H. Stephens Winters, Judge, District Court of Louisiana, 4th Judicial District, et al. v. Stanley R. Palowsky, III, Individually and On Behalf of Alternative Environmental Solutions, Inc.

This Court is the final arbiter of the content of federal law. Louisiana has adopted the federal law of judicial immunity as its own state law and views decisions of this Court as authoritative. Does this Court have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1257(a) to review a decision of the Louisiana Supreme Court applying the substance of federal law to determine whether state court judges are entitled to judicial immunity?

In Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219 (1988), this Court held that judicial immunity does not apply where a judge performs an administrative function. Appellate (and trial) courts have consistently held that this exception does not apply to acts performed in connection with pending cases. Here, a litigant alleges that he was disadvantaged in his pending case because the defendant judges aided or concealed a law clerk’s destruction of court records. Does judicial immunity apply?