No. 25-6745October Term 2025Dismissed
Linda Sun, Petitioner v. D.C. Office of Employee Appeals, et al.
from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Case status
- Current stage
- Dismissed
- Latest event
- Dismissed
- Decision timing
- No window until argument is scheduled.
- What it's about
from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Question presented
1. Whether a court’s inherent power to set aside a judgment for fraud on the court—as preserved in Super. Ct. Civ. R. 60(d)—is subject to a “reasonable time” limitation when an adjudicator, lacking mandatory statutory qualifications, intentionally subverts a superior court’s remand mandate to favor a party, thereby violating the Due Process Clause and undermining the integrity of the judicial process. 2. Whether a court violates the Party Presentation Principle and the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause by rejecting an agency’s functional confession of error and unilaterally asserting defenses on behalf of the government to uphold a decision rendered by an unlicensed examiner. 3. Whether a tribunal violates the Mandate Rule and the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause by unilaterally altering the legal framework on remand such that it failed to adjudicate the causal link in the prima facie stage of the McDonnell Douglas framework. 4. Whether an administrative decision that is void for lack of jurisdictional authority can have preclusive effect over a federal Title VII claim, particularly where that claim was decided under the McDonnell Douglas framework in conflict with the standard for summary judgment.
- Case path
District of Columbia Court of Appeals / Dismissed
- Area
Administrative Law
Briefing
What it's about
Linda Sun is asking the Supreme Court to review a case from the D.C. Court of Appeals about whether a court can reopen a judgment she says was corrupted by deliberate misconduct and issued through an examiner who lacked required qualifications. She also argues that the agency process and later court review wrongly blocked her federal job-discrimination claim.
Argument
No oral argument is scheduled. Sun's petition asks the justices to review whether time limits apply to claims that a judgment was corrupted by serious misconduct, whether courts may raise defenses for the government on their own, and whether a disputed agency ruling can block a later federal job-discrimination suit.
Impact
The case could matter for workers who go through agency employment proceedings before trying to sue in federal court. For example, it could clarify whether a flawed agency decision can still shut off a later discrimination case.
What is Linda Sun asking the Supreme Court to decide?
She says a judgment should be reopenable if it was corrupted by deliberate misconduct and made by an examiner lacking required qualifications. She also challenges whether that agency decision could block her later federal job-discrimination claim.
Who could be affected by Sun v. D.C. Office of Employee Appeals?
Workers who go through agency employment hearings before suing in federal court could be affected. The case could clarify whether a flawed agency ruling still counts against them later.
What happens next in Linda Sun v. D.C. Office of Employee Appeals?
The justices will decide whether to take the case. No oral argument has been scheduled, and there is no set decision timeline yet.
Related cases
Grounding
- Grounding
- Primary materials plus reporting.
- Note
- Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.
- Checked
- Jul 23, 2026
- Method
- Methodology