Opinion ID: 767378
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Existence of Federal Question Jurisdiction

Text: 11 This court reviews de novo a district court's decision regarding subject matter jurisdiction. See Hilliard v. United States Postal Serv., 814 F.2d 325, 326 (6th Cir. 1987). 12 Before delving into Bando's argument that the district court had federal question jurisdiction over Long's wrongful termination claim, it is helpful to understand what Bando is not arguing. Bando is obviously not arguing that Long's wrongful discharge claim is a federal claim; it is clear that wrongful discharge is a state-law cause of action. Nor is it arguing that Long's complaint attempts to imply a private right of action under the listed federal criminal statutes, thereby stating a federal cause of action. Finally, it is not arguing that Long's state-law claim is completely preempted by federal law, which would mean that Long had stated a federal claim whether he intended to or not. See, e.g., Avco Corp. v. Aero Lodge No. 735, Int'l Ass'n of Machinists, 390 U.S. 557 (1968). Rather, Bando is arguing that Long's wrongful termination claim, without raising an express or implied federal claim, involves a substantial and disputed question of federal law and is therefore sufficient to invoke the district court's arising under jurisdiction. 13 The exact contours of the federal courts' jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 are somewhat imprecise. The most important Supreme Court case to deal with this issue in recent years is Merrell Dow. In Merrell Dow, the plaintiffs had sued a drug manufacturer on a state-law negligence claim, alleging that its drug Bendectin was misbranded in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). See Merrell Dow, 478 U.S. at 805-06. The Supreme Court held that the plaintiffs had not invoked the federal courts' arising under jurisdiction by raising state-law claims for negligence that incorporated federal drug labeling standards. See id. at 817. Although the scope of the Court's holding in Merrell Dow is somewhat unclear, it clearly left open the possibility of federal jurisdiction even in the absence of an express or implied federal cause of action, if a substantial federal question of great federal interest is raised by a complaint framed in terms of state law, and if resolution of that federal question is necessary to the resolution of the state-law claim. See, e.g., id. at 808-10 & n.5, 813-14 & nn.11-12; see also City of Chicago v. International College of Surgeons, 522 U.S. 156, 164 (1997) (reaffirming that a case may arise under the laws of the United States if it requires resolution of a substantial question of federal law, even if state law creates the plaintiff's cause of action); Thornton v. Southwest Detroit Hosp., 895 F.2d 1131, 1133 (6th Cir. 1990) (noting that federal courts have jurisdiction in only those cases in which a well-pleaded [c]omplaint establishes either that federal law creates the cause of action or that the plaintiff['s] right to relief necessarily depends on resolution of a substantial question of federal law (emphasis added) (quoting Franchise Tax Board, 463 U.S. at 27-28) (internal quotation marks omitted)). 14 In Christianson v. Colt Industries Operating Corp., 486 U.S. 800 (1988), the Supreme Court further elaborated the circumstances under which a state-law claim necessarily depends upon a substantial question of federal law. In that case, the Court held that a claim does not arise under the federal patent laws if the complaintstates alternate theories for that claim, only one of which requires resolution of a patent-law question. See id. at 809-10. Thus, Christianson suggests that there is no federal question jurisdiction when the complaint on its face states alternate theories supporting a state-law claim, at least one of which does not involve a federal question. 4 15 In light of Christianson, it is clear that the resolution of a federal question is not necessary or essential to the resolution of Long's wrongful discharge claim. Bando argues that under Kentucky law, a plaintiff must demonstrate that the public policy making his discharge unlawful is embodied in federal or state legislative enactments. See, e.g., Grzyb v. Evans, 700 S.W.2d 399, 401 (Ky. 1985). Bando contends that Long relied solely on federal statutes as evincing that public policy, and therefore that the court's construction of those federal statutes is essential to a determination of Long's claim. This argument is unpersuasive. Long's complaint put forth alternate bases in state and federal law for the public policy in contravention of which he was discharged. Long's initial complaint stated that his discharge was in violation of the public policy of retaliatory discharge. J.A. at 16 (Complaint). This statement could be read to refer to Kentucky Revised Statutes 61.102, Kentucky's whistleblower statute, forbidding the retaliatory termination of an employee who interferes with a company's unlawful activities. 5 This reading is further bolstered by Long's amended complaint, which introduced the federal statutes at issue here by saying, Other public policies of this Commonwealth and of the United States which have been violated by the Defendant's wrongful termination of the Plaintiff include, but are not limited to, the following. J.A. at 19 (emphasis added). Since Long's complaint offered state as well as federal policies as evidence of his wrongful discharge, this case appears to fall squarely within the Supreme Court's holding in Christianson. 16 Furthermore, although the question whether a wrongful discharge claim based on federal public policies invokes federal jurisdiction appears to be one of first impression in this circuit, other circuits have held that such claims do not belong in federal court. See Campbell v. Aerospace Corp., 123 F.3d 1308, 1315 (9th Cir. 1997) (finding the federal interest to be insufficient, and noting that state law mirrors the federal policy at issue), cert. denied, -- U.S. --, 118 S. Ct. 1794 (1998); Willy v. Coastal Corp., 855 F.2d 1160, 1167-72 (5th Cir. 1988) (finding the federal element in such a claim to be insufficiently substantial and also noting that the plaintiff supported his claim with state as well as federal theories); see also Drake v. Cheyenne Newspapers, Inc., 842 F. Supp. 1403 (D. Wyo. 1994). These precedents suggest that the federal question in Long's complaint is insufficiently substantial and disputed to invoke federal jurisdiction. 6 17 We therefore hold that, although federal question jurisdiction may exist even where the plaintiff has not stated a federal cause of action, Long's complaint did not invoke the federal courts' arising under jurisdiction, because it put forth alternate state and federal policies to support his state-law wrongful discharge claim.