Back on August 13, 2003, Howard A. Levine and Roy A. Schotland wrote an oped in the New York Law Journal suggesting that the Second Circuit abstain from deciding the Spargo case, involving the constitutionality of an aspect of New York’s code of judicial conduct. The oped, called “Judicial Campaign Rules,” is available here for those with a Lexis-Nexis subscription.
Although the parties did not pay attention to abstention in the briefs, apparently it was the focus of much of the Second Circuit’s oral argument last month.
UPDATE: For more on abstention, see the ABA amicus brief in the case.