United States Sixth Circuit

In plaintiff's 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against various state officials claiming that his termination from the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) was the result of a newspaper article quoting the plaintiff about his two citizen state court suits seeking to compel enforcement of the state's liquor licensing laws and the MGCB's employee qualification rules, dismissal of the suit under Younger v. Harris is vacated and remanded as Younger does not apply when the federal plaintiff is also the plaintiff in the state court action, and the plaintiff is not attempting to use the federal courts to shield him from state court enforcement efforts.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/01/2009
• Decided 02/12/2010
• Published 02/12/2010

Judges

• Before GUY, ROGERS, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Sixth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:Patrick J. Devlin, Patrick J. Devlin, P.C., Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Appellant. Ann M. Sherman, Jason D. Hawkins, Office of the Michigan Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellees. ON BRIEF:Patrick J. Devlin, Patrick J. Devlin, P.C., Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Appellant. Ann M. Sherman, Barbara A. Schmidt, Office of the Michigan Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellees.