Last month, Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) introduced the Notice Pleading Restoration Act1 in an effort to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly2 by restoring the “notice pleading” standard as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Conley v. Gibson.3 Senator Specter’s bill comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s May 2009 decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal,4 clarifying that Twombly’s “plausibility standard” for federal pleadings is not limited to antitrust cases brought under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, but applies to all federal civil cases.
The “plausibility standard” requires that a complaint contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.5 Introducing the bill, Senator Specter asserted that the heightened pleading requirement articulated in Twombly and Iqbal effectively “den[ies] many plaintiffs with meritorious claims access to the federal courts and, with it, any legal redress for their injuries.”6 The bill, which currently has no co-sponsors, has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.
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