User:Mitchellprice2022/Federal Law

Gravitational Force Theory
Professor Scott Dodson proposes a theory which argues that American federal law has some measurable effect on state law and compares this effect to a gravitational force that while not "inexorable", influences state actors to create legislature in accordance with or at least closely aligned with federal legislature. Dodson justifies the existence of this "pull" by arguing that state legislators and courts rarely exercise their constitutional power to deviate from Federal Law despite having the capability. He cited, among other supreme case decisions and legislative acts, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as being responsible for ushering, "in a new era of federal procedural uniformity" in 1938.

Proposed Case Evidence
Dodson points to the 1957 Conley v. Gibson supreme court decision as additional contextualization for his argument. This case was brought as a class-action lawsuit by a group of African American rail workers to a Federal District Court in Texas and stating that “their collective bargaining agent be compelled to represent them fairly” in accordance with the Railway Labor Act. The suit was initially dismissed on the basis that the complaint did not follow the previously set federal precedence of requiring a complaint “to state a claim upon which relief could be given”. Fortunately for these workers, the supreme court later held that this decision was a mistake. The Supreme Court praised Rule 8 while glossing over Rule 12 to establish to a fairly liberating set of standards for pleading procedures.