The Demise of “Drive-by Jurisdictional Rulings”

In an October 2009 Term marked by several significant constitutional rulings, the Supreme Court quietly continued an important multi-term effort towards defining which legal rules properly should be called jurisdictional. In each of four cases that considered the issue, the Court unanimously rejected a jurisdictional characterization of the challenged legal rule. These cases continue an almost uninterrupted retreat from the Court\u27s admittedly profligate and less than meticulous use of the term. The Court now rejects drive-by jurisdictional rulings, in which a legal rule has been labeled as jurisdictional only through unrefined analysis, without rigorous consideration of the label\u27s meaning or consequence