Ashanti v. Supreme Court of NM

F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
OCT 31 2002
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
KEESHA-MARIA ASHANTI, The
Honorable,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
No. 01-2220
v. D.C. No. CIV-01-513 BB
(D. New Mexico)
SUPREME COURT OF NEW
MEXICO; JUDICIAL
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
COMMISSION,
Defendants - Appellees.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before HENRY , ANDERSON , and LUCERO , Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff is an elected New Mexico County Court judge who was ordered by
the New Mexico Supreme Court to attend a mid-year-evaluation interview,
pursuant to that state’s Judicial Performance Evaluation Program. When Judge
Ashanti refused to participate in the interview unless her attorney was allowed to
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court
generally disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order
and judgment may be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
accompany her, the state Supreme Court issued an order holding her in contempt
of court. In response, Judge Ashanti filed an action in federal district court
challenging both the contempt order and the state’s judicial evaluation procedure.
But because the contempt order is a judicial decision of the state’s highest court,
and Judge Ashanti’s general constitutional challenges to the judicial evaluation
procedure are inextricably intertwined with the state court decision, we agree with
the district court that it lacked jurisdiction. Thus, we affirm the district court’s
dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. 1
I.
The New Mexico Supreme Court, which has superintending control of that
state’s inferior courts, established a Judicial Performance Evaluation Program and
created a Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission (“Commission”) to
administer the program. The rules promulgated by the Commission allow it to
conduct judge interviews as official sources of information in evaluating the
professional performance of a judge standing for retention. The evaluation
program also provides for mid-term evaluation of judges, which is conducted half
1
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously to grant the parties’ request for a decision on the briefs without oral
argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(f); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore
ordered submitted without oral argument.
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way through a judge’s term of office, for the purpose of improving the judge’s
performance.
Pursuant to the evaluation program, the Commission scheduled an interview
with Judge Ashanti. She came to the interview with two observers, one of whom
was an attorney, and asked that they be allowed to attend the interview. The
Commission, however, declined to conduct the interview in the presence of the
observers, and the interview was rescheduled. Thereafter, Judge Ashanti
corresponded with the Commission through her attorney, questioning the
necessity of an interview in the mid-term evaluation process and stating her
refusal to participate in the interview without counsel. As a result, the
Commission sought and received a Writ of Superintending Control from the New
Mexico Supreme Court, directing Judge Ashanti to attend the interview. Again
Judge Ashanti’s attorney wrote to the Commission, restating her refusal to be
interviewed without counsel. The Commission then filed a motion requesting an
order to show cause why Judge Ashanti should not be held in contempt of court
for failing to comply with the court’s previous order. Judge Ashanti responded to
the motion, and, after holding a hearing, the New Mexico Supreme Court issued
an Order of Contempt against Judge Ashanti for failing or refusing to comply
with the Writ of Superintending Control. The order specified several
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requirements for purging the contempt, including appearing at the interview
without counsel or witnesses.
In response to the contempt order, Judge Ashanti filed an action in federal
district court, requesting injunctive relief requiring the Commission to allow
Judge Ashanti’s counsel to attend her interview. She also asked that the district
court declare the Commission’s interview-and-recommendation process
unconstitutional, or, in the alternative, that the court set objective standards to be
used when interviewing and recommending judges. The district court dismissed
the complaint because it determined that it lacked jurisdiction based on the
Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman ,
460 U.S. 462 (1983). We review that determination de novo. Kiowa Indian Tribe
of Okla. v. Hoover , 150 F.3d 1163, 1165 (10th Cir. 1998).
II.
The Supreme Court held in Feldman that a federal district court has no
jurisdiction to review final state-court determinations made in judicial
proceedings. 460 U.S. at 476. Review of those determinations “resides
exclusively in the United States Supreme Court.” Razatos v. Color. Supreme
Court , 746 F.2d 1429, 1432 (10th Cir. 1984). Further, federal review of
constitutional claims is also prohibited if the claims are “inextricably intertwined”
with a state court judicial proceeding. Feldman, 460 U.S. at 483-84 n.16, 486-87.
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This is so because if claims are inextricably intertwined with the state court’s
order in the judicial proceeding, then the federal court “is in essence being called
upon to review the state court decision.” Id. at 483-84 n.16.
We must determine if the circumstances of this case preclude federal
review under Feldman , and we begin by looking at the relief sought in the
complaint. Judge Ashanti seeks injunctive relief that would effectively overturn
the New Mexico Supreme Court’s order of contempt against her–clearly a
challenge to that state court order. She also seeks a declaration that the state’s
judicial evaluation program is unconstitutional or, in the alternative, she requests
injunctive relief requiring the Commission to set objective interview-and-
recommendation standards. Because we are prohibited from reviewing
determinations made in state court orders that arise from judicial proceedings, our
first task is to determine if the contempt proceeding before the New Mexico
Supreme Court was judicial in nature. And, if we agree with the district court
that it was, we must then determine if Judge Ashanti’s constitutional claims are
inextricably intertwined with that judicial proceeding.
A.
“[I]t is a question of federal law whether a particular proceeding before
another tribunal was truly judicial for purposes of ascertaining the jurisdiction of
a federal court.” Id. , 460 U.S. at 476 n.13 (quotation omitted). And “the nature
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of a proceeding depends not upon the character of the body but upon the character
of the proceedings.” Id. at 477 (quotation omitted).
Judge Ashanti maintains that the state contempt proceeding was
administrative in nature, rather than judicial. Like the district court, we disagree.
The contempt proceedings involved a judicial inquiry, “in which the [New Mexico
Supreme Court] was called upon to investigate, declare, and enforce ‘liabilities as
they [stood] on present or past facts and under laws supposed already to exist.’”
Id. at 479 (quoting Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co. , 211 U.S. 210, 226 (1908)).
Judge Ashanti’s refusal to participate in the interview without her attorney
required the New Mexico Supreme Court to consider her position and legal
arguments in light of existing law and determine if she should be held in contempt
for refusing to appear unless the Commission permitted her attorney to attend.
See id. at 480. The proceedings were not administrative: the court did not engage
in rulemaking. See id at 479 . The proceedings were not legislative: the court did
not “‘look to the future and chang[e] existing conditions by making a new rule to
be applied thereafter to all or some part of those subject to its power.’” Id.
(quoting Prentis , 211 U.S. at 226). And the proceedings were certainly not
simply ministerial. In short, the state court adjudicated Judge Ashanti’s claim of
a present right to have an attorney present during her mid-term interview–“the
essence of a judicial proceeding.” Id. at 481. Because the contempt order arose
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from judicial proceedings, the district court lacked jurisdiction to review the state
court’s decision.
B.
In addition to challenging the result of the contempt proceedings, Judge
Ashanti also mounted a constitutional challenge to the judicial evaluation
program. So we must determine if the constitutional claims are inextricably
intertwined with the state judicial proceeding. If they are, then the district court
would, in essence, be reviewing the New Mexico Supreme Court’s contempt
decision, a task that is beyond its jurisdiction. See Razatos , 746 F.2d at 1433
(citing Feldman ).
The crux of Judge Ashanti’s claim is her objection to being interviewed
without her attorney present. In order to resolve Judge Ashanti’s constitutional
challenges to the evaluation program, “the district court would have to go beyond
mere review of the state rule as promulgated , to an examination of the rule as
applied by the state court to the particular factual circumstances of [this] case.”
Id. It is not possible to address Judge Ashanti’s challenge to the evaluation
program without implicating the state court’s decision that she be compelled to
attend the interview without witnesses. Consequently, her constitutional
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challenge is inextricably intertwined with the state judicial proceedings, and the
district court was correct in holding it lacked jurisdiction. 2
III.
The district court lacked jurisdiction to consider Judge Ashanti’s challenge
to the New Mexico Supreme Court’s order of contempt. And because her general
constitutional challenge to the evaluation program is inextricably intertwined with
the state court’s judicial contempt proceeding, the district court also lacked
jurisdiction over those claims. We AFFIRM the district court’s dismissal of the
complaint for lack of jurisdiction.
Entered for the Court
Robert H. Henry
Circuit Judge
2
In her brief on appeal, Judge Ashanti states that she mounted a general
constitutional challenge to the evaluation procedure over which the district court
had jurisdiction. We disagree. Although Judge Ashanti referred to a general
constitutional attack, she failed to sufficiently identify for the district court, in
either her complaint or her response to the motion to dismiss, a general
constitutional challenge unrelated to her assertion that she be allowed to have
counsel present at her interview.
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