Background
Rodney Elroy Cobbs filed a pro se complaint under Section nineteen hundred eighty-three of Title forty-two of the United States Code. The district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim pursuant to Section one thousand nine hundred fifteen, subsection five, paragraph (e), subsection two, paragraph (B), clause (ii) of Title twenty-eight of the United States Code.
The court’s reasoning
The court confined its review to the issues raised in the appellant’s informal brief. Because the brief did not challenge the basis for the district court’s disposition, the appellant forfeited appellate review of the order. The court cited Jackson versus Lightsey to support the limitation on review.
The informal brief is an important document; under Fourth Circuit rules, our review is limited to issues preserved in that brief.
Jackson v. Lightsey, 775 F.3d 170, 177 (4th Cir. 2014)
What it means going forward
Pro se litigants must ensure their informal briefs explicitly challenge the specific legal grounds for a dismissal to preserve those issues for appeal in the Fourth Circuit.
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