MD attorney’s lawsuit against judge should be thrown out, magistrate says

A lawsuit by an attorney against a state judge who sanctioned him should be dismissed, a federal magistrate judge recommended Friday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan wrote that Baltimore attorney Nathan Charles’ lawsuit against Montgomery County Circuit Judge Louis Leibowitz should be thrown out because federal judges don’t have jurisdiction to review the orders of state-court judges.

Charles sued Leibowitz last October after the judge, who presided over some proceedings in his divorce, twice sanctioned him and warned him to control his anger after he threatened to sue a loan officer. Charles argued the orders and warnings violated his rights to free speech and due process because he hadn’t committed misconduct.

Leibowitz ordered him to pay $23,680 in attorneys’ fees to his ex-wife for his appeal of another judge’s custody order, as well as $1,222 as a sanction for a contempt petition Charles had filed. The judge later withdrew the fine, and Charles withdrew the contempt petition.

“(T)he sanctions were transparently imposed because the court disapproved of Plaintiff’s speech, tone, and criticisms,” his complaint stated.

Charles, an immigration lawyer specializing in asylum cases, is representing himself in the lawsuit against Leibowitz. In a statement, he said he was “disappointed” in Sullivan’s recommendation and was a victim of “judicial gaslighting.”

This is his second lawsuit against a judge arising from the divorce case; the first was against Montgomery County Circuit Judge Christopher Fogleman. Charles voluntarily dismissed that case shortly after he sued Leibowitz.

The complaint against Leibowitz mentions several other judges, including Fogleman, but none are listed as defendants. Charles has sought leave to add five of Leibowitz’s colleagues and three Appellate Court of Maryland judges but hasn’t been granted leave to amend his complaint.

Through a spokesperson for the state judiciary, Leibowitz declined to comment. The Maryland Office of the Attorney General, which is representing him, also declined.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis last month referred the case to Sullivan, the Maryland federal court’s chief magistrate judge, for a report and recommendation.

Sullivan recommended that the case be dismissed and that Charles not be allowed to amend his complaint. He wrote that the lawsuit clearly ran afoul of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, which prevents “state-court losers” from asking federal judges to review and reject judgments with which they disagree. He was not persuaded that the complaint raised legitimate constitutional issues that were separate from the divorce case.

“During this case, the Plaintiff has endeavored to frame his case as one that involves independent and separate issues from that of the state court divorce and custody proceedings,” Sullivan wrote.

“Yet it is apparent from his Complaint that he is asking this Court to review the sanctions orders, find them unconstitutional, and enjoin Judge Leibowitz from imposing any similar orders in the future.”

Charles stated that the courts had sanctioned him, severely restricted his custody of his children — to one weekend a month, supervised — and limited his ability to file motions despite not having found that he committed misconduct or was psychologically unstable. (The court restricted his ability to file motions because he had filed many “frivolous” ones.)

He wrote that he complied with orders to attend therapy and anger management treatment but that the court “continued moving the goalposts without identifying any clinical finding, evidentiary basis, or attainable condition that would bring the supervision to an end.”

“Every motion I have filed has rested on compelling, and often mandatory, legal authority,” Charles stated in an email. “The problem is not frivolous litigation. The problem is the Montgomery County Circuit Court’s persistent refusal to follow controlling law, even when that refusal harms the well-being of two young children. That is frankly disgusting.”