State law requirements which impose different or additional requirements on pleadings filed in federal court are not enforceable if they conflict with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, even if the state law would qualify as “substantive law.” Thus a Delaware law which required the filing of an affidavit of merit with a medical malpractice complaint is not enforceable if a medical malpractice complaint is filed in federal court.

A father convicted of sexually abusing his young daughter was denied his right to confrontation under the Sixth Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, because the trial court did not first make a finding that “screened” testimony of the child victim, which was allowed by state law, was necessary.

The case involves the grave risk of physical harm exception to a child’s wrongful removal from their country of habitual residence.