Opinion ID: 745299
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Heading: The Plaintiffs' Standing to Seek Prospective Relief on

Text: 10 the Bad Faith Claims 11 The six plaintiffs in this case seek equitable relief with regard to their bad faith prosecution claims. The plaintiffs requested a judgment declaring the underlying state prosecutions unconstitutional and enjoining those prosecutions and any future prosecutions which may be brought against them. Since the filing of the plaintiffs' last amended complaint in this § 1983 action, however, six of the eleven state prosecutions that are the subject of this suit have been dismissed in state court. The result of these dismissals is that two of the six plaintiffs, Karl Hockenbarger and Timothy Phelps, no longer have criminal charges pending against them--limiting their remedies to prospective relief. 5 Because the two plaintiffs can no longer demonstrate a present injury from which they seek redress, we must examine whether these plaintiffs have constitutional standing to maintain their claims in this case. See Facio v. Jones, 929 F.2d 541, 544 (10th Cir.1991) (stating that a plaintiff cannot maintain standing in a declaratory or injunctive relief action unless he or she can demonstrate a good chance of being likewise injured in the future.). As we have previously held, a plaintiff must maintain standing at all times throughout the litigation for a court to retain jurisdiction. Powder River Basin Resource Council v. Babbitt, 54 F.3d 1477, 1485 (10th Cir.1995). Because this court has an independent duty to inquire into its jurisdiction over a dispute, we proceed to examine this issue sua sponte. See Lopez v. Behles, 14 F.3d 1497, 1499 (10th Cir.1994). 12 Article III of the Constitution limits the federal courts to adjudicating actual cases and controversies. See Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 750, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 3324, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984). This provision requires that a litigant have standing in order to invoke the power of a federal court. Id. The essence of the standing doctrine is that each plaintiff must allege a personal injury fairly traceable to Ms. Hamilton's allegedly unlawful conduct and likely to be redressed by the requested relief. See id. at 751, 104 S.Ct. at 3324-25. In order to satisfy the jurisdictional prerequisite of standing, the plaintiff must do more than allege abstract injury, he must show that he  'has sustained or is immediately in danger of sustaining some direct injury' as the result of the challenged official conduct and the injury or threat of injury must be both 'real and immediate,' not 'conjectural' or 'hypothetical.'  City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 101-02, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 1664-65, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983) (citing Golden v. Zwickler, 394 U.S. 103, 109-110, 89 S.Ct. 956, 960-61, 22 L.Ed.2d 113 (1969)). 13 In Lyons, the Supreme Court made clear that plaintiffs may lack standing to seek prospective relief when the challenged conduct is no longer continuing. The plaintiff in Lyons sued the City of Los Angeles and several police officers, alleging that the officers had stopped him for a routine traffic violation and applied a choke-hold without provocation. 461 U.S. at 97, 103 S.Ct. at 1663. Among other things, the plaintiff requested an injunction against the future use of choke-holds by the Los Angeles police department unless the suspect threatened to use deadly force. Id. at 98, 103 S.Ct. at 1663. The Court held that Mr. Lyons lacked standing to seek prospective injunctive relief because he could not show a real or immediate threat of future harm. Id. at 105, 103 S.Ct. at 1667. In reaching this conclusion, the Court relied on its earlier decision in O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 94 S.Ct. 669, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974), wherein it stated that  '[p]ast exposure to illegal conduct does not in itself show a present case or controversy regarding injunctive relief ... if unaccompanied by any continuing, present adverse effects.'  461 U.S. at 102, 103 S.Ct. at 1665 (quoting O'Shea, 414 U.S. at 495-96, 94 S.Ct. at 676). To obtain equitable relief for past wrongs, the Court held that Lyons would have had not only to allege that he would have another encounter with the police, but also to make the incredible assertion either, (1) that all police officers in Los Angeles always choke any citizen with whom they happen to have an encounter, whether for the purpose of arrest, issuing a citation or for questioning or, (2) that the City ordered or authorized police officers to act in such manner. Id. at 105-06, 103 S.Ct. at 1667. 14 Under the standing doctrine as developed in Lyons and O'Shea, we conclude that those plaintiffs in this case who do not have on-going state prosecutions and, therefore seek relief based solely on past prosecutions, do not meet Article III's case or controversy requirement sufficient to maintain standing to appeal the district court's ruling on their bad faith prosecution claims. These plaintiffs do not allege in the complaint or elsewhere that they have ever been subjected to prosecution prior to those prosecutions on which the present action is based or that they likely will be in the future. Like the plaintiff in Lyons, neither Karl Hockenbarger nor Timothy Phelps can establish a real and immediate threat that they again will be subject to prosecution for their picketing or protesting activities under valid state criminal laws. 15 Furthermore, in suing Ms. Hamilton in her official capacity as district attorney, these plaintiffs seek not only to enjoin Ms. Hamilton but also anyone in the Office of the District Attorney for the Third Judicial District of Kansas from hereafter prosecuting them for their allegedly protected activities. See Brandon v. Holt, 469 U.S. 464, 471-73, 105 S.Ct. 873, 877-78, 83 L.Ed.2d 878 (1985) (holding that an official capacity claim is against the defendant's office only, not the individual defendant). Even if these two plaintiffs could demonstrate that Ms. Hamilton had acted in bad faith in the past, as with the plaintiff in Lyons, they do not allege either that all prosecutors working in the district attorney's office presently and in the future will always prosecute them in bad faith violation of their First Amendment rights or that there is a policy in that office to act in such manner toward plaintiffs. 16 We are also reluctant to allow Karl Hockenbarger and Timothy Phelps to proceed with their bad faith prosecution claims for prospective declaratory and injunctive relief due to federalism and comity concerns. As the Supreme Court stated in O'Shea, the recognition of the need for a proper balance in the concurrent operation of federal and state courts counsels restraint against the issuance of injunctions against state officers engaged in the administration of the State's criminal laws.... 414 U.S. at 499, 94 S.Ct. at 678. In this case, as in O'Shea, where the plaintiffs sought to enjoin the alleged discriminatory actions of a county magistrate and judge, the two plaintiffs have only challenged past prosecutions brought under valid state criminal laws. Thus, what the plaintiffs seek is an injunction aimed at controlling or preventing the occurrence of specific events that might take place in the course of future criminal [proceedings]. Id. at 500, 94 S.Ct. at 678. In essence, the plaintiffs in this case ask us to monitor the local district attorney's office to insure that they are not prosecuted under valid state laws for any occurrences related to their alleged protected speech and activity. Such a request for relief fits squarely within the O'Shea Court's admonition that a federal court should not intervene to establish the basis for future intervention that would be so intrusive and unworkable. Id. at 500, 94 S.Ct. at 678. 17 Based on the foregoing analysis, we conclude that we do not have jurisdiction to hear those plaintiffs' appeals whose underlying state prosecutions have been dismissed because this court does not have jurisdiction to issue prospective relief in this instance. Accordingly, we dismiss Karl Hockenbarger and Timothy Phelps as appellants with regard to their appeals of the district court's ruling on their bad faith prosecution claims. Because the remaining four plaintiffs--Charles Hockenbarger, Jonathan Phelps, Fred Phelps, and Margie Phelps--do have pending state prosecutions, and therefore can demonstrate a present case or controversy, we proceed to analyze their appeal of the district court's full faith and credit ruling. 18