Court Opinion

ID: 9426806
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:00.03929+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:03.321786
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Blackmun,
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion and write only to stress that the substantiality of the State’s interest in its proceeding has been an important factor in abstention cases under Younger v. Harris, 401 U. S. 37 (1971), from the beginning. In discussing comity, the Court in Younger clearly indicated that both federal and state interests had to be taken into account:
‘‘The concept does not mean blind deference to ‘States’ Rights’ any more than it means centralization of control over every important issue in our National Government and its courts. The Framers rejected both these courses. What the concept does represent is a system in which there is sensitivity to the legitimate interests of both State and National Governments, and in which the National Government, anxious though it may be to vindicate and protect federal rights and federal interests, always endeavors to do so in ways that will not unduly interfere with the legitimate activities of the States.” Id., at 44.
Consistently with this requirement of balancing the federal and state interests, the Court in previous Younger cases has imposed a requirement that the State must show that it has an important interest to vindicate in its own courts before the federal court must refrain from exercising otherwise proper federal jurisdiction. In Younger itself, the Court relied on the State’s vital concern in the administration of its criminal laws. In Huffman v. Pursue, Inc., 420 U. S. 592 (1975), the *449Court stressed the fact that it dealt with a quasi-criminal state proceeding to which the State was a party. The proceeding was both in aid of and closely related to criminal statutes. Thus, the State’s underlying policy interest in the litigation was deemed to be as great as the interest found in Younger. Similarly, in Juidice v. Vail, 430 U. S. 327 (1977), the Court found that the State’s interest in its contempt procedures was substantial.
In cases where the State’s interest has been more attenuated, the Court has refused to order Younger abstention. Thus, in Steffel v. Thompson, 415 U. S. 452 (1974), in which a state prosecution was merely threatened, the federal court was free to reach the merits of the claim for a declaratory judgment. Id., at 462. In such a case, “the opportunity for adjudication of constitutional rights in a federal forum, as authorized by the Declaratory Judgment Act, becomes paramount.” Ellis v. Dyson, 421 U. S. 426, 432 (1975). See generally Kanowitz, Deciding Federal Law Issues in Civil Proceedings: State Versus Federal Trial Courts, 3 Hastings Const. L. Q. 141 (1976).
Application of these principles to the instant case leads me to agree with the Court’s order reversing and remanding the case. Like the Court, I am satisfied that a state proceeding was pending. Ante, at 444, 446 n. 9. I, too, find significant the fact that the State was a party in its sovereign capacity to' both the state suit and the federal suit. Ante, at 444. Here, I emphasize the importance of the fact that the state interest in the pending state proceeding was substantial. In my view, the fact that the State had the option of proceeding either civilly or criminally to impose sanctions for a fraudulent concealment of assets while one applies for and receives public assistance demonstrates that the underlying state interest is of the same order of importance as the interests in Younger and Huffman. The propriety of abstention should not depend on the State’s choice to vindicate its interests by a less drastic, and perhaps more lenient, *450route. In addition, as the Court notes, the state-court proceeding played an important role in safeguarding the fiscal integrity of the public assistance programs. Since the benefits of the recovery of fraudulently obtained funds are enjoyed by all the taxpayers of the State, it is reasonable to recognize a distinction between the State’s status as creditor and the status of private parties using the same procedures.
For me, the existence of the foregoing factors brings this case squarely within the Court’s prior Younger abstention rulings.