O'Bryant v. Hilton

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI
EASTERN DIVISION
MARTINO O’BRYANT, 	)
)
Plaintiff, 	)
)
vs. 	) 	Case No. 4:26-cv-0033-MTS
)
BRUCE HILTON, 	)
)
Defendant. 	)
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Pro se Plaintiff Martino O’Bryant filed this action against the Honorable Bruce F.
Hilton, Circuit Judge of the St. Louis County Circuit Court, seeking damages and prospective
relief related to the denial of O’Bryant’s motion to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal in a
case he filed in state court. 	See O’Bryant v. Tennis Warehouse, 25SL-CC01729 (Mo. 21st
Cir. Ct.). 	Plaintiff has moved to proceed in forma pauperis in this case. 	Doc. [2]; see also
28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1). Upon review, the Court will grant Plaintiff’s Motion and allow him
to proceed in forma pauperis here, that is, to proceed in this Court without prepaying the
filing fee. Upon subsequent review of Plaintiff’s Complaint, see 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2), the
Court will dismiss this action because it is frivolous. See Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319,
325 (1989) (explaining that a complaint “is frivolous where it lacks an arguable basis either
in law or in fact”).
Any of Plaintiff’s claims against Defendant for damages necessarily fail. 	See
Robinson v. Freeze, 15 F.3d 107, 108 (8th Cir. 1994) (“Judges performing judicial functions
enjoy absolute immunity from § 1983 liability.”). 	As to Plaintiff’s claims for prospective
relief, they have no basis in law. 	“As the Supreme Court has ruled, where a fundamental
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right is not implicated, there is no constitutional right to proceed in forma pauperis.”
Carolina v. Rubino, 644 F. App’x 68, 71 (2d Cir. 2016) (citing United States v. Kras, 409
U.S. 434, 450 (1973)).
If that were not enough, there is a “strong policy against federal intervention in state
judicial processes in the absence of great and immediate irreparable injury to the federal
plaintiff.” Ogala Sioux Tribe v. Fleming, 904 F.3d 603, 610 (8th Cir. 2023). Thus, based on
the facts he has pleaded, the Court would not intervene in Plaintiff’s underlying state court
matter at issue. What is more, Plaintiff has not established standing to seek injunctive relief
because he has not “show[n] a likelihood of a future injury,” see Meuir v. Greene Cnty. Jail
Emps., 487 F.3d 1115, 1119 (8th Cir. 2007), and the Court has no authority to issue the type
of universal injunction that Plaintiff seeks, compare Trump v. CASA, Inc., 606 U.S. 831, 856
(2025), with Doc. [1-1] at 4.
Accordingly,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to Proceed in Forma
Pauperis, Doc. [2], is GRANTED. 	Upon 	review of the 	Complaint, see 28 U.S.C.
§ 1915(e)(2), the Court will enter an Order of Dismissal dismissing this action.*
Dated this 13th day of January 2026.
MATTHEW T. SCHELP
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
* For the same reasons explained herein, the Court will certify that an appeal of this dismissal would
not be taken in good faith. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3); Fed. R. App. P. 24(a)(3)(A); see also Higgins
v. Steele, 195 F.2d 366, 369 (8th Cir. 1952) (“Although no district judge likes to pass upon the
correctness of his own decisions, it is his duty, if he is thoroughly convinced that there is no
substantial question for review and that an appeal will be futile, to certify that the appeal sought to be
taken in forma pauperis is not taken in good faith.”).
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