On Friday, May 16, 2014 6:27:19 PM UTC-4, Stephen Sprunk wrote:

> However, one can fairly easily _manufacture_ a federal controversy to
> give federal courts jurisdiction; today this is generally done via the
> 14th Amd, but prior to that diversity cases were common as well.

Heck, for decades there has been a ton of federal cases based on the 14th
Amendment.

_IMHO_, that has been greatly overused, far beyond the bounds of
reasonableness and common sense.  The result has been lopsided court orders
creating expensive burdens for industry and government in day to day
operations.  That extensive usage has 
inspried considerable conservative sentiment for folks like Reagan, the tea
party, etc.

Here's an on-topic example:

SEPTA required all applicants to be a railroad police officer to be able to
run a mile in a set time.  Women sued the Authority claiming it discriminated
against them, even though some women had passed the test and there are women
transit cops.  The case 
has been bouncing back and forth in appellant courts for years. IMHO, it was a
reasonable job requirement and that it could be litigated was stupid.  

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