No. 24-6493

Washington Windsor v. United States District Court for the District of Columbia

Lower Court: District of Columbia
Docketed: 2025-02-06
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
IFP
Tags: access-to-courts due-process fifth-amendment judicial-delay mootness-doctrine pro-se-litigant
Latest Conference: 2025-04-04
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. Whether a lower court's unexplained and unjustified delay in docketing a pro se litigant's motion —thereby prejudicing the petitioner's substantive rights —violates the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause and constitutes an unconstitutional deprivation of access to the courts.

2. Whether a court's invocation of the mootness doctrine to dismiss a mandamus petition — where the underlying delay was caused by judicial inaction —contravenes fundamental principles of due process and this Court's jurisprudence, including Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319 (1976).

3. Whether the D.C. Circuit's misapplication of the "egregious delay" standard from Telecommunications Research & Action Center v. FCC, 750 F.2d 70 (D.C. Cir. 1984), and its failure to conduct a fact-specific inquiry into the prejudicial impact of procedural delays on pro se litigants warrant this Court's review to establish a uniform national standard for adjudicating judicial inaction in indigent cases.

4. Whether systemic judicial delays that disproportionately impact indigent and pro se litigants require heightened procedural safeguards to ensure compliance with 28 U.S.C. § 1915 and the fundamental right to access the courts.

5. Whether the Supreme Court should intervene to clarify that the right to meaningful access to the courts, as recognized in Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371 (1971), includes protection against strategic procedural nullification, where judicial delays functionally deprive litigants of their constitutional claims.

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether a lower court's unexplained and unjustified delay in docketing a pro se litigant's motion violates the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause and constitutes an unconstitutional deprivation of access to the courts

Docket Entries

2025-04-07
Petition DENIED.
2025-03-20
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/4/2025.
2025-02-03
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due March 10, 2025)

Attorneys

Washington Windsor
Washington Windsor — Petitioner