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William J. Vajk v. Robert P. Young, Jr., et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, No. 17-1509 · judgment October 26, 2017


Certiorari denied · June 11, 2018
Pre-decision estimate: 0% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

Questions Introductory Statement: In the US District Court the underlying case was dismissed on jurisdictional issues and never litigated on merits but despite that the 6'Circuit Court of Appeals rendered a verdict on the merits while lacking jurisdiction in this case where no party in either Court had an "opportunity to be heard" on those merits. The 6'Circuit held that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine finding by the District Court was invalid but in an internally inconsistent ORDER affirmed the District Court judgment to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction on the same basis on October 26, 2017 and reaffirmed the finding on November 21, 2017. In doing so, the Circuit Court effectively altered the judgment of the District Court to benefit nonappealing parties. Your Petitioner is not confused. During the tenure of this case before the 6'Circuit, one of the original defendants, Joan L. Larsen, was nominated to a seat on the bench before which she was a defendant, and after the confirmation process she was commissioned to a seat on the 6th circuit as a judge sharing cases for a lifetime with the judges charged with deciding her own case. Inquiries regarding the identity of the judge issuing the decision of the panel was stonewalled by the Clerk for obvious reasons. Once the Ms. Larsen was nominated, the 6'Circuit Court could never be an impartial and disinterested tribunal for this case. For the reasons above, three of the following questions have to do with the substance of the case, and the fourth

Counsel of record

For petitioner
William J. Vajk

For respondent
Aaron David Lindstrom
Michigan Department of Attorney General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jun 11 2018
    Petition DENIED.
  2. May 22 2018
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/7/2018.
  3. Apr 30 2018
    Waiver of right of respondents Robert P. Young, Jr., Stephen J. Markman, Brian K. Zahra, Bridget Mary McCormack, David F. Viviano, Richard Bernstein, and Joan L. Larsen to respond filed.
  4. Feb 13 2018
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due May 11, 2018)