Franklin v. State of Nevada

Opinion

3 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

4 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

5 LEONARD ORVILLE FRANKLIN, Case No. 3:15-cv-00381-MMD-VPC

6 Petitioner, ORDER v. 7 STATE OF NEVADA, et al., 8 Respondents. 9 10 This closed habeas matter is before the Court on Petitioner Leonard O. Franklin’s 11 Motion/Request for Documents (ECF No. 57). Franklin requests copies of all documents 12 filed by both parties, including all pleadings, motions, and evidence, so he may research 13 and prepare a motion for modification of illegal sentence for filing in the Second Judicial 14 District Court for Washoe County. 15 Generally, an inmate has no constitutional right to free photocopying or to obtain 16 court documents without payment. See Johnson v. Moore, 948 F.2d 517, 521 (9th Cir. 17 1991). The fundamental constitutional right of access to the courts requires prison 18 authorities to help inmates prepare and file “meaningful legal papers by providing 19 prisoners with adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the 20 law,” Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 828 (1977); it does not impose an obligation “to 21 finance and support prisoner litigation,” Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343, 384-85 (1996). 22 Nothing in federal law, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Local Rules of 23 Practice, or established case law authorizes federal courts to waive or finance copy fees 24 in closed habeas cases. See LSR 1-6 (stating that in forma pauperis status does not waive 25 a party’s “responsibility to pay the expenses of litigation that are not covered by 28 U.S.C. 26 § 1915,” which does not provide for copies).1 Federal courts do not allow prisoners or any 27 1Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1914, the Judicial Conference adopted a schedule of fees 28 for copying services provided by the United States Courts. A fee of 50¢ per page is 1 other litigants to accrue copy fees—payment for copy fees is required at the time a request 2 is made. See LR IC 1-1(i)(5) (providing that paper copies of filed documents may be 3 obtained from the clerk’s office after payment of copying fees). 4 This case was closed in July 2018 when the Court granted Franklin’s motion for 5 voluntary dismissal. (ECF No. 55.) The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require each 6 party to serve court filings on the opposing party. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 5. Franklin therefore 7 received a copy of the relevant state court record filed by Respondents in March 2016. 8 (See ECF Nos. 14-17.) To the extent he seeks duplicates of that record, Franklin is 9 advised that payment is required for all copies of documents contained in the Court’s 10 docket. 11 It is therefore ordered that Petitioner Leonard O. Franklin’s Motion/Request for 12 Documents (ECF No. 57) is denied. 13 DATED THIS 4th day of February 2020.

16 MIRANDA M. DU 17 CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 charged for court staff to reproduce any record or paper filed in a case. See Fee Schedule, available on the court’s website at https://www.nvd.uscourts.gov/court-information/fee- 28 schedule/.