United States v. Sanchez-Gomez

• Decision Date: 14 May 2018
• Docket Number: No. 17–312.,17–312.
• Citation: 200 L.Ed.2d 792,138 S.Ct. 1532
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Petitioner v. Rene SANCHEZ–GOMEZ, et al.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

138 S.Ct. 1532

200 L.Ed.2d 792

UNITED STATES, Petitioner

v.Rene SANCHEZ–GOMEZ, et al.

No. 17–312.

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued March 26, 2018.

Decided May 14, 2018.

Allon Kedem, Washington, D.C., for Petitioner.

Reuben C. Cahn, San Diego, CA, for Respondents.

Noel J. Francisco, Solicitor General, John P. Cronan, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Edwin S. Kneedler, Deputy Solicitor General, Eric J. Feigin, Allon Kedem, Assistants to the Solicitor General, David B. Goodhand, Attorney, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Petitioner.

Ellis Murray Johnston, III, Reuben Camper Cahn, Shereen J. Charlick, Vincent J. Brunkow, Michele A. McKenzie, Kimberly S. Trimble, Kara L. Hartzler, Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc., San Diego, CA, for Respondents.

Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Four criminal defendants objected to being bound by full restraints during pretrial proceedings in their cases, but the District Court denied relief. On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the use of such restraints was unconstitutional, even though each of the four criminal cases had ended prior to its decision. The question presented is whether the appeals were saved from mootness either because the defendants sought "class-like relief" in a "functional class action," or because the challenged practice was "capable of repetition, yet evading review."

I

It is the responsibility of the United States Marshals Service to "provide for the security ... of the United States District Courts." 28 U.S.C. § 566(a). To fulfill that duty, the United States Marshal for the Southern District of California requested that the judges of that district permit the use of full restraints on all in-custody defendants during nonjury proceedings. When "full restraints" are applied, "a defendant's hands are closely handcuffed together, these handcuffs are connected by chain to another chain running around the defendant's waist, and the defendant's feet are shackled and chained together." 859 F.3d 649, 653 (C.A.9 2017) (en banc). In support of his proposal, the Marshal cited safety concerns arising from understaffing, past incidents of violence, and the high volume of in-custody defendants produced in the Southern District. The judges agreed to the Marshal's request, with modifications providing that a district or magistrate judge may require a defendant to be produced without restraints, and that a defendant can request that this be done. See App. 78–79.

Respondents Jasmin Morales, Rene Sanchez–Gomez, Moises Patricio–Guzman, and Mark Ring were among the defendants produced by the Marshals Service for pretrial proceedings in full restraints. They raised constitutional objections to the use of such restraints in their respective cases, and to the restraint policy as a whole. They noted that the policy had resulted in the imposition of full restraints on, for example, a woman with a fractured wrist, a man with a severe leg injury, a blind man, and a wheelchair-bound woman. The District Court denied their challenges.

Respondents appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, but before the court could issue a decision, their underlying criminal cases came to an end. Morales, Sanchez–Gomez, and Patricio–Guzman each pled guilty to the offense for which they were charged: Morales, to felony importation of a controlled substance, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952 and 960 ; Sanchez–Gomez, to felony misuse of a passport, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1544 ; and Patricio–Guzman, to misdemeanor illegal entry into the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1325. The charges against Ring—for making an interstate threat in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) —were dismissed pursuant to a deferred-prosecution agreement.

A panel of the Court of Appeals nonetheless concluded that respondents' claims were not moot, and went on to strike down the restraint policy as violating the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. 798 F.3d 1204 (C.A.9 2015). Those rulings were reaffirmed on rehearing en banc. 859 F.3d 649. The en banc court understood the "main dispute" before it to be a challenge to the policy itself, not just to the application of that policy to respondents. Id., at 655. The court then construed respondents' notices of appeal as petitions for mandamus, which invoked the court's supervisory authority over the Southern District. Id., at 657. The case was, in the court's view, a "functional class action" involving "class-like claims" seeking "class-like relief." Id., at 655, 657–658. In light of that understanding, the Court of Appeals held that this Court's civil class action precedents kept the case alive, even though respondents were no longer subject to the restraint policy. Id., at 657–659 (citing Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 110–111, n. 11, 95 S.Ct. 854, 43 L.Ed.2d 54 (1975) ). On the merits, the Court of Appeals concluded that the restraint policy violated the Constitution. 859 F.3d, at 666.

Judge Ikuta, writing in dissent for herself and four colleagues, rejected the majority's application of class action precedents to the individual criminal cases before the court and would have held the case moot. Id., at 675. She also disagreed with the majority on the merits, concluding that the restraint policy did not violate the Constitution. Id., at 683.

We granted certiorari. 583 U.S. ––––, –––– S.Ct. ––––, ––– L.Ed.2d –––– (2017).

II

To invoke federal jurisdiction, a plaintiff must show a "personal stake" in the outcome of the action. Genesis HealthCare Corp. v. Symczyk, 569 U.S. 66, 71, 133 S.Ct. 1523, 185 L.Ed.2d 636 (2013). "This requirement ensures that the Federal Judiciary confines itself to its constitutionally limited role of adjudicating actual and concrete disputes, the resolutions of which have direct consequences on the parties involved." Ibid. Such a dispute "must be extant at all stages of review, not merely at the time the complaint is filed." Preiser v. Newkirk, 422 U.S. 395, 401, 95 S.Ct. 2330, 45 L.Ed.2d 272 (1975). A case that becomes moot at any point during the proceedings is "no longer a ‘Case’ or ‘Controversy’ for purposes of Article III," and is outside the jurisdiction of the federal courts. Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc., 568 U.S. 85, 91, 133 S.Ct. 721, 184 L.Ed.2d 553 (2013).

A

In concluding that this case was not moot, the Court of Appeals relied upon our class action precedents, most prominently Gerstein v. Pugh . That reliance was misplaced.^*

Gerstein, a class action brought under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, involved a certified class of detainees raising claims concerning their pretrial detention. 420 U.S., at 106–107, 95 S.Ct. 854. By the time this Court heard the case, the named representatives' claims were moot, and the record suggested that their interest might have lapsed even before the District Court certified the class. See id., at 110–111, n. 11, 95 S.Ct. 854. Normally a class action would be moot if no named class representative with an unexpired claim remained at the time of class certification. See ibid. (citing Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. 393, 402, n. 11, 95 S.Ct. 553, 42 L.Ed.2d 532 (1975) ). The Court nevertheless held that the case remained live. As we explained, pretrial custody was inherently temporary and of uncertain length, such that we could not determine "that any given individual, named as plaintiff, would be in pretrial custody long enough for a district judge to certify the class." Gerstein, 420 U.S., at 110–111, n. 11, 95 S.Ct. 854. At the same time, it was certain that there would always be some group of detainees subject to the challenged practice. Ibid. Given these circumstances, the Court determined that the class action could proceed. Ibid. ; see Swisher v. Brady, 438 U.S. 204, 213–214, n. 11, 98 S.Ct. 2699, 57 L.Ed.2d 705 (1978) (employing same analysis in a class action challenging juvenile court procedures).

The Court of Appeals interpreted Gerstein to cover all "cases sufficiently similar to class actions" in which, "because of the inherently transitory nature of the claims," the claimant's "interests would expire before litigation could be completed." 859 F.3d, at 658. Gerstein was an action brought under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, but the Court of Appeals decided that such "a procedural mechanism to aggregate the claims" was not a "necessary prerequisite" for application of the Gerstein rule. 859 F.3d, at 659 (alteration omitted). Respondents, the court noted, sought "relief [from the restraint policy] not merely for themselves, but for all in-custody defendants in the district." Id., at 655. Those "class-like claims" seeking "class-like relief" were sufficient to trigger the application of Gerstein and save the case from mootness, despite the termination of respondents' criminal cases. 859 F.3d, at 655.

We reject the notion that Gerstein supports a freestanding exception to mootness outside the class action context. The class action is a creature of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See generally 7A C. Wright, A. Miller & M. Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1751 et seq. (3d ed. 2005). It is an "exception to the usual rule that litigation is conducted by and on behalf of the individual named parties only," and "provides a procedure by which the court may exercise ... jurisdiction over the various individual claims in a single proceeding." Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 700–701, 99 S.Ct. 2545, 61 L.Ed.2d 176 (1979). "The certification of a suit as a class action has important consequences for the unnamed members of the class." Sosna, 419 U.S., at 399, n. 8, 95 S.Ct. 553. Those class members may be "bound by the judgment" and are considered parties to the litigation in many important respects. Devlin v. Scardelletti, 536 U.S. 1, 7, 9–10, 122 S.Ct. 2005, 153 L.Ed.2d 27 (2002). A certified class thus "acquires a legal status separate from the interest asserted by the named plaintiff." Genesis HealthCare, 569 U.S., at 74,...