This concise, second edition treatise on Federal Courts will be of help to law students, federal judges and magistrates, law clerks, and lawyers who need a single-volume reference book close at hand. It explores developments since the first edition appeared in 1999. Those developments have required substantial alterations in every chapter and wholesale re-writes in most. In the space of only four years, the Supreme Court has rendered extremely important decisions touching virtually every aspect of federal courts law. In particular, the Court has announced significant changes regarding private litigants’ ability to enforce federal statutes, private litigants’ standing to appear and litigate in Article III courts, and the states’ sovereign immunity from private suits. In addition, the Court has delivered a host of decisions interpreting recently enacted legislation, especially the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.

The second edition offers a streamlined exposition of complex material in straightforward, accessible prose. Yackle describes and analyzes the principal judicial decisions governing the federal courts, articulates and organizes the doctrines those decisions establish, and offers a wealth of academic and professional commentary. Readers who need an introduction to basics will find it in this text; readers who need deeper analysis will find it in the exhaustive footnotes.