Opinion ID: 751149
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Review of ALRB Decision.

Text: 14 To the extent that Olson sought to have the district court, and seeks to have us, review the past jurisdictional decisions of the ALRB and the state courts, the district court was exactly right. As we said in Worldwide Church of God v. McNair, 805 F.2d 888 (9th Cir.1986): 15 The United States District Court, as a court of original jurisdiction, has no authority to review the final determinations of a state court in judicial proceedings. 28 U.S.C. § 1257 provides that the proper court in which to obtain such review is the United States Supreme Court. 16 Id. at 890. We further explicated the applicable law in Dubinka v. Judges of the Superior Court, 23 F.3d 218 (9th Cir.1994), where we stated: 17 Federal district courts may exercise only original jurisdiction; they may not exercise appellate jurisdiction over state court decisions. This rule arises from the interplay of two jurisdictional statutes: 28 U.S.C. § 1331, which grants district courts original jurisdiction over civil actions arising under federal law, and 28 U.S.C. § 1257, which grants the Supreme Court the right to review final judgments ... rendered by the highest court of a State. This rule applies even when the state court judgment is not made by the highest state court, and when the challenge to the state court's actions involves federal constitutional issues. 18 Id. at 221 (citations omitted); see also Atlantic Coast Line R.R. Co. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Eng'rs, 398 U.S. 281, 296, 90 S.Ct. 1739, 1748, 26 L.Ed.2d 234 (1970). 19 There are, no doubt, times when application of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine involves rather arcane and fine distinctions. For example, there are times when a court must ask whether a federal constitutional claim was inextricably intertwined with a state court decision or whether it is a separate general constitutional challenge. Feldman, 460 U.S. at 482-83 & n. 16, 103 S.Ct. at 1315-16 & n. 16; see also Dubinka, 23 F.3d at 221-22. But no such problem exists here. Purely and simply, Olson submitted the jurisdictional claim to the state courts and now seeks to have the federal courts adjudicate that selfsame jurisdictional claim. That we cannot do. Olson's remedy was to seek review in the United States Supreme Court; that was its only federal remedy. See Ethridge v. Harbor House Restaurant, 861 F.2d 1389, 1399 (9th Cir.1988). Nor is this conclusion at all contrary to our decision in Bud Antle, 45 F.3d 1261, where there was an attempt to enjoin an action of the ALRB which had not been subjected to review in the state court system. Id. at 1271. 20 But, argues Olson, because the ALRA is preempted by the NLRA, if the latter applies, the decisions of the ALRB and the courts of California must be ignored as void. We find no authority for that broad statement. On the contrary, as the Supreme Court said in a case involving the Railway Labor Act, even before Feldman was decided: 21 Again, lower federal courts possess no power whatever to sit in direct review of state court decisions. If the union was adversely affected by the state court's decision, it was free to seek vindication of its federal right in the Florida appellate courts and ultimately, if necessary, in this Court.... Unlike the Federal District Court, this Court does have potential appellate jurisdiction over federal questions raised in state court proceedings.... 22 Atlantic Coast Line, 398 U.S. at 296, 90 S.Ct. at 1748. And we said much the same thing in Exxon Shipping Co. v. Airport Depot Diner, Inc., 120 F.3d 166, 169-70 (9th Cir.1997), which involved admiralty issues, and again in Ethridge, 861 F.2d at 1399, which involved NLRA preemption issues. Ethridge was a removal case, but it is significant that we decided that preemption was a jurisdictional issue that should be addressed by the state courts. Id. at 1399. Moreover, we said, if the state courts erred in deciding the jurisdictional question, review of that decision may be had in the Supreme Court. Id. We would not have taken that view had we thought that the state court decision would be absolutely void and, therefore, subject to collateral attack in a proceeding in the district court. 23 Olson, however, rests its attack on two other decisions, one by the Supreme Court and one by us. Neither will bear the argument's weight. The Supreme Court decision did refer to the state court's lack of power to decide a claim which triggered preemption, but that was on a direct appeal from the Alabama Supreme Court. See International Longshoremen's Ass'n v. Davis, 476 U.S. 380, 398-99, 106 S.Ct. 1904, 1916, 90 L.Ed.2d 389 (1986). To cite a direct appeal case for the proposition that a district court can review state court jurisdictional decisions is to beg the very question before us. The other case upon which Olson relies is our decision in Bud Antle, 45 F.3d 1261. Again, that case is inapposite. As we have already pointed out, Bud Antle involved a direct attack on the ALRB's position, and was not an attempt to have us review jurisdictional determinations by California state courts which had decided the merits. Id. at 1267. 24 In a final effort to save the retrospective part of its case, Olson argues that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine is really just another facet of res judicata and, therefore, cannot apply where there is preemption. That is a dubious and unsupported proposition. In the first place, an assumption that res judicata would not apply is hardly warranted. See Robinson Rancheria, 971 F.2d at 249-51 (California state court's jurisdictional determinations have res judicata effect). More importantly, Rooker-Feldman is a jurisdictional doctrine, rather than a res judicata doctrine. See Dubinka, 23 F.3d at 221; MacKay v. Pfeil, 827 F.2d 540, 543 & n. 4 (9th Cir.1987). But cf. Robinson v. Ariyoshi, 753 F.2d 1468, 1472 (9th Cir.1985) (Where state court refused to decide federal issue, our decision of that issue will not be review of state court decision and will not be barred on jurisdiction or res judicata grounds), vacated on other grounds, 477 U.S. 902, 106 S.Ct. 3269, 91 L.Ed.2d 560 (1986). Thus, Olson can grab hold of this straw, but doing so will not keep its case afloat. 25