Mallard v. United States Dist. Court for Southern Dist. of Iowa

Justice Stevens, with whom Justice Marshall, Justice Blackmun, and Justice O’Connor join,

dissenting.

The relationship between a court and the members of its bar is not defined by statute alone. The duties of the practitioner are an amalgam of tradition, respect for the profession, the inherent power of the judiciary, and the commands that are set forth in canons of ethics, rules of court, and legislative enactments. This case involves much more than the parsing of the plain meaning of the word “request” as used in 28 U. S. C. § 1915(d). This case also does not concern the sufficiency of the…