US v. Mitchell

Decision Date22 January 2010
Docket NumberNo. 1:03cr243.,1:03cr243.
Citation683 F. Supp.2d 427
PartiesUNITED STATES of America v. Anthony R. MITCHELL, Defendant.
CourtU.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia

Charles Dlabik, U.S. Attorneys, Alexandria, VA, for United States of America.

Ivan Darnell Davis, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Alexandria, VA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

T.S. ELLIS, III, District Judge.

This motion for expungement of a criminal conviction presents the question—unresolved in this circuit—whether a district court has statutory or ancillary jurisdiction to expunge a felony conviction to which a defendant pleads guilty from his criminal record based solely on equitable grounds. For the reasons set forth herein, jurisdiction to order expungement on equitable grounds is lacking and therefore defendant's motion must be denied.

I.

On May 29, 2003, a federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment charging defendant with devising and intending to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud a financial institution under 18 U.S.C. § 1344. Specifically, defendant was charged with opening an account at the Pentagon Federal Credit Union, depositing a fraudulent check into that account, and thereafter withdrawing funds from the account. Following his arrest on May 1, 2003 by the Pentagon Police, defendant admitted that he had deposited the fraudulent check and that he had committed similar fraudulent and illegal conduct with respect to other bank accounts at various financial institutions since 2001. On July 22, 2003, defendant pled guilty to bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344, and agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $22,864.91 to three federal credit unions. On October 3, 2003, defendant was sentenced to a four-month term of imprisonment and a three-year term of supervised release.1

On December 29, 2009, defendant sent a letter "in regards to getting this charge expunged from my record," which letter is construed as a motion for expungement of defendant's criminal conviction. Specifically, defendant indicates that since 2003 he has led a law-abiding life and that he was recently offered a full-time position with the Architect of the U.S. Capitol. The human resources department of the Architect of the Capitol, however, has advised defendant that he cannot be employed by the Architect of the Capitol if his criminal record contains a felony conviction. Accordingly, defendant seeks expungement of his felony conviction for bank fraud from his criminal record.

II.

It is appropriate here to begin with first principles of federal court jurisdiction. Federal courts, unlike state courts, are courts of limited jurisdiction with specific jurisdictional requirements and limitations. See Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapattah Servs., Inc., 545 U.S. 546, 552, 125 S.Ct. 2611, 162 L.Ed.2d 502 (2005) (citing Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 511 U.S. 375, 377, 114 S.Ct. 1673, 128 L.Ed.2d 391 (1994)); Strawn v. AT & T Mobility LLC, 530 F.3d 293, 296 (4th Cir. 2008) (citation omitted). Accordingly, where, as here, a party seeks to adjudicate a matter in federal court, the party "must demonstrate the federal court's jurisdiction over the matter." See id. If a federal court determines that it does not have jurisdiction over a matter, it may not rule on the merits of a case.2 Fundamentally, the principle that federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction dictates that federal courts "possess only that power authorized by the Constitution and statute, which is not to be expanded by judicial decree." Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 511 U.S. 375, 377, 114 S.Ct. 1673, 128 L.Ed.2d 391 (1994) (internal citations omitted).3 There is no dispute that the power to expunge federal criminal convictions solely on equitable grounds is neither explicitly authorized by the Constitution4 nor statute, yet this does not end the analysis as the question of ancillary jurisdiction must be addressed.

Ancillary jurisdiction arises when a district court "acquires jurisdiction of a case or controversy in its entirety, and, as an incident to the full disposition of the matter, may hear collateral proceedings when necessary to allow it to vindicate its role as a tribunal." See 13 Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller, Edward H. Cooper & Richard D. Freer, Federal Practice and Procedure § 3523.2, at 213 (3d ed. 2008).5 In Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America, the Supreme Court addressed the scope of federal court ancillary jurisdiction, which allows a federal court to entertain "some matters (otherwise beyond their competence) that are incidental to other matters properly before them." 511 U.S. at 378-79, 114 S.Ct. 1673. Ultimately, the Supreme Court concluded that federal courts are permitted to invoke the doctrine of ancillary jurisdiction only in two specific circumstances:

(i) "to permit disposition by a single court of claims that are, in varying respects and degrees, factually interdependent"; and
(ii) "to enable a court to function successfully, that is, to manage its proceedings, vindicate its authority and effectuate its decrees."

Id. at 379-80, 114 S.Ct. 1673 (citations omitted).6

Neither the Supreme Court nor the Fourth Circuit has directly addressed whether federal courts have jurisdiction to expunge criminal convictions solely for equitable reasons.7 At most, the Fourth Circuit has held in Allen v. Webster that a district court did not abuse its equitable discretion in denying a defendant's request for expungement of his arrest and acquittal by a jury for the possession and manufacture of heroin. 742 F.2d 153, 154-55 (4th Cir.1984).8 Specifically, the Fourth Circuit reasoned that expungement was not warranted because the defendant had not pursued seemingly available administrative relief, namely to "insure himself that the `derogatory' information was not considered in connection with reviewing his job application." Id. at 154. Significantly, the panel, quoting the Second Circuit's decision in United States v. Schnitzer, noted that the expungement remedy is "confined to `exceptional circumstances,'" such as

"where procedures of mass arrests rendered judicial determination of probable cause impossible; where the court de. termined the sole purpose of the arrests was to harass civil rights workers; where the police misused police records to the detriment of the defendant; or where the arrest was proper but was based on a statute later declared unconstitutional."

Id. (quoting United States v. Schnitzer, 567 F.2d 536, 539-40 (2d Cir.1977)) (internal citations omitted).

Allen therefore does not squarely address the jurisdictional question presented here and, moreover, is factually distinguishable. Allen involves expungement of a criminal arrest and acquittal record, whereas defendant here seeks expungement of a conviction. In short, Allen does not resolve the antecedent, indispensable issue whether a federal court has jurisdiction to entertain a motion for expungement solely for equitable reasons, particularly in light of Kokkonen.

Courts of Appeals outside the Fourth Circuit are split on whether federal courts have the power to expunge criminal records and convictions solely on equitable grounds.9 Specifically, the Second, Seventh, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits have concluded that federal courts have such power.10 Notably, however, the Second, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits' decisions predate the Supreme Court's narrowing of the scope of ancillary jurisdiction in Kokkonen, and the Seventh Circuit's post-Kokkonen decision does not discuss Kokkonen's implications. Instead, the Seventh Circuit relies on a distinction drawn in a prior pre-Kokkonen decision between expungement of executive branch records and expungement of judicial branch records, and confirmed that while courts have no jurisdiction to direct entities such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation to expunge criminal records, "the court's inherent power extends to the management of judicial business" and therefore allows for the expungement of judicial records based solely on equitable grounds. See United States v. Janik, 10 F.3d 470, 472-73 (7th Cir. 1993), cited in United States v. Flowers, 389 F.3d 737, 738-40 (7th Cir.2004). That these decisions rely on "inherent jurisdiction" or an expansive notion of ancillary jurisdiction rejected by the Supreme Court in Kokkonen calls into question their continuing validity. See Kokkonen, 511 U.S. at 380, 114 S.Ct. 1673 (finding that none of the Supreme Court's precedents "has, for purposes of asserting otherwise nonexistent federal jurisdiction, relied upon a relationship so tenuous as the breach of an agreement that produced the dismissal of an earlier federal suit").11

By comparison, the First, Third, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits have concluded, based on the Supreme Court's holding in Kokkonen, that federal courts lack jurisdiction to expunge criminal records solely for equitable considerations.12 As the First Circuit summarized in the most recent of these decisions, "these circuits have rejected the notion that a federal court's jurisdiction under either § 3231 or its `inherent power' provides ancillary jurisdiction over equitable orders to expunge because such orders do not fit within Kokkonen's purposes for ancillary jurisdiction." United States v. Coloian, 480 F.3d 47, 51 (1st Cir.2007). More precisely, the First Circuit initially concluded that it lacked original jurisdiction to consider a motion for expungement on equitable grounds. Although 18 U.S.C. § 3231 provides district courts with original jurisdiction "of all offenses against the laws of the United States," a district court's jurisdiction under this statutory provision ends once the judgment of conviction is entered. See id. at 50. Accordingly, the First Circuit turned to ancillary jurisdiction as a basis for considering the motion to expunge and concluded, based on Kokkonen, that "the original claims brought before the district...

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