The usual rule is that removal to federal court is self-activating (e.g., you don't need permission of either tribunal) and that, post-removal, the state court lacks jurisdiction to do anything unless and until the case is remanded. Makes sense, and a well-known principle.
But, here, the defendant removes (frivolously), gets remanded, and then later removes again. And the second removal is even more frivolous than the first one.
Now, to be honest, what the state court should have done was to simply waited until the second remand. Which would have come fairly quickly. But, instead, since a motion to strike was fully briefed and in front of it for a hearing -- even though the second removal had transpired three days earlier -- the state court went ahead and decided it.
The Court of Appeal holds that's okay. There's an exception to the general rule. When the removal is totally frivolous, the state court's not deprived of jurisdiction. That'll stop people from, say, removing the case a thousand different times.
Just as the general rule makes sense, so does the exception.
