Opala v. Watt, 05-6261.

• Decision Date: 21 July 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-6261.,05-6261.
• Citation: 454 F.3d 1154
• Parties: Marian P. OPALA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Joseph M. WATT; James R. Winchester; Robert E. Lavender; Rudolph Hargrave; Yvonne Kauger; James E. Edmondson, Steven W. Taylor; and Tom Colbert, in their individual and administrative capacities, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1154

454 F.3d 1154

Marian P. OPALA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Joseph M. WATT; James R. Winchester; Robert E. Lavender; Rudolph Hargrave; Yvonne Kauger; James E. Edmondson, Steven W. Taylor; and Tom Colbert, in their individual and administrative capacities, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 05-6261.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

July 21, 2006.

W.A. Drew Edmondson, Attorney General (Neal Leader, Senior Assistant Attorney General on the briefs), Office of the Attorney General State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK, for the Defendants-Appellants.

Scott F. Brockman (Stanley M. Ward and Woodrow K. Glass, with him on the briefs), Ward & Glass, LLP, Norman, OK, for the Plaintiff-Appellee.

Before LUCERO, EBEL, and O'BRIEN, Circuit Judges.

LUCERO, Circuit Judge.

Article 7 section 2 of the Oklahoma Constitution provides that the Justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court shall choose a Chief Justice and Vice-Chief Justice from among their members. Having failed in his desire to be chosen once again Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Justice Marian P. Opala seeks to invoke the jurisdiction of the federal courts in his effort to achieve that end. He brings to us claims that he was discriminated against on the basis of his age in violation of the Equal Protection Clause and that his due process rights were violated when his colleagues on the Oklahoma Supreme Court changed the rule of rotation for elevation of a Chief Justice from one which precluded re-election to that position for more than one consecutive term to one which lifted that prohibition and re-elected Joseph P. Watt as Chief Justice.

After Justice Opala named his judicial colleagues as defendants in federal proceedings, they responded by asserting several defenses, including sovereign immunity, qualified immunity, and legislative immunity. The district court disagreed with the defendants, concluded that federal jurisdiction was properly invoked, and denied the motion to dismiss. Defendants bring an interlocutory appeal. We take a quite different view of the jurisdictional issue, and for the reasons that follow, we REVERSE the judgment of the district court and REMAND with instructions to DISMISS the complaint with prejudice.

I

Implementation of the Oklahoma constitutional provision for choosing a Chief Justice and a Vice-Chief Justice is set forth in Rule 4 of the Internal Operating Procedures of the Oklahoma Supreme Court Conference. Prior to November 4, 2004, Rule 4 provided:

The term of office of Chief Justice shall rotate among eligible members of the Court every two years. A Justice is eligible to become Chief Justice when each sitting Justice at the time of the Justice's appointment has completed a term as Chief Justice or waived his or her right to do so. No Justice shall succeed himself or herself as Chief Justice, nor shall a Justice be eligible hereunder until he or she has completed six years service as Justice of this Court.

("Old Rule 4"). In his complaint, Justice Opala claims that this rule, and his status as Vice-Chief Justice at the time, created a "reasonable expectation" that he would be nominated for Chief Justice.

On November 4, 2004, all members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, save Justice Opala, convened a conference to vote on a proposed change to Rule 4. Justice Opala was aware of the meeting, but chose not to attend in protest. The defendants voted to amend the rule, which now reads:

The term of office of Chief Justice shall rotate among eligible members of the Court every two years. The next senior Justice who has never served as Chief Justice should be considered for election as Chief Justice, provided that the Justice has served at least four (4) years on this Court including service as Vice-Chief Justice. If the next senior Justice has not served at least four (4) years on the Court including service as Vice-Chief Justice, the incumbent Chief Justice or any other Justice who has served as Chief Justice may be elected to another two-year term as Chief Justice. Otherwise, the Chief Justice will serve only one term.

("New Rule 4"). According to Justice Opala, the practical effects of this amendment were to cause defendant-Chief Justice Joseph Watt to have top priority for being re-elected to the position of Chief Justice, and to prohibit Justice Opala himself from being elected as Chief Justice. Specifically, Justice Opala asserted that because of "[his] tenure as a Justice of the Court, [he] was the only Justice eligible to be nominated for the Office of Chief Justice because each of the other Justices that had satisfied the qualification of completing six (6) years of service as Justice [Opala] had completed a term of Chief Justice." The defendant-Justices duly voted pursuant to New Rule 4, and re-elected Chief Justice Watt. Justice James Winchester was elected to Vice-Chief Justice.

On December 29, 2004, Justice Opala filed suit in federal district court against the other members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of New Rule 4. He argued that the amendment to Old Rule 4 violated his rights to equal protection of the laws pursuant to the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments because it was motivated in part by his age (Justice Opala was eighty-three at the time of filing). He also asserted that he was deprived of a liberty interest in the Chief Justiceship in violation of the procedural component of the Due Process Clause because the amendment did not provide for any post-deprivation hearing. The only redress he sought was a declaration that New Rule 4 violated the Constitution.

As noted, defendants moved to dismiss invoking legislative immunity, sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment, qualified immunity, and failure to present a substantial federal question. The district court denied the motion, finding that: (1) legislative immunity did not apply because the amendment was an administrative and not a legislative act; (2) the suit fell within the Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908), exception to Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity because Justice Opala was seeking prospective — not retroactive — equitable relief; (3) qualified immunity did not apply because Justice Opala was not seeking money damages; and (4) determining whether Justice Opala asserted a "substantial federal question" was infeasible without discovery. Defendants' subsequent motion for reconsideration of the denial of their motion to dismiss was denied by the district court. It was then that the defendants sought this interlocutory appeal.

II

We review de novo the district court's denial of a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Brumark Corp. v. Samson Resources Corp., 57 F.3d 941, 944 (10th Cir.1995). We have jurisdiction to review the district court's denial of defendants' motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the collateral order exception to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, which provides for interlocutory appeal of orders denying motions to dismiss brought on the basis of Eleventh Amendment immunity as the basis for appellate jurisdiction. Before Justice Opala filed this suit, Chief Justice Watt was reelected to his post, and Justice Opala was succeeded as Vice-Chief Justice by Justice Winchester. Because we are only permitted to grant prospective equitable relief under Ex Parte Young, we cannot undo this election. Moreover, a declaration that New Rule 4 is unconstitutional will not remedy Justice Opala's claimed injury that he was not able to stand for election under Old Rule 4 while serving as Vice-Chief Justice. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's denial of defendants' motions to dismiss, and remand with instructions that the district court dismiss the complaint for want of jurisdiction.

As courts of limited subject matter jurisdiction, the federal courts may only rule upon "Cases" and "Controversies." U.S. Const. art. III, § 2. "[T]he core component of standing is an essential and unchanging part of the case-or-controversy requirement of Article III." Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). Standing "is the threshold question in every federal case, determining the power of the court to entertain the suit." Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 499, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975).

The "irreducible constitutional minimum" of Article III's case-or-controversy requirement contains three elements. Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130; Committee to Save the Rio Hondo v. Lucero, 102 F.3d 445, 447 (10th Cir.1996). First, the plaintiff must have suffered an "injury in fact" that is "concrete" rather than "conjectural or hypothetical." Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130. Second, the plaintiff must show that there is a "causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of." Id. Finally, the plaintiff must show that it is "likely," and not merely "speculative," that the injury complained of will be "redressed by a favorable decision." Id., 504 U.S. at 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130. The party seeking to invoke federal jurisdiction bears the burden of establishing all three elements of standing. Id.

Because this suit is against the members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court in their official capacities, federal jurisdiction is limited by sovereign immunity. "[N]onconsenting States may not be sued by private individuals in federal court." Bd. of Trustees of Univ. of Ala. v. Garrett, 531 U.S. 356, 363, 121 S.Ct. 955, 148 L.Ed.2d 866 (2001); see also Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 713, 119 S.Ct. 2240, 144 L.Ed.2d 636 (1999) ("[A]s the Constitution's structure, and its history, and the authoritative interpretations by this Court make clear, the States' immunity from suit is a fundamental aspect of the sovereignty which the States enjoyed before the ratification of the Constitution and which they retain today....").

A state's immunity from suit by private individuals in federal...