Buchheit v. Green, No. 12-3154 (10th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this Case
Pro se Appellant Charles Buchheit appealed a district court's sua sponte dismissal of his complaint against certain Defendant Kansas State officials. Clerk of the Kansas appellate courts Carol Green cross-appealed the district court's denial of her motion to review the magistrate judge's order granting Appellant in forma pauperis status (IFP). Appellant filed his "Petition for Injunctive Relief Under the Fourteenth Amendment, As Well As, the Equal Access to Justice Act" naming as defendants Ms. Green and Shawnee County Court Judge Daniel Mitchell. He alleged that the Kansas state appellate courts had denied his request to proceed IFP and had refused to docket his state appeals. Ms. Green objected on the grounds that the magistrate judge failed to screen the complaint under 28 U.S.C. 1915(e)(2). The district court overruled the objection but dismissed the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, finding that Appellant sought retrospective relief against the state that was barred by sovereign immunity. Because he was seeking to address alleged past harms rather than prevent prospective violations of federal law, the Tenth Circuit concluded that the request did not fall into the "Ex Parte Young" exception to state sovereign immunity, and accordingly affirmed the district court's dismissal of Appellant's complaint. With regard to Ms. Green's cross-appeal, the Tenth Circuit agreed that "[t]hough screening might be a good practice and more efficient," the Court found that nothing in the language of 28 U.S.C. 1915 (e)(2) requires an assigned magistrate judge to screen a case for merit or to make a recommendation for dismissal to the district court before granting IFP status. "But the language of the present rule also provides needed flexibility, even if it sometimes requires defendants like Ms. Green and Judge Mitchell to respond to complaints that may soon be dismissed as without merit. It simply does not require district courts to review the merits of every claim that comes before them in an IFP motion, and we decline to read in such an extensive duty absent statutory language to that effect."
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.