Morales v. Hilton
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-02653
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Morales v. Hilton, Judge Swain denied the petition and dismissed the action without prejudice because Morales neither paid the fee nor submitted an IFP application.
Luis Morales’s petition and case were denied and dismissed without prejudice. Brian Hilton is the named respondent.
What happened
In Morales v. Hilton, Luis Morales filed a petition in a habeas case. The court had ordered him to either submit an application to proceed without paying the filing fee or pay the required $5 fee within 30 days.
Morales did neither. The court therefore denied the petition and dismissed the action without prejudice, meaning the dismissal does not bar a new filing.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that no certificate of appealability would issue and denied permission to proceed without paying fees on appeal. The clerk was directed to enter judgment dismissing the action and denying the certificate.
The detailed version
- Morales v. Hilton · No. 1:25-cv-02653
- Laura Swain
- June 4, 2025
Background
Luis Morales filed a habeas corpus petition. On April 4, 2025, the Court ordered Morales, within 30 days, to either submit a completed application to proceed without paying the filing fee or pay the $5 fee required to file a habeas corpus action. The order warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal.
Morales did not submit the application or pay the fee.
Ruling
The Court denied the petition and dismissed the action, without prejudice. “Without prejudice” means the dismissal does not bar a new filing. The stated basis for the dismissal was Morales’s failure to comply with the filing-fee or fee-waiver requirement.
Appeal-related rulings
The Court found that the petition made no substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied and therefore ruled that a certificate of appealability would not issue. A certificate of appealability is a document required for an appeal in this type of case. The Court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal.
The Court directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment dismissing the action and denying a certificate of appealability.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.