Breaking- United States Supreme Court Denies Cert. in Daves v. Dallas County

 


On January 5, 2024, the United States Supreme Court of the United States held a conference on the petition for cert. filed in Daves v. Dallas County.  

The petition for cert. raised two issues.  The first was abstention.  The Younger Abstention Doctrine holds that federal courts should abstain from cases that are pending in state proceedings.  The federal appellate courts have suggested that the federal courts should not  attempt to "micromanage" ongoing criminal cases pending in the state courts.  

This argument would seem to apply even more to this litigation.  Once the Fifth Circuit held that judges could not be sued in these types of lawsuits, the analysis should have been even more in favor of not getting involved in this type of litigation.  Since the judges are not proper parties, then why would plaintiffs be allowed to still sue, going around the judges, by suing only the county and the sheriff?  The Fifth Circuit held that Younger Abstention required that the federal courts abstain.  The United States Supreme Court has now denied cert. on this issue.

The second issue was mootness.  The Fifth Circuit held that the issues in Daves was mooted when the Texas Legislature passed SB 6 with made fundamental changes to pretrial bail procedures.  In addition, the Fifth Circuit held that the plaintiffs' arguments on this issue did not make sense and did not even apply.  The United States Supreme Court has now denied cert. on this issue as well.

To see the list of orders denying cert. for January 8, 2024 CLICK HERE.

To see the opinion in Daves II (Second En Banc Opinion) CLICK HERE.

To see the opinon in Daves I (First En Banc Opinion) CLICK HERE.

To see opinion in Daves by the Panel which was replaced by Daves I CLICK HERE.

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