Petitions and applications docketed on February 02, 2026
type Caption Docket No Court Below Petitioner's Counsel Counsel's Address Recent Filings QP
paid Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation

v. Robert F. Kennedy, Secretary of Health and Human Services

25-902 Third Circuit, No. 24-2968

Judgment: September 11, 2025

Gregory George Garre Latham & Watkins LLP

555 Eleventh Street, NW

Suite 1000

Washington, DC 20004

[Main Document] [Written Request] [Petition] [Certificate of Word Count]
Question(s) presentedQUESTIONS PRESENTED

The Drug Price Negotiation Program (Program) threatens enterprise-destroying fines unless a drug manufacturer both provides its’ products. at sovernment-dictated prices and publicly declares that those coerced prices are “fair.” The fines at the root of the law are unprecedented in scope—for petitioner Novartis, they would swiftly escalate to $93.1 billion annually. The Third Circuit declined even to address whether this extraordinary penalty was excessive under the Eighth Amendment, because it found that the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) divests federal court jurisdiction over any challenge to a civil penalty unconnected to criminal conduct so long as Congress labels 1t a tax. The court then concluded that the coerced transfers did not reflect an unconstitutional taking because they were “voluntary,” and that the compelled speech at issue did not implicate the First Amendment because it was merely “incidental” to the regulation of conduct. Each holding involves constitutional questions of first-order importance.

The questions presented are:

  1. Whether the AIA bars review of any challenge under the Excessive Fines Clause of a civil penalty unconnected to criminal conduct whenever Congress labels it a tax, even when it is effectively unpayable.

  2. Whether the Program violates the Fifth Amendment by forcing manufacturers to transfer drugs to third parties at government-dictated prices.

  3. Whether the Program violates the First Amendment by coercing manufacturers into expressing the government’s preferred viewpoints on matters of public concern with which _ the manufacturers disagree.

paid Sandra J. Bezanson, as Executor of the Estate of Dennis G. Bezanson

v. Exeter Hospital, Inc.

25-903 Supreme Court of New Hampshire, No. 2024-0599

Judgment: October 28, 2025

Sandra Bezanson 1 Kensington Rd.

Hampton Falls, NH 03844

[Petition] [Appendix] [Certificate of Word Count]
Question(s) presentedQUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth | Amendment permits a state supreme court to forfeit a litigant’s rights based on an administrative failure in the court’s mandatory electronic filing system— where the court’s own secure portal shows a timely “Submitted” filing—followed by a refusal to correct the error upon presentation of the system-generated —_- proof. 2. Whether a state trial court violates procedural due process by imposing the “death penalty” sanction of dismissal for asserted discovery deficiencies where the court and opposing party refused meaningful conferral and the court denied the Petitioner’s motion seeking the conference required by the court’s own case-structuring and discovery framework, thereby creating a procedural trap and _ foreclosing compliance. | 3. Whether due process is violated where later-issued | federal agency determinations (Department of Veterans Affairs / Board of Veterans’ Appeals) confirm that critical non-VA community-care medical records were missing due to third-party provider transmission failures under federal community-care obligations—evidence that did not exist during the state discovery period—and the _ state courts nonetheless treated resulting record gaps as willful “discovery abuse” warranting dismissal. 1
paid La Union del Pueblo Entero

v. Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas

25-904 Fifth Circuit, No. 24-50826

Judgment: August 29, 2025

Nina Perales MALDEF

110 Broadway

Suite 300

San Antonio, TX 78205

[Main Document] [Lower Court Orders/Opinions] [Written Request] [Written Request] [Petition] [Certificate of Word Count]
Question(s) presenteda QUESTION PRESENTED

Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act provides that “[alny voter who requires assistance to vote by reason of blindness, disability, or inability to read or write may be given assistance by a person of the voter’s choice, other than the voter’s employer or agent of that employer or officer or agent of the voter’s union.” 52 U.S.C. § 10508.

In 2021, Texas amended its election code to establish a felony for anyone who “compensates or offers to com- pensate another person for assisting voters” to vote by mail or who “solicits, receives, or accepts compensation for” assisting voters to vote by mail. Tex. Elec. Code Ann. § 86.0105.

Texas law now renders criminal what federal law ex- pressly protects. Under Texas’s new law, a voter who is blind, disabled, or cannot read or write commits a felony if she offers money to a friend or neighbor in exchange for help filling out her mail ballot. Blind, disabled, and low literacy voters who are members of La Union del Pueblo Entero (“LUPE”), a non-profit social services organiza- tion, can no longer choose to receive assistance complet- ing their mail ballots from LUPE employees whom they know and trust and who are compensated for delivering assistance.

This petition presents the following question:

Whether Section 208 preempts a state law that prohibits eligible voters from compensating their chosen assisters or from choosing trusted assisters who are compensated.

paid Andrew J. Johnston

v. United States

25-905 Seventh Circuit, No. 21-2081

Judgment: October 29, 2025

Anthony John Dick Jones Day

51 Louisiana Ave NW

Washington, DC 20001

[Petition] [Appendix] [Certificate of Word Count]
Question(s) presented1 QUESTIONS PRESENTED

Andrew Johnston cooperated in the investigation and prosecution of a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel. In return, the government moved under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b) for a reduction in Johnston’s’ sentence. Rule 385(b) authorizes sentence reductions when “the defendant, after sentencing, provided substantial assistance in investigating or prosecuting another person.” The District Court denied the full reduction requested, relying on sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C. § 8553(a) unrelated to the value of Johnston’s assistance. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, concluding that 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a) “narrowly circumscribe[d]” its review to whether the “sentence… was imposed in violation of law.” It also held that the District Court did not err in considering factors beyond the value of the assistance Johnston provided.

The questions presented are:

  1. Whether an appeal from an order partially denying a Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b) motion for sentence reduction 1s an appeal from “an otherwise final sentence” subject to the limited scope of review under 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a).

  2. Whether a district court deciding a Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b) motion for sentence reduction may deny the government’s requested reduction by relying on sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) that are unrelated to the value of the substantial assistance provided.

paid E. D., a Minor, By Her Parent and Next Friend, Lisa Duell

v. Noblesville School District

25-906 Seventh Circuit, No. 24-1608

Judgment: August 14, 2025

John J. Bursch Alliance Defending Freedom

440 First Street NW

Suite 600

Washington, DC 20001

[Main Document] [Petition] [Certificate of Word Count]
Question(s) presented1 QUESTION PRESENTED

Noblesville High School freshman E.D. worked hard to bring Noblesville Students for Life (NSFL) and its life-affirming message to her school. She took a summer job to fund its launch, secured an adviser, and met with her principal. At least initially, the principal approved NSFL as one of the school’s many student-interest clubs, which are “student-driven and student-led,” and not school-sponsored. App.29a—30a.

These noncurricular clubs could hang flyers in school common areas to promote non-school meetings and events; no written policy governed the flyers’ content. Yet when E.D. asked for permission to post flyers advertising the first NSFL meeting, the school said no because the flyers contained a picture of stu- dents holding “Defund Planned Parenthood” signs. The school then revoked NSFL’s recognition.

The Seventh Circuit upheld the school’s censor- ship under Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988), on the theory that a “reasonable observer could easily conclude that the flyers reflected the school’s endorsement.” App.13a. In so doing, it exacerbated a deep, longstanding circuit split over when Hazelwood’s reduced speech protection applies.

The question presented 1s:

Whether Hazelwood applies (1) whenever student speech might be erroneously attributed to the school, as the Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits have held; (2) when student speech occurs in the context of an “organized and structured educational activity,” as the Third Circuit has held; or (8) only when student speech is part of the “curriculum,” as the Sixth and Eleventh Circuits have held.

paid Gerard Patrick Matthews

v. Pamela Bondi, Attorney General

25-907 Second Circuit, No. 21-6379, 21-6546

Judgment: November 05, 2025

Gerard Patrick Matthews 5644 Netherland Ave., Apt. 1-D

Bronx, NY 10471

NA
paid The Glynn Environmental Coalition, Inc.

v. Sea Island Acquisition, LLC

25-908 Eleventh Circuit, No. 24-10710

Judgment: July 29, 2025

Kevin K. Russell Russell & Woofter LLC

1701 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Suite 200

Washington, DC 20006

[Main Document] [Lower Court Orders/Opinions] [Written Request] [Petition] [Appendix] [Certificate of Word Count]
Question(s) presentedi QUESTION PRESENTED

The Clean Water Act generally prohibits filling in wetlands that qualify as “waters of the United States.” See 33 U.S.C. § 1311(a). Landowners who want to confirm whether wetlands on their property fall within that definition may obtain an “approved jurisdictional determination” from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is subject to judicial review. 33 C.F.R. § 331.2; see U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs v. Hawkes Co., 578 U.S. 590, 597-99 (2016). Landowners may also, however, forego that process and simply seek a permit from the Corps based on a “preliminary jurisdictional determination.” See 33 U.S.C. § 1344(a); 38 C.F.R. § 331.2. Those who do agree that “all wetlands and other water bodies on the site affected in any way by that activity are jurisdictional waters of the United States” and that accepting the permit “precludes any challenge to such jurisdiction . . . in any administrative or judicial compliance or enforcement action, or in any administrative appeal or in any Federal court.” Pet. App. Ya.

The question presented is:

Is a Clean Water Act permittee’s waiver of “any challenge” to the jurisdictional status of a wetland “in any Federal court” limited to government suits to enforce permit conditions, thereby allowing jurisdictional challenges in suits by states and private citizens under the Act’s citizen suit provision?

ifp Yehonatan Kapach

v. New Hampshire

25-6684 Supreme Court of New Hampshire, No. 2025-0454

Judgment: September 15, 2025

Yehonatan Kapach 13929 Daltrey Lane

Charlotte, NC 28277

[Motion for Leave to Proceed in Forma Pauperis] [Appendix] [Petition] NA
ifp Rodrigue Alain Ndje Nlend

v. Suzanne Parisien, Judge, Superior Court of Washington, King County

25-6685 Supreme Court of Washington, No. 104180-2

Judgment: —

Rodrigue Alain Ndje Nlend 4900 E. Palmer-Wasilla Hwy., Suite 101-325

Wasilla, AK 99654

[Motion for Leave to Proceed in Forma Pauperis] [Petition] [Appendix]
Question(s) presentedQUESTIONS PRESENTED
  1. Whether the Declination Order is clearly erroneous and whether the resulting Judge Parisien’s refusal to hear Rodrigue’s postjudgement motions deprives Rodrigue of fundamental constitutional rights to due process and equal protection.

  2. Whether Judge Parisien did not have discretionary authority to | refuse to hear Rodrigue’s postjudgement motions and whether her refusal to hear is an usurpation or abuse of power.

  3. Whether Rodrigue has no adequate legal remedy to obtain redress from Judge Parisien ‘s refusal to hear Rodrigue’s postjudgement motions such that the writ of certiorari should issue.

| i

ifp Ricardo Nellons

v. Thomas Gee, Superintendent, Cayuga Correctional Facility

25-6686 Second Circuit, No. 24-2618

Judgment: February 20, 2025

Ricardo Nellons 17b1447

Cayuga Correctional Facility

P.O. Box 1186

Moravia, NY 13118

[Motion for Leave to Proceed in Forma Pauperis] [Petition] [Appendix]
Question(s) presentedCl w aw . , a , , QUESTIONS PRESENTED The New York Courts' requirements for establishing probable cause are not adhered to in the case at bar. When probable cause is totally reliant on informants, the People are required to produce informant ex parte. Only when probable cause -exists - outside hearsay testimony of an informant(s), is it not required for an informant(s) to be produced. Moreover, the People may not solicit or use information outside the four corners of the warrant affidavit. The magistrate - is.only permitted to use what was known to the issuing magistrate from information given under oath or affirmation. Furthermore, there are Supreme and Federal standards that courts must adhere to in order to obtain convictions. This case presents - the opportunity to explain what are constitutional requirements of courts in fourth amendments cases. When are | constitutional requirements circumvented. Additionally, why recognizing it when it occurs is an essential part of being a | competent criminal defense lawyer. The questions presented are: : I. Whether the New York Courts erred when the judge sua . _ Sponte denied a Darden hearing? , TI. Whether the New York Supreme Court circumvented , ~ constitutional requirements to obtain conviction? III. Whether probable cause existed to obtain a warrant? IV. Whether counsel was ineffective? V. Whether New York Courts violated equal right / due , | process to obtain conviction? , , i
ifp Herbert McDowell, Jr.

v. South Carolina

25-6687 Supreme Court of South Carolina, No. 2022-001236

Judgment: August 25, 2023

Herbert McDowell Jr. #145167

Evans Correctional Institution

610 Highway 9

Bennettsville, SC 29512

[Motion for Leave to Proceed in Forma Pauperis] [Petition] [Appendix]
Question(s) presentedI. Questions Presented Did the Supreme Court of South Carolina Justifiably Disregard this Court's Holding in Johnson v. Avery by Refusing to Allow Certified Paralegal Patrick L. Booker to Act as Next Friend to Prisoner Herbert McDowell in Preparing Legal Documents for Habeas Corpus Proceeding? Does the laws of South Carolina Supreme Court Regarding Unauthorized Practice of Law Conflict With or Undermine First Amendment Right of a Citizen to Receive Information and Ideas? Does the Obligation of Contracts Clause And/ or the Freedom of Association Clause Protect the Right of Patrick L. Booker to Assist His Best Friend with His Habeas Corpus Proceeding? Did the Supreme Court of South Carolina Deny and Deprive Petitioner McDowell of Equal Protection of Law in Denying the “Amended Petition for Habeas Corpus” for Failing to Show Entitlement to Habeas Relief, Considering That Court Had , Already Previously Struck and Dismissed the Amended Petition for Habeas Corpus It Was Filed by Paralegal Patrick L. Booker? Did the South Carolina Supreme Court by Ruling on the “Amended Petition for Habeas Corpus’, Which It Had Already . Previously Dismissed and Struck from the Record As Filed by a Non-Attorney, Deny and Deprive Petitioner McDowell of the Very Protection It Purports to Provide By Its Regulation of the | Practice of Law in South Carolina? , Did the South Carolina Supreme Court, by Finding Petitioner | McDowell Failed to Show Entitlement to Habeas Relief, Correctly Conclude That It Is Not Ineffective Assistance of Counsel, Resulting in a Denial of Fundamental Fairness Shocking to the Universal Sense of Justice When and Where 2
ifp Tyrell Ainsworth

v. Robert G. Luna, Sheriff

25-6688 Ninth Circuit, No. 25-1285

Judgment: July 29, 2025

Tyrell Ainsworth 7037339

Los Angeles County Jail

P.O. Box 86164, Terminal Annex

Los Angeles, CA 90086

[Motion for Leave to Proceed in Forma Pauperis] [Petition] [Appendix]
Question(s) presentedTt We STATE Covet YEnley THe CovtT OF APPEAL ORDERS (@ Times BY PeSentancinb AA TAmote WAU bens Drcsert. BuT ON Te THAD Time ToSTEAD UF BE Sentenanes We TAO IMOUAL. WS TRIAL Corll cet) To sad THE ANIMATE, BACK To PRISON, PNY Holy NO CyCyed PUGeedincs Loh Bserliathy Uyeads TS THs D DUE PCKS Wolatton UNE THE Lovech Amend} +o dhe VS. GonStehwiin Pry Qies Sek By THS COvuey In MURR W ALACAIYy (Qo\Z) 7 a VLVERIG Cose LAW SITING Nou Cant An DREN CASE Ke THRE tanpence oe oe Him OR HER Violated We WAL QUES GE Gare AD AONSEY THAR DISCRETWA AMD mage an fort DeOsions ASA) UE POLLTIOL Sota — Sahuentes WS 35 HeREALABLE Cottetr <
ifp John Bejarano

v. Jeremy Bean, Warden

25-6689 Ninth Circuit, No. 11-99000

Judgment: May 02, 2025

David Severen Anthony Federal Public Defender’s Office

411 E. Bonneville Av. Suite 250

Las Vegas, NV 89101

[Main Document] [Motion for Leave to Proceed in Forma Pauperis] [Petition] [Appendix]
Question(s) presentedQUESTIONS PRESENTED (Capital Case)
  1. When reviewing a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel de novo, are courts permitted to credit hypothetical reasons for trial counsel’s errors irrespective of the record, as the Ninth Circuit did here, or must a court consider the record evidence in determining the reasonableness of trial counsel’s actions, as the Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth (intra-circuit conflict) Circuits, as well as the D.C. Court of Appeals, have held?

  2. When reviewing a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel de novo, does a court’s extensive and material misapprehension of the underlying record violate federal law requiring prejudice to be assessed by reweighing the totality of the available mitigating evidence against the evidence in aggravation?

1

ifp Sabrina D. Davis

v. United States District Court for the District of South Carolina

25-6690 Fourth Circuit, No. 25-1727

Judgment: August 01, 2025

Sabrina D. Davis 405 Lily St.

Apt. 37

Greenville, SC 29617

[Motion for Leave to Proceed in Forma Pauperis] [Petition] [Appendix]
Question(s) presented: > , QUESTION[S] PRESENTED

DOES THE JUDICIAL IMMUNITY DOCTRINE HAS THE AUTHORITY TO

PERMIT MALICIOUS AND CORRUPT JUDICIAL RULINGS TO BE

CLASSIFIED AS ERRORS OF LAW OR MISAPPLICATION OF LAW THAT

RESTRICT A LITIGANT’S ABILITY TO OBTAIN RELIEF FROM A VOID | JUDGMENT UNDER RULE 60(b)(4) OF FRCP(FEDERAL RULES OF CIVIL

PROCEDURE) TO A ONE YEAR PERIOD WITH DISCOVERED NEW

EVIDENCE?

ifp Nedry McLean

v. United States

25-6691 Eleventh Circuit, No. 22-13139

Judgment: October 21, 2025

David Christopher Hardy The Hardy Law Firm, P.A.

1710 N 19TH STREET

SUITE 215

Tampa, FL 33605

[Petition] [Appendix] [Motion for Leave to Proceed in Forma Pauperis] [Certificate of Word Count]
Question(s) presentedQUESTIONS PRESENTED Petitioner’s case presents the following important constitutional questions:
  1. Whether the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA) exceeds Congress’s Article I powers, particularly where the MDLEA is extended to the prosecution of a foreign citizen whose offense had no nexus to the United States?

  2. Whether Congress exceeded its authority under the Felonies Clause by defining a “vessel without nationality” to include vessels that are not stateless under international law?

  3. Whether the prosecution under the MDLEA of a foreign citizen whose offense had no nexus to the United States, violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment?

app Giordano Jackson

v. United States

25A861 Ninth Circuit, No. 25-3298

Judgment: —

Giordano Jackson #77892-308

USP Hazelton

P.O. Box 2000

Bruceton Mills, WV 26525

[Main Document] [Lower Court Orders/Opinions] NA
app Clark MacKendrick

v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections

25A862 Eleventh Circuit, No. 23-13862

Judgment: —

Michael Robert Ufferman Michael Ufferman Law Firm, P.A.

2022-1 Raymond Diehl Road

Tallahassee, FL 32308

[Main Document] [Lower Court Orders/Opinions] NA
app Steve Ferguson

v. Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

25A863 District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District, No. 3D2023-880

Judgment: —

Douglas Harry Hallward-Driemeier Ropes & Gray, LLP

2099 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20006-6807

[Main Document] NA
app Arthur Lopez

v. United States

25A864 Federal Circuit, No. 2025-2047

Judgment: —

Arthur Lopez P.O. Box 13081

Newport Beach, CA 92658

[Main Document] [Lower Court Orders/Opinions] NA
app Thomas Keller

v. United States

25A865 Ninth Circuit, No. 23-656

Judgment: —

Todd Michael Borden Office of the Federal Public Defender

450 Golden Gate Ave.

Room 19-6884

San Francisco, CA 94102

[Main Document] [Lower Court Orders/Opinions] NA
app Biotronik, Inc.

v. United States ex rel. Sam Jones Company, LLC

25A866 Ninth Circuit, No. 23-55361

Judgment: —

Steven Douglas Gordon Holland & Knight

800 17th St NW

Suite 1100

Washington, DC 20006

[Main Document] NA
app Mario Dion Woodward

v. Alabama

25A867 Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, No. CR-2024-0641

Judgment: —

James Christopher Martin Reed Smith LLP

1400 Wewatta Street

Suite 350

Denver, CO 80202

[Main Document] [Lower Court Orders/Opinions] [Lower Court Orders/Opinions] [Lower Court Orders/Opinions] NA