Representative Laurel Lee (R-FL) has introduced legislation to reduce the federal court litigation backlog, allowing judges to focus on cases better handled by state courts.
Specifically, Rep. Lee's Federal Diversity Jurisdiction Modernization Act raises the amount-in-controversy threshold from $75,000 to $500,000.
What that means is, if a plaintiff from one state is filing a lawsuit against a defendant from another, for a federal court to hear the case under diversity jurisdiction, the amount of money being sought by the plaintiff in damages, compensation, or relief is raised from $75,000 (an amount decided in 1996) to $500,000.
The bill seeks to address a troubling trend: federal court filings have increased by 30% since 1990, while the number of authorized district judgeships has grown by only 4%, meaning the backlog has ballooned from 18,280 cases pending in 2004 to 81,617 pending cases in 2024, a 346% increase.
Should Rep. Lee's bill become law, the expected backlog should be cut by a third, allowing federal judges to hear more complex and significant interstate cases.
"Across the country—and especially in Florida—we are seeing federal courts stretched beyond capacity, with litigants waiting years to have their cases resolved," the Florida congresswoman said in a press release. "The Federal Diversity Jurisdiction Modernization Act is a practical, commonsense step to reduce unnecessary burdens on federal courts, return appropriate cases to state and local jurisdictions, and ensure Americans can access justice without costly and prolonged delays."
Lee is not the only Florida Republican seeking to reduce federal workloads, as Representative Aaron Bean (R-FL) reintroduced the Maintaining Cooperative Permitting Act last March, which would protect the right of Florida, Michigan, and New Jersey to maintain their 404 permitting programs and open the door for other states to establish similar systems.
However, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled against Florida, which had been attempting to streamline construction permitting by conducting its own environmental and wildlife protection reviews when wetlands are polluted or paved over, much to the frustration of Representative Jimmy Patonis (R-FL)
