Bowen v. Cheuvront

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

RICHARD G. KOPF, District Judge.

“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” 1

For many years, the Supreme Court has made it plain that a federal judge should not use his or her discretionary power under the declaratory judgment statute to interfere with a pending state criminal prosecution except in the most extraordinary of circumstances. Samuels v. Mackell, 401 U.S. 66, 91 S.Ct. 764, 27 L.Ed.2d 688 (1971). Because the plaintiff and her counsel have failed to acknowledge Samuels, let alone deal with its…