GONZALEZ v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Filing 10

OPINION. Signed by Judge Renee Marie Bumb on 12/3/2019. (rtm, )

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY
CAMDEN VICINAGE

VICTOR GONZALEZ,

Civil Action No. 17-5516(RMB)

Petitioner
v.

OPINION

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al,
Respondents

BUMB, United States District Judge
This matter comes before the Court upon Petitioner’s Petition
for a Writ of Habeas Corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. (Pet., ECF No.
1.) Pursuant to Rule 4 of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases
in the United States District Courts, applicable here under Rule
1, scope of the rules,
the clerk must promptly forward the petition
to a judge … and the judge must promptly
examine it. If it plainly appears from the
petition and any attached exhibits that the
petitioner is not entitled to relief in the
district court, the judge must dismiss the
petition and direct the clerk to notify the
petitioner.
For the reasons discussed below, the Court lacks jurisdiction
over the petition and will transfer the matter to the United States
District Court, Northern District of Illinois.

Petitioner,

presently

confined

in

the

United

States

Penitentiary Thomson, in Thomson, Illinois, seeks to challenge his
conviction and sentence imposed in March 1997, in the United States
District Court, District of New Jersey. (Pet., ECF No. 1, ¶¶1-4.)
Petitioner asserts jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, pursuant
to the savings clause of 28 U.S.C. 2255(e). (Pet., ECF No. 1 at
13-14.)
“[T]he

general

rule

that

for

core

habeas

petitions

challenging present physical confinement, jurisdiction lies in
only one district: the district of confinement.” Rumsfeld v.
Padilla, 542 U.S. 426, 443 (2004). When Petitioner filed the
present petition on July 28, 2017, he was incarcerated in the
United States Penitentiary Canaan in Waymart, Pennsylvania, within
the Middle District of Pennsylvania. (ECF No. 1-3.) He is now
incarcerated in Thomson, Illinois, within the Northern District of
Illinois. This Court lacks jurisdiction over the petition but will
transfer

the

petition

to

Petitioner’s

current

district

of

confinement. See 28 U.S.C. § 1631 (transfer of civil action to
cure want of jurisdiction).
An appropriate Order follows.
Date: December 3, 2019
s/Renée Marie Bumb
RENÉE MARIE BUMB
United States District Judge

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