Court Opinion

ID: 9463436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:07:11.438977+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:06.992768
License: Public Domain

McENTEE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
While I agree that the substantive issues presented by DiRusso II differ in no material respect from those in DiRusso I, I do not believe that we should suggest at this time that mandamus review may be routinely afforded the government in habeas cases “presenting a substantial issue regarding the district court’s authority to act.” Rather, I believe that the mandamus relief available in DiRusso I and II rests on more traditional grounds.
Although the parties and the court in DiRusso I did not squarely address the *377question of our jurisdiction, we concluded on the merits that the district court lacked jurisdiction over the appellee’s claim for § 2255 relief. The relief granted the United States in DiRusso I may therefore be viewed retroactively as mandamus exercised “to confine an inferior court to a lawful exercise of its prescribed jurisdiction . .” Roche v. Evaporated Milk Ass’n, 319 U.S. 21, 26, 63 S.Ct. 938, 941, 87 L.Ed. 1185 (1943). See In re Melvin, 546 F.2d 1 (1st Cir. 1976). In any event, DiRusso I is res judicata and the propriety of our having granted relief in that case is no longer directly at issue.
In the present case, DiRusso II, the facts and the legal issues are not different in any material respect from DiRusso I. And the bail order issued by the district court in the present ease frustrates our mandate in Di-Russo I which required dismissal of the § 2255 petition. Therefore, I would hold that our exercise of the mandamus power in this case rests on the settled principle that mandamus will issue to correct the actions of a district court which undermine or frustrate the mandate of an appellate court in the same case. See United States v. United States District Court, 334 U.S. 258, 263-64, 68 S.Ct. 1035, 92 L.Ed. 1351 (1948); Delaware, L. & W. R. Co. v. Rellstab, 276 U.S. 1, 5, 48 S.Ct. 203, 72 L.Ed. 439 (1928); City Bank of Fort Worth v. Hunter, 152 U.S. 512, 515, 14 S.Ct. 675, 38 L.Ed. 534 (1894); In re Washington & G. R. Co., 140 U.S. 91, 94-95, 11 S.Ct. 673, 35 L.Ed. 339 (1891); Yablonski v. UMW, 147 U.S.App.D.C. 193, 454 F.2d 1036, 1038-39 & nn. 13, 14 (1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 906, 92 S.Ct. 1609, 31 L.Ed.2d 816 (1972); Federal Home Loan Bank v. Hall, 225 F.2d 349, 385 n.12 (9th Cir. 1955), appeal dismissed, 351 U.S. 916, 922, 76 S.Ct. 709, 100 L.Ed. 1449 (1956). In view of the narrow bases available for the exercise of mandamus in DiRusso I and II, I would not reach the question of what other circumstances call for the exercise of mandamus power at the government’s behest for review of bail and other interlocutory orders in habeas cases. See In re United States, 540 F.2d 21, 23 (1st Cir. 1976).