Access to an appeal
Inoa v. Pamela Casey O'Brien
In brief
- Where it stands
- Petition Pending
Awaiting an order on the petition
- What it’s about
- Larry Inoa asks the Supreme Court to review his claim that Massachusetts denied him an appeal in his civil-rights case over late docketing, though he says he timely filed his notice and the appeals court said its late-entry notice did not itself dismiss the appeal.
- What's at stake
- Inoa's effort to obtain appellate review of his civil-rights case remains unresolved; the Supreme Court has not decided whether to review it.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.
What it's about
He also challenges how it considered his explanation for delay.
Inoa says he timely filed his appeal notice; the appeals court later said its notice about late entry was informational and did not itself dismiss the appeal.
Question presented
1. Whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment permits a state appellate court to deny a self-represented litigant an opportunity to pursue an appeal of a civil-rights action based on late docketing, where the petitioner asserts that he timely filed his notice of appeal and the appellate court later issued a notice stating that the failure to enter the appeal timely was informational and did not itself dismiss the appeal. See U.S. Const, amend. XIV, § 1; Mass. R. App. P. 3(a)(1), 10. 2. Whether a state court ’ s application of an excusable-neglect standard to a motion to docket an appeal late may foreclose review of a federal civil-rights claim consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment when the litigant asserts that the court did not meaningfully consider the circumstances offered to explain the delay and the resulting denial of access to appellate review. See U.S. Const, amend. XIV, § 1; cf. Pioneer Inv. Servs. Co. v. Brunswick Assocs. Ltd. P ’ ship, 507 U.S. 380 (1993).
What happens next
The Court must decide whether to hear the petition. No oral argument or decision window is set before that happens.
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
More questions
- Why does Inoa challenge the late-filing standard?
- He argues that the court did not meaningfully consider the circumstances he offered to explain the delay.
Sources
Primary materials from the Court and the parties. Grounded in docket records and cited sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.