Court Opinion

ID: 9496361
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:24:22.519665+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:31.327019
License: Public Domain

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Because I believe the district court properly applied the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, I respectfully dissent.
Plaintiff made a general challenge as well as an applied challenge to the constitutionality of the ordinance in the state-court proceeding, the state-court judgment addressed and confirmed the constitutionality of the ordinance as applied to plaintiff and generally, and plaintiff did not appeal.
It is clear that plaintiff is making the same applied challenge to the constitutionality of the ordinance in his federal complaint here, and on that basis the district court applied the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. While plaintiff does not directly ask that his conviction be set aside, he does complain that defendants-appellees “im-permissibly interfered with the exercise of Pastor Hood’s rights of conscience and religion and freedom of speech guaranteed by Section 1.027 and 1.11 of the Ohio Constitution,” and asks that “a judgment and decree declaring that Chapter 128-4 of the *600Ohio Administrative Code and Section 105.41 are unconstitutional as applied to plaintiffs activities in this case.” The activity described in the complaint is the May 18, 2000 activity in which the state “unconstitutionally stopped plaintiffs speech.” To read plaintiffs federal complaint as making only a facial challenge would require us to disregard the fact that plaintiff seeks injunctive relief only for himself and a declaration that his conduct as described in the complaint was constitutionally protected. To grant him the relief sought would require us to consider the same issues previously decided in Ohio state court; i.e., the constitutionality of the ordinance as applied to plaintiffs conduct on May 18, 2000. Plaintiffs general challenge is “inextricably intertwined” with the state court proceeding. Further, plaintiff made a general challenge in state court. The state court has actually ruled on his general challenge. As the district court noted, the issue was explicitly decided in the criminal case. Plaintiff cannot seek to have it relitigated here.