When I realized my only remaining option was to petition the U.S. Supreme Court, I was already running on fumes. After everything that had happened in state and federal court, the thought of going to yet another level of the judicial system felt like a bad joke. But as I started working on the petition, I stumbled on something deeply troubling.
Using CourtListener, I discovered that over the past 20 years, the Fourth Circuit has systematically denied mandamus petitions filed by pro se litigants, more than 1,100 times, using nearly identical, boilerplate opinions. In most of these cases, there’s no sign the court ever even reviewed the filings. The language used to justify the denials isn’t even an accurate statement of mandamus law. No other circuit comes close to using these excuses, except for the Third Circuit, which has a similar pattern, but far fewer cases—around 73 that I could find. And that’s only what’s publicly available; there are likely many more.
Why does this matter? Because the Fourth Circuit has the highest number of pro se petitioners in the country. That’s not a coincidence. It means that even before cases get to the appellate level, district courts in the Fourth Circuit are failing to provide basic justice to people without attorneys. Not only does this delay or outright deny relief, but it also emboldens lower court judges to do whatever they want, knowing the circuit won’t step in to correct them. Mandamus is supposed to be a tool to fix abuses of discretion, but if the circuit court won’t even read the cases, the system becomes a closed loop of unchecked power.
This is the exact kind of case the SCOTUS is required to review according their own standards, but it doesn’t mean they will. I knew the odds were almost nonexistent—not only because I’m not a lawyer, but because if you can’t pay the filing fee, your chances get even worse. The Supreme Court accepts less than 4% of paid petitions, and for those who file in forma pauperis (without paying), that number drops below 1%. I stretched my budget to pay the fee because, honestly, it felt like the only way to give my case even a slim chance.
But here’s the kicker. If you don’t pay, you can send 11 copies of your petition as regular 8.5 x 11″ pages. But if you pay, you’re required to submit 40 professionally printed booklets, in a special size, which most local printers can’t even do. I was lucky to find someone willing to print them for me without charging the sky-high rates that Supreme Court printing specialists ask.
In the petition, I challenged the way the Fourth Circuit has been handling mandamus petitions, especially for pro se litigants. The main arguments were that the Fourth Circuit was adding an extra requirement for mandamus relief that does not exist in Supreme Court precedent. They kept saying there was no “undue delay,” but the Supreme Court’s own test does not require a finding of delay before deciding if mandamus is appropriate. I also pointed out that the Fourth Circuit was refusing to allow mandamus whenever it thought an appeal might be possible, even if no appeal could actually be filed. This creates a situation where cases get stuck, as mine did, with no way forward and no way to get errors corrected.
It explained how the district court ignored or denied my requests for basic things and I am still waiting for the names to identify the names of judges who made anonymous orders against me. I explained that I could not serve a key defendant because of these procedural barriers, and that the court’s actions were blocking my access to justice at every step. I included data showing that the Fourth Circuit almost never grants mandamus for people without lawyers and that this practice has real constitutional consequences.
It felt surreal, holding that stack of booklets in my hands, knowing they were headed to the Supreme Court. I channeled every bit of courage I had—Ruth Bader Ginsburg vibes included.
But even after all that, the reality is sobering. The Supreme Court doesn’t review most cases. In fact, 97% of petitions never get seen by a judge at all. Clerks, often newly minted law graduates, screen the cases and write summaries. If they think your case isn’t worth it, it never makes it to the Justices’ desks.
I did everything I could to give my petition a fighting chance. I even found a guide from with advice for attorneys on how to write a cert petition, and I followed it to the letter.
So now I wait. It took the Court three weeks just to file my paperwork, so I have no idea how long a response will take. But I did what the system asked, every copy, every dollar, every rule followed, just to keep my case alive for one more round.