Verhines

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

9 10 ANDREW VERHINES, Case No. 1:24-cv-01111-EPG Plaintiff, SCREENING ORDER ALLOWING

PLAINTIFF’S FIRST AMENDMENT AND

v. EQUAL PROTECTION CLAIMS TO

PROCEED PAST SCREENING

SHIRLEY N. WEBER, in her official capacity as California Secretary of State, (ECF No. 1) 15 Defendant.

17 Plaintiff Andrew Verhines proceeds pro se and in forma pauperis in this civil action. (ECF Nos. 1, 3). Generally, Plaintiff alleges that California’s filing fee structure for candidates seeking to run for United States Congress violates the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Upon review, the Court concludes that Plaintiff has sufficiently stated claims under the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause to proceed past the screening stage. Accordingly, the Court will allow these claims to proceed and will, in due course, issue an order 24 providing service documents to Plaintiff that he must complete and return so that Defendant may 25 be served. 26…