Rossello-Gonzales et. al v. Puerto Rico Election Commission et al., US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, December 15, 2004 [ruling that the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, not the local US District Court in San Juan, should rule on a case concerning disputed ballots in the territory's November gubernatorial election]. Excerpt:

A case may be removed to federal court if it presents a "claim or right arising under the Constitution, treaties or laws of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b). "The Supreme Court of the United States has made clear that, in deciding (for removal purposes) whether a case presents a federal 'claim or right,' a court is to ask whether the plaintiff's claim to relief rests upon a federal right, and the court is to look only to plaintiff's complaint to find the answer." Hernández-Agosto v. Romero-Barceló, 748 F.2d 1, 2 (1st Cir. 1984) (emphasis in original). The existence of a federal defense is not sufficient for removal jurisdiction. Franchise Tax Bd. v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust, 463 U.S. 1, 10-11 (1983). Thus, we must turn to the Suárez complaint to ascertain whether, within its four corners, a federal "claim or right" has been presented. Our evaluation centers on the complaint's allegations of violations of "due process" and "equal protection." These claims do not explicitly state whether the source of these constitutional protections is the Commonwealth or the Federal Constitution.

Read as a whole, we cannot say that this complaint presents a claim under the federal Constitution. No explicit reference to the United States Constitution or any other federal law is contained in the complaint; instead, all references are to Puerto Rico state laws, regulations, and the Commonwealth Constitution. Specifically, paragraph 11 of the complaint bases the Suárez Plaintiffs' claims in the right to vote guaranteed in Article II, Section 2, of the Commonwealth Constitution. The complaint's subsequent references to the plaintiffs' rights to vote and to have their votes counted in accordance with equal protection and due process, while not expressly premised on the Puerto Rico Constitution, logically refer back to the antecedent citation to Article II, Section 2 of the Commonwealth Constitution.

Read the opinion here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.