Missouri’s state supreme court barred the state from implementing the Republican legislature’s new gerrymandered maps for this November’s election on state constitutional grounds. After an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court — the only appeal available per 28 U.S.C. § 1257 — failed to disturb that ruling, a federal district judge went ahead and decided alone — despite 28 U.S.C § 2284 requiring a three judge panel — that the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong. Among the many, many deficiencies in Chief Judge Stephen Clark’s judicial misadventures, we ask: What is the name of the doctrine prohibiting state court losers from asking a federal court to throw out a state court judgment?
Hint: The name stems from two cases, 60 years apart, and draws its statutory justification in part from the aforementioned 28 U.S.C. § 1257.