J. JOHN GORDON, APPELLANT,
v.
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, APPELLEE

1st Cir. | 1977-06-20
No. 77-1248
558 F.2d 618 United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1977) Caution
Cited by 19 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that a district court may refuse to file a complaint from a party who has been previously enjoined from filing frivolous lawsuits without prior leave of court.


Facts & Procedural History

Appellant, J. John Gordon, attempted to file a complaint after being perpetually enjoined from instituting legal proceedings without prior leave of co…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

J. John Gordon appeals from the district court’s order of January 14, 1977 instructing the clerk not to accept for filing the complaint submitted by appellant on January 3, 1977. We affirm.

After filing a series of complaints made up vituperative attacks upon all the federal district court judges in Massachusetts, all the circuit court judges in the First Circuit, all the judges of the United States Supreme Court, etc., for ruling against him, a visiting judge entered an order on August 18, 1976:

“perpetually enjoining and restraining . J. John Gordon, from continuing, instituting or prosecuting, without prior leave of court, this or any other legal proceeding in any court against any state or federal judge, officer or employee for actions taken in the course of their official duties as such judge, officer or employee.”

In reliance upon this order, the district court refused to allow appellant’s latest complaint, requesting, inter alia, the arrest of both the visiting and local district court judges for issuing orders against him and the placing of the district court and this court into a receivership.

His argument on appeal is that no American can be denied access to the courts. The law is well established that it is proper and necessary for an injunction to issue barring a party, such as appellant, from filing and processing frivolous and vexatious lawsuits. Rudnicki v. McCormack, 210 F.Supp. 905, 908-912 (D.Mass. and R.I., 1962), appeal dismissed sub nom. Rudnicki v. Cox, 372 U.S. 226, 83 S.Ct. 679, 9 L.Ed.2d 714 (1963). Accord, Clinton v. United States, 297 F. 2d 899, 901-902 (9th Cir. 1961); Meredith v. John Deere Plow Company of Moline, Ill., 261 F. 2d 121, 124 (8th Cir. 1958), cert. denied, 359 U.S. 909, 79 S.Ct. 586, 3 L.Ed.2d 574 (1959). See also Adams v. American Bar Association, 400 F.Supp. 219, 227-228 (E.D.Pa.1975); Boruski v. Stewart, 381 F.Supp. 529, 535 (S.D.N.Y.1974), aff’d sub nom. Boruski v. United States Government, 493 F. 2d 301 (2d Cir. 1974), appeal dismissed, 419 U.S. 808, 95 S.Ct. 20, 42 L.Ed.2d 34 (1974). The order of the district court is hereby affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

Previewing 3 of 10 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw