Opinion ID: 2807870
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Federal Community Defender raises

Text: colorable defenses The final element for removal requires the Federal Community Defender to raise a “colorable federal defense” to the Commonwealth’s claims. Acker, 527 U.S. at 431-32. Since at least 1880, the Supreme Court has required that 29 federal officer removal be allowed if, and only if, “it appears that a Federal question or a claim to a Federal right is raised in the case, and must be decided therein.” Mesa v. California, 489 U.S. 121, 126-27 (1989) (quoting Tennessee v. Davis, 100 U.S. 257, 262 (1880)) (quotation marks and emphasis omitted). This requirement assures that federal courts have Article III jurisdiction over federal officer removal cases. Mesa, 489 U.S. at 136.9 The Commonwealth contends that the federal defense must coincide with an asserted federal duty. Not so. In Acker, for example, the Supreme Court concluded that the