Blake v. Fed. Bureau of Investigation

298 F. Supp. 3d 77
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedFebruary 9, 2018
DocketCase No. 17–cv–1144 (CRC)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 298 F. Supp. 3d 77 (Blake v. Fed. Bureau of Investigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blake v. Fed. Bureau of Investigation, 298 F. Supp. 3d 77 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

CHRISTOPHER R. COOPER, United States District Judge

Plaintiff Ronald Lee Blake, Jr. brings this action under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution against the Federal Bureau of Investigation for declining to hire him because of two state felony convictions that had been pardoned and expunged from his record. Because neither the Full Faith and Credit *78Clause nor its implementing statutes provide a private right of action, Blake has not stated a valid claim. The Court will therefore grant the FBI's motion to dismiss.

I. Background

The Court, as it must, accepts as true the following facts drawn from Mr. Blake's complaint. In 1992, Blake pled guilty to two armed robbery offenses in Indiana state court. Compl. at 1; Opp'n Mot. to Dismiss, Ex. 1. After completing his sentence, he went on to graduate from Indiana University and the Quinnipiac University School of Law. Id. Ex. 2. In 2005, his last year of law school, Blake's convictions were pardoned by the Governor of Indiana and his conviction records were later expunged. Id.; Blake v. State, 860 N.E.2d 625, 626 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007).

In 2008, Blake enlisted in the United States Army, where he served for eight years as an infantry combat medic, a Special Forces trainee, and a defense lawyer in the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps. Compl. at 1-2. Following his discharge, Blake submitted a Special Agent application to the FBI. Id. at 2. He was subsequently contacted by FBI recruiters because of his special operations experience. Id. However, in February 2017, the FBI's Office of General Counsel, citing 5 U.S.C. § 7371, informed Blake that his felony convictions precluded further consideration of his Special Agent application. Id. Blake responded that the statute should not apply given his gubernatorial pardon and the expungement of his records. Id. The FBI acknowledged this argument but reiterated that it considered Blake "ineligible due to [his] prior felony conviction." Id. Blake subsequently filed this suit, asking the Court to "award full faith and credit to the decisions" of the Indiana courts under Article 4, Section 1 of the United States Constitution. Id. at 3. The FBI moves to dismiss Blake's complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

II. Standard of Review

The FBI's motion to dismiss must be granted if the complaint does not "contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to 'state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.' " Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) ). The existence of a private right of action under federal law goes to whether the plaintiff has stated a claim on which relief can be granted. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) ; see Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 682, 66 S.Ct. 773, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946).

In deciding the FBI's Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the Court "must accept as true all of the factual allegations contained in the complaint." Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007) (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555-56, 127 S.Ct. 1955 ). Any ambiguities must be viewed in a light most favorable to the Plaintiff, giving him the benefit of every reasonable inference drawn from the facts and allegations in the complaint. In re Interbank Funding Corp. Sec. Litig., 668 F.Supp.2d 44, 47 (D.D.C. 2009) (citing Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974) ). And pro se complaints, "however inartfully pleaded, must be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers." Erickson, 551 U.S. at 94

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298 F. Supp. 3d 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blake-v-fed-bureau-of-investigation-cadc-2018.