(PC) Walker v. Nelson ( 2023 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 10 ELMER EUGENE WALKER, No. 2:22-cv-01327 KJM DB P 11 Plaintiff, 12 v. ORDER 13 JENNA NELSON, et al., 14 Defendants. 15 16 Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a civil rights action pursuant to 42 17 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff claims that defendants impeded his access to the court in violation of his 18 civil rights. On August 26, 2022, plaintiff filed a motion for transfer to federal prison. (ECF No. 19 10.) This document contains two parts: (1) an appeal to the Ninth Circuit for a denial of an 20 unidentified writ of habeas corpus, and (2) a request that this court order plaintiff be moved to a 21 federal prison. (Id.) As only plaintiff’s motion for transfer appears to be the only portion of this 22 document before the court, the undersigned will only address this motion. 23 The relief requested in plaintiff’s motion is unavailable. The federal Bureau of Prisons is 24 responsible for housing individuals sentenced in federal court. See 18 U.S.C. § 3621. Plaintiff 25 does not appear to have an outstanding federal sentence nor has plaintiff indicated there is one. 26 Regardless, for the judiciary to order an inmate be transferred from state custody to federal 27 custody would be a violation of comity and the separation of powers. See United States v. 28 Warren, 610 F.2d 680, 684-85 (9th Cir. 1980); see also Hill v. Newsom, No. 2:19-cv-1680 JAM 1 | ACP, 2021 WL 3032808 at *1 (E.D. Cal. July 19, 2021). “Determination of priority of custody 2 | and service of sentence between state and federal sovereigns is a matter of comity to be resolved 3 | by the executive branches of the two sovereigns.” Id. at 684. As such, it would be improper for 4 | the court to issue such an order as it is outside the authority of the federal court and would violate 5 | the principles of comity and separation of powers. 6 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiffs motion for transfer to federal 7 | prison (ECF No. 10) is denied. 8 | Dated: January 25, 2023 9 10 ll ‘BORAH BARNES UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 DB/DB Prisoner Inbox/Civil Rights/R/walk1327.fedtransfer 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28