Court Opinion

ID: 9457196
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:15:34.443238+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:15.600240
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I completely concur with all of the majority opinion save Part VII, and with the grant of injunctive relief against the federal defendants pending their full compliance with federal law. With deference, however, I dissent from so much of the opinion as holds that we can or should compel the State of Texas to hazard damages or possibly to forfeit the millions of dollars of her taxpayers’ money now invested in the construction work which has been accomplished on the two end “segments” and in the parcels of right-of-way bought and paid for over the length of the entire project. See the cases cited in footnote 4 to the majority opinion. I do not say we should condone any form of subterfuge. However, no federal funds have yet been received for or expended on this project and should the State of Texas unqualifiedly renounce any federal fund participation in this project in the future, I cannot conceive of any equitable basis upon which the court below could enjoin the completion of this work as a purely State action. Texas is fortunate to have a tax base large enough to permit her to qualify for all permissible federal fund highway assistance each fiscal year. Thus, I do not see the withdrawal of her unaccepted application for federal funding of this project as any sort of an illicit or improper diversion of funds to thwart national policy. If Texas makes a final disengagement from what appears to me more nearly a proposal than a marriage, then neither Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966 or the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 would govern the execution of the remaining construction.
The plaintiffs have suggested that Texas would still be bound by its own law — Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 5421q (Supp.1971), an almost literal embodiment of Section 4(f)- — and that the court below would have pendent jurisdiction to enforce this State statute. United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966). There has been no development of this jurisdictional issue in that court. But assuming that the district court would have power to adjudicate this claim on such a jurisdictional basis, I believe it should exercise its discretion not to proceed on this wholly State cause of action and thus avoid a needless decision of State law. See C. Wright, Law of Federal Courts, 62-65 (2d ed. 1970). The mere fact that State law parallels federal law, without more, is no reason to warrant a federal forum in adjudicating a contention that a State may be violating its own statute. Such litigation ought to be strictly the business of State courts.
To this extent and on the condition set out, I respectfully dissent as to this point.
ON PETITION FOR REHEARING AND PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC
PER CURIAM:
The Petition for Rehearing is denied and no member of this panel nor Judge in regular active service on the Court having requested that the Court be polled on rehearing en banc, (Rule 35 Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure; Local Fifth Circuit Rule 12) the Petition for Rehearing En Banc is denied.
CLARK, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
For the reasons set forth in my partial dissent, I also respectfully dissent from the Court’s refusal to grant a rehearing as to Part VII of the majority opinion.