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William F. Kaetz v. United States, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, No. 26-1085 · judgment March 10, 2026


Certiorari denied · October 5, 2026
Pre-decision estimate: 0% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate: the model weighted this down for a self-represented petitioner.

Questions presented

  1. Whether a court of appeals may deny mandamus relief when a district court in a § 2255 proceeding refuses to decide on the merits a properly raised, served on the Attorney General, and Rule 5.1-certified facial challenge under Article I, § 8 and the Tenth Amendment to Congress’s authority to enact the Higher Education Act of 1965 and render student loans nondischarge able under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(8).

  2. Whether the lower courts’ repeated reliance on a prior dismissal that never performed an Article I enumerated-powers analysis constitutes a misapprehension of the record warranting relief under Rule 60(d)(3) and mandamus.

  3. Whether this case presents a question of exceptional importance concerning the judicial duty to decide properly certified structural constitutional claims going to the validity of a criminal conviction.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
William F. Kaetz

For respondent
D. John Sauer
Solicitor General

Case

Subject area
Federalism (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Order
Order list, October 5, 2026 · Certiorari denied

Proceedings

  1. Oct 05 2026
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jul 08 2026
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/28/2026.
  3. Jun 30 2026
    Waiver of right of respondent United States, et al. to respond filed.
  4. Jun 15 2026
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due July 24, 2026)