Milchtein v. Chisholm

Dist. Ct. did not err in dismissing plaintiffs’ lawsuit alleging that defendants violated plaintiffs’ constitutional rights by initiating proceedings that resulted in placement of plaintiffs’ two eldest children in foster-care, where: (1) said children ran away from home; and (2) plaintiffs claimed that defendants had failed to accommodate their view of family organization and management with respect to plaintiffs’ Orthodox Judaism faith. Dist. Ct., in noting that said children were now adults, dismissed case as moot and further found that dismissal was appropriate under Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Ct. of Appeals, though, found that Rooker-Feldman doctrine did not apply, since plaintiffs did not seek to alter state court’s placement of their children. However, Ct. of Appeals found that dismissal was appropriate because their lawsuit lacked requirement of justiciability, since plaintiffs merely wanted advisory opinion that would, in essence, improperly tell state court judges how to rule on now closed case. Fact that plaintiffs had 12 other minor children did not require different result, since Younger doctrine would require federal court to abstain from any similar future case in order to allow state court to determine any constitutional issues arising out of foster-care placement of plaintiff’s children.