Court Opinion

ID: 9483223
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:14:43.452249+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:30.070252
License: Public Domain

KOZINSKI, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
While I join the court’s opinion, I write separately because I find the jurisdictional question somewhat closer than my colleagues acknowledge. Not every case where our jurisdiction is in doubt may be converted into a mandamus petition; and not every mandamus petition may be granted. See NORML v. Mullen, 828 F.2d 536 (9th Cir.1987) (declining to issue writ after converting an appeal into mandamus petition). Both steps are exceptional and require unusual and compelling circumstances, lest our jurisdictional rules be rendered meaningless. See Hartland v. Alaska Airlines, 544 F.2d 992, 1004 (9th Cir. 1976) (Wallace, J., concurring) (appeal may be recharacterized as petition for mandamus only when “either serious hardship or prejudice to the appellants would have resulted if the issues raised had not been resolved prior to trial, or the orders would not have been reviewable at all on appeal from a final judgment”).
The mere fact that the magistrate here exceeded his jurisdiction does not, standing alone, justify mandamus, much less conversion of an appeal into a mandamus petition. In the ordinary case of a litigant represented by counsel, I would be content to dis*419miss the appeal and let the litigant try to proceed in the district court. Petitioner, however, is pro se and incarcerated. His access to legal materials and to the clerk’s office is naturally limited. The procedural quagmire created by the magistrate’s ultra vires order may well be too deep for someone in petitioner’s position to escape. Without our intervention, Reynaga’s civil rights action may be stalled indefinitely. It is based on my understanding that we are granting mandamus due to these unusual circumstances that I join Judge Reinhardt’s opinion.