Opinion
Civil Action 24-3211 (UNA)
12-20-2024
MAY CHEN, Plaintiff, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ATTORNEY GENERAL, et al., Defendants.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
LOREN L. ALIKHAN, United States District Judge
This matter is before the court on plaintiff's application to proceed in forma pauperis, ECF No. 2, pro se complaint, ECF No. 1, and motion for default judgment, ECF No. 3. The Court grants the application, dismisses the complaint, and denies the motion as moot.
Plaintiff brings this action against the Attorneys General of the District of Columbia, the State of Maryland, and the State of California. See ECF No. 1 at 2-3. Plaintiff alleges that Defendants have denied her “[b]oth Housing and Employment plus civil liberey [sic],” id. at 3, and have violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against her on the bases of race, color and national origin, id. at 4. In addition, Plaintiff alleges that Defendants are responsible for multiple injuries, including rashes, tooth aches, diarrhea, cancer, anxiety, depression, and mental anguish. Id. at 5. She demands an award of $5,900,000,000,000,000,000,000 and “criminal prosecution.” Id.
The Court dismisses the complaint for two reasons. First, a complaint must contain a short and plain statement of the grounds upon which the Court's jurisdiction depends, a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief, and a demand for judgment for the relief the pleader seeks. Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a). Plaintiff's complaint falls well short of this standard, as it neither states a valid basis for this Court's jurisdiction nor alleges facts supporting a plausible legal claim. Second, the decision to initiate a criminal prosecution is left to the discretion of the executive branch of government, not the judicial branch. See Shoshone-Bannock Tribes v. Reno, 56 F.3d 1476, 1480 (D.C. Cir. 1995); see also Cox v. Sec'y of Labor, 739 F.Supp. 28, 30 (D.D.C. 1990) (citing cases). The Court therefore has no power to grant the “prosecution against defendants,” ECF No. 1 at 4, that Plaintiff seeks.
A separate order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.