In Re Search of 6783 East Soaring Eagle Way, Scottsdale

109 F. Supp. 2d 1162, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14733, 2000 WL 1170902
CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedAugust 10, 2000
Docket97-3471 MB (LOA)
StatusPublished

This text of 109 F. Supp. 2d 1162 (In Re Search of 6783 East Soaring Eagle Way, Scottsdale) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Search of 6783 East Soaring Eagle Way, Scottsdale, 109 F. Supp. 2d 1162, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14733, 2000 WL 1170902 (D. Ariz. 2000).

Opinion

*1163 ORDER

ANDERSON, United States Magistrate Judge.

This matter arises on Petitioners’ Motion To Release Grand Jury Transcript, filed on April 14, 2000. The Government opposes the disclosure to which the inter-venor, Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., (“Winn-Dixie”) has joined. The issue before the Court is one of first impression: whether a magistrate judge’s lawful authority to order the disclosure of grand jury testimony falls within the “pretrial duties” or “additional duties” delegated to magistrate judges under the Federal Magistrates Act (the “Act”). See, 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A) and (b)(3), respectively.

BACKGROUND

This post-search warrant litigation began when Petitioners’ 1 Motion To Unseal Search Warrant Affidavit was filed on February 16, 2000, over two years after a search warrant was issued on December 15, 1997 by the Hon. Barry G. Silverman, then a U.S. Magistrate Judge, and nearly 2^ years after a federal grand jury investigated matters related to that search warrant. The grand jury did not return an indictment. The Government filed a motion to seal the grand jury transcript herein on March 9, 2000, which the Court granted subject to further Court Order. The parties herein subsequently resolved by stipulation the issue regarding the disclosure of the search warrant. See, Order, dated May 16th, 2000. The only remaining, contested issue is the propriety of the-disclosure of the transcript of the testimony heard by the grand jury on September 9,1997.

MAGISTRATE JUDGE JURISDICTION

Respondents initially argue in their formal Response To Motion To Release Grand Jury Transcript, filed April 26, 2000, that “the Magistrate Court (judge) does not have jurisdiction to entertain the motion to unseal” the grand jury transcript under 28 U.S.C. § 636. Petitioners neither filed a reply nor addressed in their motion whether a magistrate judge has the authority to disclose grand jury testimony.

The Act is silent on a magistrate judge’s authority to disclose grand jury testimony. Additionally, counsel have not provided, nor has this Court’s independent research discovered, any Supreme Court, circuit or district court decisions that have specifically addressed the issue before the court. Because the specific issue appears to be one of first impression, the court will analyze and discuss a magistrate judge’s authority, if any, to order the disclosure of grand jury testimony by an analyzing the subject statute and related case law.

*1164 As a non-Article III judge 2 , a federal magistrate judge’s powers and jurisdiction are found in 28 U.S.C. § 636 3 and the case law interpreting it and the breadth of their authorized duties. Additionally, 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(4) 4 provides that each district court “shall” adopt local rules governing the duties of magistrate judges. The District Court of Arizona has adopted a Rule of Practice that expressly addresses a magistrate judge’s authority on the issue before the court. Rule 1.17(d), Rules of Practice for the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, provides:

“(d) Other Duties. Subject to the Constitution and laws of the United States, *1165 the full-time Magistrate Judges in the District of Arizona shall perform the following duties:
(18) Issue orders upon appropriate application for disclosure of Grand Jury information pursuant to Rule 6(e)(3)(C)(i), (ii), and (iv) 5 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.”

Although given the express local authority to disclose grand jury testimony in Arizona, the analysis of a magistrate judge’s authority does not end here as the specific Rule of Practice is adopted “[sjubject to the Constitution and laws of the United States.” See, Hajek v. Burlington Northern R.R. Co., 186 F.3d 1105 (9th Cir.1999)(local district rule that failure to timely demand reassignment was deemed to be a waiver and consent to magistrate judge jurisdiction in a civil case held invalid to obtain consent under Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure).

Essential to this Court’s constitutional analysis of magistrate judge authority is an understanding of the Act itself and the cases interpreting it. As the Supreme Court has explained:

Since its enactment in 1968, the Federal Magistrates Act has permitted district courts to assign magistrates certain described powers and duties, as well as ‘such additional duties’ as are not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States.

Gomez v. United States, 490 U.S. 858, 859-60, 109 S.Ct. 2237, 104 L.Ed.2d 923 (1989). The Act was amended on several occasions to significantly broaden the scope of power that magistrate judges may exercise as “congressional concerns regarding magistrates’ abilities had decreased” in their “integral important role in the Federal judicial system” in “handling] subsidiary matters to enable district judges to concentrate on trying cases.” Id. at 865—872, 109 S.Ct. 2237(outlining the evolution of the Act). Today, the Act gives magistrate judges “described power and duties” in the following areas: civil trials with the parties’ consent; misdemeanor trials and sentencing with the defendant’s consent; certain civil and criminal pretrial matters; and service as a special master. 28 U.S.C. § 636(a), (b)(l)-(2), (c). See, United States v. Gomez-Lepe, 207 F.3d 623 (9th Cir.2000). The Act expressly limits, however, their authority in eight pretrial dispositive areas even if designated to do so by a district judge, including the prohibition that a magistrate judge may not “dismiss or quash an indictment.” 28 U.S.C. *1166 § 636(b)(1)(A). 6 Thus, the Act permits a district judge to refer “any pretrial matter” subject to the eight express prohibitions to a magistrate judge to properly hear and determine.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Douglas Oil Co. of Cal. v. Petrol Stops Northwest
441 U.S. 211 (Supreme Court, 1979)
United States v. Raddatz
447 U.S. 667 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Gomez v. United States
490 U.S. 858 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Peretz v. United States
501 U.S. 923 (Supreme Court, 1991)
United States v. Fischbach And Moore, Inc.
776 F.2d 839 (Ninth Circuit, 1985)
United States v. Leon Clifford Foster
57 F.3d 727 (Ninth Circuit, 1995)
United States v. Frank F. Colacurcio, Sr.
84 F.3d 326 (Ninth Circuit, 1996)
United States v. Leon Clifford Foster
133 F.3d 704 (Ninth Circuit, 1998)
United States v. Isidro Gomez-Lepe, Opinion
207 F.3d 623 (Ninth Circuit, 2000)
In Re Grand Jury Proceedings Dzikowich
620 F. Supp. 521 (W.D. Wisconsin, 1985)
In Re the Grand Jury Appearance of Cummings
615 F. Supp. 68 (W.D. Wisconsin, 1985)
United States v. Louisiana
525 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1998)
United States v. Laliberte
131 F.R.D. 20 (D. Massachusetts, 1990)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
109 F. Supp. 2d 1162, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14733, 2000 WL 1170902, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-search-of-6783-east-soaring-eagle-way-scottsdale-azd-2000.