Gina Patricia Bornemann v. Paul Herbert Bornemann

Whether a State violates the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment when it grants a litigant leave to proceed in forma pauperis yet dismisses or refuses to reinstate an appeal solely because the litigant cannot obtain the transcripts required for appellate review-particularly where the transcript requirements exceed ordinary filing costs and were generated in a proceeding conducted without the litigant’s participation and without any opportunity to object.

Whether the Fourteenth Amendment permits a State to condition appellate review on transcript requirements that a litigant proceeding in forma pauperis cannot meet, in conflict with this Court’s decisions in Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12 (1956), andM.L.B. v. S.L.J., 519 U.S. 102 (1996).

Whether due process is violated when expert selection, testimony, and evidentiary development in a civil proceeding are controlled by one party, resulting in transcript burdens and outcomes that the opposing litigant cannot meaningfully challenge on appeal.