Samuel Lee Smith, Jr. v. Florida

Whether due process is violated when a judge whose neutrality was reasonably questioned failed to disqualify herself from Petitioner’s lower-court criminal/misdemeanor matter, continued to preside over or affect proceedings involving Petitioner’s liberty and appellate rights, and the resulting orders were used to dismiss appellate review and restrict Petitioner’s future access to the appellate court.

Whether a state appellate court violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments when it imposes a blanket order prohibiting an indigent self-represented litigant from filing further pro se petitions, appeals, motions, or other proceedings unless a licensed attorney reviews and signs the filing.

Whether due process permits a continuing pro se filing ban based on prior unsuccessful filings without an individualized finding of bad faith, an evidentiary hearing, consideration of lesser restrictions, or a preserved channel for criminal, liberty, emergency, jurisdictional, or constitutional claims.

Whether a state appellate court denies access to the courts when it dismisses an appeal arising from lower-court proceedings involving judicial disqualification, discovery disputes, sanctions, property deprivation, official misconduct, failure to perform criminal-procedure duties, judicial corruption, and claims of government abuse of power without meaningful review of the federal questions presented. 5. Whether a court may use unlawful tactics, procedural irregularities, or judicial misconduct to secure a conviction or appellate restriction where the litigant raised due-process, neutral-tribunal, and abuse-of-power objections.