Opinion ID: 715779
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Challenge to Question 18(c)

Text: 11 Campbell's complaint included a demand for injunctive and declaratory relief barring the Appellate Division from using question 18(c) on the ground that it violates the ADA. Because the Appellate Division had previously removed question 18(c) from the bar application, the district court dismissed the claim as moot. The complaint also sought money damages. On appeal Campbell has not challenged the dismissal of his damages claim. 12 Campbell argues that his challenge to question 18(c) falls under the voluntary cessation exception to the mootness doctrine. Because [t]he defendant is free to return to his old ways, voluntary cessation of allegedly illegal conduct does not deprive the tribunal of power to hear and determine the case, i.e., does not make the case moot. United States v. W.T. Grant Co., 345 U.S. 629, 632, 73 S.Ct. 894, 897, 97 L.Ed. 1303 (1953). A case may nevertheless be moot if the defendant can demonstrate that (1) there is no reasonable expectation that the alleged violation will recur, and (2) interim relief or events have completely and irrevocably eradicated the effects of the alleged violation. County of Los Angeles v. Davis, 440 U.S. 625, 631, 99 S.Ct. 1379, 1383, 59 L.Ed.2d 642 (1979) (citations and internal quotations omitted). 13 The district court acted well within its powers in dismissing Campbell's claim for injunctive relief as moot. See Harrison & Burrowes Bridge Constructors, Inc. v. Cuomo, 981 F.2d 50, 61 (2d Cir.1992). There is no reason to believe that the Appellate Division will reinstate question 18(c). The question was removed, first on a temporary basis, then permanently. See id. at 59. (Some deference must be accorded to a state's representations that certain conduct has been discontinued.). Moreover, as the Appellate Division withdrew the question two and a half months before Campbell instituted this suit, there is nothing to indicate that it did so merely to avoid judicial scrutiny. Cf. City of Mesquite v. Aladdin's Castle, Inc., 455 U.S. 283, 289 & n. 11, 102 S.Ct. 1070, 1075 & n. 11, 71 L.Ed.2d 152 (1982). 14 Campbell argues that because the Appellate Division conditioned the renewal of his application on his submission of additional medical information, he is still suffering from the effects of the allegedly illegal question. This argument is without merit. Campbell disclosed his mental illness in answers to questions unrelated to question 18(c), as justification for his past arrests and default on a student loan. As the decision of the Appellate Division makes clear, the request for medical information was an inevitable consequence of Campbell's attempt to use his mental illness to excuse his arrests and default, and not a result of his answer to the challenged question. 15 In dismissing Campbell's challenge to question 18(c) in its entirety, the district court did not expressly address whether his claim for a declaratory judgment, as opposed to injunctive relief, is moot. In certain circumstances it may be possible for a claim for declaratory relief to survive, notwithstanding the mootness of a companion claim for an injunction. See, e.g., Green v. Mansour, 474 U.S. 64, 106 S.Ct. 423, 88 L.Ed.2d 371 (1985); Jones v. Smith, 784 F.2d 149, 152 (2d Cir.1986). Nonetheless, we find that the district court had ample justification for dismissing this claim either for mootness, see Preiser v. Newkirk, 422 U.S. 395, 402-03, 95 S.Ct. 2330, 2334-35, 45 L.Ed.2d 272 (1975); Diffenderfer v. Central Baptist Church, 404 U.S. 412, 414-15, 92 S.Ct. 574, 575-76, 30 L.Ed.2d 567 (1972), or on other grounds. [T]he declaratory judgment statute 'is an enabling Act, which confers a discretion on the courts rather than an absolute right upon the litigant.'  Green, 474 U.S. at 72, 106 S.Ct. at 428 (quoting Public Service Comm'n v. Wycoff Co., 344 U.S. 237, 241, 73 S.Ct. 236, 239, 97 L.Ed. 291 (1952)). As the district court dismissed all Campbell's other claims in their entirety, and the Appellate Division had abandoned use of question 18(c), no practical consequences followed from his claim for declaratory judgment. The district court would have been justified in declining to exercise the declaratory jurisdiction, and would surely do so if we were to remand for consideration of the question. Such a remand would be without practical purpose. We therefore affirm the district court's dismissal of Campbell's challenge to question 18(c) in its entirety. 16