Grable test

The Grable test is a civil procedure method that courts use to determine if federal question jurisdiction is present in a case, which would grant the court subject matter jurisdiction. In short, courts use the Grable test to determine if they have the authority to preside over a legal matter. The Grable test stems from the case Grable & Sons v. Darue Engineering and is used when there is a federal claim stemming from a state statute. The federal issue must be of significant importance to federal policy, not only to the parties of the case in order to reach federal question jurisdictions. 

The four elements of the Grable test are:

• Necessity
  • A state-law claim raises a federal issue claim.
• Actually disputed
  • The federal issue is actually being contested in court.
• Substantiality 
  • The federal issue was important, and the federal court had a strong interest in addressing this issue.
• Disruptiveness 
  • Granting jurisdiction will not interfere with Congressional balancing of federal and state judicial responsibilities.

For more details, please see this St. John’s Law Review article, No Welcome Mat, No Problem?: Federal-Question Jurisdiction After Grable and this Nebraska Law Review article, Clarity and Clarification: Grable Federal Questions in the Eyes of Their Beholders.  

[Last reviewed in August of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team]

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