Bice v. La. Pub. Defender Bd.

• Decision Date: 16 April 2012
• Docket Number: No. 11–30537.,11–30537.
• Citation: 677 F.3d 712
• Parties: Steven BICE, on his own behalf, and on behalf of a class of all similarly situated indigent criminal defendants, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. LOUISIANA PUBLIC DEFENDER BOARD, Defendant–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

677 F.3d 712

Steven BICE, on his own behalf, and on behalf of a class of all similarly situated indigent criminal defendants, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.LOUISIANA PUBLIC DEFENDER BOARD, Defendant–Appellee.

No. 11–30537.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

April 16, 2012.

Stacy Elizabeth Seicshnaydre (argued), Mary Lucia Blacksher, Supervisory Atty., Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiff–Appellant.

Phillip A. Wittmann (argued), Maggie Anne Broussard, Lauren E. Godshall, Stone, Pigman, Walther, Wittmann, L.L.C., New Orleans, LA, for Defendant–Appellee.

Before STEWART, CLEMENT and GRAVES, Circuit Judges.

CARL E. STEWART, Circuit Judge:

After Steven Bice was charged with public intoxication and public inhabitation, he was brought before the Municipal Court of the City of New Orleans and qualified for representation by a public defender. Louisiana's funding mechanism for indigent defense requires indigent defendants who are found guilty, plead guilty, or plead nolo contendere to pay a $35 fee at the conclusion of their cases, but it does not require defendants who are exonerated to pay the $35 fee. Bice brought suit against the Louisiana Public Defender Board (the "Board"), arguing that this fee violates his rights under the Sixth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution by discouraging public defenders from exonerating their clients. The district court ruled that abstention was required under the Younger doctrine and, alternatively, that Bice did not state a claim for relief under the Sixth Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment. Because we hold that the district court did not err when it abstained from exercising jurisdiction over Bice's lawsuit, we AFFIRM the district court's judgment.

I.

The Public Defender Reform Act, enacted by the Louisiana legislature in 2007, was intended to reform Louisiana's entire system of indigent defense, including "consolidated management and oversight at the state level, professionalization of local offices, and a permanent funding mechanis[m] through the establishment of local indigent defender systems." It was supported by a range of groups across Louisiana, including the Louisiana Public Defenders Association, the Louisiana State Bar Association's Right to Counsel Committee and the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Among the provisions in the Public Defender Reform Act was La. R.S. § 15:168, which provides that a $35 fee "shall be assessed in cases in which a defendant is convicted after a trial, a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, or after forfeiting bond and shall be in addition to all other fines, costs, or forfeitures imposed." The $35 fee is to be collected within each court of original criminal jurisdiction and in mayors' courts in cities having fewer than 5,000 residents, and then remitted to a fund administered by the public defender in each judicial district. Id. The statute provides that the money in that fund can only be used to deliver indigent defender services in that district. Id.

Section 15:168 proved less successful at raising funds than the Board had hoped, however, because judges often refused to assess the fees against defendants. Accordingly, the Board brought a mandamus suit in 2010 against all Orleans Parish judges with criminal jurisdiction, seeking an order that judges in Orleans Parish be forced to assess the fees. The writ of mandamus was issued against all judges in Orleans Parish with criminal jurisdiction.

On February 23, 2011, Steven Bice was arrested in Orleans Parish on charges of public intoxication and public habitation. After his arrest, Bice was qualified for representation by the indigent defender's office. When Bice appeared in New Orleans Municipal Court on these charges, the New Orleans Municipal Judge appointed the Tulane Law Clinic to represent Bice with respect to Bice's challenge to the constitutionality of La. R.S. § 15:168. The New Orleans Municipal Judge also ordered the municipal court proceedings to continue uninterrupted against Bice. Bice failed to appear for his last scheduled court date in the municipal court proceeding.

Bice brought suit against the Louisiana Public Defender Board in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, arguing that La. R.S. § 15:168 violated his rights under the Sixth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment.¹ He filed a complaint on his own behalf and on behalf of similarly situated plaintiffs on February 28, 2011, asserting claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He then moved to certify a class on March 1, 2011, but the district court never ruled on the motion. On March 11, 2011, the Board filed a motion to dismiss; on March 30, 2011, Bice filed a motion for summary judgment. The parties argued their respective motions before the district court on May 11, 2011. After a lengthy colloquy with the attorneys for both sides, the district court ruled from the bench. The district court held that the prerequisites for Younger abstention were satisfied. In the alternative, the district court held that Bice did not state a claim under section 1983 for violation of his rights under either the Sixth Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment.²

The district court therefore denied Bice's motion for summary judgment and granted the Board's motion to dismiss. This timely appeal followed.

II.

A.

This court reviews a district court's abstention ruling for abuse of discretion, but it reviews de novo whether the elements for Younger abstention are present. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971) ; Tex. Ass'n of Bus. v. Earle, 388 F.3d 515, 518 (5th Cir.2004). "A court necessarily abuses its discretion when it abstains outside of the doctrine's strictures." Tex. Ass'n of Bus., 388 F.3d at 518 (quoting Webb v. B.C. Rogers Poultry, Inc., 174 F.3d 697, 701 (5th Cir.1999) ).

B.

In general, the Younger doctrine requires that federal courts decline to exercise jurisdiction over lawsuits when three conditions are met: (1) the federal proceeding would interfere with an "ongoing state judicial proceeding"; (2) the state has an important interest in regulating the subject matter of the claim; and (3) the plaintiff has "an adequate opportunity in the state proceedings to raise constitutional challenges." Middlesex Cnty. Ethics Comm. v. Garden State Bar Ass'n, 457 U.S. 423, 432, 102 S.Ct. 2515, 73 L.Ed.2d 116 (1982). If the three prerequisites are satisfied, then a federal court can assert jurisdiction only if "certain narrowly delimited exceptions to the abstention doctrine apply."³ Tex. Ass'n of Bus., 388 F.3d at 519.

Bice does not contest that Louisiana has an important state interest in regulating the subject matter of his claim, nor does he argue that any of the exceptions to the Younger doctrine apply. Accordingly, the issues before us implicate only two prerequisites for the application of the Younger doctrine: whether Bice's federal lawsuit will interfere with the ongoing state court proceeding, and whether the municipal court is an adequate forum to hear Bice's constitutional claims. We address each of these in turn.

1.

We first consider whether ruling in favor of Bice would interfere with an ongoing state proceeding. "In order to decide whether the federal proceeding would interfere with the state proceeding, we look to the relief requested and the effect it would have on the state proceedings." 31 Foster Children v. Bush, 329 F.3d 1255, 1276 (11th Cir.2003). The interference with ongoing state proceedings need not be direct to invoke Younger abstention. The Younger doctrine prevents federal courts from exercising jurisdiction when the relief requested "would indirectly accomplish the kind of interference that Younger v. Harris and related cases sought to prevent." O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 500, 94 S.Ct. 669, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974) (internal citation omitted). Interference is established "whenever the requested relief would interfere with the state court's ability to conduct proceedings, regardless of whether the relief targets the conduct of a proceeding directly." Joseph A. ex rel. Wolfe v. Ingram, 275 F.3d 1253, 1272 (10th Cir.2002).

The ongoing state proceeding here is Bice's criminal prosecution in municipal court. A successful challenge to the statutory scheme for funding public defenders, the Board argues, would require the state to postpone Bice's prosecution until adequate funding is located. The Board contends that imperiling the framework that funds public defenders therefore constitutes "interference" with a state court proceeding. In support of its argument, the Board cites to a case in which the Supreme Court of Louisiana wrote that prosecutions can be suspended if the state has insufficient funding for indigent defense. See State v. Citizen, 898 So.2d 325, 338–39 (La.2005).

The withdrawal of Bice's public defender would unquestionably interfere with Bice's proceeding, in that it would "interfere with the state court's ability to conduct proceedings" by requiring the municipal court judge to locate new counsel for Bice. See Joseph A. ex rel. Wolfe, 275 F.3d at 1272. The parties dispute, however, whether ruling the fee unconstitutional would affect the Board's funding so drastically as to require public defenders to withdraw from pending proceedings. The Board argues that, in the aggregate, the $35 fees constitute a sufficient percentage of the Board's budget that its public defenders would be forced to withdraw from the proceedings of Bice and other indigent defendants if the fee is ruled unconstitutional until the Board locates an alternative funding source. See Appellee's Br. at 54 ("A state-wide injunction against enforcement of the statute would in effect resolve the conflict ‘problem’ Bice insists exists, in that it would immediately end the provision of attorneys by the State to criminal court defendants, including Bice."). Bice responds that the fee is a relatively minor component of...