Abstract
This Article presents the results of an empirical survey examining the disposition of federal claims after Younger abstention litigation. It traces the expansion of the Younger doctrine over the past several decades and explains how it featured prominently in the judicial parity debate that occurred in earnest from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. It notes that despite the emergence of empiricism as a tool in that debate, no one has examined how federal claims are actually being resolved in post-Younger proceedings at the state and federal levels. The Article then undertakes that inquiry, observing a federal claim success rate in post-abstention proceedings in federal court nearly three times as high as the corresponding success rate at the state level. It compares these findings to other empirical comparative studies outside of the abstention context and concludes by proposing possible explanations for the results.
Recommended Citation
Joshua G. Urquhart,
Younger Abstention and Its Aftermath: An Empricial Perspective,
12
Nev. L.J.
1
(2011).
Available at:
https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/nlj/vol12/iss1/2