Ali v. Federal Bureau of Prisons

2008 United States Supreme Court case

Ali v. Federal Bureau of Prisons

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued October 29, 2007
Decided January 22, 2008
Full case name| Abdus-Shahid M. S. Ali, Petitioner v. Federal Bureau of Prisons et al.
Docket no.| 06-9130
Citations| 552 U.S. 214 (more)

128 S. Ct. 831; 169 L. Ed. 2d 680; 76 U.S.L.W. 4057; 08 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 854; 2008 Daily Journal D.A.R. 941; 21 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 53

Argument| Oral argument
Holding
The United States cannot be sued for failing to return property when the loss is caused by any law enforcement officer.
Court membership

Chief Justice
John Roberts
Associate Justices
John P. Stevens * Antonin Scalia
Anthony Kennedy * David Souter
Clarence Thomas * Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen Breyer * Samuel Alito
Case opinions
Majority| Thomas, joined by Roberts, Scalia, Ginsburg, Alito
Dissent| Kennedy, joined by Stevens, Souter, Breyer
Dissent| Breyer, joined by Stevens

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Ali v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 552 U.S. 214 (2008), was a United States Supreme Court case, upholding the United States's sovereign immunity against tort claims brought when "any law enforcement officer" loses a person's property. It was argued on October 29, 2007, and decided on January 22, 2008, by the Roberts Court.[1]

## Background

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Abdus-Shahid M. S. Ali, a federal prisoner in Atlanta, Georgia, was transferred to a prison in Inez, Kentucky. His personal property, packed into two duffel bags, was shipped separately. Upon inspecting his property after arrival at the new prison, he said that $177 worth of property was missing from the bags. Ali filed an administrative claim; relief was denied because Ali had signed a receipt form. Ali filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The case turned on the grammar of part of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), a 1946 law that waives sovereign immunity in some cases so that the federal government may be sued for certain torts. The FTCA states that the waiver of immunity does not apply to claims arising from the detention of property by "any officer of customs or excise or any other law enforcement officer." Ali argued that this text had been intended to encompass only law enforcement officers concerned with customs or excise laws. The Bureau of Prisons argued that the word "any" should be interpreted broadly.

## Opinion of the Court

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The Supreme Court ruled against Ali in a 5–4 decision. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, "The phrase 'any other law enforcement officer' suggests a broad meaning," and compared the phrasing to the phrasing of other laws, with and without the word "any."

In his dissent, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the majority was using "wooden reliance" on the single word any without considering the rest of the paragraph of the FTCA, and added, "If Congress had intended to give sweeping immunity to all federal law enforcement officials from liability for the detention of property, it would not have dropped this phrase onto the end of the statutory clause so as to appear there as something of an afterthought."

## See also

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* List of United States Supreme Court cases
* Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume
* List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Roberts Court

## References

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1. ^ "Ali v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 552 U.S. 214 (2008)". Justia Law. Retrieved October 5, 2024.

## External links

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* Text of Ali v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 552 U.S. 214 (2008) is available from: Findlaw Google Scholar Justia Oyez (oral argument audio)

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U.S. Supreme Court Article III case law

Federalism

| Abstention|

* Railroad Commission v. Pullman Co. (1941)
* Burford v. Sun Oil Co. (1943)
* Louisiana Power & Light Co. v. City of Thibodaux (1959)
* United Gas Pipe Line Co. v. Ideal Cement Co. (1962)
* England v. Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners (1964)
* Younger v. Harris (1971)
* Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States (1976)
* Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital v. Mercury Construction Corp. (1983)

|

Adequate and
independent state ground|

* Murdock v. City of Memphis (1875)
* Seneca Nation of Indians v. Christy (1896)
* Fox Film Corp. v. Muller (1935)
* Harrison v. NAACP (1959)
* Michigan v. Long (1983)

Federal common law|

* United States v. Hudson (1812)
* Swift v. Tyson (1842)
* Black & White Taxicab & Transfer Co. v. Brown & Yellow Taxicab & Transfer Co. (1928)
* Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (1938)
* Hinderlider v. La Plata River & Cherry Creek Ditch Co. (1938)
* Clearfield Trust Co. v. United States (1943)

Rooker–Feldman doctrine|

* Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co. (1923)
* District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman (1983)
* Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (2005)

Sovereign immunity and
presidential immunity|

* Little v. Barreme (1804)
* The Schooner Exchange v. M'Faddon (1812)
* Mississippi v. Johnson (1867)
* United States v. Lee (1882)
* Schillinger v. United States (1894)
* Feres v. United States (1950)
* United States v. Wunderlich (1951)
* Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino (1964)
* Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez (1978)
* Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1982)
* United States v. Stanley (1987)
* Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Citizen Band, Potawatomi Indian Tribe of Oklahoma (1991)
* Saudi Arabia v. Nelson (1993)
* Clinton v. Jones (1997)
* Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma v. Manufacturing Technologies, Inc. (1998)
* College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board (1999)
* C & L Enterprises, Inc. v. Citizen Band, Potawatomi Indian Tribe of Oklahoma (2001)
* Inyo County v. Paiute-Shoshone Indians of the Bishop Community (2003)
* United States v. White Mountain Apache Tribe (2003)
* Republic of Austria v. Altmann (2004)
* City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005)
* Dolan v. United States Postal Service (2006)
* Permanent Mission of India v. City of New York (2007)
* Ali v. Federal Bureau of Prisons (2008)
* Samantar v. Yousuf (2010)
* United States v. Bormes (2012)
* Republic of Argentina v. NML Capital, Ltd. (2014)
* OBB Personenverkehr AG v. Sachs (2015)
* Jam v. International Finance Corp. (2019)
* Republic of Sudan v. Harrison (2019)
* Opati v. Republic of Sudan (2020)
* Trump v. United States (2024)

Jurisdiction

* Chisholm v. Georgia (1793)
* Marbury v. Madison (1803)
* United States v. More (1805)
* Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816)
* American Insurance Co. v. 356 Bales of Cotton (1828)
* Sheldon v. Sill (1850)
* United States v. Jackalow (1862)
* Ex parte Vallandigham (1864)
* Ex parte McCardle (1869)
* United States v. Klein (1871)
* City of St. Louis v. Myers (1885)
* Barrett v. United States (1898)
* Burton v. United States I (1905)
* Burton v. United States II (1906)
* Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Mottley (1908)
* Muskrat v. United States (1911)
* American Well Works Co. v. Layne & Bowler Co. (1916)
* Smith v. Kansas City Title & Trust Co. (1921)
* Hartsville Oil Mill v. United States (1926)
* Wisconsin v. Illinois (1929)
* Crowell v. Benson (1932)
* Colegrove v. Green (1946)
* Glidden Co. v. Zdanok (1962)
* Oneida Indian Nation of New York v. County of Oneida (1974)
* Arizona v. New Mexico (1976)
* Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle (1977)
* Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co. (1982)
* Thomas v. Union Carbide (1985)
* Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Schor (1986)
* Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Thompson (1986)
* Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc. (1995)
* JPMorgan Chase Bank v. Traffic Stream (BVI) Infrastructure Ltd. (2002)
* Grable & Sons Metal Products, Inc. v. Darue Engineering & Mfg. (2005)
* Bowles v. Russell (2007)
* Patchak v. Zinke (2018)

Justiciability

| Mootness|

* DeFunis v. Odegaard (1974)
* Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez (2016)
* Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski (2021)
* Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer (2023)

|

Political question|

* Baker v. Carr (1962)
* Goldwater v. Carter (1979)
* Nixon v. United States (1993)

Ripeness|

* Poe v. Ullman (1961)
* Toilet Goods Ass'n, Inc. v. Gardner (1967)
* Laird v. Tatum (1972)
* Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City (1985)
* Trump v. New York (2020)

Standing|

* Bailiff v. Tipping (1805)
* Fairchild v. Hughes (1922)
* Massachusetts v. Mellon (1923)
* Ex parte Levitt (1937)
* Altvater v. Freeman (1943)
* Flast v. Cohen (1968)
* Sierra Club v. Morton (1972)
* United States v. Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (1973)
* Schlesinger v. Reservists Committee to Stop the War (1974)
* Warth v. Seldin (1975)
* Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois (1977)
* Pfizer Inc. v. Government of India (1978)
* Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church & State (1982)
* City of Los Angeles v. Lyons (1983)
* Allen v. Wright (1984)
* Diamond v. Charles (1986)
* Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife (1992)
* Raines v. Byrd (1997)
* FEC v. Akins (1998)
* Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000)
* DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno (2006)
* Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation (2007)
* Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency (2007)
* Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn (2011)
* Bond v. United States (2011)
* Clapper v. Amnesty International USA (2013)
* Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins (2016)
* Texas v. Pennsylvania (2020)
* Trump v. New York (2020)
* Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski (2021)
* TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez (2021)
* California v. Texas (2021)
* FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (2024)
* Murthy v. Missouri (2024)

Others|

* Hayburn's Case (1792)
* County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York State (1985)
* Davis v. Bandemer (1986)
* Vieth v. Jubelirer (2004)
* Rucho v. Common Cause / Benisek v. Lamone (2019)

Treason

* Ex parte Bollman (1807)
* United States v. Burr (1807)
* Cramer v. United States (1945)

Others

* Stuart v. Laird (1803)
* Osborn v. Bank of the United States (1824)
* Forrester v. White (1988)
* Mistretta v. United States (1989)
* Peretz v. United States (1991)
* United States v. Hatter (2001)
* Stern v. Marshall (2011)
* Bank Markazi v. Peterson (2016)

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