Baranski v. United States
Baranski v. United States
Opinion of the Court
The petition for rehearing en banc is denied. The petition for rehearing by the panel is also denied. Judge Kelly, Judge Erickson, Judge Grasz, and Judge Stras would grant the petition for rehearing en banc.
STRAS, Circuit Judge, dissenting from the denial of the petition for rehearing en banc.
I would grant en banc rehearing to correct the panel opinion's conclusion that coram nobis petitions filed by individuals who are no longer in custody are "subject to the restrictions on second or successive § 2255 motions set forth in § 2255(h)(1)
*460and (2)."
My disagreement with the panel opinion boils down to three words: "prisoner in custody." These words, from the first sentence of
I do not stand alone in my skepticism. The Sixth Circuit, for example, has concluded that a coram nobis petition filed by an individual who is "no longer in custody" is "not in substance a motion under § 2255" and "therefore not a second or successive motion" for § 2255 relief. Pilla v. United States ,
The United States attempts to distinguish these cases through some exquisite statutory dissection. The first cut carves out the so-called procedural requirement, which bars "second or successive [ § 2255 ] motion[s]" unless they are "certified" by a court of appeals panel.
The statute cannot be sliced so finely. It is instead one integrated whole: the substantive standard governs the court of appeals'
*461consideration of a second or successive § 2255 motion and would not exist in the absence of the procedural requirement to first obtain authorization for the motion. The panel opinion was no doubt correct when it stated that "we may not read ... into the statutes" a requirement that coram nobis petitions filed by out-of-custody individuals must comply with § 2255(h) 's procedural demands.
The panel opinion therefore both rewrites § 2255 and alters the standard for coram nobis petitions. It rewrites § 2255 by excising the words "prisoner in custody" from the first sentence. And it alters the standard for coram nobis petitions by applying § 2255(h) 's restrictions, rather than Supreme Court precedent. The Supreme Court has instructed us that the writ of coram nobis is an "extraordinary remedy" for correcting errors of "the most fundamental character" when the "circumstances compel[ ] such action to achieve justice." United States v. Morgan ,
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent from the denial of the petition for rehearing en banc. Only Congress can rewrite § 2255, only the Supreme Court can overrule Morgan , and neither has done so.
As the panel noted, this issue was "not addressed by the district court." Baranski v. United States ,
To the extent the United States argues that the panel applied the limitations in § 2255(h) as an exercise of its discretion over when to grant coram nobis relief-rather than as a matter of statutory interpretation-the United States reads into the panel opinion something that is not there. The panel opinion states that § 2255(h)"limit[s] the grant of coram nobis relief" to petitioners like Baranski, "Baranski's coram nobis petition is subject to" those restrictions, and § 2255(h)(1), in particular, is "the proper standard" under which to evaluate Baranski's petition.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Keith Byron BARANSKI v. United States
- Status
- Published