Pleading Civil Rights Claims in the Post-Conley Era

Much has been made of the Supreme Court\u27s recent pronouncements on federal civil pleading standards during the latter half of the 2006-2007 Term. Specifically, what will be the fallout from the Court\u27s decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, a case that abrogated Conley v. Gibson\u27s famous no set of facts formulation and supplanted it with a new plausibility pleading standard? This Article attempts to examine and distill the impact of Twombly on the pleading standards that lower federal courts are applying when scrutinizing civil rights claims. Two main approaches emerge: that of courts choosing to continue to apply a notice pleading standard and that of courts requiring factual substantiation of claims at the pleading stage. The aims of this Article are to clarify the pleading standards that civil rights claimants must now satisfy across the circuits, to assess what impact Twombly has had on shaping those standards, and to evaluate from a policy perspective whether any changes wrought by Twombly in this area are welcome or troubling