After the Fourth Circuit shut every door, I turned to Congress because oversight of the judiciary is supposed to exist for exactly this kind of systemic abuse. I first contacted Representative Jasmine Crockett’s office after being told by her staff on the phone that I could email the details and that it would be forwarded to the appropriate staff because she oversees judicial matters. On December 12, 2025, I sent a detailed request for judicial oversight explaining that I was not asking anyone to interfere with my case or give legal advice. I asked for an investigation into how the Fourth Circuit and Middle District of North Carolina handle pro se mandamus petitions, accommodation requests, judicial complaints, concealed judicial identities, and other barriers that were preventing civil rights enforcement. I attached my cert petition and a notice documenting the retaliatory pattern I had been facing.
At the same time, I reached back out to Representative Deborah Ross’s office. I had originally contacted her in July and never heard back, so by December I was already frustrated. When I spoke with staff member, I specifically said I did not want to waste my time if I was going to be told that they “can’t give legal advice or interfere with my case.” I made it clear this was not just about my case, but a huge systemic issue. I even made her say it back to em. On December 19, one of her staff members responded and told me the matter had been passed to their Constituent Services Director, Jennifer Popa, who would call me the following Monday. I thanked them and waited.
Then came the call. The first things she said to me? “I spoke with our legal and unfortunetly we can’t interfere with your case or provide legal advice.” But still I let her speak only to tell me at the end that I should reach out to legal aid. I said to her, “do you think I am poor or in poverty?” I said I was submitting a brief to the US Supreme Court. What is legal aid going to do that I haven’t already done?
After speaking with Jennifer Popa, I sent a follow-up email on December 22 because I was deeply upset by how the conversation had gone. In that email I explained that I had specifically told their office I was not asking them to intervene in my case or provide legal advice, yet that was exactly how my request had been reframed and dismissed. I told them I was asking for congressional oversight of systemic barriers facing pro se litigants in the North Carolina federal courts and the Fourth Circuit, not special treatment for myself. I also explained how insulting it was to be spoken to as though I did not understand the law after litigating from small claims all the way to the Supreme Court on my own. I stated plainly that congressional oversight is not advocacy on behalf of a litigant. It is Congress doing its job.
I never received any meaningful response from Ross’s office after that. So on January 5, 2026, I followed up again with both offices. I emailed Crockett’s office asking whether my request had actually been received and whether it was being reviewed by the Subcommittee on Oversight, or whether there was a more appropriate contact for federal judicial oversight. That same day I emailed Jennifer Popa again asking two specific questions that had never been answered, whether Representative Ross had any connection to David Gardner and why Ross’s office refused to request an investigation into documented patterns of judicial misconduct affecting North Carolina constituents. I pointed out that Ross sits on the House Judiciary Committee and that committee members have an explicit oversight duty over federal courts and judges. I also noted that by then my cert petition had officially been docketed in the Supreme Court.
No one meaningfully responded. Not Ross’s office. Not Crockett’s office. Not Congress. And what makes that especially disturbing is that I had reached out while writing my Supreme Court petition because I had uncovered a broader systemic problem, one that went far beyond my own case. I was not asking them to save me. I was asking them to look at evidence of a judiciary that was closing itself off from accountability, especially when pro se civil rights litigants try to enforce constitutional rights. Congress did nothing.