Galahad v. Weinshienk

• Decision Date: 17 January 1983
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 81-BJ-1205.
• Citation: 555 F. Supp. 1201
• Parties: Giles GALAHAD, Plaintiff, v. Zita L. WEINSHIENK; John L. Kane, Jr.; Sherman G. Finesilver; Richard P. Matsch; Jim R. Carrigan; John Moore; Alfred A. Arraj; Fred M. Winner; Hatfield Chilson, individually and as Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Colorado

555 F. Supp. 1201

Giles GALAHAD, Plaintiff, v. Zita L. WEINSHIENK; John L. Kane, Jr.; Sherman G. Finesilver; Richard P. Matsch; Jim R. Carrigan; John Moore; Alfred A. Arraj; Fred M. Winner; Hatfield Chilson, individually and as Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, Defendants.

Civ. No. 81-BJ-1205.

United States District Court, D. Colorado.

January 17, 1983.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Giles Galahad, pro se.

Stephen Klein, Asst. U.S. Atty., Denver, Colo., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JENKINS, District Judge.^*

The plaintiff in this action challenges the constitutionality and the legality of the Local Rule 1(a) of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.¹ In particular, the plaintiff raises objections to the portion of Rule 1(a) that predicates membership in the bar of this Court upon admission to practice in the Colorado state courts. He seeks damages, declaratory and injunctive relief against enforcement of the Rule, arguing that as a member of the Pennsylvania state and federal bars and the Alaska bar, he is constitutionally entitled to be admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.

Mr. Galahad does not challenge the residency requirement of Rule 1(a). Compare Stalland v. South Dakota Bd. of Bar Examiners, 530 F.Supp. 155 (D.S.D.1982). He is a Colorado resident. Rather, he asserts that unlike other Colorado residents, he should be immunized from the Colorado bar exam by virtue of his admission in other courts of other jurisdictions. He argues for a uniform policy of admission to the federal district courts as a fundamental requirement pursuant to the Due Process, Privileges and Immunities and Full Faith and Credit Clauses of the federal Constitution. Further enforcement of the requirement as against residents who are members of other courts' bars, he alleges, would amount to a violation of the federal antitrust laws as well. See 15 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq. (1976 ed.). The requirement that he pass yet another state bar examination is alleged to be an unwarranted and unlawful impediment to the plaintiff's pursuit of an otherwise lawful occupation or profession. Cf. The Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36, 111, 21 L.Ed. 394 (1873) (Bradley, J., dissenting).

I. CLAIM FOR DAMAGES

Plaintiff seeks recovery for damages amounting to 500 dollars per day from the defendants. However, he has joined only judges of the federal district court as defendants to a complaint that describes actions which are fundamentally "judicial" in nature. The federal courts exercise inherent judicial power in regulating the admission, practice and discipline of attorneys. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 1654, 2071 (1976 ed.); Rule 83, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; Matter of Abrams, 521 F.2d 1094, 1099 (3d Cir.1975), and cases cited therein. Whether postured as a challenge to the denial of admission to Galahad specifically, or as a challenge to the general validity of Local Rule 1(a) on its face, see Doe v. Pringle, 550 F.2d 596, 597 (10th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 916, 97 S.Ct. 2179, 53 L.Ed.2d 227 (1977), the plaintiff's damages claim runs afoul of the doctrine of absolute judicial immunity. See generally Martinez v. Winner, 548 F.Supp. 278 (D.Colo.1982). The Supreme Court recently held that absolute immunity derived from the doctrine of legislative immunity applies to insulate state judges from damages liability arising from court rule-making activities. Supreme Court of Virginia v. Consumers Union, 446 U.S. 719, 731-734, 100 S.Ct. 1967, 1974-1975, 64 L.Ed.2d 641 (1980). The court's reasoning in the Consumers Union case seems equally applicable to rule-making by federal judges.

At hearing, the plaintiff argued that the actions complained of are "administrative" activities not clothed with common law immunity. The Consumers Union case, which involved the promulgation of rules affecting the admission and conduct of attorneys, sweeps Local Rule 1(a) into the arena of immune judicial activity. Even in exercising its judgment on an individual petition, a court performs a judicial act. See In re Summers, 325 U.S. 561, 565, 566, 65 S.Ct. 1307, 1310, 1311, 89 L.Ed. 1795 (1945); Doe v. Pringle, 550 F.2d 596, 599 (10th Cir.1976). The plaintiff's argument is rendered wholly untenable.

To the extent that Galahad seeks money damages as a remedy, his claim is barred.

While the Consumers Union opinion closes the door to damages claims against judges arising from "judicial" or "legislative" acts, the Court expressly reserved the question of whether judicial immunity bars declaratory and injunctive relief. Id., 446 U.S. at 735-736, 100 S.Ct. at 1976-1977. Galahad seeks prospective relief, to wit: admission to this Court's bar and a modification of the text of Local Rule 1(a). Assuming, without deciding, that declaratory and injunctive relief is available as against federal district judges, see id., 446 U.S. at 735 n. 13, 100 S.Ct. at 1976 n. 13, this Court must now determine whether the plaintiff has stated a claim upon any of the grounds now asserted.

II. FULL FAITH AND CREDIT

Arguing that admission to the bar is a "judicial proceeding" and from the fact of his prior admission to practice before courts in Pennsylvania and Alaska, Galahad urges that his admission to practice before this Court is mandated by the following constitutional requirement:

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and Judicial Proceedings of every other State.

U.S. Const. Art. IV, § 1 (emphasis added). While this Full Faith and Credit Clause does not in express terms bind the federal courts, it is well settled that federal courts must give full faith and credit to the judgments of state and territorial courts. See e.g., Huron Holding Corp. v. Lincoln Mine Operating Co., 312 U.S. 183, 61 S.Ct. 513, 85 L.Ed. 725 (1941); Davis v. Davis, 305 U.S. 32, 59 S.Ct. 3, 83 L.Ed. 26 (1938).

Galahad contends that his admission to practice before Pennsylvania and Alaska courts should be translated using the device of full faith and credit into nearly automatic admission in this Court. He in essence pleads that by "judicial proceedings" he has already been admitted to the practice of law. By denying him instant admission before this Court, he argues, the defendants are denying full faith and credit to judicial proceedings in those other courts.

Congress has prescribed the manner in which full faith and credit is to be afforded to proceedings in other American jurisdictions:

Such acts, records and judicial proceedings or copies thereof, so authenticated, shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the United States and its Territories and Possessions as they have by law or usage in the courts of such state, Territory or Possession from which they are taken.

28 U.S.C. § 1738 (1976 ed.) (emphasis added).

Plaintiff has offered nothing which demonstrates that the Pennsylvania or Alaska courts would give their admissions to law practice such sweeping breadth. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania grants admission to practice in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The boundaries of the district reflect the limit of that court's power. The limits of the jurisdiction are necessarily the limits of the grant. It neither assumes nor represents that it has granted anything more.

Pursuant to full faith and credit, this Court readily recognizes the fact of plaintiff Galahad's admission to law practice in the other jurisdictions. That fact alone may enable Galahad to appear pro hac vice before this Court in an appropriate case where he otherwise might not be so entitled. Cf. Atchison, T. & S.F.R. Co. v. Jackson Railway, 235 F.2d 390 (10th Cir. 1956); Re Belli, 371 F.Supp. 111 (D.Colo. 1974). This Court, however, is not bound to acknowledge that he has been admitted to the practice of law without reference to jurisdictional boundary.

Of course, admission to the Bar of one state does not carry with it the right to practice law anywhere else. Hawkins v. Moss, 503 F.2d 1171 (4th Cir.1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 928, 95 S.Ct. 1127, 43 L.Ed.2d 400 (1975); ... The same is true of admission to the district courts of the United States. See Lark v. West, 110 U.S.App.D.C. 157, 289 F.2d 898, cert. denied, 368 U.S. 865, 82 S.Ct. 114, 7 L.Ed.2d 63 (1961); ...

In re Rappaport, 558 F.2d 87, 89 (2d Cir. 1977) (footnote and citations omitted); see also 7 C.J.S. Attorney & Client § 26 (1980). In prior cases in which a full faith and credit claim of this kind has been raised, it has been denied as being wholly without merit. E.g., O'Neal v. Thompson, 559 F.2d 485, 486 (9th Cir.1977). While a court may adopt a rule admitting attorneys who are bar members in other jurisdictions as a matter of comity, see Application of Wasserman, 240 F.2d 213, 215 (9th Cir.1956), the Full Faith and Credit Clause has never been construed as requiring such a rule as a matter of constitutional law. See Gaillard v. Field, 381 F.2d 25, 28 (10th Cir.1967) ("The command of the Full Faith and Circle Clause is not absolute ...").

The plaintiff's arguments do not compel that such a construction now be reached.

III. PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES

Apart from full faith and credit, the plaintiff relies upon the Privileges and Immunities Clauses of the Federal Constitution:

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

U.S. Const. Art. IV, § 2.

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; ...

U.S. Const.Amend. XIV, § 1. At first glance, these clauses would appear to have no bearing upon federal action, such as rulemaking by the federal courts. See United States v. Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, 46 F.Supp. 657, 661 (W.D.Wash.1942). Yet it would seem anomalous to hold that the federal government may...