When the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009 revised the federal pleading requirements, plaintiffs’ attorneys had to master the concept of “plausibility” for the first time. They also braced themselves for additional motions to dismiss under Rule 12. Piece by piece, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued rulings detailing how to plead various civil claims. In 2013, the Second Circuit issued a series of decisions addressing plausibility pleading under the Fair Labor Standards Act.1 It has now done so for discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Background

In 2002, the Supreme Court held in Swierkiewicz v. Sorema that the prima facie case under Title VII is not a pleading requirement under Rule 8.2 The court further rejected any heightened pleading requirement in Title VII cases. However, Swierkiewicz was decided under the “notice pleading” standard that the Supreme Court had devised in Conley v. Gibson.3 In 2009, revising the pleading test, the Supreme Court ruled in Ashcroft v. Iqbal that “[t]o survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” While “[t]he plausibility standard is not akin to a ‘probability requirement,’ … it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully.”4

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]