Brown v. Blinken
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-09205
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Brown v. Blinken, Judge Swain ordered Kenneth Anderson Brown to pay fees or submit an IFP application within 30 days.
Kenneth Anderson Brown, who was ordered to pay the filing fees or submit an application to proceed without prepaying them.
What happened
In Brown v. Blinken, Kenneth Anderson Brown filed a civil complaint without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without paying them upfront.
The court ordered Brown to pay $402 or submit a signed application within 30 days. The court said no summons would issue yet and warned that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also determined that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the claims’ merits.
The detailed version
- Brown v. Blinken · No. 1:22-cv-09205
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 28, 2022
Background
Kenneth Anderson Brown filed this civil action without paying the required filing fees and without submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees. The opinion states that Brown was representing himself.
Order
The court explained that filing a civil action required either payment of $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or a signed application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without prepaying the fees. The court ordered Brown, within 30 days of the order, to pay the fees or submit the attached IFP application.
The court stated that no summons would issue at that time. If Brown complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal-related ruling
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain did not address the merits of Brown’s claims.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.