Johnson v. Securities & Exchange Commission

Background

Many petitioners from numerous federal courts of appeals and state appellate courts asked the Supreme Court for permission to proceed without paying the normal filing fees (known as "in forma pauperis" requests). The Court’s order lists many docket numbers and a variety of originating lower courts, showing these are separate matters brought from across the country rather than one consolidated case. The petitioners had sought review of lower-court decisions and simultaneously asked to avoid the Court’s docketing fees.

Reasoning

The Court denied the motions to proceed without paying fees and instead gave each petitioner a deadline to meet the Court’s filing requirements. The order gives petitioners until October 22, 2012 to pay the docketing fees required by Rule 38(a) and to submit petitions that comply with Rule 33.1. Rule 33.1 concerns the Court’s requirements for how a petition must be formatted and what it must include. The order addresses only these procedural filing requests and the related fee and format requirements.

Real world impact

Practically, the people or parties listed must pay the required docketing fees and file petitions that meet the Court’s formatting and content rules by the stated deadline if they want their petitions considered. Because the order enforces uniform procedural requirements for many separate filings, clerks, attorneys, and litigants affected must take steps to meet the fee and filing standards. This is a procedural step and does not decide the merits of the underlying legal claims.