Meza v. US Department of Justice
This text of Meza v. US Department of Justice (Meza v. US Department of Justice) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
Opinion
§
FILED
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT JUL 2 9 2009 FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA C|erk, U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts Alfredo Meza, Petiti0ner, v. : Civil Action No.
United States Dep’t of Justice et al.,
Resp0ndents.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Plaintiff, a prisoner, has filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus and an application to proceed in forma pauperis. His application to proceed in forma pauperis will be granted, and the petition will be dismissed without prejudice.
The only subject matter mentioned in the petition for habeas corpus is a request for documents made under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), 5 U.S.C. § 522. A petition for habeas corpus is not a viable vehicle for pursuing a FOIA action. A petition for habeas corpus may be brought only against the prisoner’s immediate custodian, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426, 434-35 (2004), and only for the purpose of obtaining relief from an allegedly unlawful detention, see 28 U.S.C. § 2241(0)(3). The filing fee for a habeas corpus petition is $5.00, and a proper habeas petition is not subject to the filing fee provisions of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996 ("PLRA"). Blair-Bey v. Quick, 151 F.3d 1036, 1040 (D.C. Cir. 1998) ("['l`]he PLRA does not apply to actions properly brought in habeas corpus.").
A civil action, initiated by filing a civil complaint, is the appropriate vehicle for use in
FOIA cases. The fee for filing a civil action in this court is $350.00, and that fee is subject to the
filing fee provisions of the PLRA, see 28 U.S.C. § 1915. Although a prisoner whose in forma pauperis application is granted may proceed without prepaying the entire $350.00 filing fee, the prisoner will be assessed the entire $350.00 in installments over time, collected from his prison trust fund account.
Because the petitioner has filed a petition for habeas corpus seeking a remedy that is not available in an action in habeas corpus, the petition will be dismissed without prejudice.
A separate order accompanies this memorandum opinion.
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Date: 7 /3~7/0 q Unit@d States District Judge
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