Also known as: lodges · lodged · lodging · file · submit
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
To formally submit a document to a court or administrative body for placement on the official record.
Lucy Liu, sued in state court by a former employee, decides to move the case to federal court on diversity grounds. She prepares a notice of removal and lodges it in the district court for the district where the state action is pending, attaching all served process and pleadings. The federal court accepts the filing and the state court proceedings halt.
Lance Lee and Lila Lin reach a written separation agreement during their divorce proceedings. They lodge the agreement with the family court for review. The court examines the economic circumstances and finds the terms unconscionable, directing the parties to submit a revised version.
Lamar Lewis sues a supplier for breach of contract. His attorney prepares the complaint and lodges it with the clerk, ensuring the caption names all parties and includes the required court designation and file number. The clerk dockets the pleading and assigns the case number.
Lena Lawson moves for appointment of a neutral expert in her products liability trial. The court orders the parties to show cause and, after receiving nominations, lodges an order appointing an agreed-upon expert who has consented to serve. The expert receives written notice of duties from the clerk.
Lumen Capital files an amicus brief supporting the petitioners in a constitutional challenge to state marriage laws. Counsel lodges the brief with the Supreme Court clerk, including the required disclosures and arguments on equal protection. The Court accepts the filing and lists it for consideration.
The petitioners were fourteen same-sex couples and two men whose same-sex partners were deceased. They lived in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. Those states defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman under their constitutions and statutes. The petitioners filed suits in federal district courts in their home states. They sought marriage licenses or recognition of marriages lawfully performed elsewhere. James Obergefell and John Arthur traveled from Ohio to Maryland to marry aboard a medical transport plane because Arthur suffered from ALS; Obergefell later sought to be listed as surviving spouse on Arthur's death certificate. April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, Michigan nurses, adopted three children but could not both serve as legal parents under state adoption rules. Army Reserve Sergeant Ijpe DeKoe and Thomas Kostura married in New York before DeKoe's deployment to Afghanistan and later settled in Tennessee. Each district court ruled in the petitioners' favor. The respondents appealed. The Sixth Circuit consolidated the cases and reversed the district court judgments. The petitioners sought certiorari, which the Supreme Court granted. Same-sex couples had begun establishing families after substantial cultural and political developments in the late twentieth century. Earlier litigation had addressed the legal status of gays and lesbians, including challenges that reached the Supreme Court in Bowers v. Hardwick and Lawrence v. Texas.
View caseLakeshore Industries, as amicus, lodges a brief with the Supreme Court in a challenge to state abortion restrictions. The filing includes supporting data on medical practice and is accepted by the clerk for the Court's review alongside the principal briefs.
In March 1970, Jane Roe, a single woman residing in Dallas County, Texas, instituted a federal action against the District Attorney of the county. She sought a declaratory judgment that the Texas criminal abortion statutes were unconstitutional on their face. She also sought an injunction restraining enforcement of the statutes. Roe alleged that she was unmarried and pregnant. She wished to terminate her pregnancy by an abortion performed by a competent licensed physician under safe clinical conditions. She was unable to obtain a legal abortion in Texas because her life did not appear to be threatened by continuation of the pregnancy. She could not afford to travel to another jurisdiction to secure a legal abortion. James Hubert Hallford, a licensed physician, sought and was granted leave to intervene in Roe's action. In his complaint he alleged that he had been arrested previously for violations of the Texas abortion statutes. Two such prosecutions were pending against him in the Criminal District Court of Dallas County. He described conditions of patients who came to him seeking abortions. He claimed that for many cases he was unable to determine whether they fell within or outside the exception recognized by Article 1196 of the Texas Penal Code. John and Mary Doe, a married couple, filed a companion complaint also naming the District Attorney as defendant. The Does alleged that they were a childless couple. Mrs. Doe was suffering from a neural-chemical disorder. Her physician had advised her to avoid pregnancy until her condition materially improved. She had discontinued use of birth control pills pursuant to medical advice. If she should become pregnant she would want to terminate the pregnancy by an abortion performed by a competent licensed physician under safe clinical conditions. The two actions were consolidated and heard together by a duly convened three-judge district court for the Northern District of Texas. Upon the filing of affidavits, motions were made for dismissal and for summary judgment. The court held that Roe and members of her class and Dr. Hallford had standing to sue and presented justiciable controversies. The Does had failed to allege facts sufficient to state a present controversy and did not have standing. It concluded that the Texas criminal abortion statutes were void on their face. The court dismissed the Does' complaint while denying injunctive relief. The plaintiffs Roe and Doe and the intervenor Hallford appealed to the Supreme Court from that part of the District Court's judgment denying the injunction. The defendant District Attorney cross-appealed from the grant of declaratory relief. Both sides also took protective appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. That court ordered the appeals held in abeyance pending decision by the Supreme Court.
View caseTo lodge a document means to submit it formally so that it becomes part of the official court record. Courts and rules treat lodging as equivalent to filing.
A defendant must lodge the notice of removal in the federal district court where the state action is pending, together with copies of all process and pleadings served.
The court may request a revised agreement or issue its own orders on property, maintenance, and support.
Yes. Every pleading must include a caption with the court's name, title, file number, and Rule 7(a) designation, and the complaint title must name all parties.
Any party may move for appointment, or the court may act on its own, after ordering the parties to show cause and obtaining consent from the proposed expert.
…lawsuit. While a party may vindicate his own constitutional rights, he may not seek vindication for the rights of others. Moose Lodge v. Irvis , 407 U. S. 163 (1972); Sierra Club v. Morton , 405 U. S. 727 (1972). The Court's statement of facts in this case makes clear, however, that the record in no way indicates the…