Bobby Chen wrote his own petition to the Supreme Court over his suit against the City of Baltimore, which demolished his house and trashed all his stuff — and the Supreme Court granted it.
It’s basically unheard of for pro se litigants (people who represent themselves) to be granted a hearing at the Supreme Court, and even more impressive is that Chen’s first language apparently isn’t English, but he managed to make his case strongly despite the odd grammatical problem.
Now if only the Supreme Court could find him.
It would be a drag if the case did not go forward, because then the world would not get an answer to the question presented: “Whether, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m), a district court has discretion to extend the time for service of process absent a showing of good cause, as the Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits have held, or whether the district court lacks such discretion, as the Fourth Circuit has held?” Bobby Chen cares about the answer to that question, or at least he used to, because it will determine whether he can continue with his claim that Baltimore destroyed his property without a hearing. Or, as he put it, “after he came back from a trip he found his house was demolishing and all his personal belonging had disappeared.”
…Because the Court takes so few cases, Mr. Chen will have no trouble finding a lawyer to help him with this one for free. So if you see him, please ask him to call the Court at 202-479-3000. The sooner the better, really.
Could Someone Ask Bobby Chen to Call the U.S. Supreme Court? [Kevin Underwood/Lowering the Bar]
(Image: File:Oblique facade 3, US Supreme Court.jpg, Wikimedia/Daderot, Public Domain)
