By April 21, 2025, just six days before trial and with no clear ruling from the North Carolina Supreme Court on my discretionary review petition, I had exhausted nearly every state-level option to enforce the automatic stay and stop what I believed to be an escalating pattern of retaliatory abuse of process. The trial court continued moving forward as if the appeal didn’t exist, and the Court of Appeals had refused to intervene.
Faced with the risk of irreversible harm and unable to predict when, or if, the state court system would correct course, I filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the Middle District of North Carolina alongside a Temporary Restraining Order. I understood the TRO was a long shot—federal courts rarely intervene in pending state cases—but I felt I had no other viable option. I had to act to protect myself from further harm.
Rather than target the courts directly, I chose to file against the Defendants only, focusing on their conduct and seeking an emergency Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to stop them from proceeding in state court in a manner that I argued was retaliatory and harmful to my federally protected rights. I knew it would be extremely difficult to get a federal court to enjoin state proceedings, but I believed this route gave me a stronger chance of being heard without escalating tension with the judiciary.
My concern wasn’t just legal—it was also about safety, stress, and retaliation. Given all that had happened, I needed a federal court to at least acknowledge the harm I was trying to prevent, especially since the actions I challenged were grounded in the Fair Housing Act, ADA, and Rehabilitation Act—all federal civil rights statutes.
I want to make it clear that this is not an easy process as a pro se litigant filing in federal court. Before I could even file, I had to send my complaint and the TRO request to a federal clerk so they could review it and confirm that I had some legal basis and a basic understanding of the federal rules. On top of that, I had to drive over an hour to file in person, because the Middle District of North Carolina doesn’t allow self-represented parties to e-file. Pro se litigants have to formally request permission from the court just to access the system electronically. The process is already hard enough—and the barriers to entry make it even harder to be heard.
Note: I’ve only attached the statement of claim to understand what I was filing against. There is a form you have to fill out and a cover sheet you must file along with this.