Court filing restrictions
Tawana Jean Cooper v. OptumRX
In brief
- Where it stands
- Petition Pending
Awaiting an order on the petition
- What it’s about
- Cooper challenges a California appeals court’s enforcement of an order requiring her to get permission before filing certain cases, arguing the issuing court lacked authority because service was defective.
- What's at stake
- Cooper's petition asks whether the order could be enforced against her and whether her appeal could be dismissed without a chance to challenge the order's validity.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.
What it's about
She says the appeals court dismissed her timely appeal without giving her a chance to challenge the order; her petition is pending, and the Supreme Court has not agreed to hear it.
Cooper says the court that issued the prefiling order lacked authority over her because service was defective. She also says the California appeals court dismissed her timely appeal without giving her a chance to challenge the order.
The dispute concerns a California order requiring Cooper to get court permission before filing certain cases and her effort to challenge that order in a separate appeal.
Question presented
1. Whether a state appellate court violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by applying Daly v. San Bernardino County Bd. of Supervisors (2021) 11 Cal.5th 1030 to enforce an unstayed prefiling order against a litigant in a separate proceeding, where the underlying prefiling order was rendered completely void for lack of personal jurisdiction due to constitutionally defective service. 2. Whether the Fourteenth Amendment ’ s guarantees of Due Process and Access to Courts permit a state appellate court to summarily dismiss a timely appeal for failure to seek prefiling permission under California Code of Civil Procedure § 391.7, without providing a forum or stay to determine whether the out-of-county prefiling order was issued without personal jurisdiction.
What happens next
The petition was distributed for the Court's Nov. 13, 2026 conference. That does not mean the Court has agreed to hear it or guarantee an order date.
Documents
Docket activity
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
Brief added: Petition
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.