Friends of Lake View School District 25 v. Beebe

Decision Date25 August 2009
Docket NumberNo. 08-2161.,08-2161.
Citation578 F.3d 753
PartiesFRIENDS OF LAKE VIEW SCHOOL DISTRICT INCORPORATION NO. 25 OF PHILLIPS COUNTY; Henrietta Wilson, individually and in her capacity as an elected member of the Lake View School Board of Directors, a taxpayer, a patron, and next of kin of Will Henry Kyle Wilson; Linell Lewis, a Lake View School District taxpayer and next of kin of Linell Lewis, Trinell Lewis, and Shacoria Lewis; Dwight Swanigan, a Lake View School District taxpayer; Connie L. Burks-Wilkins, next of kin of Theaurty Griffin, Raina Burks, and Wayne Burks; Gussie Martin, a resident, taxpayer, and patron, Appellants, v. Mike BEEBE,<SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL> in his official capacity as Governor of the State of Arkansas; Diana Julian,<SMALL><SUP>2</SUP></SMALL> in her official capacity as Interim Commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Education; the Arkansas State Board of Education, including its individual members in their official capacities; State of Arkansas, Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Jimmie Lee Wilson, argued, West Helena, AR, for appellant.

Scott P. Richardson, AAG, argued, Matthew B. McCoy, AAG, on the brief, Little Rock, AR, for appellee.

Before WOLLMAN, MELLOY and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

GRUENDER, Circuit Judge.

On May 28, 2004, the Arkansas State Board of Education ordered the consolidation of the Lake View School District with the Barton-Lexa School District under "Act 60," a law enacted by the Arkansas General Assembly in its Second Extraordinary Session of 2003.3 Act 60 required school districts with an "average daily membership" of fewer than 350 students to be consolidated with or annexed by another school district. After the Board's consolidation order took effect, the plaintiffs in this action (collectively, "Friends of Lake View") sued the Governor of Arkansas, the Commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Education, the Arkansas State Board of Education, and the State of Arkansas, alleging numerous violations of federal and state law. Friends of Lake View appeal the district court's4 grant of the defendants' motion to dismiss. For the following reasons, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On June 18, 2004, the Arkansas Supreme Court issued its opinion in Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee (Lake View 2004), 358 Ark.137, 189 S.W.3d 1 (2004), the latest iteration in a series of cases dealing with the financing of public education in Arkansas.5 The court had previously held that the state's public education system did not meet the requirements of the Arkansas Constitution, including the "absolute duty ... to provide an adequate education to each school child." Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee (Lake View 2002), 351 Ark.31, 91 S.W.3d 472, 495 (2002). In Lake View 2004, the court found that the Arkansas General Assembly and the Arkansas Department of Education had complied with the court's order in Lake View 2002 by taking significant remedial action. See Lake View 2004, 189 S.W.3d at 3-17. Accordingly, the Arkansas Supreme Court released jurisdiction over the litigation and ordered its mandate to issue. Id. at 17.

On October 25, 2004, Friends of Lake View sued in federal court, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as damages, restitution, and attorney's fees. Although the complaint included eleven separate causes of action, the only claim that Friends of Lake View address on appeal challenges the constitutionality of Act 60 under the Fourteenth Amendment.

On June 9, 2005, the Arkansas Supreme Court recalled its mandate in the Lake View litigation and appointed special masters to evaluate whether Governor Huckabee and the other defendants had complied with the court's previous orders. Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee (Lake View 2005), 364 Ark.398, 220 S.W.3d 645, 646-47 (2005). Thereafter, the district court denied Friends of Lake View's motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the defendants from implementing Act 60. Friends of Lakeview Sch. Dist. Incorporation No. 25 v. Huckabee, 2005 WL 2076478, at *10 (E.D.Ark. Aug. 26, 2005). While both sides insisted that this action did not involve the same issues as the state-court proceedings, the district court announced that it would abstain from taking "further action" under the Younger doctrine,6 "pending completion of the proceedings before the Arkansas Supreme Court." Id. at 9-10.

The Arkansas Supreme Court stayed the issuance of its mandate until December 1, 2006. Lake View 2005, 220 S.W.3d at 657. On November 30, 2006, the court stayed the issuance of its mandate for another 180 days. Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee (Lake View 2007), 370 Ark.139, 257 S.W.3d 879, 879 (2007). Finally, on May 31, 2007, the Arkansas Supreme Court concluded that Arkansas's "system of public-school financing is now in constitutional compliance" and ordered its mandate to issue. Id. at 883.

On October 11, 2007, the district court "reopened" this case for the limited purpose of "determining subject-matter jurisdiction and claim preclusion under the Full Faith and Credit Statute [28 U.S.C. § 1738]." Friends of Lakeview Sch. Dist. Incorporation No. 25 v. Huckabee, No. 2:04-cv-00184, 2007 WL 3005336, at *2 (E.D.Ark. Oct.11, 2007). The defendants moved to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.7 The defendants argued in the alternative that some of the claims raised in Friends of Lake View's complaint were barred by sovereign immunity and that other claims were barred by the preclusive effect of the Lake View litigation before the Arkansas Supreme Court.

On April 8, 2008, the district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss. In lieu of issuing a full opinion, the district court adopted a "well-reasoned order" issued by a different judge in a different case. Friends of Lakeview Sch. Dist. Incorporation No. 25 v. Huckabee, No. 2:04-cv-00184, 2008 WL 961576, at *1 (E.D.Ark. Apr.8, 2008) (adopting Friends of Eudora Pub. Sch. Dist. v. Beebe, No. 5:06-cv00044, 2008 WL 828360 (E.D.Ark. Mar.25, 2008)). Friends of Lake View appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

We review de novo a district court's decision to grant a motion to dismiss. Schaaf v. Residential Funding Corp., 517 F.3d 544, 549 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 555 U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 222, 172 L.Ed.2d 142 (2008). The reviewing court must accept as true all factual allegations set out in the complaint. Hastings v. Wilson, 516 F.3d 1055, 1058 (8th Cir.2008). An action may be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure if the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Schaaf, 517 F.3d at 549.

At the outset, we note that Friends of Lake View object to the manner in which the district court dismissed this action. To be sure, Friends of Eudora involved many of the same issues that were raised in the present case, including the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, issue and claim preclusion, failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and sovereign immunity. On the other hand, Friends of Eudora involved different parties, different facts, a different procedural history, some different claims, and some different arguments. As a result of those differences, some of the court's reasoning in Friends of Eudora was plainly inapplicable here.8 Nevertheless, we find that a remand is not warranted in this instance because we may affirm the district court's grant of the defendants' motion to dismiss "on any basis supported by the record," Phipps v. FDIC, 417 F.3d 1006, 1010 (8th Cir.2005) (citing Migliaccio v. K-tel Int'l, Inc. (In re K-tel Int'l Inc. Sec. Litig.), 300 F.3d 881, 889 (8th Cir.2002)).

We turn next to the defendants' argument that the district court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over this action due to the operation of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. The "basic theory" of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine is "that only the United States Supreme Court has been given jurisdiction to review a state-court decision," so federal district courts generally lack subject-matter jurisdiction over "attempted appeals from a state-court judgment." 18B Charles Alan Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 4469. 1, at 97, 101 (2d ed.2002); see Dornheim v. Sholes, 430 F.3d 919, 923 (8th Cir.2005). The Supreme Court has made clear that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine occupies a "narrow ground." Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus. Corp., 544 U.S. 280, 284, 125 S.Ct. 1517, 161 L.Ed.2d 454 (2005). More specifically, the Court held in Exxon Mobil that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine "is confined to cases ... brought by state-court losers complaining of injuries caused by state-court judgments rendered before the district court proceedings commenced." Id. And we have held that "the Rooker-Feldman doctrine does not bar federal claims brought in federal court when a state court previously presented with the same claims declined to reach their merits." Simes v. Huckabee, 354 F.3d 823, 830 (8th Cir. 2004); see also Riehm v. Engelking, 538 F.3d 952, 964-65 (8th Cir.2008).

Friends of Lake View do not claim to be aggrieved by the outcome of the Lake View litigation; hence, this action is not an attempt to appeal from an adverse state-court judgment. Friends of Lake View instead complain of injuries resulting from the consolidation of the Lake View School District under Act 60. That fact alone would seem to foreclose the defendants' argument that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine applies. See Exxon Mobil, 544 U.S. at 284, 125 S.Ct. 1517; see also Riehm, 538 F.3d at 965.

Still, the defendants contend that Friends of Lake View's challenge to the constitutionality of Act 60 was "raised, briefed, and rejected" in Lake View 2004, so a federal judgment in favor of Friends of Lake View would effectively overrule the Arkansas Supreme Court's contrary decision.9 While the constitutionality of Act 60 does appear to have been raised and briefed in Lake View 2004 by the Lake View School District, the ...

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