Jordan v. Trump

Opinion

FILED

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7/14/2020 FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Clerk, U.S. District & Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia ANDRE PELE JORDAN, )

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Plaintiff, )

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v. ) Civil Action No. 20-1318 (UNA)

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IVANKA TRUMP, )

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Defendant. )

MEMORANDUM OPINION

This matter, brought pro se by a prisoner in Macon, Georgia, is before the Court on initial review of the complaint and motion to proceed in forma pauperis. For the following reasons, the in forma pauperis motion will be granted and this case will be dismissed.

A district court must immediately dismiss a prisoner’s complaint upon determining that it, among other enumerated grounds, is frivolous. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. The instant complaint is an “Affidavit for Appointment of Spouse by Command,” which purports to appoint “Ivanka Trump of the Federal Whitehouse in Washington , District of Columbia . . . as spouse in regards of marriage.” Compl. at 2. The affiant’s “authority” supposedly derives from “counter intelligence Agent.” Id.

Complaints premised on fantastic or delusional scenarios are subject to dismissal as frivolous. Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325 (1989); see Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 33 (1992) (“[A] finding of factual frivolousness is appropriate when the facts alleged rise to the level of the irrational or the wholly incredible[.]”); Best v. Kelly, 39 F.3d 328, 330-31 (D.C. Cir. 1994) (a court may dismiss claims that are “essentially fictitious”-- for example, where they

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suggest “bizarre conspiracy theories . . . [or] fantastic government manipulations of their will or mind”) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)); Crisafi v. Holland, 655 F.2d 1305, 1307-08 (D.C. Cir. 1981) (“A court may dismiss as frivolous complaints . . . postulating events and circumstances of a wholly fanciful kind.”). The instant complaint meets the standard for dismissal. A separate order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.

/s/

JAMES E. BOASBERG

Date: July 14, 2020 United States District Judge