Opinion
No. 02 C 5083
September 20, 2002
MEMORANDUM ORDER
ENH Medical Group ("ENH") has filed its Answer and Affirmative Defenses to the Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit brought against it by Dr. Sam Sugar. This memorandum order is issued sua sponte to require ENH to flesh out its purported jurisdictional challenge set out in Answer ¶ 7 — as our Court of Appeals has reconfirmed in Cook v. Winfrey, 141 F.3d 322, 325 (7th Cir. 1998):
It is axiomatic that a federal court must assure itself that it possesses jurisdiction over the subject matter of an action before it can proceed to take any action respecting the merits of the action. "The requirement that jurisdiction be established as a threshold matter "spring[s] from the nature and limits of the judicial power of the United States' and is `inflexible and without exception.'" Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 1012 (quoting Mansfield C. L.M.R. Co. v. Swan, 111 U.S. 379, 382).
To enable this Court to decide at the outset (as it should) whether or not subject matter jurisdiction is present here, ENH's counsel is ordered to file a brief memorandum in this Court's chambers on or before September 27, 2002 addressing that issue. This Court will then determine whether further steps may be needed in that regard.