Stevens v. Walker
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-06545
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Stevens v. Walker, Judge Swain ordered the petitioner to pay the filing fee or request permission to proceed without paying it.
Mark Stevens was required to pay the filing fee or submit an application to proceed without prepaying it; the case could be dismissed if he failed to comply.
What happened
In Stevens v. Walker, Mark Stevens filed a petition challenging his detention through a legal process for reviewing custody. He submitted it without the required filing fee or a request to proceed without paying the fee.
The court gave Stevens 30 days to pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application showing that he cannot afford it. The court said no response from the warden was required at that time.
Judge Swain ordered that the case proceed if Stevens complies and said the action will be dismissed if he does not. She also denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
The detailed version
- Stevens v. Walker · No. 1:22-cv-06545
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 2, 2022
Background
Mark Stevens, representing himself, filed a petition for a court order concerning his detention. The respondent is identified in the caption as S. Walker, Warden at R.N.D.C. C-74. Stevens originally filed the petition with Maurice Mayo and other detainees, but the court separated the petitioners’ claims and opened a separate case for each petitioner.
Filing-fee requirement
The court explained that a person filing a habeas petition must either pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying court fees. Stevens submitted the petition without either the fee or the application. The court ordered him, within 30 days of the order, to pay the fee or submit the completed application under docket number 22-CV-6545 (LTS). If the court grants the application, Stevens may proceed without paying the fee in advance.
Ruling and effect
The court ordered that no response from the respondent was required at that time. It stated that, if Stevens complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the substance of Stevens’s habeas petition.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.