Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (2009), the 5-month-old U.S. Supreme Court decision that has made federal pleadings standards much more stringent, will get a Capitol Hill airing on Tuesday October 27, 2009. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold the first congressional hearing on the far-reaching May ruling, which raised the pleading standard for most civil complaints, making it more difficult to keep cases from being dismissed.

Iqbal was a 5 to 4 decision delivered on May 18, 2009 by Justice Kennedy held that Iqbal’s complaint failed to plead sufficient facts to state a claim for purposeful and unlawful discrimination.