previously begun earlier and still pending in the federal court.[669]

Federal Injunctions of State Official Action

Injunctions by federal courts restraining State officials from enforcing
unconstitutional State statutes constitute an indirect interference with
State courts and a serious obstruction to the administration of public
policy. From Osborn _v._ Bank of the United States,[670] which was the
first case in which an injunction was used to restrain State action
under an unconstitutional statute, to Ex parte Young[671] the Supreme
Court established firmly the rule that jurisdiction exists in the
federal courts to restrain the enforcement of unconstitutional State
statutes and to enjoin State officials charged with the duty of
enforcing State laws from bringing criminal or civil proceedings to
enforce an invalid statute. Until Ex parte Young, the Court had been
careful to sustain the jurisdiction of the lower federal courts to
enjoin the enforcement of unconstitutional State legislation only after
a finding of unconstitutionality,[672] but Ex parte Young abandoned
this rule by holding that the enforcement of a State statute by the
attorney general of the State through proceedings in State courts could
be enjoined pending the determination of its constitutionality.

Ex Parte Young

Although a suit to restrain the attorney general of a State from
proceeding in the courts of the State to enforce a State law not
declared unconstitutional would seem effectively to stay proceedings in
a State court, Justice Peckham drew a distinction between the power to
enjoin the attorney general and other law officers as individuals and a
suit against a State court on the ground that the former does not
include the "power to prevent any investigation or action by a grand
jury. The latter body is part of the machinery of a criminal court, and
an injunction against a State court would be a violation of the whole
scheme of our Government."[673] Justice Harlan, not convinced by this
distinction, characterized the suit as an attempt "_to tie the hands_ of
the _State_ so that it could not in any manner or by any mode of
proceeding _in its own courts_, test the validity of the statutes and
orders in question."[674]

Although the rigor of the rule of Ex parte Young has been mitigated by
subsequent decisions[675] and the mode of its exercise somewhat narrowed
by statute, it has not been overruled and remains a source of friction
in