Grand Juror Doe v. McCulloch, No. 15-2667 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff served on the Missouri grand jury that considered whether probable cause existed to indict Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown in August 2014. Plaintiff filed suit seeking declaratory judgment that the Missouri statutes restricting grand jurors from disclosing information were unconstitutional as applied to her. She claimed that the state’s grand-jury secrecy laws violate her First Amendment right to free speech. On appeal, plaintiff claimed that the district court erred by dismissing her First Amendment claim under Burford v. Sun Oil Co. The court concluded that the district court properly abstained from the immediate exercise of federal jurisdiction because answers to state-law issues by the Missouri courts could alter or avoid altogether the need for a decision on Doe’s First Amendment claim. Rather than dismissing the case, the court concluded that the district court instead should have retained jurisdiction and stayed the proceedings while the parties litigate the state-law questions in the Missouri state courts. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded. The court noted that, when the state-law issues have been resolved, if the First Amendment claim has not become moot, plaintiff may return to federal district court and pursue it.
Court Description: Wollman, Author, with Benton and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Constitutional law. In action by a grand juror in the Michael Brown matter seeking a declaratory judgment that the Missouri statutes restricting grand jurors from disclosing information were unconstitutional as applied to her, the district court erred in dismissing the matter and instructing plaintiff to pursue all of her claims in state court; the district court properly abstained from the immediate exercise of federal jurisdiction, but rather than dismissing the case, the court should have retained jurisdiction and stayed the proceedings while the parties litigate the state-law questions in Missouri state courts; when the state law claims have been resolved, if plaintiff's First Amendment claim has not become moot, plaintiff may return to federal court and pursue it.
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