Blanding v. Warden John/Jane Doe
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-05588
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
Judge McMahon dismissed Blanding v. Warden without prejudice after Blanding neither paid the $5 filing fee nor submitted the required financial application.
Johnny Blanding's habeas petition was dismissed without prejudice because he did not pay the filing fee or submit the required fee-waiver application. The order did not decide the merits of his challenge to his conviction.
What happened
In Blanding v. Warden, Johnny Blanding filed a petition challenging his 2013 conviction. The opinion does not decide whether that challenge was legally valid.
The court had ordered Blanding to submit an application to proceed without paying the filing fee or to pay the required $5 fee within 30 days. Blanding did neither.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed the petition without prejudice, allowing it to be filed again. The court also denied Blanding permission to appeal without paying fees because it certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Blanding v. Warden John/Jane Doe · No. 1:20-cv-05588
- Colleen McMahon
- Aug. 24, 2020
Background
Johnny Blanding filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging his 2013 conviction. A habeas petition asks a federal court to review the legality of a person's custody. The court's order did not address the substance of Blanding's challenge.
Filing-fee requirement
In an order dated July 21, 2020, the court directed Blanding either to submit a completed application to proceed without paying the filing fee or to pay the $5 fee required to file the petition. The order warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal. Blanding did not submit the application or pay the fee.
Ruling
Chief United States District Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed the petition without prejudice under the federal filing-fee and fee-waiver statutes, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The court 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 directed the Clerk of Court to mail Blanding a copy and record service on the docket.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.