-standard pleading-standards rules-enabling-act seventh-amendment twombly Whether the heightened pleading standard adopted in Tellabs/Twombly/Iqbal violates the Seventh Amendment to The United States Constitution by defying …