Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/555/63/184467/
Timestamp: 2019-11-19 07:07:03
Document Index: 313956982

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 2254', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 2283', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1443', '§ 1446', '§ 1981', '§ 2254', '§ 2283']

State of New Jersey, v. Chesimard, Joanne D., (a/k/a) Assata Shakur, Appellant, 555 F.2d 63 (3d Cir. 1977) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Third Circuit › 1977 › State of New Jersey, v. Chesimard, Joanne D., (a/k/a) Assata Shakur, Appellant
State of New Jersey, v. Chesimard, Joanne D., (a/k/a) Assata Shakur, Appellant, 555 F.2d 63 (3d Cir. 1977)
US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit - 555 F.2d 63 (3d Cir. 1977) Argued Jan. 25, 1977. Reargued In Banc Feb. 18, 1977. Decided March 9, 1977. As Amended March 24 and 29, 1977
The major question for decision is whether the principles of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S. Ct. 746, 27 L. Ed. 2d 669 (1971), as reiterated in Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U.S. 592, 95 S. Ct. 1200, 43 L. Ed. 2d 482 (1975), bar a federal court from prohibiting sessions on Friday, the Islamic Sabbath of appellant, in a pending criminal trial in state court when available state procedures to remedy the alleged constitutional infringement have not been exhausted. Joanne D. Chesimard, the appellant in this court and the defendant in the state criminal proceedings, is a Sunni or Orthodox Muslim who observes Jumah or Jumuah (Friday) as her weekly holy day. She asserts her First Amendment right to free exercise of religion as the basis of her request for federal injunctive or declaratory relief prohibiting state officials from conducting proceedings on Friday in her trial. The district court denied the requested relief. Acting on appellant's motion for a stay of the district court's order and on appellee's petition for summary affirmance, a panel of this court granted appellant declaratory relief on her First Amendment free exercise contention. The full court vacated the panel's order and granted rehearing in banc. After additional briefing and oral argument before the court in banc, we grant appellee's motion for summary affirmance of the judgment of the district court.1 We do so on the basis of Huffman, supra, 420 U.S. at 609, 95 S. Ct. at 1211 which requires "that Younger standards must be met to justify federal intervention in a state judicial proceeding as to which a losing litigant has not exhausted his state appellate remedies."
The centerpiece of the Younger principle is the requirement that one seeking federal intervention in a pending criminal proceeding must show not merely the irreparable injury which is a normal prerequisite for an injunction, but also that the injury would be "great and immediate": "The threat to the plaintiff's federally protected rights must be one that cannot be eliminated by his defense against a single criminal prosecution." 401 U.S. at 46, 91 S. Ct. at 751. The claim is made here that Ms. Chesimard's free exercise right could not be asserted as a defense to the criminal prosecution. But it is equally true that the right could not be raised in the absence of a criminal prosecution and that it has, in fact, been asserted as part of an ongoing criminal prosecution. Ms. Chesimard raised her free exercise claim by pre-trial motion in the state court. Although the state system provides for interlocutory review of the adverse ruling she received, Ms. Chesimard has chosen not to pursue her available state remedies to their fullest extent. Under these circumstances, we believe the federal hand must be stayed. Like the Huffman Court, "we do not believe that a State's judicial system would be fairly accorded the opportunity to resolve federal issues arising in its courts if a federal district court were permitted to substitute itself for the State appellate courts." Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., supra, 420 U.S. at 609, 95 S. Ct. at 1211. Whether federal intervention would be justified in the absence of state procedures for interlocutory review, or upon affirmance by the state Supreme Court, is a question we need not decide because Huffman makes clear that irreparable injury cannot exist when available state procedures have not been exhausted.
Nor does the withholding of federal relief under these circumstances do violence to the traditional notion that exhaustion of state judicial remedies is ordinarily not a prerequisite to relief sought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, as it is to relief sought under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 92 S. Ct. 509, 30 L. Ed. 2d 438 (1971). "By requiring exhaustion of state appellate remedies for the purposes of applying Younger, we in no way undermine Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167 (81 S. Ct. 473, 5 L. Ed. 2d 492) (1967). There we held that one seeking redress under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for a deprivation of federal rights need not first initiate state proceedings based on related state causes of action. 365 U.S. at 183 (81 S. Ct. at 482). Monroe v. Pape had nothing to do with the problem presently before us, that of the deference to be accorded to state proceedings which already have been initiated and which afford a competent tribunal for the resolution of federal issues." Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd. supra, 420 U.S. at 609 n. 21, 95 S. Ct. at 1211.
Although we affirm the district court on Younger principles because we find that Ms. Chesimard has not exhausted her state appellate remedies, it is necessary to discuss briefly the contention that Younger is not applicable to this case because of the peculiar nature of the relief sought. It is contended that the request for Friday recesses is a collateral matter, not related to the central guilt-determination process, and that such collateral matters are not within the Younger rationale. While we recognize this distinction, suggested in Conover v. Montemuro, 477 F.2d 1073, 1082 (3d Cir. 1973), and noted in Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 108 n. 9, 95 S. Ct. 854, 860, 43 L. Ed. 2d 54 (1975), we are not persuaded that it commands a different result in the present posture of this case. The Gerstein Court's entire discussion of the point was as follows:
The District Court correctly held that respondent's claim for relief was not barred by the equitable restrictions on federal intervention in state prosecutions. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (91 S. Ct. 746, 27 L. Ed. 2d 669) (1971). The injunction was not directed at the state prosecution as such, but only at the legality of pretrial detention without a judicial hearing, an issue that could not be raised in defense of the criminal prosecution. The order to hold preliminary hearings could not prejudice the conduct of the trial on the merits. See Conover v. Montemuro, 477 F.2d 1073, 1082 (3d Cir. 1972); cf., Perez v. Ledesma, 401 U.S. 82 (91 S. Ct. 674, 27 L. Ed. 2d 701) (1971); Stefanelli v. Minard, 342 U.S. 117 (72 S. Ct. 118, 96 L. Ed. 138) (1951).
The issue raised under the Gerstein formulation is whether the federal order sought would "prejudice the conduct of the trial on the merits." 420 U.S. at 108, n. 9, 95 S. Ct. at 860. Or, as stated by this court in Conover, the question is whether the federal order will "substantially interfere with a pending prosecution." 477 F.2d at 1080. Persuasive arguments can be made on either side of the question whether an order that requires that a pending state trial not be conducted on Fridays creates a sufficient degree of interference with the "conduct of the trial on the merits" to require application of Younger principles. But it cannot be gainsaid that, even if the order would not substantially interfere with the conduct of the trial, to permit federal intervention here when state interlocutory appellate review remains available would unnecessarily displace the state's supreme court of its role in supervising the conduct of trials in state courts. Unlike the situation in Conover, in which the order sought did not have reference to any particular trial court ruling in an ongoing proceeding, intervention here would deprive the New Jersey Supreme Court of an opportunity to review a discrete judicial ruling in a pending trial.
Moreover, the fact that the relief sought here can be characterized as collateral to the central fact-finding and guilt determination process does not necessarily remove it from Younger's reach. Kugler v. Helfant, 421 U.S. 117, 95 S. Ct. 1524, 44 L. Ed. 2d 15 (1975), vacating and remanding 500 F.2d 1188 (3d Cir. 1974) (in banc), reminded this court that even collateral issues may substantially interfere with the conduct of the trial on the merits, requiring application of the principles of equity and comity which underlie Younger : "If the federal equity power must refrain from staying State prosecutions outright to try the central question of the validity of the statute on which the prosecution is based, how much more reluctant must it be to intervene piecemeal to try collateral issues." Ibid., 421 U.S. at 130, 95 S. Ct. at 1533, quoting Stefanelli v. Minard, 342 U.S. 117, 123, 72 S. Ct. 118, 96 L. Ed. 138 (1951).
Finally, the Supreme Court has crisply answered the contention that although Younger precludes injunctive relief, federal declaratory relief is nevertheless available: "(T)he basic policy against federal interference with pending state prosecutions would be frustrated as much by the declaratory judgment procedure ordered by the Court of Appeals as it would be by the permanent injunction originally sought by (petitioner)." Kugler v. Helfant, supra, 421 U.S. at 131, 95 S. Ct. at 1534, citing Samuels v. Mackell, 401 U.S. 66, 73, 91 S. Ct. 764, 27 L. Ed. 2d 688 (1971).
We note at the outset that the free exercise claim is entirely collateral to any issues bearing upon Chesimard's guilt or innocence of the pending criminal charge. Neither the sufficiency of the charge, nor the admissibility of any evidence in support of it, nor the due process by which it is to be tried, is in any way involved. The claim is solely that a trial on a given day of the week violates her free exercise rights. That claim is as completely collateral to the merits of the criminal proceeding as if it were asserted on behalf of a Roman Catholic juror objecting to participating in a trial on Sunday. The majority holds that Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S. Ct. 746, 27 L. Ed. 2d 669 (1971) and Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U.S. 592, 95 S. Ct. 1200, 43 L. Ed. 2d 482 (1975) prevent "federal intervention." Presumably they would rule similarly in the juror's case.
This court, since Cooper v. Hutchinson, 184 F.2d 119 (3d Cir. 1950) has been committed to the view that 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is an express exception to 28 U.S.C. § 2283, an issue left unresolved in Younger v. Harris.1 In Lewis v. Kugler, 446 F.2d 1343 (3d Cir. 1971) we were the first Court of Appeals confronted with the effect of the Younger sextet2 on prior case law under § 1983. We held that Younger left unaffected the holdings in Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S. Ct. 473, 5 L. Ed. 2d 492 (1961) and Zwickler v. Koota, 389 U.S. 241, 88 S. Ct. 391, 19 L. Ed. 2d 444 (1967) that the existence of a state remedy did not preclude resort to a federal forum. We held that Younger applied only to the extent that a federal injunctive or declaratory judgment would interfere with the state court's adjudication of the merits in a pending criminal prosecution. We reiterated this interpretation of Younger in Conover v. Montemuro, 477 F.2d 1073 (3d Cir. 1973). Conover was a civil rights class action seeking relief against the Pennsylvania juvenile intake procedures. We reversed the dismissal of the complaint on Younger grounds, reasoning:
Finally there is the narrow issue whether, even as to class members actually before the Family Court Division of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, the ruling in Samuels v. Mackell, supra, would preclude declaratory relief of some kind. Lewis v. Kugler, supra at 1349, is relevant here. That case suggests that if an actual proceeding is pending, as to those class members against whom those proceedings are pending certain types of declaratory relief will be inappropriate. It holds that the federal court should not foreclose the merits of the issue of legality of a search or seizure by granting a declaratory judgment. Such a determination would in effect substitute federal court fact finding for that already available in the state court on an issue going to the ability of the state to prove its charge. See e. g., Stefanelli v. Minard, 342 U.S. 117, 72 S. Ct. 118, 96 L. Ed. 138 (1951). This case does not present the same kind of issue. Declaratory relief with respect to the intake procedures will not necessarily hinder the eventual adjudicatory process of the Court of Common Pleas or substitute federal fact finding in any case in which a petition for adjudication of delinquency may be tried. Thus Lewis v. Kugler, supra, is not authority for the withholding of declaratory relief, even as to those class members presently before the Pennsylvania courts. In that case we pointed out that in the exercise of its broad equitable powers, a district court could fashion a remedy which would prevent deprivation of constitutional rights while at the same time avoiding unnecessary encroachment on state and local government functions, 446 F.2d at 1351-1352. Since a remedy with respect to the intake procedures would not necessarily interfere with the adjudication functions of the Commonwealth's juvenile court, it is therefore not necessarily precluded by Younger v. Harris, supra, or Samuels v. Mackell, supra.
Thus, by 1973 we were firmly and unanimously committed to the proposition that Younger applied only when the federal proceeding would effectively preempt the state court's adjudication of the merits of a pending criminal charge. Not all circuits adopted our interpretation of Younger, which limited its application to issues directly involved in the adjudication of guilt.3 One Circuit which did so was the Fifth. It embraced the Third Circuit interpretation of Younger as early as Morgan v. Wofford, 472 F.2d 822, 826 (5th Cir. 1973). Eleven months later in Pugh v. Rainwater, 483 F.2d 778 (5th Cir. 1973), aff'd in part and rev'd in part sub nom., Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 95 S. Ct. 854, 43 L. Ed. 2d 54 (1975) the Fifth Circuit held Younger in applicable to an application for federal injunctive relief. There, petitioner complained of the state's practice of making the prosecuting attorney the judge of probable cause to hold arrestees until arraignment or trial. The Fifth Circuit also expressly rejected the contention that the availability of a state court pretrial declaratory or injunctive remedy precluded resort to a federal forum, writing:
When Pugh v. Rainwater, supra came before the Supreme Court, it affirmed the Younger holding. This despite the fact that a phalanx of state Attorneys General, including the Attorney General of New Jersey, filed briefs amici curiae urging reversal. 420 U.S. at 104-5, 95 S. Ct. 854. The Younger discussion in Gerstein v. Pugh appears, as the majority opinion notes,4 in a brief footnote at 420 U.S. at 108 n. 9, 95 S. Ct. at 860. It is nonetheless the unanimous holding of the Court, for all justices concurred in Part I of the opinion. The most significant feature of the brief discussion is the sentence:
The order to hold preliminary hearings could not prejudice the conduct of the trial on the merits. See Conover v. Montemuro, 477 F.2d 1073, 1082 (CA 3 1972); cf. Perez v. Ledesma, 401 U.S. 82 (91 S. Ct. 674, 27 L. Ed. 2d 701) (1971); Stefanelli v. Minard, 342 U.S. 117 (72 S. Ct. 118, 96 L. Ed. 138) (1951). (Emphasis supplied).
Recognizing that there is really no distinction between this case and Gerstein v. Pugh the majority proceeds to rely on Kugler v. Helfant, 421 U.S. 117, 95 S. Ct. 1524, 44 L. Ed. 2d 15 (1975) for the proposition that even if the free exercise claim is collateral to guilt determination, a federal court must nevertheless withhold relief. There is a significant problem, however, with reliance on Kugler v. Helfant. The issue in Kugler v. Helfant, involving the fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, was in no sense collateral to the merits of the criminal charge. There is no inconsistency between the rule laid down in Conover v. Montemuro and approved in Gerstein v. Pugh, and the holding in Kugler v. Helfant. Indeed, both this court, 500 F.2d at 1193, and the Supreme Court, 421 U.S. at 122, 95 S. Ct. 1524, made it clear that the latter case involved the "exceptional circumstances" limitation upon the Younger remedial powers rule, rather than the collateral issues rule, as to which Younger is simply inapplicable. The Supreme Court in Kugler v. Helfant differed with us as to whether the disclosed circumstances were sufficiently exceptional to warrant our adjudication of a factual dispute over suppression of a confession which could have been litigated in the criminal trial. If erroneously determined, that issue would have afforded a ground for a new trial on certiorari or habeas corpus. Kugler v. Helfant simply does not deal with issues such as the free exercise claim here, or the pretrial detention claim in Gerstein v. Pugh, which do not bear on the merits of the criminal charge, the admissibility of evidence to support it, or the fairness of the processes used in resolving it.
The majority's reliance on Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U.S. 592, 609, 95 S. Ct. 1200, 43 L. Ed. 2d 482 (1972) is equally misplaced for the same reasons. Huffman did not enlarge the categories of issues to which the Younger rule applies. It did no more than put state quasi-criminal sanctioning proceedings on a par with state criminal sanctioning proceedings. It contains no language suggesting that the claimant of a federally protected right must resort to and exhaust state remedies collateral to the merits of a quasi-criminal enforcement proceeding before resorting to a federal forum. Nothing in the majority opinion in Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd. suggests that it was intended to cast doubt upon the holding in Gerstein v. Pugh that the Younger rule is inapplicable to collateral issues. Indeed, part VI of the opinion, 420 U.S. at 611, 95 S. Ct. 1200, remanding for further proceedings to determine if a Younger exception applies, is an express holding that no enlargement of the reach of the Younger rule was intended. The rule was never intended to apply to issues which do not bear on guilt or liability.
Putting the issue squarely, let us suppose that, yielding to the practicalities of the state court's ruling, Chesimard attends trial each Friday. In that event, each Friday she will have been subjected to what the majority acknowledges is a significant first amendment deprivation. But assuming an otherwise error-free trial, what appellate or habeas corpus relief would be appropriate? The majority opinion is carefully circumspect on this point. Nowhere does it suggest that either the Supreme Court or a habeas corpus court would, or even could, set aside the judgment of conviction and order a new trial. It goes no further than to refer to the state's contention as to the availability of appellate review of a final order, and it relies only on the availability of state interlocutory relief.6 The majority's circumspection is entirely appropriate, for no authority with which I am familiar would permit reversal of an otherwise errorless conviction for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the merits of the guilt determination. If the free exercise right in question is lost pendente lite it is lost for all time.7 Even a posttrial damage remedy is foreclosed by the doctrine of judicial immunity. Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 87 S. Ct. 1213, 18 L. Ed. 2d 288 (1967).
Prior to May 3, 1976 I would have thought that Chesimard could safely have preserved her first amendment rights by remaining in her cell, while at the same time preserving her opportunity to obtain federal review, by certiorari or habeas corpus, of the sixth and fourteenth amendment violations resulting from the trial going forward in her absence. Since the decisions in Estelle v. Williams, 425 U.S. 501, 96 S. Ct. 1691, 48 L. Ed. 2d 126 (1976) and Francis v. Henderson, 425 U.S. 536, 96 S. Ct. 1708, 48 L. Ed. 2d 149 (1976) I am far less certain. Certainly in light of those cases, which substantially cut back on the federal waiver standard of Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 58 S. Ct. 1019, 82 L. Ed. 1461 (1938); Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S. Ct. 822, 9 L. Ed. 2d 837 (1963) and Henry v. Mississippi, 379 U.S. 443, 85 S. Ct. 564, 13 L. Ed. 2d 408 (1965), no counsel could conscientiously advise Chesimard that she could safely stay away from court on Fridays and later assert that she had been deprived by the state of her confrontation and counsel rights. While I would not find waiver I can hardly predict that, in the present judicial climate, another judge might not. The choice which the state court afforded is no choice at all, but only the offer of a gamble on the ultimate availability of federal review, against the certainty of loss of first amendment rights.
Such a court might be the United States Supreme Court, which could on certiorari from a final order refusing to consider and decide the claim pendente lite order the state court to afford a remedy.10 There is ample authority that state courts of general jurisdiction must, as a matter of federal law, entertain actions for the vindication of federally protected rights. See, e.g., General Oil v. Crain, 209 U.S. 211, 28 S. Ct. 475, 52 L. Ed. 754 (1908); Iowa-Des Moines National Bank v. Bennett, 284 U.S. 239, 52 S. Ct. 133, 76 L. Ed. 265 (1931); Testa v. Katt, 330 U.S. 386, 67 S. Ct. 810, 91 L. Ed. 967 (1947). Such a federal court could also be a United States district court, which, if the state courts did not entertain and decide the claim, would not be prevented from entertaining a new § 1983 application on the merits. Certainly the state could not claim res judicata. The majority opinion does not suggest which federal court would rule on the question, but beneath the velvet glove of deference to the state court system for pendente lite relief there is plainly assumed to be the iron hand of federal law. For certainly the majority would not refer Chesimard to a state remedy which it believes the state has no binding obligation to afford.
I think this interpretation of Younger trivializes what was intended to be a significant milestone, not in the relationships between federal judges and state judges, a patent irrelevancy, but in the relationship between the national law and state enforcement of its own law. It is true, of course, that the debate over fourteenth amendment "intrusion" in the state criminal justice system has often been carried on the "we-they", ad hominem level. See, e.g., State v. Funicello, 60 N.J. 60, 69, 286 A.2d 55, 59 (N.J.1972) (Weintraub, J., concurring), cert. denied sub nom. New Jersey v. Presha et al., 408 U.S. 942, 92 S. Ct. 2849, 33 L. Ed. 2d 766 (1972).
The reason for the Younger sextet rule commanding that federal courts refrain from a premature adjudication of issues going to the merits of a state charge is the assumption that a post-judgment remedy by certiorari or habeas corpus affords adequate relief. The Court held that merely being subjected to trial did not amount to such irreparable injury as would make post-judgment relief inadequate. See, e.g., Younger v. Harris, supra, 401 U.S. at 45, 46, 91 S. Ct. 746.
The right of individuals to be free from governmental restraint upon their free exercise of religion is the first stated and among the most carefully guarded of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights. Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 407, 83 S. Ct. 1790, 10 L. Ed. 2d 965 (1963); Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501, 509, 66 S. Ct. 276, 90 L. Ed. 265 (1946); Thomas v. Collins, 323 U.S. 516, 530, 65 S. Ct. 315, 89 L. Ed. 430 (1945). The significance of the right is not diminished by an individual's status as a defendant in a criminal prosecution. See Cruz v. Beto, 405 U.S. 319, 92 S. Ct. 1079, 31 L. Ed. 2d 263 (1972). Where a person's right to the free exercise of religion is inhibited by state action, the courts will scrutinize the state's chosen means of attaining its goals to determine whether the state has met its obligation to avoid, to the extent possible, infringement of the protected freedom. Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 304, 60 S. Ct. 900, 84 L. Ed. 1213 (1940); see Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, 413, 94 S. Ct. 1800, 40 L. Ed. 2d 224 (1974); United States v. Robel, 389 U.S. 258, 264-68, 88 S. Ct. 419, 19 L. Ed. 2d 508 (1967). The governmental goal or purpose itself will be value-weighed against the protected right of the individual to determine which should prevail, and a purpose of obtaining a government objective even of the highest order, will not justify the imposition of restraint upon the free exercise of religion unless the objective cannot otherwise be achieved.13 Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 215, 92 S. Ct. 1526, 32 L. Ed. 2d 15 (1972);14 Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 407 (1963); Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599, 607, 81 S. Ct. 1144, 6 L. Ed. 2d 563 (1961).
The state's concern for the efficient and speedy administration of justice in an environment conducive to due process is undoubtedly a significant state interest. Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 559, 85 S. Ct. 476, 13 L. Ed. 2d 487 (1965). In Cox the state's interest in the integrity of the criminal process was a compelling and overriding one because the orderly administration of justice was threatened by the individuals' exercise of the right of free speech; however, in the present case, the efficient and orderly administration of justice is not placed in jeopardy by the removal of one of the five trial days ordinarily available to the court and the petitioner's observance of her religious faith in itself poses no threat to the administration of justice.
We affirm the denial of the petition for removal under 28 U.S.C. § 1443 as untimely filed. Title 28 U.S.C. § 1446(c) requires the removal petition to be filed at any time "before trial". Here the petition for removal was filed after two days of jury voir dire involving 64 prospective jurors. We agree with the Ninth Circuit that the phrase "before trial" must be construed to mean "before proceedings for empanelling a jury." United States ex rel. Walker v. Gunn, 511 F.2d 1024 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 849, (1975). See also Chesimard v. Kuhlthau, 370 F. Supp. 473, 475 (D.N.J. 1974).
It is unclear whether appellant predicates her free exercise claim upon her habeas corpus petition or her § 1981 et seq. request. In any event, we affirm the denial of habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 because appellant clearly failed to exhaust state remedies. Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 275, 92 S. Ct. 509, 30 L. Ed. 2d 438 (1971); Moore v. De Young, 515 F.2d 437, 443-47 (3d Cir. 1975). See N.J.Stat.Ann. 2A:67-1 et seq. (New Jersey state habeas corpus procedures).
Finally, we also affirm the district court's refusal to grant relief against the conditions of Ms. Chesimard's confinement, as alleged in her petition. Although the district court was not restricted by Younger principles on this issue, see Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 95 S. Ct. 854, 43 L. Ed. 2d 54 (1975), by the time the proceedings were filed in federal court, the state trial had already begun. Ms. Chesimard's attendance at trial necessarily alters the confined regimen asserted in her petition below, inasmuch as she will not be confined in her cell for at least four or five days a week. Under these circumstances, we will not disturb the ruling of the district court. Moreover, we note that a similar petition to relieve these same conditions was the subject of lengthy proceedings before Judge George H. Barlow in Joanne Chesimard (Assata Shakur) v. Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders et al., Civil Action No. 76-582. A 15-page opinion discussing the conditions was filed July 15, 1976.
401 U.S. at 42, 91 S. Ct. at 749
401 U.S. 37, 91 S. Ct. 746, 27 L. Ed. 2d 669 (1971). Younger was one of six cases disposed of simultaneously by the Supreme Court. See also Byrne v. Karalexis, 401 U.S. 216, 91 S. Ct. 777, 27 L. Ed. 2d 792 (1971); Dyson v. Stein, 401 U.S. 200, 91 S. Ct. 769, 27 L. Ed. 2d 781 (1971); Perez v. Ledesma, 401 U.S. 82, 91 S. Ct. 674, 27 L. Ed. 2d 701 (1971); Boyle v. Landry, 401 U.S. 77, 91 S. Ct. 758, 27 L. Ed. 2d 696 (1971); Samuels v. Mackell, 401 U.S. 66, 91 S. Ct. 764, 27 L. Ed. 2d 688 (1971)
See, e. g., Doran v. Salem Inn, Inc., 422 U.S. 922, 95 S. Ct. 2561, 45 L. Ed. 2d 648 (1975); Hicks v. Miranda, 422 U.S. 332, 95 S. Ct. 2281, 45 L. Ed. 2d 223 (1975); Kugler v. Helfant, 421 U.S. 117, 95 S. Ct. 1524, 44 L. Ed. 2d 15 (1975); Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U.S. 592, 95 S. Ct. 1200, 43 L. Ed. 2d 482 (1975)
See Helfant v. Kugler, 500 F.2d 1188, 1199-1200 (3d Cir. 1974) (en banc) (Adams, J., dissenting), rev'd 421 U.S. 117, 95 S. Ct. 1524, 44 L. Ed. 2d 15 (1975)
401 U.S. at 46-50, 53, 91 S. Ct. 746. See also Kugler v. Helfant, 421 U.S. 117, 123-25, 95 S. Ct. 1524, 44 L. Ed. 2d 15 (1975)
401 U.S. at 45-46, 91 S. Ct. 746
Id. 401 U.S. at 44, 91 S. Ct. 746
See Helfant v. Kugler, 500 F.2d 1188, 1205 (3d Cir. 1974) (en banc) (Adams, J., dissenting), rev'd, 421 U.S. 117, 95 S. Ct. 1524, 44 L. Ed. 2d 15 (1975); Conover v. Montemuro, 477 F.2d 1073, 1082 (3d Cir. 1973)
See, e. g., Doran v. Salem Inn, Inc., 422 U.S. 922, 95 S. Ct. 2561, 45 L. Ed. 2d 648 (1975) (request for preliminary injunction); Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S. Ct. 746, 27 L. Ed. 2d 669 (1971) (request for permanent injunction)
421 U.S. 117, 95 S. Ct. 1524, 44 L. Ed. 2d 15 (1975)
342 U.S. 117, 72 S. Ct. 118, 96 L. Ed. 138 (1951)
The scope of the Court's concern was indicated in Stefanelli, 342 U.S. at 123-24, 72 S. Ct. at 121:
420 U.S. at 108 n. 9, 95 S. Ct. at 860. It should be noted that the Court, in this footnote, indicated that Stefanelli presented a distinguishable problem
Pugh v. Rainwater, 483 F.2d 778 (5th Cir. 1973), aff'd, 420 U.S. 103, 95 S. Ct. 854, 43 L. Ed. 2d 54 (1975)
See 401 U.S. at 53, 91 S. Ct. 746. In my opinion in Helfant v. Kugler, 500 F.2d 1188, 1204-05 (3d Cir. 1974), I expressed a concern that an exceptional circumstances category might not exist. However, Mr. Justice Stewart's opinion for the unanimous Supreme Court in that case stated that although the parameters of "extraordinary circumstances" could not be definitely laid out, that category was a legitimate exception to the Younger rule. 421 U.S. at 124-25, 95 S. Ct. 1524
See, e. g., McNeese v. Board of Educ., 373 U.S. 668, 671, 83 S. Ct. 1433, 10 L. Ed. 2d 622 (1963); Monroe v. Page, 365 U.S. 167, 183, 81 S. Ct. 473, 5 L. Ed. 2d 492 (1961)
420 U.S. 592, 609, 95 S. Ct. 1200, 43 L. Ed. 2d 482 (1975)
The state court proceedings in Huffman were not criminal in nature. Although technically civil, they were characterized by the court as being "akin to a criminal prosecution." 420 U.S. at 604, 95 S. Ct. 1200
Id. at 609, 95 S. Ct. 1200
As Judge Gibbons has appropriately noted, see Opinion of Gibbons, J., at 78-79, a damage action by Chesimard would appear to be barred by the doctrine of absolute judicial immunity. See Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 87 S. Ct. 1213, 18 L. Ed. 2d 288 (1967). It would also seem that the absolute prosecutorial immunity mandated by Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S. Ct. 984, 47 L. Ed. 2d 128 (1976), would pose an equal roadblock
Ultimately the Supreme Court adopted the Third Circuit view on § 2283 in Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U.S. 225, 92 S. Ct. 2151, 32 L. Ed. 2d 705 (1972)
Younger v. Harris, supra; Samuels v. Mackell, 401 U.S. 66, 91 S. Ct. 764, 27 L. Ed. 2d 688 (1971); Boyle v. Landry, 401 U.S. 77, 91 S. Ct. 758, 27 L. Ed. 2d 696 (1971); Perez v. Ledesma, 401 U.S. 82, 91 S. Ct. 674, 27 L. Ed. 2d 701 (1971); Dyson v. Stein, 401 U.S. 200, 91 S. Ct. 769, 27 L. Ed. 2d 781 (1971); Byrne v. Karalexis, 401 U.S. 216, 91 S. Ct. 777, 27 L. Ed. 2d 792 (1971)
The conflicting views of other circuits are contrasted with those of the Third and Fifth Circuits in Note, Federal Equitable Relief in Matters Collateral to State Criminal Proceedings, 44 Fordham L. Rev. 597 (1975)
There is no provision for review by the Supreme Court of interlocutory orders of state courts. I would hope that the Court would treat the denial of pendente lite relief on a claim such as here presented as collaterally final within the meaning of the Forgay-Cohn doctrine. See Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cahn, 420 U.S. 469, 481-82 & n.10, 95 S. Ct. 1029, 43 L. Ed. 2d 328 (1975). But see id. at 501-512, 95 S. Ct. 1029 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting)
We note that in United States v. Robel, 389 U.S. 258, 268 n.20, 88 S. Ct. 419, 19 L. Ed. 2d 508 (1967), the Supreme Court declined to employ the balancing of the interests test and rested its decision on the existence of alternative methods, having a less drastic impact on first amendment freedoms, by which the Government could have achieved its purpose without use of the methods chosen
In Wisconsin v. Yoder, supra, the Court said at pages 214 and 215, 92 S. Ct. at page 1532: