Zalman V. Armstrong

Plaintiff Bruce Zalman filed this action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky seeking injunctive relief prohibiting his prosecution under Ky. Rev. Stat. § 506.120(1)(d)*fn1 and declaratory relief that this statute violated his constitutional rights under the First, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. At the time this action was commenced in federal court, criminal proceedings were pending against Zalman under this statute in Jefferson County Circuit Court, Kentucky. The district court concluded that Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 27 L. Ed. 2d 669, 91 S. Ct. 746 (1971), did not require federal abstention because the Kentucky statute was "patently and flagrantly" unconstitutional. The court therefore granted the requested relief, permanently enjoining prosecution under the contested provision of the statute and further declaring that provision unconstitutional. We express no opinion on the constitutionality of this statute because we find that the district court should have abstained under the principles enunciated in Younger and its progeny. Accordingly, we vacate the district court's judgment on the merits of the case and remand the case to the district court with instructions to dismiss the complaint.