Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ But when, as here, the foundation of the right claimed is a state law, the suit to assert it arises under the state law none the less that the state law has attached a condition that only alien legislation can fulfil. The state law is the sole determinant of the conditions supposed, and its reference elsewhere for their fulfilment is like the reference to a document that it adopts and makes part of itself. The suit is not maintained by virtue of the act of Congress, but by virtue of the Louisiana statute that allows itself to be satisfied by that act. ”

“ But supposing, without implying, that the statute of 1866 had to be relied upon to bring the telegraph company within the Louisiana act, and would have that effect, still it would not be a ground of jurisdiction. If the jurisdiction of the United States court does not depend entirely upon diversity of citizenship, it is because the suit arises under the laws of the United States. ”