00-4230 Brokaw v. Weaver, et al.

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“That proceeding was brought under the Juvenile Court Act which, at the hearing stage, allowed the court to ‘consider only the question whether the minor is abused, neglected, delinquent, in need of supervision, or dependent.’ 705 Ill. Comp. Stat. 405/2-18. Because the Juvenile Court Act did not provide A.D. with a mechanism to present a claim against her relatives and the other state defendants for their alleged violations of her constitutional rights, she did not have a reasonable opportunity to present her claims for purposes of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. See, e.g., Ernst, 108 F.3d at 492 (plaintiff’s claims were not barred by Rooker-Feldman because child dependency adjudication involves a determination that a child is without proper parental care or control, and subsequent custody decisions are made on the basis of the best interests of the child, and therefore plaintiffs did not have a realistic opportunity to present substantive due process claims). But see Goodman, 259 F.3d at 1334 (holding that plaintiffs had a reasonable opportunity to present their constitutional claims during state juvenile court proceedings). In fact, at the first court hearing on July 7, 1983, when A.D. was adjudicated a temporary ward of the court and directed to remain in foster care, A.D. wasn’t even present and was not represented at that hearing by a guardian ad litem or an attorney. Thus, even though technically A.D. was a party to the juvenile proceedings, she did not have a reasonable opportunity to raise her constitutional claims during that proceeding. Therefore, even assuming that A.D.’s constitutional claims are not independent of the state court proceedings, because she lacked a reasonable opportunity to present them during the adjudication of wardship hearing, they are not barred by Rooker-Feldman.”

Reversed and remanded.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, McDade, J., Manion, J.