Opinion ID: 711154
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Third Requirement: An Adequate Opportunity to Raise Constitutional Challenges

Text: 27 The third requirement for Younger abstention is that there be an adequate opportunity in the state proceedings to raise constitutional challenges. Id. at 432, 102 S.Ct. at 2521. As the Supreme Court stated in Moore, abstention is appropriate unless state law clearly bars the interposition of the constitutional claims. 442 U.S. at 425-26, 99 S.Ct. at 2379. [T]he burden on this point rests on the federal plaintiff to show 'that state procedural law barred presentation of [its] claims.'  Pennzoil Co. v. Texaco, Inc., 481 U.S. 1, 14, 107 S.Ct. 1519, 1527, 95 L.Ed.2d 1 (1987) (quoting Moore v. Sims, 442 U.S. at 432, 99 S.Ct. at 2382). Fieger has not met this burden. 28 The Michigan lawyer discipline proceedings afford an adequate opportunity to raise constitutional challenges. After the Commission files a complaint with the Board, the Board assigns a hearing panel composed of three lawyers to conduct a public hearing on the complaint. M.C.R. 9.110, 9.111. Alternatively, the Board can assign the complaint to a master. M.C.R. 9.110, 9.117. The Michigan Court Rules specify that [e]except as otherwise provided in these rules, the rules governing practice and procedure in a nonjury civil action apply to a proceeding before a hearing panel. M.C.R. 9.115(A). A lawyer called to answer disciplinary charges before a hearing panel (the respondent) must answer the complaint, may be represented by a lawyer, can conduct discovery, may depose unavailable witnesses, and may, for good cause shown, depose other witnesses. See M.C.R. 9.115(A)-(F). The Board or chairperson of the hearing panel sets the time and place for the hearing and gives at least 21 days notice before the initial hearing. M.C.R. 9.115(G). The hearing itself is bifurcated. The panel first decides whether there has been misconduct and, if it concludes by a preponderance of the evidence that there has been, it conducts another hearing to determine the appropriate discipline. M.C.R. 9.115(J). After a hearing, the panel has the authority to discipline a lawyer or dismiss the complaint. Id. Discipline can range from revocation of the license to practice law in Michigan to probation and restitution. M.C.R. 9.106. Michigan Rules also dictate that the panel must file a report on its decisions regarding misconduct and, if appropriate, discipline: The report must include a certified transcript, a summary of the evidence, pleadings, exhibits and briefs, and findings of fact. M.C.R. 9.115(J). All orders of the hearing panel are appealable to the Board for review. M.C.R. 9.118. If a lawyer is suspended for 179 days or less, a stay of discipline automatically issues on the timely filing by the lawyer of a petition for review and stay. M.C.R. 9.115(K). For suspension of greater duration, the lawyer must petition the Board for a stay. Id. A hearing on the Board's order to show cause is held before a sub-board of at least three Board members. The Board must make a final decision on consideration of the whole record. M.C.R. 9.118(C). The Board can request that the hearing panel take additional testimony or it can issue a decision. The Board may affirm, amend, reverse, or nullify the order of the hearing panel in whole or in part or order other discipline. M.C.R. 9.118(D). A copy of the Board's discipline order must be filed with the Supreme Court clerk. M.C.R. 9.118(F). Even after the Board issues its final decision, a lawyer can petition the Board to reconsider its decision. M.C.R. 9.118(E). 29 After the Board's decision is filed or after it issues an order denying the motion for reconsideration, the lawyer may apply for leave to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court. M.C.R. 9.122(A). In his or her application for leave to appeal, the lawyer must show that the Board's decision is erroneous and will cause material injustice. M.C.R. 7.302(B)(6). Once again, a stay of discipline issues automatically upon the timely filing of an appeal if the discipline order is a suspension of 179 days or less. M.C.R. 9.115(K). The stay remains effective until conclusion of the appeal or further order of the Supreme Court. M.C.R. 9.122(C). The lawyer may petition the Supreme Court for a stay pending appeal of other orders of the Board. Id. The Board certifies the original record and files it with the Supreme Court after the parties submit their briefs. M.C.R. 9.122(D). The record must include a list of docket entries, a transcript of testimony taken, and all pleadings, exhibits, briefs, findings of fact, and orders in the proceeding. Id. Michigan Court Rules specify that the Supreme Court may make any order it deems appropriate, including dismissing the appeal. M.C.R. 9.122(E). 30 Our review of the Michigan Attorney Disciplinary Rules indicates that there are many opportunities for a lawyer to raise constitutional challenges and there is nothing in the Court Rules or procedures that clearly bars a lawyer from doing so. Defenses based upon constitutional challenges to the Rules of Professional Conduct may be raised before the hearing panel composed of fellow lawyers, before the Board, and before the Michigan Supreme Court in an application for leave to appeal. It also bears mentioning that a lawyer may petition to institute an original action in the Michigan Supreme Court to implement the Court's superintending control over the Commission or Board. M.C.R. 7.304. A lawyer may raise his constitutional challenges in his complaint seeking mandamus. 31 Fieger emphatically contends that the procedure summarized above does not afford him an opportunity to raise constitutional challenges. He maintains that the hearing panel and the Board cannot consider constitutional challenges to the Rules of Professional Conduct. He relies on two Michigan Supreme Court cases for this conclusion: In re Estes, 390 Mich. 585, 212 N.W.2d 903 (1973), and Wikman v. City of Novi, 413 Mich. 617, 322 N.W.2d 103 (1982). The Michigan Supreme Court in In re Estes, discussing the standard of review that the Court would apply to a final order of discipline from the State Bar Grievance Board, stated that the then-new disciplinary procedures are, prior to final review by this Court, administrative and quasi-judicial in nature, rather than primarily judicial. In re Estes, 390 Mich. at 592, 212 N.W.2d 903. Fieger then refers us to an observation made by the Michigan Supreme Court in Wikman that [g]enerally speaking, an agency exercising quasi-judicial power does not undertake the determination of constitutional questions or possess the power to hold statutes unconstitutional. 413 Mich. at 646-47, 322 N.W.2d 103 (citing Dation v. Ford Motor Co., 314 Mich. 152, 22 N.W.2d 252 (1946)). This observation is dicta. Wikman involved property owners' challenge to special assessments levied by the City of Novi for appreciation in value of property from having a road near their properties paved. Plaintiffs sought removal of their case from the Tax Tribunal for a number of reasons, including, they argued, because the Tribunal lacked the power to decide constitutional issues. After observing that agencies generally do not have the authority to declare statutes unconstitutional, the Court stated that, in any case, the plaintiffs were not seeking to invalidate the statute on constitutional grounds. 32 Wikman and In re Estes do not mandate the conclusion that Fieger will have an inadequate opportunity to raise his constitutional challenges during the disciplinary proceedings. First, the Court in Wikman did not make their observation unequivocal; they used the qualifying phrase generally speaking. Id. Wikman only peripherally discussed the power of the Tax Tribunal, and it did not deal with the Board. Second, although the In re Estes case labelled the proceeding by the old State Bar Grievance Board quasi-judicial, the Court did not address whether the Board had the power to adjudicate constitutional claims. See 390 Mich. at 601-02, 212 N.W.2d 903. In contrast, counsel for the Commission has stated in her briefs and oral argument before the district court and the appellate panel that the hearing panel and the Board are not precluded from hearing Fieger's constitutional claims. 33 Similar to the Plaintiff in Middlesex, Fieger has failed to demonstrate that members of the hearing panel and the Board, the majority of whom are lawyers, would have refused to consider a claim that the rules which they were enforcing violated federal constitutional guarantees. Middlesex, 457 U.S. at 435, 102 S.Ct. at 2523. Like the Ethics Committee in New Jersey, the Board constantly [is] called upon to interpret the state disciplinary rules. Id. Even if the Board could not declare a Rule of Professional Conduct unconstitutional--a proposition about which we are not convinced--it would seem an unusual doctrine, and one not supported by the cited case[s], to say that the [Board] could not construe [the Rules of Professional Conduct] in the light of federal constitutional principles. Ohio Civil Rights Comm'n v. Dayton Christian Sch., 477 U.S. 619, 629, 106 S.Ct. 2718, 2724, 91 L.Ed.2d 512 (1986). The Board could, short of declaring a Rule unconstitutional, refuse to enforce it or, perhaps, narrowly construe it. We are not convinced, therefore, that Fieger is unable to raise his constitutional claims in the disciplinary proceedings. Alternatively, as the Supreme Court explained in Dayton Christian Schools, it is sufficient under Middlesex that constitutional claims may be raised in state-court review of the administrative proceeding. Id. (citation omitted). 34 Fieger next argues that Younger abstention is inappropriate because the Michigan procedural rules do not accord him an appeal as of right to the Michigan Supreme Court in which he could raise his constitutional claims. Fieger points out that the New Jersey procedures at issue in Middlesex, unlike those in Michigan, provided that all decisions of the Disciplinary Review Board beyond a private reprimand are reviewed by the New Jersey Supreme Court and that briefing and oral argument are available for cases involving disbarment or suspension for more than one year. Middlesex, 457 U.S. at 427, 102 S.Ct. at 2518. He argues that guaranteed review through appeal as of right was essential to the Court's decision to abstain. This assertion is essentially academic speculation, unsupported by anything the Court said in Middlesex or subsequent cases. The majority found dispositive the fact that Hinds (the lawyer whose conduct was challenged in Middlesex ), like Fieger in the instant case, had not even attempted to raise any federal constitutional challenges in the state proceedings. Id. at 429, 102 S.Ct. at 2519. The majority also found that Hinds had not demonstrated that the Committee would refuse to consider a claim that the rules violated federal constitutional guarantees. Id. at 435, 102 S.Ct. at 2522. The concurrence believed that the subsequent actions of the New Jersey Supreme Court, by sua sponte entertaining the constitutional questions, provided an ongoing judicial proceeding in which Hinds was afforded an opportunity to raise his constitutional challenges and, therefore, made Younger abstention appropriate. Id. at 439, 102 S.Ct. at 2525 (Marshall, J., concurring). The Supreme Court did not say that appeal as of right is a condition for Younger abstention when, in Dayton Christian Schools, the Court summarized its holding in Middlesex: Similarly, we have held that federal courts should refrain from enjoining lawyer disciplinary proceedings initiated by state ethics committees if the proceedings are within the appellate jurisdiction of the appropriate State Supreme Court. 477 U.S. at 627, 106 S.Ct. at 2723. The disciplinary proceedings in the instant case are clearly within the appellate jurisdiction of the Michigan Supreme Court. Michigan Court Rule 7.301(A)(3) provides that the Supreme Court may ... review by appeal a final order of the Attorney Discipline Board. The Board's order is, thus, subject to judicial review. The Supreme Court has not mandated one type of review (appeal as of right) over another (application for leave to appeal). 35 Fieger also directs our attention to Parker v. Kentucky Board of Dentistry, in support of his contention that he must be guaranteed that an appeal will result in a decision on the merits of his constitutional claim and that he be assured of appeal as of right. 818 F.2d 504 (6th Cir.1987). Fieger quotes the following sweeping language from the opinion: [F]or a federal court to abstain from reaching the merits of a case under Younger, it must be assured that there exists a definite opportunity for the federal plaintiff to raise his constitutional claims on direct state judicial review of the state administrative proceedings. Id. at 509. Dr. Stanley Parker was charged by the Kentucky Board of Dentistry with violating a Kentucky statute which prohibited dentists from holding themselves out to the public as being especially qualified in an area of dentistry for which the dentist had not obtained a specialty license. Id. at 506. The Board of Dentistry was empowered by statute to revoke, suspend or refuse to renew his license if it found after a hearing that Parker had engaged in unprofessional conduct. Id. Before a hearing was held, Parker filed an action in federal district court seeking to enjoin the Board of Dentistry from disciplining him and seeking a declaratory judgment that his advertisement in the Yellow Pages was protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Id. at 507. The magistrate judge hearing the case reached the merits of Parker's claim and issued an injunction. Id. The Board of Dentistry appealed. Prior to the appeal, the Sixth Circuit requested that the parties to brief the abstention issue. The panel ultimately decided that the district court properly exercised jurisdiction over the case. Id. at 508. The Court found that the Kentucky procedures did not afford Parker an adequate opportunity to present his constitutional claims because the statute governing disciplinary proceedings provided review only if the Board of Dentistry decides to revoke a dentist's license. Id. at 508-09. For all other forms of discipline, the dentist would have to file a collateral action after his license was suspended or not renewed. Id. at 509. The Court held that an opportunity for judicial review which is contingent upon the type of disciplinary action taken is insufficient to trigger Younger abstention. Id. Thus, Parker is distinguishable from the instant case because the Michigan disciplinary rules provide for direct judicial review of all Board disciplinary orders by means of a petition for leave to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court. Fieger need not file a separate state court action to raise his constitutional claims. Despite Fieger's arguments to the contrary, Parker does not hold that a statute must provide for appeal as of right as opposed to appeal by leave. 36 As we noted earlier, the Michigan Supreme Court has before it the entire record of the disciplinary proceedings as well as the lawyer's application for leave to appeal. The application must show that the order is erroneous and will cause material injustice. M.C.R. 7.302(B)(6). We are confident that the Michigan Supreme Court takes constitutional challenges to its regulations pertaining to lawyer conduct very seriously. We are especially reluctant to entertain doubts on that point where Fieger has not even attempted to either assert his rights in the ongoing proceedings or to invoke the Court's superintending control by filing a complaint for mandamus. Furthermore, Fieger has not brought to our attention any instance where a lawyer attempted to mount a similar constitutional challenge to the Rules of Professional Conduct and was not given an opportunity to do so. In fact, there is every indication that the Michigan Supreme Court is taking an active interest in the progress of this case and stands ready to consider the constitutional challenges. We note that on May 25, 1995, the Board's hearing panel dismissed the charges against Fieger, apparently because the Commission did not provide a sufficient affidavit to counter Fieger's motion for summary disposition. See M.C.R. 2.116(C)(10) and M.C.R. 2.116(G)(4). Rather than seeking to amend its response, the Commission sought mandamus in the Michigan Supreme Court for superintending control under M.C.R. 7.304(A) against the Board. The Court accepted the complaint and ordered the Board to reinstate the charges and conduct a hearing on the merits of the ethics complaint. These actions suggest that the Michigan Supreme Court is interested in the case and will treat Fieger's constitutional challenges seriously. 37 Our result in this case, that the ability to raise constitutional issues before the Board as well as an opportunity to raise them again in a petition for leave to appeal satisfies the third requirement for Younger abstention, is consistent with the case law in the Ninth Circuit, the only other circuit of which we are aware that has addressed this precise issue. The Ninth Circuit, drawing on previous published opinions, held in a recent decision, Hirsh v. Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of California, that [t]he fact that review is discretionary does not bar presentation of appellants' federal claims--appellants can raise the claims in a petition for review. 67 F.3d 708, 713 (9th Cir.1995). Hirsh also involved an attempt by lawyers to enjoin state disciplinary proceedings against them. The California Constitution precludes the Bar Court from considering federal constitutional claims. Id. at 713 (citing Calif. Const. art. III, Sec. 3.5). Nevertheless, the Ninth Circuit held that opportunity to raise the federal claims in a petition for a writ of review satisfies the third requirement of Younger. Id. The Court based its holding on several published opinions, all of which stand for the general proposition that discretionary review affords a sufficient opportunity to raise federal constitutional challenges: Beltran v. California, 871 F.2d 777, 781, 783 (9th Cir.1988) (third requirement for Younger abstention met when federal plaintiff has the opportunity to present federal claims in a petition for writ of review despite the fact that court of appeal simply denied the petition without elaboration); Martori Bros. Distribs. v. James-Massengale, 781 F.2d 1349, 1352, 1354 (9th Cir.), amended on other grounds, 791 F.2d 799 (9th Cir.), cert. denied 479 U.S. 949, 1018, 107 S.Ct. 435, 670, 93 L.Ed.2d 385, 722 (1986); and Fresh Int'l Corp. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd., 805 F.2d 1353, 1362 (9th Cir.1986).