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By Katherine Fung
Senior Writer
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The Supreme Court is warning people against abusing its processes by repeatedly filing cases without having to pay filing fees.
In the order list released by the court on Monday, the justices told three more petitioners that their motions, filed to proceed in forma pauperis or without incurring costs, were denied.
Citing Martin v. District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the court told each petitioner, "As the petitioner has repeatedly abused this Court's process, the Clerk is directed not to accept any further petitions in noncriminal matters from petitioner unless the docketing fee required by Rule 38(a) is paid and the petition is submitted in compliance with Rule 33.1."
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The court has issued to caution 29 times over the 2023-2024 term.
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On Monday, the court alerted a Louisiana prisoner, a federal prisoner and a hospital staffer employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs that the court's clerk had been ordered not to accept any further petitioners in noncriminal matters from these individuals unless they paid the court's $300 docketing fee and submitted future petitions in the document format required by the court.
Alex Badas, an associate professor at the University of Houston specializing in judicial politics, told Newsweek that in each of these cases, the petitioners filed their lawsuits under a legal doctrine that would allow the court to waive the typical filing fees.
"In forma pauperis means that the person filing the lawsuit does not have the financial resources to pay the costs associated with filing a lawsuit," Badas said.
But Badas noted that while individuals are allowed to bring those cases to the justices, the Supreme Court also established in Martin that "individuals who abuse the process by repeatedly filing bad faith lawsuits can be denied the status of in forma pauperis and be required to pay the filing fee."
In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that James Martin, a man who was found by the court to be "a notorious abuser of this Court's certiorari process," could not file another petitioner in a noncriminal matter without paying the required docketing fee because his "repetitious and frivolous petitions" prevented the Supreme Court form allocating its resources "in a way that promotes the interests of justice."
"Since these individuals cannot afford to pay the filing fee, it is essentially a way for the Court to prevent these individuals from continuously filing bad faith claims and wasting the Court's time," Badas said.
With two weeks until the end of the term, the Supreme Court still has to issue its rulings on a number of major cases, including one challenging the abortion pill mifepristone and one questioning whether former President Donald Trump's actions during his presidency are immune from criminal prosecution.
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