Opinion ID: 171635
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Type of Ongoing Proceeding

Text: As noted above, there are two aspects of the ongoing proceeding inquiry, whether there is an ongoing proceeding and whether it is the type afforded Younger deference. The Supreme Court, in Ohio Civil Rights Commission v. Dayton Christian Schools, Inc., 477 U.S. 619, 106 S.Ct. 2718, 91 L.Ed.2d 512 (1986), clarified some of the occasions when Younger deference was appropriate and some occasions when it was not. In this vein, the Court distinguished its prior holding in Patsy v. Florida Board of Regents, 457 U.S. 496, 102 S.Ct. 2557, 73 L.Ed.2d 172 (1982), that a federal discrimination claim could proceed without exhaustion or deference to the state proceeding. The court distinguished Patsy on the ground, inter alia, that the Patsy administrative proceedings were remedial rather than coercive. [5] See Dayton Christian Schs., 477 U.S. at 627 n. 2, 106 S.Ct. 2718. This court has yet to delineate a test for determining whether a state proceeding is remedial or coercive. Hence, we turn to the decisions of our sister circuits. As discussed in depth below, the most compelling test  one crafted by the First Circuit  asks the court to consider two issues in deciding whether Dayton Christian Schools or Patsy controls. First, we must query whether the federal plaintiff initiated the state proceeding of her own volition to right a wrong inflicted by the state (a remedial proceeding) or whether the state initiated the proceeding against her, making her participation mandatory (a coercive proceeding). Second, we must differentiate cases where the federal plaintiff contends that the state proceeding is unlawful (coercive) from cases where the federal plaintiff seeks a remedy for some other state-inflicted wrong (remedial). Even this test is not entirely determinative; below, we also discuss other factors that may distinguish remedial proceedings from coercive ones. Here, despite Day's claim to the contrary, the state court administrative proceedings were not coercive. Brown initiated the state administrative proceeding after her benefits were summarily terminated. The state did not compel her to participate in the proceedings. Moreover, Brown seeks not to enjoin the state proceedings, but to secure relief from the state's allegedly unlawful conduct by recovering her Medicaid benefits. Accordingly, this state proceeding was not the type of proceeding entitled to Younger deference.