PITTSBURGH – The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania will not interfere with state law, as it denied a woman’s request for injunctive relief in a case in which she lost custody of her two children.
On March 26, U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan ruled on Nicole Metzger’s case against Allegheny County, the county’s Children and Youth Service (CYS), and Maria Duranti and Autumn Smith, individually and in their capacity as CYS workers.
The children’s mother, Metzger, sued along with her parents and children, claiming her due process rights were infringed upon when CYS didn’t tell her about a hearing during which she would lose her parental rights through the ruling of a state court judge. A family member is in discussions to adopt the children under the state rulings.
Judge Ranjan determined that she would keep that order intact.
“While the court is sympathetic to Ms. Metzger’s situation, this is a matter that only the state courts can adjudicate,” Ranjan wrote. "Specifically, because granting the relief plaintiffs seek would require the court to conclude that the state court erred, the Rooker-Feldman Doctrine bars the court from exercising jurisdiction, at least over the claims seeking to overturn the parental-rights termination order
He added that jurisdiction aside, the Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit have previously ruled that the lower courts shouldn’t take on cases of this nature.
The court ultimately didn’t want to overstep the state court’s rulings that legal familial issues should be handled in the state court. Considering this, Ranjan denied the motions for preliminary injunction and emergency preliminary injunction.
The CYS inquiry started with worries about drug abuse, mental health issues and jail time on the parts of Metzger and the fathers of her two children. The adoption proceedings were scheduled to run from Feb. 28 to March 20, 2020, but were put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case number 2:2020-cv-00073-NR