MURPHY, Circuit Judge.
Jesus Hector Palma-Salazar was indicted in 1995 for conspiracy to distribute cocaine; he was arrested in Mexico in 2002. After he was extradited to the United States pursuant to an extradition treaty between the United States and Mexico, Palma-Salazar pleaded guilty and began serving his sentence. In 2010, Palma-Salazar filed a 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition for a writ of habeas corpus, challenging his confinement at the Administrative Maximum Prison in Florence, Colorado ("ADX"). He alleged his confinement at ADX violates his Fifth and Eighth Amendment rights and also the extradition treaty. The district court denied Palma-Salazar's petition. It concluded it lacked jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 to consider his Fifth and Eighth Amendment claims because they are challenges to the conditions of his confinement and must, therefore, be brought under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971). It also concluded Palma-Salazar's confinement at ADX does not violate the extradition treaty. This court holds the district court lacked jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 to consider any of Palma-Salazar's claims. Because he seeks a change in the place of his confinement, which is properly construed as a challenge to the conditions of his confinement, Palma-Salazar's claims must be brought pursuant to Bivens. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 we therefore
In December 1995, Palma-Salazar, a Mexican citizen, was indicted in the Southern District of California for conspiring to distribute over ten kilograms of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). In June 2002, Mexican authorities arrested him in Mexico pursuant to an extradition warrant based on the 1995 indictment. He was extradited to the United States in January 2007, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced in February 2008 to an agreed-upon term of sixteen years' imprisonment and five years' supervised release.
From his arrival in the United States in January 2007, through June 2008, Palma-Salazar resided in three correctional facilities without incident. On June 18, 2008, he received written notice from the Bureau of Prisons ("BOP") of an upcoming hearing to determine whether he should be transferred to ADX. The notice explained why he was referred for placement at ADX:
The notice also included the following allegations of fact in support of its referral:
The transfer hearing was held on June 24, 2008. Palma-Salazar presented an oral and written statement in which he claimed there was no evidence to support the allegations made in the notice, it had not been proved he belonged to a cartel or other criminal organization, and he has never been involved in any criminal activity related to a cartel or other organization. After the hearing, the BOP issued a report concluding Palma-Salazar met the criteria for placement at ADX and recommending he be transferred there. Palma-Salazar received a copy of this report on June 25, 2008. On June 27, 2008, the BOP's Regional Director accepted the recommendation. Palma-Salazar, however, apparently did not receive notice of the Regional Director's decision. He was transferred to ADX on July 25, 2008. On December 5, 2008, Palma-Salazar appealed the decision to transfer him to ADX. His appeal was denied on March 26, 2009.
In August 2010, Palma-Salazar filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241.
The district court denied Palma-Salazar's petition. He appeals, arguing the district court erred in concluding it lacked jurisdiction to consider his Fifth and Eighth Amendment claims. He argues these claims are not "conditions of confinement" claims but instead, "execution of sentence" claims, which can be brought under § 2241. He also argues the district
This court reviews the district court's disposition of Palma-Salazar's habeas corpus petition de novo. Bradshaw v. Story, 86 F.3d 164, 166 (10th Cir.1996). Factual findings are reviewed for clear error. Standifer v. Ledezma, 653 F.3d 1276, 1278 (10th Cir.2011).
Habeas corpus review is available under § 2241 if an individual is "in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 2241(c)(3). The fundamental purpose of a § 2241 habeas proceeding is to allow a person in custody to attack the legality of that custody, and the "`traditional function of the writ is to secure release from illegal custody.'" McIntosh v. U.S. Parole Comm'n, 115 F.3d 809, 811 (10th Cir.1997) (quoting Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 484, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973)). "Though the Supreme Court has not set the precise boundaries of habeas actions, it has distinguished between habeas actions and those challenging conditions of confinement...." Rael v. Williams, 223 F.3d 1153, 1154 (10th Cir.2000). This court has "endorsed this distinction." Id. In this circuit, a prisoner who challenges the fact or duration of his confinement and seeks immediate release or a shortened period of confinement, must do so through an application for habeas corpus. McIntosh, 115 F.3d at 812. In contrast, a prisoner who challenges the conditions of his confinement must do so through a civil rights action. Id.; see also Standifer, 653 F.3d at 1280 ("It is well-settled law that prisoners who wish to challenge only the conditions of their confinement... must do so through civil rights lawsuits ... not through federal habeas proceedings.").
This court has stated "that a request by a federal prisoner for a change in the place of confinement is properly construed as a challenge to the conditions of confinement and, thus, must be brought pursuant to [Bivens]." United States v. Garcia, 470 F.3d 1001, 1003 (10th Cir.2006). In Garcia, we held that two federal prisoners who filed motions seeking transfer from one detention facility to another had to bring their claims through a Bivens action. Id. at 1002-03. We reasoned that neither prisoner "sought release from the custody of the Bureau of Prisons or a shortened period of incarceration" but instead, a "change in the place of confinement." Id.
In Garcia, we acknowledged being persuaded by the reasoning in Boyce v. Ashcroft, 251 F.3d 911, vacated as moot, 268 F.3d 953 (10th Cir.2001). Garcia, 470 F.3d at 1003. In Boyce, a federal prisoner sought a writ of habeas corpus under § 2241 ordering his transfer from ADX to another federal prison. 251 F.3d at 913. The prisoner asserted he was transferred to ADX in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment rights and that conditions at ADX violated his Eighth Amendment rights. Id. at 913-14. The district court dismissed the habeas petition, concluding the inmate was "not attacking the legality of his custody or seeking release from illegal custody, but seeking a transfer to a specific federal prison, and that such relief is not cognizable in habeas corpus." Id. This court affirmed. Id. at 918. We held that because Boyce challenged the "BOP's choice of prisons," he challenged the conditions of his confinement rather than the fact or duration of his federal custody. Id. Thus, his claim was "properly
Like the petitioners in Garcia and Boyce, Palma-Salazar seeks transfer from one BOP detention facility to another, i.e., a change in the place of his confinement. Therefore, his challenge is properly construed as a challenge to the conditions of his confinement and must be brought pursuant to Bivens.
Palma-Salazar argues this court's precedents do not require him to bring his request for a transfer from ADX to another BOP facility pursuant to Bivens. He argues Garcia is distinguishable because the petitioners in Garcia did not request a prison transfer by filing habeas petitions, but simply filed motions in their underlying criminal cases. Further, he points out that Boyce was vacated as moot and is therefore not binding precedent. He also relies on two cases, Wedelstedt v. Wiley, 477 F.3d 1160 (10th Cir.2007), and Montez v. McKinna, 208 F.3d 862 (10th Cir.2000), in which this court entertained prisoners' requests for a change in the place of their confinement brought in § 2241 petitions.
Palma-Salazar's attempts to distinguish Garcia and Boyce are not persuasive. Although the petitioners in Garcia did not use habeas petitions to request transfers, the central issue in Garcia was whether the petitioners' claims must be brought under Bivens. Thus, Garcia is directly on point, and binding in the context of this case. It held that a request by a federal prisoner for a change in the place of confinement, like the one Palma-Salazar asserts here, must be brought under Bivens. Further, while we are not bound by our decision in Boyce, which was vacated as moot, the reasoning in Boyce was specifically adopted in Garcia, which is binding precedent.
Additionally, neither Montez nor Wedelstedt support Palma-Salazar's argument that his claims may be brought under § 2241. In Montez, a state prisoner challenged "the fact or duration of his confinement in Colorado," a state other than the one in which he had been convicted and sentenced. 208 F.3d at 865. As we stated in Boyce, Montez challenged "a state's authority to imprison [him] in another state." Boyce, 251 F.3d at 918, vacated as moot, 268 F.3d 953 (10th Cir.2001). Thus, we reasoned, his claim was "properly raised under Section 2241 because [he] challenged the fact or duration of custody in a particular state." Id. We find this reasoning persuasive, and therefore, adopt it. Palma-Salazar does not challenge the underlying authority of the BOP to hold him in custody. He merely challenges his placement within the federal prison system. Thus, Montez is distinguishable. In Wedelstedt, this court indeed considered the merits of a § 2241 petition which challenged the lawfulness of BOP regulations prohibiting a prisoner's transfer to a community correctional center. 477 F.3d at 1163-69. As Palma-Salazar points out in his opening brief, however, Wedelstedt did not specifically address the jurisdictional question at issue here. The opinion, therefore, provides no support for Palma-Salazar's argument that his claims are properly brought under § 2241. See United States v. L.A. Tucker Truck Lines, Inc., 344 U.S. 33, 38, 73 S.Ct. 67, 97 L.Ed. 54 (1952) (stating that a court "is not bound by a prior exercise of jurisdiction in a case where it was not questioned and was passed sub silentio").
Palma-Salazar also asserts his confinement at ADX is "very different from carrying out a sentence in an ordinary penal institution," and therefore, unlike the prison transfers requested in Garcia, his transfer to ADX "crosses the line beyond a garden variety prison placement." He urges this court to adopt a rule allowing a prisoner who challenges a prison designation or transfer that is not a garden variety
Even if this court were to adopt the standard employed by the Third Circuit in Woodall, Palma-Salazar's argument would fail because he has not demonstrated that his transfer to and confinement at ADX crosses the line beyond a garden variety prison placement. In his opening brief, Palma-Salazar claims that "placement in the ADX is very different from carrying out a sentence in an ordinary penal institution and crosses the line beyond a garden variety prison placement." He later states, "[o]bviously, Mr. Palma-Salazar's placement at ADX is not a `garden variety' designation." He does not, however, explain why or support these conclusory statements with citations to the record or legal authority. Thus, we have no basis upon which to consider his assertion that his placement at ADX crosses the line beyond a "garden variety" prison placement. See Kelley v. City of Albuquerque, 542 F.3d 802, 819 (10th Cir.2008) (refusing to consider an argument on appeal supported by conclusory allegations of error); United States v. Banks, 451 F.3d 721, 728 (10th Cir.2006) (declining to address an argument unsupported by legal authority); Murrell v. Shalala, 43 F.3d 1388, 1389 n. 2 (10th Cir.1994) (concluding that "perfunctory" allegations of error, which "fail to frame and develop an issue," are insufficient to invoke appellate review).
Finally, Palma-Salazar also claims his confinement at ADX violates the
The district court construed this claim as a challenge to the execution of Palma-Salazar's sentence and the legality of his confinement. Thus, the district court determined it had jurisdiction under § 2241 to consider this claim and proceeded to decide it on the merits. The relief Palma-Salazar seeks with respect to this claim, however, is the same relief he seeks with respect to his Fifth and Eighth Amendment claims: transfer to another BOP institution, i.e., a change in the place of his confinement. Thus, like his Fifth and Eighth Amendment claims, Palma-Salazar's claim that his confinement at ADX violates the extradition treaty between the United States and Mexico is properly construed as a challenge to the conditions of his confinement, and therefore, must be brought pursuant to Bivens. We conclude the district court lacked jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 to consider this claim.
In conclusion, because Palma-Salazar seeks a change in the place of his confinement,