In February I highlighted a lawsuit against the justices of the Illinois Supreme Court by a retired trial-court judge who had been dismissed from a temporary assignment in retaliation for some pro-MAGA speech.
The Justices moved to dismiss, raising:
• General federalism/comity abstention, a sort-of hybrid abstention for cases that do not fit squarely within Younger or Rooker. (Consider how this might apply to SKS, in the Abstention Review Puzzle).
• Judicial immunity, based on the view that the termination of the appointment was a judicial act (relying, in part, on Rooker-Feldman cases finding that an order was a court order).
• Judge exception to § 1983, for seeking an injunction without a DJ.
• Qualified immunity as a fallback.
This is a case to watch.
