Jacob v. Biden

Background

The plaintiffs brought nine claims under the United States Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act, challenging certain Presidential Proclamations that they said impeded the processing of family-based immigration visas. The complaint named 2,438 individual plaintiffs in 81 countries and was 831 pages long. The plaintiffs also filed an emergency motion for injunctive relief and a motion to certify a class.

Court’s analysis

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8 requires a complaint to contain a short and plain statement showing that the plaintiff is entitled to relief. The court explained that this requires enough factual allegations to make a claim plausible. It found that the complaint’s allegations for thousands of plaintiffs were lengthy but thin on facts and lacked clarity and readability. As a result, the complaint did not reasonably or fairly inform the defendants of the claims they might have to answer. The court also said the complaint prevented it from meaningfully assessing whether the plaintiffs were likely to prevail, which is essential to deciding a request for a preliminary injunction.

Disposition

The court dismissed the complaint on its own motion, with leave to amend. The plaintiffs were allowed to file an amended complaint consistent with the order by February 19, 2021. The court warned that missing the deadline might result in dismissal under Rule 41(b). All pending motions were terminated without prejudice and could be renewed after an amended complaint. The court also directed the plaintiffs to comply with Civil Local Rule 3-12 regarding any potential overlap with claims in a separately identified case. The order did not decide the merits of the plaintiffs’ constitutional or Administrative Procedure Act claims.