Cohran v. State Bar of Georgia

• Decision Date: 05 March 1992
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 1:91-CV-0797-JOF.
• Citation: 790 F. Supp. 1568
• Parties: Willard COHRAN, Plaintiff, v. STATE BAR OF GEORGIA, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

790 F. Supp. 1568

Willard COHRAN, Plaintiff, v. STATE BAR OF GEORGIA, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 1:91-CV-0797-JOF.

United States District Court, N.D. Georgia, Atlanta Division.

March 5, 1992.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Willard Cohran, pro se.

David A. Handley, John David Hipes, Smith, Gambrell & Russell, Roger M. Siegel, Beverly Baldwin Martin, Office of State Atty. Gen., Atlanta, Ga., for defendants.

ORDER

FORRESTER, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on motions to dismiss by the Justices of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Superior Court Judges Richard Winegarden and James Henderson¹, the State Bar of Georgia, and William P. Smith, III, General Counsel of the State Bar of Georgia.

I. FACTS

Plaintiff brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the First, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments seeking injunctive and declaratory relief against defendants. Plaintiff sought a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction enjoining defendants from proceeding with any disciplinary action against plaintiff.

On April 10, 1991 this court denied plaintiff's first motion for a temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction. At that time, the Georgia State Bar Review Panel had recommended that plaintiff be disbarred, but the Georgia Supreme Court had not yet issued a final judgment. The court found that plaintiff was not entitled to injunctive relief because he had failed to demonstrate the certainty of irreparable harm. The court also declined to interfere with the ongoing state proceeding under the rule of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971).

In May of 1991 the Supreme Court of Georgia entered judgment against plaintiff, suspending him from the practice of law for two years beginning June 15, 1991. Arguing that the certainty of irreparable harm had been established and that the concerns of Younger no longer applied, plaintiff filed a second motion for temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction on June 11, 1991. After oral arguments, the court denied plaintiff's motion to restrain the State Bar of Georgia from implementing the judgment of the Supreme Court of Georgia against plaintiff. However, the court allowed additional briefing rather than dismissing the case at that time.

II. ABSTENTION

It is clear that abstention was proper prior to the rendering of a final decision by the Georgia Supreme Court. "The policies underlying Younger are fully applicable to noncriminal judicial proceedings when important state interests are involved." Middlesex County Ethics Committee v. Garden State Bar Assn., 457 U.S. 423, 432, 102 S.Ct. 2515, 2521, 73 L.Ed.2d 116 (1982) (citing Moore v. Sims, 442 U.S. 415, 423, 99 S.Ct. 2371, 2377, 60 L.Ed.2d 994 (1979); Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U.S. 592, 604-05, 95 S.Ct. 1200, 1208-09, 43 L.Ed.2d 482 (1975). "The interest of the States in regulating lawyers is especially great since lawyers are essential to the primary governmental function of administering justice, and have historically been `officers of the courts.'" Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, 421 U.S. 773, 792, 95 S.Ct. 2004, 2016, 44 L.Ed.2d 572 (1975). See also Middlesex, 457 U.S. at 433, 102 S.Ct. at 2522; Leis v. Flynt, 439 U.S. 438, 442, 99 S.Ct. 698, 700-01, 58 L.Ed.2d 717 (1979). In Middlesex, the Court held that Younger abstention was proper because the New Jersey State Bar disciplinary hearings fell within the constitutionally prescribed jurisdiction of the State Supreme Court and constituted an "ongoing state judicial proceeding," and there was an adequate opportunity to raise constitutional challenges in the state proceedings. 457 U.S. at 432-33, 102 S.Ct. at 2521-22.

Plaintiff rightfully argued that, even when vital state interests are involved, a federal court should not abstain if state law "clearly bars the interposition of the constitutional claims." Moore v. Sims, 442 U.S. at 426, 99 S.Ct. at 2379. "The ... pertinent inquiry is whether the state proceedings afford an adequate opportunity to raise the constitutional claims...." Id. at 430, 99 S.Ct. at 2381.² In the case at bar, plaintiff had opportunity to, and in fact did, raise his constitutional challenges to the state proceeding before the Georgia Supreme Court. That plaintiff failed to prevail on federal constitutional grounds does not mean he was denied the opportunity to raise those claims.

III. MOTIONS TO DISMISS

The court has denied plaintiff's motion for injunctive relief. Plaintiff's claim for damages under § 1983 and, possibly, for equitable relief vacating the decisions of the Georgia Supreme Court against him must now be addressed. Plaintiff has voluntarily dismissed defendant Sweeney. The remaining defendants have moved for dismissal on grounds of lack of subject matter jurisdiction, insufficiency of service of process, judicial immunity, and Eleventh Amendment immunity.

A. Subject Matter Jurisdiction

In seeking to nullify the action against him, plaintiff asks this court to act as an appellate court to review a decision of the state's highest court. "Lower federal courts possess no power whatever to sit in direct review of state court decisions." Atlantic Coast Line Co. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 398 U.S. 281, 296, 90 S.Ct. 1739, 1748, 26 L.Ed.2d 234 (1970). In Dist. of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 75 L.Ed.2d 206 (1983), the Supreme Court ruled that it was impermissible for the Federal District Court to consider allegations that the District of Columbia Court of Appeals acted arbitrarily and capriciously in denying plaintiff's right to sit for bar exam because consideration would require the Federal District Court to review a final judicial decision of the highest court of a jurisdiction in a particular case. Id. at 483, 103 S.Ct. at 1316. The Court found the plaintiff's allegations to be "inextricably intertwined with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals' decisions, in judicial proceedings...." Id. at 486-87, 103 S.Ct. at 1317.³ The Court's holding established the Rooker/Feldmanrule limiting Federal District Court jurisdiction. See Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413, 44 S.Ct. 149, 68 L.Ed. 362 (1923) (precedent for Feldman decision).

1. Decision of State Supreme Court

To the extent that plaintiff seeks to challenge the judgment of the Georgia Supreme Court, the case must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. See Feldman, 460 U.S. at 482, 103 S.Ct. at 1314-15; Wood v. Orange County, 715 F.2d 1543, 1546 (11th Cir.1983) (Rooker/Feldman rule applies even if the plaintiff failed to raise federal claims in the state court); Staley v. Ledbetter, 837 F.2d 1016, 1017-18 (11th Cir.1988); Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland, Inc. v. Weiner, 868 F.2d 1550, 1555 (11th Cir.1989).

Here, as in Feldman, "it is important to note in the context of this case the strength of the state interest in regulating the state bar." Feldman, 460 U.S. at 483, 103 S.Ct. at 1316. Accordingly,

Orders of a state court relating to the admission, discipline, and disbarment of members of its bar may be reviewed only by the Supreme Court of the United States on certiorari to the state court, and not by means of an original action in a lower federal court. The rule serves substantial policy interests arising from the historic relationship between state judicial systems and the members of their respective bars, and between the state and federal judicial systems.

Feldman, 460 U.S. at 483, 103 S.Ct. at 1316 (quoting MacKay v. Nesbett, 412 F.2d 846 (9th Cir.1969).

Despite the clear language in Feldman bringing disciplinary actions by state bars within the Rooker/Feldman rule, plaintiff argues that because he already had a license to practice law, he has stated a claim for an unconstitutional deprivation of a protected property interest. A plaintiff may not escape the Rooker/Feldman rule merely by bringing his action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Kimball v. The Florida Bar, 632 F.2d 1283, 1284 (5th Cir.1980). In Kimball the old Fifth Circuit⁴ held that, by challenging his suspension by the Florida State Bar and seeking declaratory and injunctive relief on constitutional grounds, plaintiff was asking "the federal district court to reverse a final, definitive state court order." Id. at 1284. The court ruled that "the proper forum for the relief Kimball now seeks was the United States Supreme Court." See also Sawyer v. Overton, 595 F.2d 252 (5th Cir.1979) (federal district court without jurisdiction where suspended attorney sought declaratory and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 "vacating the opinion of the Florida Supreme Court ordering the ... suspension of plaintiff"). The court finds that all of plaintiff's claims must be dismissed under Rule 12(h)(3) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, even if plaintiff has a protected property interest in practicing law.⁵

2. Challenge to State Bar Rules

Plaintiff seeks a declaratory judgment that State Bar Rules 4-102 (Standard 4), 4-202, 4-203(a)(2), 4-221(d) and 4-225(d) are unconstitutional because they violate the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and because they impinge upon the First Amendment right of free speech and redress. The Supreme Court did recognize that "state supreme courts may act in a non-judicial capacity in promulgating rules regulating the bar." Feldman, 460 U.S. at 485, 103 S.Ct. at 1316; Supreme Court of Virginia v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc., 446 U.S. 719, 731, 100 S.Ct. 1967, 64 L.Ed.2d 641 (1980); In re Summers, 325 U.S. 561, 566, 65 S.Ct. 1307, 1310, 89 L.Ed. 1795 (1945). Thus, a constitutional challenge to state bar rules may not require the court to review a final state court judgment rendered in a judicial proceeding, and if not, there is no bar to jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1257 and the Rooker/Feldman rule. See Feldman, 460 U.S. at 486, 103 S.Ct. at 1317 ("...