Donald J. Trump v. United States ( 2022 )


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  • USCA11 Case: 22-13005     Date Filed: 12/01/2022   Page: 1 of 21
    [PUBLISH]
    In the
    United States Court of Appeals
    For the Eleventh Circuit
    ____________________
    No. 22-13005
    ____________________
    DONALD J. TRUMP,
    Plaintiff-Appellee,
    versus
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
    Defendant-Appellant.
    ____________________
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Southern District of Florida
    D.C. Docket No. 9:22-cv-81294-AMC
    ____________________
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005        Date Filed: 12/01/2022     Page: 2 of 21
    2                      Opinion of the Court                 22-13005
    Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, GRANT, and BRASHER, Circuit
    Judges.
    PER CURIAM:
    This appeal requires us to consider whether the district
    court had jurisdiction to block the United States from using
    lawfully seized records in a criminal investigation. The answer is
    no.
    Former President Donald J. Trump brought a civil action
    seeking an injunction against the government after it executed a
    search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago residence. He argues that a court-
    mandated special master review process is necessary because the
    government’s Privilege Review Team protocols were inadequate,
    because various seized documents are protected by executive or
    attorney-client privilege, because he could have declassified
    documents or designated them as personal rather than presidential
    records, and—if all that fails—because the government’s appeal
    was procedurally deficient. The government disagrees with each
    contention.
    These disputes ignore one fundamental question—whether
    the district court had the power to hear the case. After all: “Federal
    courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. They possess only that
    power authorized by Constitution and statute, which is not to be
    expanded by judicial decree.” Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co.
    of Am., 
    511 U.S. 375
    , 377 (1994) (citation omitted).
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005           Date Filed: 12/01/2022        Page: 3 of 21
    22-13005                  Opinion of the Court                              3
    This case was such an expansion. Exercises of equitable
    jurisdiction—which the district court invoked here—should be
    “exceptional” and “anomalous.” Hunsucker v. Phinney, 
    497 F.2d 29
    , 32 (5th Cir. 1974). 1 Our precedents have limited this
    jurisdiction with a four-factor test. Richey v. Smith, 
    515 F.2d 1239
    ,
    1243–44 (5th Cir. 1975). Plaintiff’s jurisdictional arguments fail all
    four factors.
    In considering these arguments, we are faced with a choice:
    apply our usual test; drastically expand the availability of equitable
    jurisdiction for every subject of a search warrant; or carve out an
    unprecedented exception in our law for former presidents. We
    choose the first option. So the case must be dismissed.
    I.
    As Plaintiff’s presidential term drew to a close in January
    2021, movers transferred documents from the White House to his
    personal residence, a South Florida resort and club known as Mar-
    a-Lago. Over the course of that year and into the next, and
    consistent with its responsibilities under the Presidential Records
    Act, 
    44 U.S.C. §§ 2201
    –2209, the National Archives and Records
    Administration sought to obtain missing presidential records that
    its officials believed were in Plaintiff’s possession.
    1 See Bonner v. City of Prichard, 
    661 F.2d 1206
     (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc)
    (adopting as binding precedent all published cases of the former Fifth Circuit
    decided prior to the close of business on September 30, 1981).
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005       Date Filed: 12/01/2022     Page: 4 of 21
    4                      Opinion of the Court                22-13005
    The government first sought the voluntary return of the
    records. In January 2022, after months of discussions, Plaintiff
    transferred fifteen boxes of documents to the National Archives.
    Inside were “newspapers, magazines, printed news articles, photos,
    miscellaneous print-outs, notes, presidential correspondence,
    personal and post-presidential records, and a lot of classified
    records.” Affidavit in Support of an Application Under Rule 41 for
    a Warrant to Search and Seize ¶ 24, In re Sealed Search Warrant,
    No. 22-mj-08332 (S.D. Fla. Sept. 9, 2022) (“Warrant Affidavit”)
    (quotation omitted).
    The Department of Justice was alerted about the classified
    materials in February 2022. 
    Id.
     It then sought access to the fifteen
    boxes so that the “FBI and others in the Intelligence Community”
    could examine them to assess “important national security
    interests,” including “the potential damage resulting from the
    apparent manner in which these materials were stored.” The
    National Archives later advised Plaintiff that it planned to provide
    the FBI access to the records in roughly one week. When he
    requested a delay of up to eleven days, the National Archives
    agreed.
    When the new deadline arrived in April 2022, Plaintiff
    requested yet another extension. He also informed the National
    Archives that if it declined to grant it, he would make a “protective
    assertion of executive privilege” over the documents. The
    National Archives rejected that assertion as unviable—saying the
    “question in this case is not a close one”—and informed Plaintiff’s
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005         Date Filed: 12/01/2022     Page: 5 of 21
    22-13005                Opinion of the Court                          5
    representatives that it would give the FBI access to the records.
    Plaintiff did not follow through with any effort to block the FBI’s
    review of the documents. So the FBI reviewed the records in mid-
    May, more than three months after it first learned that classified
    documents had been stored at Mar-a-Lago. It found 184
    documents marked at varying levels of classification, including
    twenty-five marked top secret. Warrant Affidavit ¶ 47.
    In the meantime, the FBI had developed evidence that even
    more classified information likely remained at Plaintiff’s residence.
    The Department of Justice obtained a grand-jury subpoena for all
    documents or writings bearing classification markings that were in
    Plaintiff’s custody or control, and Plaintiff’s counsel was served
    with the subpoena in early May.
    Plaintiff did not assert claims of privilege or declassification
    in response to the subpoena. But he did seek more time to produce
    the requested documents, and the government eventually
    extended the compliance deadline to June 7, 2022. A few days
    before the deadline was set to expire, Plaintiff’s representatives
    produced an envelope wrapped in tape, which was consistent with
    an effort to comply with handling procedures for classified
    documents. Warrant Affidavit ¶¶ 58, 60. It contained thirty-eight
    classified documents, seventeen of which were marked top secret.
    
    Id.
     A declaration accompanying the documents certified that a
    “diligent search was conducted” of the boxes moved from the
    White House and that “[a]ny and all responsive documents” had
    now been produced.
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005        Date Filed: 12/01/2022     Page: 6 of 21
    6                      Opinion of the Court                 22-13005
    Even so, the FBI developed more evidence that other
    classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago. In August 2022—
    over one-and-a-half years after the end of Plaintiff’s presidential
    administration, six months after the first transfer of boxes to the
    National Archives, and three months after the subpoena was
    served—the Department of Justice sought a search warrant. It
    presented an FBI agent’s sworn affidavit to a Florida magistrate
    judge, who agreed that probable cause existed to believe that
    evidence of criminal violations would likely be found at Mar-a-
    Lago. Warrant Affidavit at 1, 32; Notice of Filing of Redacted
    Documents at 2, In re Sealed Search Warrant, No. 22-mj-08332
    (S.D. Fla. Aug. 11, 2022) (“Search Warrant”). The magistrate judge
    issued a search warrant for the offices, storage rooms, and potential
    storage sites at Plaintiff’s residence, and authorized the seizure of:
    All physical documents and records constituting
    evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items
    illegally possessed in violation of 
    18 U.S.C. §§ 793
    ,
    2071, or 1519, including the following:
    a. Any physical documents with classification
    markings, along with any containers/boxes
    (including any other contents) in which such
    documents are located, as well as any other
    containers/boxes that are collectively stored or found
    together with the aforementioned documents and
    containers/boxes;
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005       Date Filed: 12/01/2022    Page: 7 of 21
    22-13005               Opinion of the Court                       7
    b. Information, including communications in any
    form, regarding the retrieval, storage, or transmission
    of national defense information or classified material;
    c. Any government and/or Presidential Records
    created between January 20, 2017, and January 20,
    2021; or
    d. Any evidence of the knowing alteration,
    destruction, or concealment of any government
    and/or Presidential Records, or of any documents
    with classification markings.
    Search Warrant at 4. The warrant affidavit described a set of
    protocols proposed by the government to create a “Privilege
    Review Team.” Warrant Affidavit ¶ 81. The team was made up
    of agents who were not otherwise participating in the
    investigation; they were tasked with reviewing certain seized
    documents to protect Plaintiff’s attorney-client privilege. See 
    id.
    ¶¶ 81–84.
    The FBI executed the search warrant on August 8. Agents
    seized approximately 13,000 documents and a number of other
    items, totaling more than 22,000 pages of material. Despite the
    certification from Plaintiff that “[a]ny and all” documents bearing
    classification markings had been produced, fifteen of the thirty-
    three seized boxes, containers, or groups of papers contained
    documents with classification markings, including three such
    documents found in desks in Plaintiff’s office. All told, the search
    uncovered over one hundred documents marked confidential,
    secret, or top secret.
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005        Date Filed: 12/01/2022      Page: 8 of 21
    8                       Opinion of the Court                 22-13005
    Plaintiff requested a copy of the warrant affidavit, an
    opportunity to inspect the seized property, a detailed list of what
    was taken from the residence and where it was found, and consent
    to the appointment of a special master “to protect the integrity of
    privileged documents.” The government denied those requests
    shortly after the search.
    A few weeks later, Plaintiff filed a new action in the United
    States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which he
    styled as a “Motion For Judicial Oversight And Additional Relief.”
    The motion asked the court to (1) appoint a special master;
    (2) enjoin review of the seized materials until a special master was
    appointed; (3) require the United States to supply a more detailed
    list of the items seized; and (4) order the United States to return any
    item seized that was not within the scope of the search warrant.
    The motion was a civil filing and did not explain how the district
    court had jurisdiction to act on all of its requests. It did, however,
    claim to be a precursor to an eventual motion under Federal Rule
    of Criminal Procedure 41(g). That rule permits a “person
    aggrieved by an unlawful search and seizure of property or by the
    deprivation of property” to “move for the property’s return.” Fed.
    R. Crim. P. 41(g).
    The district court could not identify a sufficient
    jurisdictional basis for the filing, so it requested a jurisdictional
    brief. Days later, Plaintiff responded that the district court had
    “equitable and ancillary jurisdiction,” as well as “anomalous
    jurisdiction,” to enjoin the government and appoint a special
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005         Date Filed: 12/01/2022      Page: 9 of 21
    22-13005                Opinion of the Court                           9
    master. He also suggested that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 53
    may create an independent cause of action to appoint a special
    master, but cited no authority for that theory. As for the requested
    injunction against the United States, Plaintiff noted that the “law’s
    ambiguity” meant that “principles of fairness” supported exercising
    jurisdiction over the entire motion.
    The next day—August 27—the district court issued an order
    declaring “its preliminary intent to appoint a special master” and
    requiring the government to provide Plaintiff with a more detailed
    list of seized items. The court stated that it had jurisdiction
    pursuant to the court’s “inherent authority” and Federal Rule of
    Civil Procedure 53(b)(1), which reads: “Before appointing a master,
    the court must give the parties notice and an opportunity to be
    heard. Any party may suggest candidates for appointment.”
    After a response from the government that included a
    description of its privilege filter process, the district court issued a
    September 5 order directing the appointment of a special master
    under soon-to-be developed procedures, and barring the
    government from using any of the seized documents “pending
    resolution of the special master’s review process.” The order was
    issued “[p]ursuant to the Court’s equitable jurisdiction and
    inherent supervisory authority.”
    Three days later, the government filed a notice of appeal. It
    also filed a motion for a partial stay of the injunction so that it could
    continue using the seized documents bearing classification
    markings in its criminal investigation. The district court rejected
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005       Date Filed: 12/01/2022     Page: 10 of 21
    10                     Opinion of the Court                 22-13005
    the partial stay on September 15. It also issued an order naming
    the special master and setting out his specific duties.
    The government sought a partial stay from this Court the
    next day. We granted the stay, concluding that the district court
    likely had no equitable jurisdiction to issue an order relating to the
    classified documents. Trump v. United States, No. 22-13005, 
    2022 WL 4366684
    , at *1, *7 (11th Cir. Sept. 21, 2022). Plaintiff applied
    for relief in the Supreme Court, but that request was denied.
    Trump v. United States, No. 22A283, 
    2022 WL 7255980
    , at *1 (U.S.
    Oct. 13, 2022).
    On October 5, this Court approved the government’s
    request for expedited briefing in its appeal of the September 5 order
    blocking review of the seized documents and directing the
    appointment of a special master. Now, with the benefit of oral
    argument, we conclude that the district court lacked jurisdiction to
    consider Plaintiff’s initial motion or to issue any orders in response
    to it.
    II.
    Because federal courts lack general jurisdiction, it “is to be
    presumed that a cause lies outside” of our “limited jurisdiction.”
    Kokkonen, 
    511 U.S. at 377
    . The “burden of establishing the
    contrary rests upon the party asserting jurisdiction.” 
    Id.
     We
    review an exercise of equitable jurisdiction for abuse of discretion.
    See Richey, 
    515 F.2d at 1243
    . And review of a preliminary
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005       Date Filed: 12/01/2022    Page: 11 of 21
    22-13005               Opinion of the Court                       11
    injunction includes the power to dismiss the entire action based on
    jurisdiction or the merits. Munaf v. Geren, 
    553 U.S. 674
    , 691 (2008).
    III.
    Only the narrowest of circumstances permit a district court
    to invoke equitable jurisdiction. Such decisions “must be exercised
    with caution and restraint,” as equitable jurisdiction is appropriate
    only in “exceptional cases where equity demands intervention.” In
    re $67,470, 
    901 F.2d 1540
    , 1544 (11th Cir. 1990); see also
    Hunsucker, 
    497 F.2d at 32
    . This is not one of them.
    “It is a familiar rule that courts of equity do not ordinarily
    restrain criminal prosecutions.” Douglas v. City of Jeannette, 
    319 U.S. 157
    , 163 (1943). To avoid unnecessary interference with the
    executive branch’s criminal enforcement authority—while also
    offering relief in rare instances where a gross constitutional
    violation would otherwise leave the subject of a search without
    recourse—this Circuit has developed an exacting test for exercising
    equitable jurisdiction over suits flowing from the seizure of
    property. Richey v. Smith instructs courts to consider four factors:
    (1) whether the government displayed a “callous disregard” for the
    plaintiff’s constitutional rights; (2) “whether the plaintiff has an
    individual interest in and need for the material whose return he
    seeks”; (3) “whether the plaintiff would be irreparably injured by
    denial of the return of the property”; and (4) “whether the plaintiff
    has an adequate remedy at law for the redress of his grievance.”
    
    515 F.2d at
    1243–44 (quotation omitted).
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005        Date Filed: 12/01/2022     Page: 12 of 21
    12                      Opinion of the Court                 22-13005
    Plaintiff’s jurisdictional brief in the district court dispatched
    with all four of these inquiries in a single paragraph. But Richey’s
    inquiry is not as simple as that filing made it out to be.
    When we examine Plaintiff’s arguments about the Richey
    factors, we notice a recurring theme. He makes arguments that—
    if consistently applied—would allow any subject of a search
    warrant to invoke a federal court’s equitable jurisdiction. That
    understanding of Richey would make equitable jurisdiction not
    extraordinary, “but instead quite ordinary.” United States v. Search
    of Law Office, Residence, and Storage Unit Alan Brown, 
    341 F.3d 404
    , 415 (5th Cir. 2003) (quotation omitted). Our precedents
    consistently reject this approach. We have emphasized again and
    again that equitable jurisdiction exists only in response to the most
    callous disregard of constitutional rights, and even then only if
    other factors make it clear that judicial oversight is absolutely
    necessary.
    A.
    We begin with whether Plaintiff has shown a “callous
    disregard” for his constitutional rights. Whether that sort of
    violation has occurred is the “foremost consideration” for a court
    when deciding whether it may exercise its equitable jurisdiction in
    this context. United States v. Chapman, 
    559 F.2d 402
    , 406 (5th Cir.
    1977). When considering this factor, our precedent emphasizes the
    “indispensability of an ‘accurate allegation’ of ‘callous disregard.’”
    
    Id.
     (quoting Richey, 
    515 F.2d at 1243
    ) (alteration adopted); see also
    Hunsucker, 
    497 F.2d at
    34 n.10 (collecting cases). Absent that,
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005       Date Filed: 12/01/2022     Page: 13 of 21
    22-13005               Opinion of the Court                        13
    courts will not intervene in an ongoing investigation—and rightly
    so. Because the vast majority of subjects of a search warrant have
    not experienced a “callous disregard” of their constitutional rights,
    this factor ensures that equitable jurisdiction remains
    extraordinary. Otherwise, “a flood of disruptive civil litigation”
    would surely follow. Deaver v. Seymour, 
    822 F.2d 66
    , 71 (D.C. Cir.
    1987). This restraint guards against needless judicial intrusion into
    the course of criminal investigations—a sphere of power
    committed to the executive branch.
    The callous disregard standard has not been met here, and
    no one argues otherwise. The district court’s entire reasoning
    about this factor was that it “agrees with the Government that, at
    least based on the record to date, there has not been a compelling
    showing of callous disregard for Plaintiff’s constitutional rights.”
    None of Plaintiff’s filings here or in the district court contest this
    finding.
    Instead, he says callous disregard of his constitutional rights
    is not indispensable to Richey’s test. That is an incorrect reading
    of our precedent, as well as inconsistent with the longstanding
    principles outlined above. Chapman, 
    559 F.2d at 406
    . And the fact
    that Richey considers three other factors in its test does not suggest
    otherwise. To the contrary, these factors underscore how rare this
    exercise of jurisdiction should be—even a callous disregard of
    constitutional rights is not enough, on its own, to allow for the type
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005            Date Filed: 12/01/2022         Page: 14 of 21
    14                         Opinion of the Court                       22-13005
    of relief that Plaintiff seeks. 2 As we did in Chapman, we will
    consider the remaining factors for the sake of completeness.
    B.
    The second Richey factor is “whether the plaintiff has an
    individual interest in and need for the material whose return he
    seeks.” 
    515 F.2d at 1243
    .           Plaintiff’s jurisdictional brief
    mischaracterized this standard, referring to “the parties’ need for
    the seized material” (emphasis added). He is wrong to suggest that
    jurisdiction somehow depends on the balance of interests between
    the parties—the relevant inquiry is if he needs the documents.
    Plaintiff has made no such showing. His jurisdictional brief
    in the district court asserted that the government had improperly
    seized his passports and that its continued custody of “similar
    materials” was “both unnecessary and likely to cause significant
    harm.” But the passports had already been returned before he filed
    his first motion, and his jurisdictional brief did not explain what
    “similar materials” were at issue or why he needed them.
    The district court was undeterred by this lack of
    information. It said that “based on the volume and nature of the
    seized material, the Court is satisfied that Plaintiff has an interest in
    and need for at least a portion of it,” though it cited only the
    2 Plaintiff’s lawyers claimed at oral argument that the special master process is
    necessary to determine whether a constitutional violation happened. This jus-
    tification finds no support in our precedent and would result in a dramatic and
    unwarranted expansion of equitable jurisdiction.
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    22-13005                  Opinion of the Court                              15
    government’s filings and not Plaintiff’s. But that is not enough.
    Courts that have authorized equitable jurisdiction have
    emphasized the importance of identifying “specific” documents
    and explaining the harm from their “seizure and retention.” See,
    e.g., Harbor Healthcare Sys., L.P. v. United States, 
    5 F.4th 593
    , 600
    (5th Cir. 2021) (Harbor did “far more than assert vague allegations”
    by pointing to “thousands” of privileged documents that the
    government retained for four years). Neither the district court nor
    Plaintiff has offered such specifics.
    Indeed, Plaintiff does not press the district court’s theory on
    appeal. Instead, he argues that the Presidential Records Act gives
    him a possessory interest in the seized documents. This argument
    is unresponsive. Even if Plaintiff’s statutory interpretation were
    correct (a proposition that we neither consider nor endorse),
    personal interest in or ownership of a seized document is not
    synonymous with the need for its return.3 In most search warrants,
    the government seizes property that unambiguously belongs to the
    subject of a search. That cannot be enough to support equitable
    jurisdiction.
    3 During discussion of this factor at oral argument, Plaintiff’s counsel noted
    that the seized items included “golf shirts” and “pictures of Celine Dion.” The
    government concedes that Plaintiff “may have a property interest in his per-
    sonal effects.” While Plaintiff may have an interest in these items and others
    like them, we do not see the need for their immediate return after seizure un-
    der a presumptively lawful search warrant.
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005        Date Filed: 12/01/2022     Page: 16 of 21
    16                      Opinion of the Court                 22-13005
    Having failed to show his own need, Plaintiff attempts—as
    he did in the district court—to reverse the standard, arguing that
    the government does not need the non-classified documents for its
    investigation. This is not self-evident, but it would be irrelevant in
    any event. Plaintiff’s task was to show why he needed the
    documents, not why the government did not. He has failed to
    meet his burden under this factor.
    C.
    Richey next asks “whether the plaintiff would be irreparably
    injured by denial of the return of the property.” 
    515 F.2d at 1243
    .
    In his jurisdictional brief, Plaintiff suggested only that the
    government’s “continued custody” of documents “similar” to his
    passport was “likely to cause significant harm.” And again, the
    district court stepped in with its own reasoning. It identified
    potential irreparable harm that could arise based on (1) improper
    disclosure of “sensitive information” to the public; (2) the United
    States’s retention and potential use of privileged materials; and
    (3) the stigma associated with the threat of future prosecution.
    Plaintiff has adopted two of the district court’s arguments,
    dedicating a single page of his brief to discussing the first and third
    theories of harm. On the first argument, Plaintiff echoes the
    district court and asserts that he faces an “unquantifiable potential
    harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the
    public.” It is not clear whether Plaintiff and the district court mean
    classified information or information that is sensitive to Plaintiff
    personally. If the former, permitting the United States to review
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005       Date Filed: 12/01/2022     Page: 17 of 21
    22-13005               Opinion of the Court                        17
    classified documents does not suggest that they will be released.
    Any official who makes an improper disclosure of classified
    material risks her own criminal liability. See, e.g., 
    18 U.S.C. § 798
    .
    What’s more, any leak of classified material would be properly
    characterized as a harm to the United States and its citizens—not
    as a personal injury to Plaintiff.
    As for records that may otherwise be “sensitive,” it cannot
    be that prosecutors reading unprivileged documents seized
    pursuant to a lawful warrant constitutes an irreparable injury for
    purposes of asserting equitable jurisdiction. Here too, Plaintiff’s
    argument would apply to nearly every subject of a search warrant.
    The district court’s unsupported conclusion that government
    possession of seized evidence creates an “unquantifiable” risk of
    public disclosure is not enough to show that Plaintiff faces
    irreparable harm.
    Similar reasoning guides our approach to the other potential
    injury identified by Plaintiff: the threat and stigma of future
    criminal prosecution. No doubt the threat of prosecution can
    weigh heavily on the mind of anyone under investigation. See
    Richey, 
    515 F.2d at
    1243 n.10; see also Deaver, 
    822 F.2d at 70
    . But
    without diminishing the seriousness of the burden, that ordinary
    experience cannot support extraordinary jurisdiction. Alan Brown,
    
    341 F.3d at 415
    ; see also Cobbledick v. United States, 
    309 U.S. 323
    ,
    325 (1940). The third Richey factor also weighs against exercising
    equitable jurisdiction.
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005        Date Filed: 12/01/2022     Page: 18 of 21
    18                      Opinion of the Court                 22-13005
    D.
    Finally, Richey asks “whether the plaintiff has an adequate
    remedy at law for the redress of his grievance.” 
    515 F.2d at
    1243–
    44. In deciding this factor for Plaintiff, the district court’s answer
    was that he “would have no legal means of seeking the return of
    his property for the time being and no knowledge of when other
    relief might become available.” This is not a sufficient justification.
    To start, Plaintiff invokes Rule 41(g) in his brief on appeal, but only
    to say that it has been applied in other cases. The only argument
    that he has plausibly made relating to that rule is for the return of
    documents “not within the scope of the Search Warrant.” There
    is no record evidence that the government exceeded the scope of
    the warrant—which, it bears repeating, was authorized by a
    magistrate judge’s finding of probable cause. And yet again,
    Plaintiff’s argument would apply universally; presumably any
    subject of a search warrant would like all of his property back
    before the government has a chance to use it.
    Plaintiff’s alternative framing of his grievance is that he
    needs a special master and an injunction to protect documents that
    he designated as personal under the Presidential Records Act. But
    as we have said, the status of a document as personal or presidential
    does not alter the authority of the government to seize it under a
    warrant supported by probable cause; search warrants authorize
    the seizure of personal records as a matter of course. The
    Department of Justice has the documents because they were seized
    with a search warrant, not because of their status under the
    USCA11 Case: 22-13005        Date Filed: 12/01/2022      Page: 19 of 21
    22-13005                Opinion of the Court                         19
    Presidential Records Act. So Plaintiff’s suggestion that “whether
    the Government is entitled to retain some or all the seized
    documents has not been determined by any court” is incorrect.
    The magistrate judge decided that issue when approving the
    warrant. To the extent that the categorization of these documents
    has legal relevance in future proceedings, the issue can be raised at
    that time.
    All these arguments are a sideshow. The real question that
    guides our analysis is this—adequate remedy for what? The
    answer is the same as it was in Chapman: “No weight can be
    assigned to this factor because [Plaintiff] did not assert that any
    rights had been violated, i.e., that there has been a callous disregard
    for his constitutional rights or that a substantial interest in property
    is jeopardized.” 
    559 F.2d at 407
    . If there has been no constitutional
    violation—much less a serious one—then there is no harm to be
    remediated in the first place. This factor also weighs against
    exercising equitable jurisdiction.
    IV.
    None of the Richey factors favor exercising equitable
    jurisdiction over this case. Plaintiff, however, asks us to refashion
    our analysis in a way that, if consistently applied, would make
    equitable jurisdiction available for every subject of every search
    warrant. He asks us to ignore our precedents finding that a callous
    disregard for constitutional rights is indispensable. He asks us to
    conclude that a property interest in a seized item is a sufficient
    “need” for its immediate return. He asks us to treat any stigma
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    arising from the government’s access to sensitive personal
    information or the threat of potential prosecution as irreparable
    injuries. And he asks us to find that he has no other remedy apart
    from equitable jurisdiction, even though he faces no remediable
    harm. Anyone could make these arguments. And accepting them
    would upend Richey, requiring federal courts to oversee routine
    criminal investigations beyond their constitutionally ascribed role
    of approving a search warrant based on a showing of probable
    cause. Our precedents do not allow this, and neither does our
    constitutional structure.
    Only one possible justification for equitable jurisdiction
    remains: that Plaintiff is a former President of the United States. It
    is indeed extraordinary for a warrant to be executed at the home of
    a former president—but not in a way that affects our legal analysis
    or otherwise gives the judiciary license to interfere in an ongoing
    investigation. The Richey test has been in place for nearly fifty
    years; its limits apply no matter who the government is
    investigating. To create a special exception here would defy our
    Nation’s foundational principle that our law applies “to all, without
    regard to numbers, wealth, or rank.” State of Georgia v. Brailsford,
    
    3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 1
    , 4 (1794).
    *        *     *
    The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any
    subject of a search warrant to block government investigations
    after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that
    allows only former presidents to do so. Either approach would be
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    a radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’
    involvement in criminal investigations. And both would violate
    bedrock separation-of-powers limitations. Accordingly, we agree
    with the government that the district court improperly exercised
    equitable jurisdiction, and that dismissal of the entire proceeding is
    required.
    The district court improperly exercised equitable
    jurisdiction in this case. For that reason, we VACATE the
    September 5 order on appeal and REMAND with instructions for
    the district court to DISMISS the underlying civil action.