Richard R. Lawless v. United States, et al.

2 1. Whether a court of appeals may dismiss an appeal as "frivolous" under 28 U.S.C. § 3 1915(e)(2) based on a record that was truncated at the screening stage through 4 exclusion of probative evidence, where no adversarial proceedings or factual 5 development occurred below. 6 2. Whether the Due Process Clause permits a "frivolous" dismissal under § 1915(e)(2) 7 where the litigant was denied the opportunity to develop a factual record, including 8 through adversarial proceedings, and where a parallel federal proceeding involving the 9 same claim has held that the claim cannot be rejected as a matter of law without such 10 development. 11 12 OPINIONS BELOW 13 The order of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissing the appeal as 14 frivolous is unpublished and appears in the Appendix at Appendix A. 15 The order of the United States District Court for the Central District of California appears in the 16 Appendix at Appendix B. 17 18 JURISDICTION 19 The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was entered on 20 November 19,2025. 21 A timely petition for rehearing was not filed. 22 The jurisdiction of this Court is invoked under 28 U.S.C. § 1254(1). 23 24 CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY PROVISIONS INVOLVED 25 This case involves the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States 26 Constitution and 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2). The relevant statutory provisions are reproduced in the 27 Appendix. 28 29 STATEMENT OF THE CASE