United States v. Johnson, No. 18-1675 (6th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseJohnson moved to Michigan while on probation, violating the terms of his release from a Florida prison. Florida officials issued a warrant. Federal agents found and arrested Johnson and prosecuted him for a federal gun crime, 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1), before turning him over to Florida authorities. During a remand for resentencing on his federal conviction, Johnson argued that the federal district court lacked jurisdiction to sentence him because federal agents pursued him to execute a Florida warrant. The Sixth Circuit affirmed his sentence. Johnson had Article III standing to contest the primary jurisdiction of the federal government but the federal government and Florida could prioritize between them the order of proceedings. Despite its name, primary jurisdiction does not affect the district court’s jurisdiction over a criminal defendant; it merely determines the order of trial, sentencing, and incarceration. Primary jurisdiction is a matter of comity to be resolved by the executive branches of the two sovereigns. Even if Florida retained its primary jurisdiction over Johnson, that would not deprive the federal district court of jurisdiction. A lack of primary jurisdiction does not mean that a sovereign does not have jurisdiction over a defendant but only that the sovereign lacks priority of jurisdiction for purposes of trial, sentencing and incarceration.
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