Timothy Cooper v. James Rapp

OPINION

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

This appeal involves sanctions imposed by Ohio state-court Judge James S. Rapp while presiding over a class-action lawsuit. After Judge Rapp granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants in that case, he issued monetary sanctions against plaintiff Timothy H. Cooper and both monetary and nonmonetary sanctions against his African-American attorney, Ambrose Moses III. In response, Cooper and Moses filed suit in federal court against Judge Rapp and the Wyandot County Court of Common Pleas, arguing that the sanctions were motivated by Judge Rapp’s…