Opinion ID: 1452989
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: But first, Sides's conviction poses a jurisdictional problem we must address. The federal statute allowing collateral review of state convictions, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, applies only to persons in custody, and Sides was sentenced to pay a fine but not to imprisonment or any other form of custody. He therefore is not entitled to review under § 2254. Some passages in his complaint and brief suggest a belief that 42 U.S.C. § 1983 allows any form of review not authorized by § 2254, but the Supreme Court has never suggested that the custody requirement of § 2254 may be evaded so easily. Without the aid of § 2254, any effort to obtain review of a convictionreview that would imply a declaration of innocence, or even a return of the $500 fineruns headlong into the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, which establishes that, except to the extent authorized by § 2254, only the Supreme Court of the United States may set aside a judgment entered by a state court. We are not authorized to afford relief where a party in effect seeks to take an appeal of an unfavorable state-court decision to a lower federal court. Lance v. Dennis, 546 U.S. 459, 126 S.Ct. 1198, 1202, 163 L.Ed.2d 1059 (2006). See also, e.g., Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus. Corp., 544 U.S. 280, 284, 125 S.Ct. 1517, 161 L.Ed.2d 454 (2005). We granted the parties permission to file supplemental memoranda discussing the effect on this case of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Sides disclaimed any request to review the conviction. (Supp. Br. of Pl.-Appellant at 5-6.) This means that any equal-protection challenge to the conviction (as opposed to the initiation of the prosecution) has been abandoned. We also interpret this disclaimer to foreswear any demand for damages equal to the value of the fine, because such an award would amount to review of the criminal conviction. Sides does want damages on account of the initial notice's statement that the minimum fine was $175, but this does not call into question the conviction or the fine imposed by the state court. After all, Sides prevailed in state court on his argument that the fine had no lower bound. Exxon Mobil holds that a litigant who prevails in state litigation is not jurisdictionally barred from pursuing federal litigationthough principles of issue preclusion or claim preclusion, applied under 28 U.S.C. § 1738, may limit the extent to which federal relief may differ from the relief provided by the state judiciary. 544 U.S. at 293, 125 S.Ct. 1517. Preclusion is an affirmative defense, however, which the defendants have not invoked on appeal. Arguments concerning events that precede the convictionarguments that would be equally strong (or weak) if Sides had been acquittedlikewise are outside the scope of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. All of the events that took place in connection with his arrest are in that category, cf. Wallace v. Kato, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1091, 166 L.Ed.2d 973 (2007), as is the state actors' decision to press charges against Sides and require him to bear the expense and inconvenience of trial. We therefore address Sides's claims on their merits.