Lisa Hill Leonard v. The Alabama State Board of Pharmacy

Summary

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to abstain under Younger v. Harris from interfering with an Alabama Board of Pharmacy enforcement proceeding against Lisa Hill Leonard and her pharmacy. The court held that Leonard could raise her federal PREP Act immunity and preemption claims in the administrative proceeding and through Alabama judicial review. The court also rejected her arguments that the bad-faith or other Younger exceptions applied.

Holdings

1. Younger abstention was warranted because the Board proceeding was an ongoing civil enforcement action, implicated an important state interest, and provided Leonard an adequate opportunity to present her federal claims.
2. The bad-faith exception did not apply because Leonard failed to show that the charges were brought without a reasonable expectation of obtaining a valid conviction or in retaliation for constitutionally protected conduct.
3. The exception for proceedings founded on flagrantly and patently unconstitutional laws did not apply because Leonard's PREP Act preemption claim was not facially conclusive or one of the clearest federal-preemption claims.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Younger abstention applied to the Alabama Board of Pharmacy's ongoing civil enforcement proceeding.
2. Whether Leonard had an adequate opportunity to raise her PREP Act immunity and preemption claims in the administrative proceeding and in Alabama state-court judicial review.
3. Whether the bad-faith or harassment exception to Younger abstention applied.
4. Whether the Board's proceeding fell within the exception for prosecutions founded on flagrantly and patently unconstitutional laws or a facially conclusive federal-preemption claim.

Disposition

affirmed