Federal court lawsuits now cost $150,000 minimum in 2030.
S. 4850 — Diversity Jurisdiction Inflation Adjustment Act · Filed by John Kennedy (R-LA) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 22, 2026 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill raises the minimum amount to file certain civil lawsuits in federal court. The amount goes from $75,000 to $150,000 starting January 1, 2030. After that, the amount grows every 10 years based on inflation. Federal judges can charge court costs to people who win but recover less than the threshold.
Who it affects
Citizens and small businesses that want to sue in federal court face a higher barrier. More cases will go to state courts instead. People with smaller claims may not sue at all.
One thing to notice
The threshold doubles from $75,000 to $150,000. This is more than adjusting for inflation alone.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jun 22, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 22, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
- Aug 7, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Senate Committee on the Judiciary discharged by Unanimous Consent”
- Aug 7, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $16,950,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 254 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
John Kennedy, who sponsored the bill, received $113,800 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $16,950,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- threshold — The minimum amount of money required to qualify for something.
- inflation — When prices for goods and services go up over time.
- federal court — A court run by the U.S. government that handles certain types of cases.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,280 characters) on Aug 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-17.
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