Opinion ID: 711154
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Second Requirement: Important State Interests

Text: 25 Middlesex also held that in order to abstain, courts must find that the state has an important interest in regulating the subject matter of the claim. 457 U.S. at 434, 102 S.Ct. at 2522. Regulating lawyers' conduct is a fundamentally important state interest. Id. Michigan, like many other states, vests exclusive responsibility for regulation of the bar with its Supreme Court. Mich. Const. art. VI, Sec. 5. The privilege of practicing law in Michigan is expressly subject to the conditions and standards which the Michigan Supreme Court adopts in the course of regulating lawyers' conduct. M.C.R. 9.103(A). Because the administration of justice in Michigan and the entire Michigan judicial system is dependent upon the ethical conduct and professional proficiency of Michigan lawyers, the State has an important interest in the pending State proceedings. See Middlesex, 457 U.S. at 434-35, 102 S.Ct. at 2522-23. Federal courts must be careful to accord lawyer discipline proceedings the proper degree of deference. The fact that Fieger poses a constitutional challenge to the substance of the rules of professional conduct as well as the procedures adopted to enforce them does not overcome Michigan's interest. In fact, it counsels in favor of abstention. The breadth of a challenge to a complex state statutory scheme has traditionally militated in favor of abstention, not against it. Moore v. Sims, 442 U.S. 415, 427, 99 S.Ct. 2371, 2379, 60 L.Ed.2d 994 (1979). The policies of comity and federalism counsel that because Michigan has such an important interest in regulating its own bar, a state forum should have the first opportunity to review Michigan's rules of lawyer conduct and procedures for lawyer discipline. See Middlesex, 457 U.S. at 432-35, 102 S.Ct. at 2521-23. In addition, Federal courts have increasingly accepted the notion that state tribunals are competent to adjudicate federal constitutional questions. See id. at 436, 102 S.Ct. at 2523. The second requirement for Younger abstention is therefore met. 26