From Casetext: Smarter Legal Research

United States v. Chavez

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Dec 20, 1977
566 F.2d 81 (9th Cir. 1977)

Opinion

No. 76-3541.

December 20, 1977.

David Elson (argued), Los Angeles, Cal., for defendant-appellant.

Robert Ramsey, Jr., Asst. U.S. Atty., (argued), Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Before CHAMBERS and WALLACE, Circuit Judges, and WOLLENBERG, District Judge.

The Honorable Albert C. Wollenberg, Senior United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, sitting by designation.


ORDER DISMISSING APPEAL

We are presented the question of whether a federal prosecution duplicating or substantially duplicating a prior indictment (later dismissed) by the State of California, is a violation of the Attorney General's publicly announced policy on such matters and, if so, whether the district court and this court should do something about it.

We hold that under the doctrine of separation of powers federal courts have no discretion to conduct such an investigation. It might be otherwise if the Attorney General's policy were something more than in-house rules, and had reached the stage of publication in the Code of Federal Regulations or some equivalent publication.

The appeal is dismissed.


Summaries of

United States v. Chavez

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Dec 20, 1977
566 F.2d 81 (9th Cir. 1977)
Case details for

United States v. Chavez

Case Details

Full title:UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE, v. ROBERT CHAVEZ…

Court:United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Date published: Dec 20, 1977

Citations

566 F.2d 81 (9th Cir. 1977)

Citing Cases

U.S. v. Pungitore

We disagree. First, in view of the substantial state interest in prosecuting appellants for D'Alfonso's…

United States v. Welch

United States Attorney Bulletin, vol. 26, No. 6, at 234. This very issue was recently considered and resolved…