Brown v. State of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-06014
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Brown v. State of New York, Judge Swain ordered Carlos L. Brown to pay fees or submit prisoner authorization within 30 days before the case proceeds.
Carlos L. Brown, who must either pay the required fees or submit a prisoner authorization within 30 days for the action to proceed.
What happened
In Brown v. State of New York, Carlos L. Brown, who is incarcerated and representing himself, submitted an application to proceed without paying court fees upfront but did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court ordered Brown, within 30 days, either to pay $405 in fees or to submit the authorization. The authorization would allow installment deductions of the $350 filing fee from his account. No summons will issue yet, and the action will be dismissed if he does not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not address the claims’ merits.
The detailed version
- Brown v. State of New York · No. 1:25-cv-06014
- Laura Swain
- July 25, 2025
Background
Carlos L. Brown, who is currently incarcerated at the Orange County Jail, brought this action representing himself. The opinion does not describe the underlying claims against the State of New York and the other defendants.
Brown submitted an application to proceed without prepaying court fees, commonly called an application to proceed in forma pauperis, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization. The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $405 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submit a signed application and authorization. If the court grants permission to proceed without prepayment, the $350 filing fee must still be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account.
Order
The court ordered Brown to do one of two things within 30 days of July 25, 2025: pay the $405 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization. The authorization must be labeled with docket number 1:25-CV-6014 (LTS) and would direct the facility holding Brown to deduct the $350 filing fee in installments and provide certified account statements for the preceding six months.
No summons will issue at this time. If Brown complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case under its procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. The court also certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
Classification
This is a procedural order concerning filing fees and prisoner authorization. It does not decide the merits of Brown’s claims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.