FEATURE ARTICLE

November 2011

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Ninth Circuit Holds Younger Abstention Doctrine Did Not Apply to Action to Determine the Constitutionality of a Local Waste Management Ordinance

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the trial court erred in dismissing a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil rights action for declaratory and injunctive relief challenging the constitutionality of a voter-enacted county ordinance restricting the import of out-ofcounty solid waste into Solano County on Younger abstention doctrine grounds. The Court of Appeals held that the Younger abstention doctrine did not apply in this case, where private citizen groups had sought to have the county enforce the challenged ordinance, because a U.S. District Court’s exercise of jurisdiction over the § 1983 claim would not interfere with the state’s exercise of a basic state function and would not offend the principles of comity and federalism that the Younger abstention doctrine was designed to uphold.