3rd Circuit: Federal Courts Should Abstain From NJ Prorating Case
State courts should handle Altice’s challenge of New Jersey’s cable TV pro-rating law, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a Thursday opinion. The 3rd Circuit vacated a lower court’s decision that the prorating rules are federally preempted,…
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saying it disagreed with that court's opinion that the Younger abstention doctrine didn’t apply. The appeals court remanded for the court to dismiss the amended complaint. Younger tells federal courts to abstain from hearing cases involving federal issues that are before state courts. “The proceeding here implicates important state interests,” and “Altice has an adequate opportunity to raise its federal claims in the state proceeding,” wrote Judge Patty Shwartz for the panel that also included Judges Brooks Smith and Thomas Hardiman. Lacking a criminal analog isn’t a prerequisite to abstention, the court said: Even if it were, state law criminalizes some violations of the Cable Act. “The BPU’s civil enforcement proceeding was quasi-criminal in nature and, thus, the type of proceeding to which Younger applies.” The court heard argument last month (see 2201270042).