Gordon v. Warden
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-06686
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Shuquan Gordon v. Warden, Judge Swain transferred Gordon’s section 2254 case to the Eastern District of New York because his conviction was in Kings County.
Shuquan Gordon, whose federal challenge to his 2018 state conviction was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the Eastern District of New York.
What happened
In Shuquan Gordon v. Warden, Shuquan Gordon, without a lawyer, asked a federal court to review the constitutionality of his 2018 New York state-court conviction. He was incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility.
Because Gordon was convicted and sentenced in Kings County, the court determined that the case should proceed in the Eastern District of New York. It directed the Clerk of Court to transfer the case there and closed the case in the Southern District of New York.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that no certificate allowing an appeal would issue and denied Gordon permission to appeal without paying fees. The order did not decide whether his conviction was constitutional; those further matters, including whether he may proceed without paying fees in the transferred case, were left to the Eastern District court.
The detailed version
- Gordon v. Warden · No. 1:25-cv-06686
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 9, 2025
Background
Shuquan Gordon, who was incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility and proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 seeking federal review of the constitutionality of his 2018 conviction in the New York Supreme Court, Kings County.
Transfer
The court transferred the action under Local Civil Rule 83.3 because Gordon was convicted and sentenced in Kings County, which is located in the Eastern District of New York. The court directed the Clerk of Court to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The order closed the case in the Southern District of New York.
Additional rulings
The court stated that whether Gordon could proceed further without paying fees was for the transferee court to decide. Because Gordon had not then made a substantial showing that a constitutional right was denied, the court ruled that a certificate of appealability would not issue under 28 U.S.C. § 2253. It also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees. The order did not decide the constitutional challenge to Gordon’s conviction.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.