Court Opinion

ID: 9499149
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:38:55.984724+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:18.544587
License: Public Domain

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The majority’s decision in this case leads to an unnecessarily broad and perverse result — that once the Michigan courts have determined that a state statute complies with the federal Constitution, the federal courts are precluded from ever passing on the issue. In applying Michigan’s res judi-cata principles, the majority extends the case of Adair v. State of Michigan, 470 *738Mich. 105, 680 N.W.2d 386 (2004), to encompass any plaintiff who mounts a facial challenge to The Township’s nudity ban. Although I agree with the majority that we must apply Michigan’s res judicata principles, I disagree with the majority’s interpretation of Adair. I do not believe that all subsequent plaintiffs who might wish to challenge The Township’s nudity ordinance should be precluded on the basis of res judicata from seeking a federal ruling on whether the ordinance violates the First Amendment. The majority’s holding is especially unsatisfying in this case because this circuit has recently held that a similar Tennessee nudity ban was unconstitutionally overbroad. See Odie v. Decatur County, Tennessee, 421 F.3d 386 (6th Cir.2005) (overturning an ordinance that “prohibits, among other things, nudity and the performance of a wide range of arguably sexually suggestive acts in ‘public places where intoxicating liquors are offered for sale, served or consumed’ ”).
In Adair, the Michigan Supreme Court held that privity requires a “ ‘substantial identity of interests’ and a ‘working functional relationship’ in which the interests of the nonparty are presented and protected by the party in the litigation.” 680 N.W.2d at 396. Applying this test, the Adair Court held that similarly situated school districts and taxpayers were in privity because they all sought to “establish! ] the proportion of state funding for local government units” and to ensure that “mandated activities are funded as they are required to be under the Headlee Amendment.” Id. at 396-97 (italics omitted).
The majority in the case before us interprets Adair to stand for the proposition that all plaintiffs who facially challenge the same ordinance are in privity for res judi-cata purposes. See Maj. Op. at p. 736 (“Bates and The Garter Belt had a substantial identity of interests because each sought a facial invalidation of the ordinance.”) It also denigrates the “working functional relationship” prong of Adair by commenting that “it is hard to see what force the requirement retains,” Maj. Op. at p. 735, and conflates the two prongs of Michigan’s test for privity by allowing the “relationship” prong to “be satisfied by an identification of interest of one person with another as to represent the same legal right.” Id. (citation and quotation marks omitted).
I do not believe that the majority has properly interpreted Adair. In Adair, the local school districts did not challenge the facial constitutionality of an ordinance; they instead sought a ruling on whether one specific defendant — the state — was complying with the requirements of the Michigan Constitution, and specifically pursued a determination of which programs must be funded by the state. This resembles an “as-applied” challenge far more than a facial challenge. Each school district essentially stood in each other’s shoes with respect to enforcing funding requirements against the state.
In addition, the majority opinion glosses over a key portion of Adair’s reasoning, which reads as follows:
“We find that the school districts ... also have the same legal interest protected by the Duran I plaintiffs and are similarly in privity. In this case, particularly because only declaratory relief, not damages, was sought, it is evident that all school districts have the same interest.”
Adair, 680 N.W.2d at 397 (emphasis added). In other words, the local school districts were in privity with each other for res judicata purposes because they all sought the same legal relief; namely, a declaratory judgment regarding mandated funding requirements under the Michigan *739Constitution. See id. at 396 (holding that interests are identical if “the relief sought by one plaintiff to remedy a challenged action is indistinguishable from that sought by another”).
In the present case, however, Bates and The Garter Belt did not seek the identical legal relief. The Garter Belt invoked the First Amendment as a defense in order to prevent The Township from requiring The Garter Belt to comply with its nudity ordinance. Charter Twp. of Van Burén v. Garter Belt, Inc., 258 Mich.App. 594, 597, 673 N.W.2d 111 (Mich.App.2003). Bates, in contrast, seeks not only a declaration that The Township’s nudity ban is unconstitutional, but also $50,000 in compensatory damages. The majority argues that Bates’s damages claim does not render this case distinguishable from Adair because “[t]he only basis [Bates] alleges for such damages is the ordinance’s facial unconstitutionality.” Maj. Op. at p. 736 (emphasis in original). This proves too much, however, because individual damages always flow from the violation of the legal right at issue.
I believe that the decision in Adair stemmed from the fact that a declaratory judgment was the only relief sought by the various school districts. 680 N.W.2d at 397. A party seeking damages, however, has a qualitatively different interest than a party seeking only declaratory relief. Cf. Phinisee v. Rogers, 229 Mich.App. 547, 582 N.W.2d 852, 855 (1998) (holding that an illegitimate child’s interest in establishing paternity is not substantially identical to her mother’s interest because “an illegitimate child’s interests in establishing paternity, which may extend not only to immediate support payments but also to future social security benefits and inheritance through the biological father, differ from the mother’s interests in establishing paternity, which may be focused more on immediate financial concerns”). In addition, the majority’s opinion unnecessarily eviscerates the “working functional relationship” portion of Adair’s preclusion test, even though Bates and The Garter Belt literally possessed a working relationship.
Because the Michigan Supreme Court recognizes that its ruling in Adair represents the “outer limit of the doctrine” of res judicata, 680 N.W.2d at 396, I would decline to apply Adair in a case that is distinguishable on multiple grounds. In my opinion, the more prudent course would be to avoid increasing the already broad scope of Adair, whose holding may raise due process concerns that Bates has not sought to pursue. I therefore respectfully dissent.