Haxhaj v. United States
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-04333
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Haxhaj v. United States, Chief Judge Swain dismissed the habeas action without prejudice because petitioner neither paid the fee nor filed a fee-waiver request.
Kimete Haxhaj ex rel. Shpendim Haxhaj’s habeas action against the United States, including any attempted appeal.
What happened
In Haxhaj v. United States, the court had ordered Kimete Haxhaj, identified in the caption as acting for Shpendim Haxhaj, to either pay the $5 filing fee or submit a request to proceed without paying it. The deadline was 30 days from the court’s May 23, 2025 order.
Petitioner did neither. The court therefore dismissed the action without prejudice. It also said that no certificate allowing an appeal would issue and denied permission to appeal without paying court fees.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the clerk to make two docket entries publicly available and to enter a judgment dismissing the action for the stated failure to pay the fee or submit the required request.
The detailed version
- Haxhaj v. United States · No. 1:25-cv-04333
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 20, 2025
Background
The caption lists Kimete Haxhaj ex rel. Shpendim Haxhaj as the petitioner and the United States of America as the respondent. The case was a habeas corpus action. On May 23, 2025, the court ordered petitioner, within 30 days, either to submit a completed application to proceed without paying the filing fee or to pay the $5 filing fee required for a habeas action in that court. The order warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
Petitioner did not submit the application or pay the fee.
Court’s Reasoning
Because petitioner failed to comply with the filing-fee order, the court dismissed the action without prejudice. The opinion cites 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The court also stated that the habeas petition did not make a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied, so a certificate of appealability would not issue.
Disposition
The court dismissed the action without prejudice. It certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) 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 to make ECF entries 4 and 5 publicly available on the case’s electronic docket and to enter a judgment dismissing the action for the reason stated in the order.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order on August 20, 2025.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.