# Hoffa v. Saxbe, 378 F. Supp. 1221 (D.D.C. 1974)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/courtlistener-hoffa-v-saxbe-378-f-supp-1221/

The district court rejected James R. Hoffa's suit against the condition in his 1971 commutation, which barred him from managing a labor organization until 6 March 1980. The opinion recites his entry into Lewisburg penitentiary on 7 March 1967 and his release on 23 December 1971.

United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge John H. Pratt, decided 19 July 1974. Hoffa, joined by other plaintiffs, sued to set aside, as invalid, the condition attached to the commutation the President granted on 23 December 1971. William B. Saxbe is the first-named defendant.

The opinion recites the sentences. On 4 March 1964 Hoffa was convicted in the Eastern District of Tennessee on two counts of obstruction of justice "under an indictment charging jury tampering," and on 12 March 1964 he received four years on each count, consecutively. "In August, 1964, plaintiff had been convicted before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, on four counts" of mail and wire fraud and conspiracy in a scheme to defraud a Teamsters Pension Fund, and received five years on each count, concurrent with each other but consecutive to the eight-year term. "On March 7, 1967, plaintiff entered the Federal Penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania," to serve an aggregate thirteen years. The commutation reduced the sentence to six and one-half years, and he was released on 23 December 1971.

The court held that "the condition in question was within the President's pardoning power" and found it reasonable, and it rejected the challenge. The commutation itself is filed as [the Executive Grant of Clemency](/items/nara-258225384-hoffa-clemency-1971/).

## Sources

- CourtListener (Free Law Project), text of the opinion: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2124607/hoffa-v-saxbe/