Abdel-Malak v. People of the State of California

Background

Abanoob Abdel-Malak, identified as a pretrial detainee at the San Bernardino County Jail, filed a request for removal and a “criminal notice of removal.” He sought to remove to federal court a petition for a writ of mandate, prohibition, or habeas corpus that he had filed in the Supreme Court of California. That petition challenged a pending state criminal prosecution in the San Bernardino County Superior Court.

Abdel-Malak relied on 28 U.S.C. §§ 1443 and 1455. Section 1443 permits removal of certain state civil actions or criminal prosecutions involving specified federal civil-rights claims. Section 1455 establishes procedural requirements for removing a state criminal prosecution, including filing a verified notice in the federal district and division where the prosecution is pending and attaching the relevant pleadings.

Court’s analysis

The court explained that a state criminal defendant may remove the pending prosecution only to the federal district court covering the location of that prosecution, and only if the defendant meets the statutory requirements. The opinion states that Abdel-Malak had previously attempted to remove the state prosecution in an earlier federal proceeding, No. 21-cv-00213-JWH (C.D. Cal.), and that the earlier proceeding was remanded for failure to satisfy the procedural and substantive removal requirements.

The court distinguished removal of the pending state criminal prosecution from removal of a later appeal or collateral petition filed in a state appellate court. Although the California Supreme Court is located within the Northern District of California, the court held that §§ 1443 and 1455 did not give it jurisdiction to take over Abdel-Malak’s petition in the California Supreme Court. The court also cited the principle that federal courts generally should not interfere with ongoing state criminal proceedings absent extraordinary circumstances.

The court further held that Abdel-Malak did not satisfy the two-part substantive test for removal under § 1443. He did not identify a federal law providing a specific civil right stated in terms of racial equality, and he did not show that California law or its Constitution prevented him from enforcing that federal right in the state courts.

Disposition

The court ordered that the request for removal and notice of removal concerning the California Supreme Court proceeding be dismissed and remanded for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. It ordered that Abdel-Malak’s related motions, listed as ECF Nos. 8 and 9, be dismissed as moot. A footnote also states that the action was dismissed for failure to pay the required filing fee or file an application to proceed without prepaying the fee. Judge Charles R. Breyer signed the order on April 19, 2022.