Williams v. United States ( 2018 )


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  •        .NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.
    United States Court of Appeals
    for the Federal Circuit
    ______________________
    JAMES LEE WILLIAMS,
    Plaintiff-Appellant
    v.
    UNITED STATES,
    Defendant-Appellee
    ______________________
    2018-1689
    ______________________
    Appeal from the United States Court of Federal
    Claims in No. 1:17-cv-00679-MCW, Judge Mary Ellen
    Coster Williams.
    ______________________
    Decided: July 11, 2018
    ______________________
    JAMES    LEE     WILLIAMS,    Yuma,     AZ,   pro   se.
    JOSHUA E. KURLAND, Commercial Litigation Branch,
    Civil Division, United States Department of Justice,
    Washington, DC, for defendant-appellee. Also represent-
    ed by ROBERT EDWARD KIRSCHMAN, JR., PATRICIA M.
    MCCARTHY, CHAD A. READLER.
    ______________________
    Before NEWMAN, CHEN, and HUGHES, Circuit Judges.
    2                                 WILLIAMS v. UNITED STATES
    PER CURIAM.
    James Lee Williams presently leases a parcel of agri-
    cultural land in an area located along the border of Arizo-
    na and California known as the Yuma Island.
    Purportedly in relation to that leasehold, Mr. Williams
    sued the United States in the U.S. Court of Federal
    Claims, alleging that U.S. agencies administered racially
    discriminatory policies and committed fraud that denied
    his ancestors the right to acquire land and water rights on
    the Yuma Island and therefore an opportunity to build
    wealth. That in turn, Mr. Williams argued below, violat-
    ed the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause and the Due
    Process Clause.
    The trial court dismissed the action for lack of subject
    matter jurisdiction, finding his claims either time-barred,
    sounding in tort, or unconnected to any identified money-
    mandating source of law within the court’s jurisdiction.
    On appeal, Mr. Williams concedes in his informal opening
    brief that there exists no reversible error in the trial
    court’s judgment. See Appellant’s Informal Opening Br.
    1–2. He merely alleges anew that he seeks damages for
    decades of discrimination by U.S. agencies that deprived
    him of life, liberty, and the right to acquire property as a
    U.S. citizen, Appellant’s Informal Opening Br. 2, and that
    the United States failed to provide equal protection on
    account of race, Appellant’s Informal Reply Br. 7. But the
    law is well settled that neither the Due Process Clause of
    the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendment nor the Equal Pro-
    tection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment vests the
    Court of Federal Claims with jurisdiction under the
    Tucker Act because those provisions do not mandate the
    payment of money by the United States. LeBlanc v.
    United States, 
    50 F.3d 1025
    , 1028 (Fed. Cir. 1995); accord
    Smith v. United States, 
    709 F.3d 1114
    , 1116 (Fed. Cir.
    2013).
    WILLIAMS v. UNITED STATES                                   3
    In his notice of appeal, Mr. Williams additionally as-
    serts that he “appeal[s] to provide the statute [42 U.S.C.
    § 2000d-7] that was omitted in the initial claim that is
    money mandating.” Notice of Appeal 5 ¶ 1, Docket No. 1
    (Mar. 15, 2018). To the extent that assertion can be
    construed as an argument challenging the trial court’s
    decision, the argument fails. 1 Section 2000d–7 “expressly
    waives state sovereign immunity for violations of . . . ‘title
    VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,’” Sossamon v. Texas,
    
    563 U.S. 277
    , 291 (2011) (emphasis added) (quoting
    § 2000d–7(a)(1)), and “[i]n a suit against a State,”
    § 2000d–7(a)(2) (emphasis added), “makes ‘remedies
    (including remedies both at law and in equity) . . . availa-
    ble for such a violation to the same extent as such reme-
    dies are available for such a violation in the suit against
    any public or private entity other than a State,’” Sossa-
    mon, 
    563 U.S. at 291
     (alteration in original) (quoting
    § 2000d–7(a)(2)). See also Alexander v. Sandoval, 
    532 U.S. 275
    , 280 (2001) (stating that § 2000d–7 “expressly
    abrogated States’ sovereign immunity against suits
    brought in federal court to enforce Title VI” against
    them). The statute sets forth no private right of action for
    money damages against the United States, which could be
    enforced in the Court of Federal Claims.
    To the extent Mr. Williams raises additional argu-
    ments or allegations in support of jurisdiction in his
    informal reply brief, we are not persuaded that he cures
    the jurisdictional defect. Because Mr. Williams agrees
    that the court did not err and we do not discern any error
    in the court’s jurisdictional analysis, we affirm the court’s
    dismissal of the action.
    1  The argument is also waived because it was not
    raised below. Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v. United States, 
    862 F.3d 1370
    , 1383 (Fed. Cir. 2017), cert. denied sub nom.
    Petro-Hunt, LLC v. United States, 
    138 S. Ct. 1989
     (2018).
    4                     WILLIAMS v. UNITED STATES
    AFFIRMED
    No costs.
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 18-1689

Filed Date: 7/11/2018

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 7/11/2018