Sprint Communications Company v. Jacobs

Case Updates

The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Eighth Circuit.

In its brief, the U.S. Chamber urged the Supreme Court to reverse the decision of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that Younger required a federal district court to abstain during the pendency of a purely remedial state proceeding. The Chamber argued that the appellate court’s holding is inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s cases defining the Younger doctrine. The Chamber also argued that the Eighth Circuit’s holding is inconsistent with the rationales underpinning Younger and that its understanding of Younger is an outlier among the courts of appeals. The Chamber warned that adopting the Eighth Circuit's approach to the doctrine would frustrate federal judicial review of federal challenges to state agency action.