Conclusory Pleading on the U.S. Courts of Appeals After Iqbal: An Empirical Study

This Article presents the first systematic empirical study of “conclusory pleading” as a form of plausibility analysis in the U.S. courts of appeals following Ashcroft v. Iqbal, which critics argued would harm plaintiffs by creating excessive demand for information before discovery, and by increasing judicial subjectivity and ideology in decision-making in Rule 12(b)(6) decisions, particularly in…