ABSTENTION-YOUNGER ABSTENTION-CIVIL RIGHTS

Borowski v. Kean Univ., 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 12889 (3d Cir. May 25, 2023) (Phipps, C.J.) After a public university in New Jersey terminated an adjunct professor’s employment, she filed an administrative appeal with the New Jersey Civil Service Commission. The Commission dismissed that challenge on jurisdictional grounds. Instead of appealing that ruling in the state-court system as she could have, the former adjunct professor commenced this suit in federal court for violations of her federal and state civil rights. The District Court relied on Younger abstention to dismiss the adjunct professor’s federal case with prejudice. But Younger abstention prevents federal-court interference with only certain types of state proceedings, such as quasi-criminal civil enforcement actions, and an appeal to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission is neither quasi-criminal nor within another category of Younger-eligible proceedings. Another prerequisite for Younger abstention is that the state proceeding must be ongoing, and when the adjunct professor filed this case, the Commission’s dismissal of the proceeding was already final, the time to appeal having expired. Thus, on de novo review, two independent reasons prevent the dismissal of the adjunct professor’s complaint on Younger grounds: an appeal to the Commission is not a quasi-criminal civil enforcement proceeding, and when this suit was filed, the adjunct professor’s appeal to the Commission was not ongoing. Accordingly, we will vacate the District Court’s order of dismissal and remand this case for further proceedings.