MD Bar flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Complete diversity rule

Under 28 U.S.C. §1332, no plaintiff may share state citizenship with any defendant; citizenship is determined at the time the complaint is filed, and the amount in controversy must exceed $75,000.

Supplemental jurisdiction limits

Section 1367(a) permits claims sharing a common nucleus of operative fact; §1367(b) bars plaintiffs in diversity cases from using supplemental jurisdiction against parties joined under Rules 14, 19, 20, or 24.

Erie doctrine

Federal courts apply federal procedural rules and state substantive law; absent a valid federal rule, courts ask whether the state rule is outcome-determinative and whether ignoring it encourages forum shopping.

Plausibility pleading standard

Under Rule 8(a) and Twombly/Iqbal, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim for relief that is plausible on its face, not merely conceivable.

Summary judgment standard

Rule 56 permits judgment where no genuine dispute of material fact exists and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; the nonmovant must point to record evidence on each element.

Claim preclusion elements

A final judgment on the merits, involving the same parties or their privies, bars a later suit on the same claim or any claim that could have been raised in the first action.

Standing requirements

Article III standing requires an injury in fact that is concrete and particularized, a causal connection to the defendant's conduct, and a likelihood that a favorable ruling will redress the injury.

Eleventh Amendment immunity

States are immune from damages suits in federal court; Ex parte Young permits prospective injunctive relief against state officers, and Congress may abrogate under §5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Dormant Commerce Clause

State laws discriminating against interstate commerce require a legitimate local purpose that cannot be served by reasonable nondiscriminatory alternatives; nondiscriminatory laws are upheld unless burdens clearly exceed local benefits.

Strict scrutiny test

Laws burdening fundamental rights or classifying by suspect criteria such as race must serve a compelling governmental interest and be narrowly tailored to achieve that interest.

Mathews due process balancing

Procedural due process weighs the private interest affected, the risk of erroneous deprivation and value of additional safeguards, and the government's interest, including administrative burdens.

Content-neutral time, place, manner

Regulations of speech in public forums that are content-neutral must be narrowly tailored to a significant government interest, leave open ample alternative channels, and not burden more speech than necessary.

UCC firm offer

Under UCC §2-205, a merchant's signed written assurance that an offer will be held open is irrevocable for the stated period, up to three months, even without consideration.

Battle of the forms

UCC §2-207 treats a definite expression of acceptance as an acceptance even with additional terms; additional terms are proposals that do not enter the contract if they materially alter it or are objected to.

Statute of Frauds categories

Writing is required for promises involving marriage, a term exceeding one year, land, executor liability, surety, and sale of goods over $500; the UCC merchant confirmation rule can satisfy the goods category.

Parol evidence rule

A fully integrated writing bars prior or contemporaneous agreements that contradict it; under UCC §2-202, consistent additional terms may be explained by course of performance, course of dealing, and usage of trade.

Expectation damages

The nonbreaching party recovers the value of the promised performance minus costs avoided, placing them in the position they would have occupied had the contract been fully performed.

Impracticability defense

Performance is discharged where an unforeseen event makes performance impracticable without fault of the party and the party did not assume the risk; increased cost alone generally does not qualify.

Felony murder limits

The predicate felony must be independent of the killing, so aggravated assault merges; agency theory limits liability to killings committed by felons or their accomplices in furtherance of the felony.

Voluntary manslaughter

An intentional killing mitigated by adequate provocation or imperfect self-defense, reducing murder to manslaughter when the defendant acted in a heat of passion before cooling time elapsed.

Miranda custody test

Custody exists when a reasonable person would not feel free to leave; interrogation includes words or actions reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response; public safety is an exception.

Sixth Amendment attachment

The right to counsel attaches when adversary judicial proceedings begin, applies at all critical stages, is offense-specific, and bars deliberate elicitation after attachment.

Exclusionary rule exceptions

Suppression is avoided by good faith reliance on a warrant, inevitable discovery, independent source, and attenuation; the rule does not apply in grand jury or civil proceedings.

Terry stop standard

An investigatory stop requires reasonable suspicion of criminal activity based on specific and articulable facts; a frisk requires reasonable suspicion that the person is armed and dangerous.

Rule 403 balancing

Relevant evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by danger of unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, or waste of time.

Rule 404(b) prior acts

Evidence of other crimes or acts is inadmissible to prove propensity but admissible for motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident.

Hearsay definition

Under FRE 801, hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted; nonhearsay uses include impeachment, effect on the listener, and legally operative facts.

Confrontation Clause

Testimonial statements by unavailable declarants are inadmissible unless the defendant had a prior opportunity to cross-examine; nontestimonial statements are evaluated for reliability.

Daubert reliability factors

Expert testimony under Rule 702 requires sufficient facts, reliable principles and methods, and reliable application; courts consider testability, peer review, error rate, and general acceptance.

Rule Against Perpetuities

No interest is valid unless it must vest, if at all, within 21 years after a life in being at creation; the rule applies to contingent remainders and executory interests, not to reversions or rights of entry.

Joint tenancy unities

Joint tenancy requires time, title, interest, and possession unities plus a right of survivorship; severance by conveyance destroys survivorship and creates a tenancy in common.

Prescriptive easement elements

Use must be actual, open and notorious, hostile, continuous for the statutory period, and exclusive; some jurisdictions presume hostility from open use, while others require a claim of right.

Recording act types

Race statutes protect the first to record; notice statutes protect subsequent purchasers without notice; race-notice statutes protect subsequent purchasers without notice who record first; the shelter rule protects grantees of protected purchasers.