Court Opinion

ID: 9459877
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:34:07.12789+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:22.398720
License: Public Domain

ADAMS, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I concur in the result reached by the majority in this matter. Although the doctrine of Younger v. Harris generally precludes a federal district court from enjoining a criminal proceeding already under way in the state court, there are limited exceptions to this wise rule of comity. One of those exceptions, as I read Younger, arises when “extraordinary circumstances” or “unusual circumstances,” 401 U.S., at 53 and 54, 91 S.Ct. 746, exist. As the recitation set forth in the majority opinion demonstrates, it would seem to me that such extraordinary or unusual circumstances are asserted here so as to make it appropriate for the district court to proceed with findings of fact and conclusions of law.
The plaintiff claims, both in his pleadings and in his evidence, that he was coerced by members of the State Supreme Court into relinquishing his Fifth Amendment right not to testify before the grand jury. He asserts that he then did testify, and that, as a result, he was indicted because of his allegedly coerced testimony. He sought, in the state court, to have the indictment dismissed because it was based on the coerced testimony, but his motion was refused, and the state appellate courts declined to entertain his appeal.
If the district court should determine, after an appropriate evidentiary inquiry, *1284that this plaintiff’s Fifth Amendment right has been abridged, in the factual setting of this case an exception to Younger’s precept of non-interference would obtain.1

. Although the plaintiff names as defendants the Justices of the Supreme Court of New Jersey as well as that State’s Attorney General, the final injunction, if issued, may be limited to the Attorney General, prohibiting him from continuing criminal proceedings against plaintiff. It should also be noted that plaintiff does not seek money damages.