Spargo v. N.Y. State Com'n, Judicial Conduct

• Decision Date: 09 December 2003
• Docket Number: No. 03-7289.,No. 03-7250.,03-7250.,03-7289.
• Citation: 351 F.3d 65
• Parties: Thomas J. SPARGO, Jane McNally and Peter Kermani, Plaintiffs-Appellees-Cross-Appellants, v. NEW YORK STATE COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL CONDUCT, Gerald Stern, individually and as Administrator of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct and Henry T. Berger, individually and as Chairperson of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 65

351 F.3d 65

Thomas J. SPARGO, Jane McNally and Peter Kermani, Plaintiffs-Appellees-Cross-Appellants, v. NEW YORK STATE COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL CONDUCT, Gerald Stern, individually and as Administrator of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct and Henry T. Berger, individually and as Chairperson of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees.

No. 03-7250.

No. 03-7289.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: September 29, 2003.

Decided: December 9, 2003.

DAVID F. KUNZ, DeGraff, Foy, Kunz & Devine, LLP (George J. Szary, on the brief), Albany, NY, for Plaintiffs-Appellees-Cross-Appellants.

CAITLIN J. HALLIGAN, Solicitor General, (Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, Robert H. Easton, and Edward Lindner, Assistant Solicitors General, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees.

Peter Vollmer, Vollmer & Tanck, LLP, Jericho, NY, for Amicus Curiae The Constitution Project's Courts Initiative.

Deborah Goldberg and J.J. Gass, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, New York, NY, (Victor A. Kovner, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, of counsel), for Amicus Curiae Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.

Alfred P. Carlton, American Bar Association, Chicago, IL, (K. Jane Fankhanel, W. Wendell Hall, and Warren S. Huang, of counsel), for Amicus Curiae American Bar Association.

Steven C. Krane, Proskauer Rose LLP, New York, NY, for Amici Curiae New York State Bar Association, Suffolk County Bar Association, and Asian American Bar Association.

Daniel Murdock and Joan Salzmann, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York, NY, (Scott A. Rosenberg, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, and Robert Newman, of counsel), for Amicus Curiae The Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Before: MINER, CALABRESI, and STRAUB, Circuit Judges.

STRAUB, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs, Thomas J. Spargo ("Spargo"), an elected New York state judge, and two of his political supporters, Jane McNally ("McNally") and Peter Kermani ("Kermani"), bring First Amendment and Equal Protection challenges to three specific New York rules of judicial conduct:¹ (1) 22 N.Y.C.R.R. § 100.1 — which directs judges to maintain "high standards of conduct" to preserve "the integrity and independence of the judiciary;" (2) 22 N.Y.C.R.R. § 100.2(A) — which instructs judges to avoid the appearance of impropriety by "act[ing] at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary;" and (3) 22 N.Y.C.R.R. §§ 100.5(A)(1)(c)-(g) and 100.5(A)(4)(a) — which prohibit incumbent judges and judicial candidates from engaging in partisan political activities that are unrelated to their own campaign for judicial office and which require all judicial candidates to "maintain the dignity appropriate to judicial office."

After the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct ("Commission"), the official agency responsible for enforcing New York's judicial conduct rules,² see N.Y. Const. art. VI § 22, charged Spargo with five counts of judicial misconduct, plaintiffs filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the judicial conduct rules at issue violated their First Amendment and Equal Protection rights and seeking to enjoin the Commission from proceeding with the pending disciplinary proceedings against Spargo or otherwise enforcing the challenged rules. Relying on the Supreme Court's decision in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, 536 U.S. 765, 768, 122 S.Ct. 2528, 153 L.Ed.2d 694 (2002) (concluding that a Minnesota canon of judicial conduct that prohibited judicial candidates from announcing their views "on disputed legal or political issues" violated the First Amendment as a restriction on core political speech), the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (David N. Hurd, Judge) declared 22 N.Y.C.R.R. §§ 100.1, 100.2(A), 100.5(A)(1)(c)-(g) and 100.5(A)(4)(a) facially unconstitutional and permanently enjoined defendants from enforcing the challenged provisions. See Spargo v. N.Y. State Comm'n on Judicial Conduct, 244 F.Supp.2d 72, 92 (N.D.N.Y.2003).

On appeal, defendants and amici curiae urge us to reverse the District Court on the merits, arguing that the challenged judicial conduct rules are narrowly tailored to serve the compelling state interest in preserving the reality as well as the appearance of judicial independence and impartiality. However, because state disciplinary proceedings were pending against Spargo at the time the federal suit was filed, this case raises the threshold question of whether the District Court should have abstained from exercising jurisdiction over the plaintiffs' suit in deference to the ongoing disciplinary proceeding. See generally Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 44-45, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971) (cautioning that federal courts should generally refrain from enjoining pending state court proceedings). Defendants accordingly focus their arguments on the question of who should have the first opportunity to decide the plaintiffs' constitutional claims, arguing that the pending state disciplinary proceeding provides Spargo with a fully adequate forum to raise his constitutional challenges and that principles of federalism and comity mandate that the District Court abstain from deciding Spargo's claims and the interrelated claims of co-plaintiffs McNally and Kermani.

Citing concerns as to whether Spargo could seek mandatory review of the Commission's decision before the New York Court of Appeals, the District Court declined to abstain from exercising jurisdiction over Spargo's claims under Younger. See Spargo, 244 F.Supp.2d at 83-85. The District Court further found no basis to abstain from hearing the claims of McNally and Kermani, as neither was a party to the pending disciplinary proceeding against Spargo. See id. at 82. As we explain more fully below, because the New York Court of Appeals has subsequently confirmed that its review of the Commission's disciplinary decisions is mandatory, see In re Raab, 100 N.Y.2d 305, 763 N.Y.S.2d 213, 215, 793 N.E.2d 1287 (2003) (per curiam); In re Watson, 100 N.Y.2d 290, 763 N.Y.S.2d 219, 223, 794 N.E.2d 1 (2003) (per curiam), erasing any doubt as to Spargo's ability to seek judicial review of his constitutional claims, and because the claims of all three plaintiffs are inextricably intertwined, we hold that proper deference to New York's paramount interest in regulating its own judicial system mandates the exercise of Younger abstention over plaintiffs' claims. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment and injunction of the District Court and remand with instruction to the District Court to abstain from exercising jurisdiction over the plaintiffs' action.

Background

This case arises from an investigation involving plaintiff Thomas J. Spargo's potential violation of several judicial conduct rules. The Commission initiated the investigation into Spargo's campaign conduct and political activity in December 2000 while Spargo was serving as an elected Town Justice for the Town of Berne in Albany County, New York. While the investigation was pending, Spargo ran successfully for the position of Justice of the Supreme Court in the Third Judicial District of New York, the position which he currently holds. Eventually the Commission's investigation expanded to include allegations that Spargo authorized inappropriate payments of $5,000 to two political supporters.³

On January 25, 2002, the Commission served Spargo with a formal written complaint, charging Spargo with four counts of judicial misconduct. Charge I alleges that Spargo "failed to observe high standards of conduct ... failed to act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary... [and] failed to maintain the dignity appropriate to judicial office," in violation of 22 N.Y.C.R.R. §§ 100.1, 100.2(A), and 100.5(A)(4)(a), by offering items of value such as cider and donuts to induce voters to vote for him during his campaign for Town Justice. Charge II alleges that Spargo "failed to avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety and failed to act ... in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary," in violation of 22 N.Y.C.R.R. §§ 100.1 and 100.2(A), by accepting the Albany County District Attorney-Elect as a client in connection with the contested election for District Attorney, notwithstanding the fact that the District Attorney's office regularly appeared in criminal cases before Spargo as a sitting Town Justice. Charge II also alleges that Spargo violated N.Y.C.R.R. §§ 100.1 and 100.2(A) by presiding over criminal cases prosecuted by the Albany County District Attorney's Office without disclosing to defense counsel that Spargo had previously represented the District Attorney and that the District Attorney's campaign committee still owed Spargo $10,000 in legal fees.

Charges III and IV allege that Spargo violated 22 N.Y.C.R.R. §§ 100.5(A)(1)'s prohibitions on partisan political activity by: (1) attending "governmental sessions for the recount of presidential votes" during the November 2000 Florida recount as an observer for the Republican Party and the Bush/Cheney presidential campaign; (2) "participat[ing] in a loud and obstructive demonstration against the recount process outside the offices of the Miami-Dade County Board of Elections" in an attempt to disrupt the recount process; and (3) serving as the keynote speaker at the 39th Annual Monroe County Conservative Party Dinner, a fundraising event for the Conservative Party.

On May 12, 2002, Spargo was served with a supplemental complaint charging him with additional violations of 22 N.Y.C.R.R. §§ 100.1, 100.2, and 100.5(A)(4)(a) for allegedly authorizing improper payments to two consultants involved in his campaign for Supreme Court Justice. The supplemental...