Brown v. United States
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-00635
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Brown v. United States, Judge Swain transferred Edwin Brown’s First Step Act time-credit petition to Florida because the relevant custodian is there.
Edwin Brown, who must pursue his First Step Act earned-time-credit challenge in the Southern District of Florida rather than the Southern District of New York.
What happened
In Brown v. United States, Edwin Brown filed a self-represented petition challenging how his earned time credit was calculated under the First Step Act. He was on supervised release in the Southern District of Florida.
The court explained that a court generally must have authority over the person responsible for a petitioner’s custody, and that such cases generally belong where the petitioner is confined. Because Brown was on supervised release in Florida, the court found that transferring the case there served the interests of justice.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the case transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and closed the case in the Southern District of New York. She also denied permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Brown v. United States · No. 1:23-cv-00635
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 30, 2023
Background
Edwin Brown, representing himself, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 challenging the calculation of earned time credit under the First Step Act. The opinion states that Brown had been convicted in a prior federal criminal case and was then on supervised release in the Southern District of Florida. The respondent was the United States of America.
Transfer ruling
A petition under Section 2241 is a type of request for a court order addressing unlawful custody. The court explained that jurisdiction—the court’s legal authority to hear the petition—generally requires authority over the petitioner’s custodian, meaning the person responsible for the custody at issue. It also explained that venue, or the proper federal district for the case, generally lies in the district where the petitioner is confined.
Because Brown was on supervised release in the Southern District of Florida, the court transferred the petition to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), which permits transfer in the interest of justice. The court did not decide whether Brown’s earned time credit was calculated correctly.
Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the Clerk of Court to transfer the action to the Southern District of Florida. The transferee court—not the Southern District of New York—would decide whether Brown could proceed without paying the filing fee. The order closed the case in the Southern District of New York. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.