Matthew Ryan Arnold v. United States Government

Opinion

1 2 3 4

5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7 8 MATTHEW RYAN ARNOLD, 9 Petitioner, Case No. C25-2179-KKE 10 v. ORDER GRANTING APPLICATION TO PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS 11 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, 12 Respondent. 13

14 Plaintiff has filed an application to proceed in forma pauperis (“IFP”) in the 15 above-entitled action. (Dkt. # 1.) Plaintiff does not appear to have funds available to afford the 16 $405.00 filing fee. Accordingly, Plaintiff’s application to proceed IFP is GRANTED. Plaintiff 17 shall note that leave to proceed as a pauper does not necessarily entitle Plaintiff to a waiver of 18 any other cost(s) of litigation. The Court recommends the complaint be reviewed under 28 19 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B) before issuance of summons, as Plaintiff brings claims under the 20 Thirteenth Amendment for involuntary servitude (dkt. # 1-1) based on the assertion that he never 21 provided “explicit, informed consent to be governed under the U.S. Constitution.” See Del Elmer 22 v. Metzger, 967 F. Supp. 398, 402 (S.D. Cal. 1997) (collecting cases, noting there is not a private 23 right of action under the Thirteenth Amendment). 1 The Clerk is directed to send copies of this order to Plaintiff and to the Honorable 2 Kymberly K. Evanson. 3 Dated this 5th day of November, 2025. 4 A 5 MICHELLE L. PETERSON United States Magistrate Judge 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23