T. M. v. University of Md. Medical System Corporation · ¶88
As “creatures of a distinct government,” “state courts are not, in any sense of the word, inferior” to inferior federal courts. Bollman, 4 Cranch, at 97. From the founding, state courts have had original jurisdiction in federal-question cases, and their judgments in such cases could be revised only in state appellate courts or in this Court. Ante, at 13– 16. Congress did not give federal district courts revising power over state-court judgments by giving them only original jurisdiction in federal-question cases. Grants of “original jurisdiction” do “not authorize district courts to exercise appellate jurisdiction.” Verizon Md. Inc. v. Public Serv. Comm’n of Md., 535 U. S. 635, 644, n. 3 (2002). Rooker thus “correctly applied the simple legal proposition that only this Court may exercise appellate jurisdiction over state-court judgments.” Lance v. Dennis, 546 U. S. 459, 467 (2006)…Read in context ›
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