I for one have my fingers crossed that Congress will undo this oppressive decision.
On Wednesday, the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing called "Access to Justice Denied -- Ashcroft v. Iqbal," on the outsize effect the U.S. Supreme Court's May 2009 ruling has had on civil litigation. The ruling, you'll recall, requires plaintiffs to plead specific factual allegations in their complaints. It has already been cited in almost 3,000 lower court rulings in just five months on the books. (Check here, here and here for our previous coverage of complaints dismissed on Iqbal grounds.)
Given the title of the Judiciary Committee's hearing, it's no shocker that only one witness, former Justice Department Civil Division Assistant AG Gregory Katsas, who will rejoin Jones Day as a partner in November, defended the ruling as "consistent with the vast bulk of prior precedent." Moreover, he warned, overturning Iqbal through the sort of legislative rollback action suggested by Senator Arlen Specter would "open the floodgates" to "intrusive and expensive discovery into implausible and insubstantial claims."
Source: Law.com - 'Iqbal' Fails to Find Fan Base at House Judiciary Committee Hearing