Removal and the Eleventh Amendment: The Case for District Court Remand Discretion To Avoid a Bifurcated Suit

This Note concludes that the Sixth Circuit was half right: when a civil action names both state and private defendants – what this Note terms a “mixed case” – and when the claims against private defendants arise under federal law, the district court must grant removal of the case8 and must remand the claims against the state defendant. However, this Note also observes that the Fifth Circuit probably achieved the better result. After defendants have removed a mixed case to federal court and the district court has remanded the barred claims, the dual court systems and the parties will usually benefit from disposition of the entire case in one proceeding.