The Republic of Virtue: How We Tried to Ban Corruption, Failed, and What We Can Do About It

by F.H. Buckley

A rule of natural justice is that no man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause.7 Extended to states, the principle explains the rest of Article III, § 2. The [federal] judicial Power shall extend . . . to Controversies between two or more States;—between a State and Citizens of another State,—between Citizens of different States,—between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects. Purely private disputes “between Citizens of different states” would be removed to federal courts, a principle that came to be called diversity jurisdiction.