562 F. App'x 50

2d Cir.

2014

Olga P. CONTRERAS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Georgette PERIMENIS, Jill Edgar, Doctor, Magdalena Castro, Brianne White, Hensley Flash, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 13-3337.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

April 14, 2014.

agencies are not required to make findings on issues the decision of which is unnecessary to the results they reach.“).

For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is DENIED. As we have completed our review, the stay of removal that the Court previously granted in this petition is VACATED.

Olga P. Contreras, Greenwich, CT, pro se.

Zenobia G. Graham-Days, for George Jepsen, Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, Hartford, CT, on behalf of Georgette Perimenis, Jonathan B. Orleans (Nathaniel J. Gentile, on the brief), Pullman & Comley LLC, Bridgeport, CT, on behalf of Jill Edgar, John E. Tucker (Benjamin Zivyon, on the brief), for George Jepsen, Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, Hartford, CT, on behalf of Magdalena Castro, Brianne White, and Hensley Flash, for Appellees.

PRESENT: AMALYA L. KEARSE, DENNIS JACOBS and GERARD E. LYNCH, Circuit Judges.

SUMMARY ORDER

Appellant Olga P. Contreras, pro se, appeals from the district court‘s judgment dismissing her amended complaint against the Appellees. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, procedural history of the case, and issues on appeal.

We review de novo a district court decision dismissing a complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) or 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2). See Jaghory v. New York State Dep‘t of Educ., 131 F.3d 326, 329 (2d Cir.1997); Giano v. Goord, 250 F.3d 146, 149-50 (2d Cir.2001). To survive a motion to dismiss, the complaint must plead “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007); see also Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). Although all allegations contained in the complaint are assumed to be true, this tenet is “inapplicable to legal conclusions.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678.

While all complaints must contain sufficient factual allegations to meet the plausibility standard, we look for such allegations in pro se complaints by reading them with “special solicitude” and interpreting them to raise the “strongest [claims] that they suggest,” Triestman v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, 470 F.3d 471, 474-75 (2d Cir. 2006) (per curiam) (internal quotation marks and emphasis omitted). In addition to the requirement that pro se complaints be liberally construed, district courts should generally not dismiss them without granting the plaintiff leave to amend at least once. See Cuoco v. Moritsugu, 222 F.3d 99, 112 (2d Cir.2000). A district court may deny leave to amend, though, when such an amendment would be futile. See Pangburn v. Culbertson, 200 F.3d 65, 70-71 (2d Cir.1999). We review the denial of leave to amend for abuse of discretion. See id. at 70.

Having conducted an independent and de novo review of the record in light of these principles, we conclude that the district court properly dismissed Contreras‘s amended complaint for failure to state a claim against any defendant. To the extent that Contreras asks us simply to reverse the finding of the state court that she neglected her child, we simply lack the jurisdiction to review a state court judgment of this kind. See District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 483 (1983); Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413, 416 (1923). To the extent she seeks other relief, her conclusory allegations of intentional discrimination on the basis of national origin are insufficient to state a plausible claim for relief.

Moreover, the district court properly concluded that Assistant Attorney General Hensley Flash was entitled to absolute immunity because he was sued in his capacity as a government advocate prosecuting child welfare cases. See Walden v. Wishengrad, 745 F.2d 149, 152 (2d Cir. 1984) (extending absolute immunity to of government attorneys initiating and prosecuting child protection litigation). The district court further did not abuse its discretion in denying Contreras leave to amend her complaint for a second time, as amendment would have been futile.

For the foregoing reasons, and finding no merit in Contreras‘s arguments, we hereby AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

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