Skip to main content

Notice and appeal deadlines

Elhadj Alpha Mahmoud Souare v. Guzzo

Updated Nov 12, 2026

In brief

Where it stands
Dismissed

Petition denied.

What it’s about
Elhadj Alpha Mahmoud Souare asked the Supreme Court to review whether Ohio could dismiss his appeal as late after the clerk allegedly failed to send required notice, and whether a retired judge’s authority to enter judgment was properly established.
Who it affects
Souare did not receive Supreme Court review; the Court did not decide whether the Ohio court’s notice or judge-assignment procedures violated due process.

Summary: written with AI from the case record.

Illustration for Elhadj Alpha Mahmoud Souare, Petitioner v. Diana R. Guzzo
Conceptual illustration · AI-generated

What it's about

The Court refused to hear the case (denied review), so it did not decide those questions.

Souare’s filing linked the appeal deadline to Ohio’s rule about when the clerk must serve a judgment.

Question presented

1. Whether the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause permits a state court to dismiss an appeal as untimely where state law makes clerk service of judgment the jurisdictional trigger for appeal, yet the clerk failed to provide the notice required by Ohio Civ.R. 58(B) and Ohio App.R. 4(A)(3). 2. Whether due process is violated when a litigant is denied appellate review because of the State's own procedural failure to provide notice, thereby creating the type of procedural deprivation prohibited by Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422 (1982). 3. Whether the entry of judgment by a retired judge whose assignment authority does not appear in the public record — while the same court subsequently obtained a documented Certificate of Assignment for a different judge in the same case — raises a substantial federal due process question concerning adjudicatory authority and lawful tribunal authorization under Lucia v. SEC, 585 U.S. 237 (2018), and Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., 556 U.S. 868 (2009).

Documents

1

Docket activity

6
  • New analysis added

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • AI analysis generated: Case Briefing

    Nov 12, 2026 · Generated

  • AI analysis generated: Decision Record

    Nov 12, 2026 · Generated

  • Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata

    Nov 11, 2026 · Court records

Show 1 more
  • Brief added: Petition

    May 7, 2026 · Court records

Sources

Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.

Checked Nov 12, 2026Methodology

Court records and filings

Reporting and analysis