Anyone who addresses jurisdictional policy must contend with the fact—proclaimed at the outset of Professors Wright and Kane’s Federal Courts treatise—that “there is to this day no consensus as to the historical justification or the contemporary need for diversity jurisdiction.” Even if one could discern the original objectives, they add, “[t]he conditions that existed, or were feared to exist, in 1789 are irrelevant in determining the continued necessity for diversity jurisdiction.” Thus, although one may fashion a general theory about the appropriate use of the federal judicial power, one is also left with strong competing currents. At least in Congress, those currents often respond more to political pressure than to elegant general jurisdictional policies.

Until recently, political currents have not often focused on procedural issues, so jurisdictional policy has hardly occupied Congress. As we are all aware, however, that has changed during the last two decades, and Congress has acted—and has given serious consideration to further acting—on procedural issues with some frequency. It is hardly surprising that Congress might focus eventually on the class action. A decade ago, for example, Judge Becker reported that “[i]n my 27 years on the bench, I have never seen an area in as much ferment as this class action area is.” Since then, the ferment surely has not abated.