Mayfield v. Dalton

109 F.3d 1423, 1997 WL 149263
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 27, 1997
DocketNo. 95-16626
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 109 F.3d 1423 (Mayfield v. Dalton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mayfield v. Dalton, 109 F.3d 1423, 1997 WL 149263 (9th Cir. 1997).

Opinion

SCHROEDER, Circuit Judge:

The plaintiffs-appellants in this case, John C. Mayfield and Joseph Vlacovsky, filed this action when they were on active duty in the Marine Corps. They challenged the constitutionality of a Department of Defense program to collect and store blood and tissue samples from all members of the armed forces for future DNA analysis (the “repository”). Mayfield and Vlacovsky argued that the compulsory taking of specimens without proper safeguards to maintain the privacy of the donor was a violation of the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. Mayfield v. Dalton, 901 F.Supp. 300, 303 (D.Hawai'i 1995). In addition, they feared that information obtained from the repository samples, regarding the donors’ propensities for hereditary diseases and genetic disorders, might be used to discriminate against applicants for jobs, insurance or benefit programs. Id. at 304.

Refusing to comply with the program, Mayfield and Vlacovsky turned to the district court. They sought to represent a class of “‘all military personnel serving on active duty in the United States Navy and/or the United States Marine Corps who have been or may be compelled to provide blood and/or other tissue samples for DNA identification or testing procedures under currently applicable Navy and/or Marine Corps policies, practices and/or regulations.’” Id. at 305. The district court granted summary judg[1425]*1425ment in favor of the government and denied class certification. Id. at 802.

On the merits, the district court first held that the DNA repository did not violate any constitutional rights because the taking of specimens without the service members’ consent did not constitute an unreasonable seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 304. The court also stressed that the repository was instituted for the purpose of assisting in the identification of soldiers’ remains, a purpose that plaintiffs-appellants did not challenge, and that other potential, more nefarious, uses were too speculative to be justiciable. Id. The district court also held that Mayfield and Vlacovsky could not adequately represent all members of the class and therefore denied them class certification. Id. at 305-306.

The district court’s decision came down on September 8, 1995. In the intervening period between its decision and oral argument before this court, Mayfield and Vlacovsky have been honorably separated from active duty without ever having given any blood or tissue samples. The government suggests their claims may thus be moot. Mayfield and Vlacovsky counter that separation from active duty means that they are still contractually obligated to remain in the Marine Corps Reserves, and may thus be required to return to active duty in an emergency situation. Therefore, they argue, their case is not moot.

We agree with the government that Mayfield and Vlacovsky’s challenge is moot because they are no longer subject to the DNA collection program, and face only a remote possibility that they may ever be subject to the repository policies they seek to challenge. See Holtzman v. Schlesinger, 484 F.2d 1307, 1315 (2d Cir.1973)(disagreeing with the service member plaintiffs that a controversy is kept alive when the court can perceive “nothing more than the merest possibility that [the eventuality suggested by plaintiffs] will occur”). In Holtzman, the service member plaintiffs had challenged the constitutionality of the war in Cambodia. Although the ease was decided on political question grounds, the Second Circuit also observed that because “one of the service members ha[d] been separated from the service” and none of the plaintiff service members were “presently under orders to fight in Cambodia[,]” their “present status ... moot[ed] the appeal as to them[.]” Holtzman, 484 F.2d at 1315. In this case, while there is a “possibility” that a national emergency might arise, and that the military might choose to recall Mayfield and Vlacovsky to active duty, the recall could happen only at some indefinite time in the future and then only upon the occurrence of future events now unforeseeable. “ ‘[S]uch speculative contingencies afford no basis for our passing on the substantive issues’ ” presented in this case. Preiser v. Newkirk, 422 U.S. 395, 403, 95 S.Ct. 2330, 2335, 45 L.Ed.2d 272 (1975)(quoting Hall v. Beals, 396 U.S. 45, 49, 90 S.Ct. 200, 202, 24 L.Ed.2d 214 (1969)).

Not only are Mayfield and Vlacovsky unable to challenge the regulations that might have affected them in the past, they are also unable to challenge regulations that might apply to them in the future. Such a challenge to future application is not yet ripe. See 13A Wright, Miller & Cooper, Federal Practice & Procedure, Jurisdiction 2d, § 3532 (“Ripeness doctrine is invoked to determine whether a dispute has yet matured to a point that warrants decision.”). In Pence v. Andrus, 586 F.2d 733 (9th Cir.1978), this court held that plaintiffs, who had not yet been subjected to revised administrative procedures for processing claims under the Alaska Native Land Allotment Act failed to present a ripe claim, because there was no sufficiently imminent threat of injury to them at the time of the challenge. Similarly, there is no sufficiently imminent threat of injury to Mayfield and Vlacovsky at this time.

Moreover, in the intervening timé between the district court judgment and oral argument before this court, the military changed the repository in ways that appear to respond to some of plaintiffs-appellants’ main concerns. As of April 1996, for example, the maximum length of time that the specimens will now be retained has been shortened from the originally challenged duration of 75 years to 50 years. In addition, upon the request of the donor, the military will now destroy individual specimen samples follow[1426]*1426ing the conclusion of the service member’s military obligation. See April 2,1996 Memorandum from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.1 The changes made, which materially alter many aspects of the policy that Mayfield and Vlacovsky challenged in the district court, fortify our conclusion that the likelihood that these plaintiffs-appellants will ever be subject to the policy they challenged in the district court is too remote to make their suit justiciable.

We also conclude that the question presented does not fall within the category of harm “capable of repetition, yet evading review.” Southern Pacific Terminal Co. v. ICC, 219 U.S. 498, 31 S.Ct. 279, 55 L.Ed. 310 (1911). In order for this exception to the mootness doctrine to apply, there must be a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party will be subject to the same injury again. City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 109, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 1669, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983). There is no such “reasonable expectation” in this ease.

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

Related

Schumacher v. Inslee
W.D. Washington, 2021
Centeno v. Inslee
310 F.R.D. 483 (W.D. Washington, 2015)
Lisa Kragnes v. City of Des Moines, Iowa
810 N.W.2d 492 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2012)
Rodney Earl Williams v. Rick Thaler
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011
Carlstrom v. Decisionone Corp.
217 F.R.D. 514 (D. Montana, 2003)
No. 97-35642
177 F.3d 789 (Ninth Circuit, 1999)
Dufresne v. Veneman
114 F.3d 952 (Ninth Circuit, 1997)
Mayfield v. Dalton
109 F.3d 1423 (Ninth Circuit, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
109 F.3d 1423, 1997 WL 149263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mayfield-v-dalton-ca9-1997.