Plaintiff Can't Sue Supreme Court

Judge Rudolph Contreras (D.D.C.) reminded us this week in Harris v. United States Supreme Court that a federal district court has no power to review a decision of the Supreme Court.

Judge Contreras quoted Justice Jackson--"We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only becuase we are final," Brown v. Allen (1953)--in dismissing a case brought by a disappointed basketball player who didn't make the cut for the Tulsa 66ers.  The player first sued in the Northern District of Oklahoma and took his case all the way to the Supreme Court.  Alas, the Court declined to hear his case.

So he naturally sued the Court itself in the D.C. district.  No luck, wrote Judge Contreras: a district court has no power to review a decision of the Supreme Court.

SDS