Martin Calderon v. B. Birkholz

I.

BACKGROUND

Petitioner Martin Calderon is a federal inmate convicted and sentenced on federal kidnapping charges. In August 2024, he filed an incomplete petition ostensibly under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 that alleged no cognizable claim for relief. (ECF 1 at 3). Petitioner was thus ordered to show cause why the petition should not be summarily dismissed for that reason and then given the chance to file an amended petition. (ECF 5). Rather than amend his petition to state a cognizable habeas claim, however, petitioner filed only an obtuse response to the show-cause order and attached a series of prison administrative grievances. (ECF 6). A review of those attached grievances revealed that petitioner had evidently asked the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to apply some earned time credits (ETCs) against his sentence under the First Step Act (FSA). (ECF 6 at 3–20). According to those grievance documents, though, the BOP denied petitioner’s request because federal inmates convicted of kidnapping (among other enumerated federal crimes) are statutorily ineligible for ETCs by the plain and express text of the FSA. (Id. at 5, 7). Otherwise, petitioner’s response still failed to…