Background
Weldon Eugene Holtzclaw, Jr., proceeding pro se, appealed a district court order that accepted a magistrate judge’s recommendation to dismiss his complaint. The district court had concluded that the plaintiff had not sued a person amenable to suit under Section nineteen eighty-three and that the complaint was frivolous on its face.
The court’s reasoning
The Court of Appeals confined its review to the issues raised in the appellant’s informal brief. Because the informal brief did not challenge the basis for the district court’s disposition, the court determined that the appellant had forfeited appellate review of the order. The court cited Jackson versus Lightsey to support the principle that the informal brief is an important document and that review is limited to issues preserved therein.
What it means going forward
The decision reinforces the requirement that pro se litigants must explicitly raise issues in their informal briefs to preserve them for appellate review in the Fourth Circuit.