Page:Reed v. Goertz.pdf/5

Rh statute of limitations began to run when the Texas trial court denied Reed’s motion (which occurred more than two years before Reed filed his §1983 suit in federal court), not when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied rehearing.

Because the federal Courts of Appeals disagree about when the statute of limitations begins to run for a §1983 suit regarding a State’s post-conviction DNA testing procedures, we granted certiorari. 596 U. S. ___ (2022).

Texas raises three threshold arguments.

First, Texas argues that Reed lacks standing. We disagree. Reed sufficiently alleged an injury in fact: denial of access to the requested evidence. The state prosecutor, who is the named defendant, denied access to the evidence and thereby caused Reed’s injury. And if a federal court concludes that Texas’s post-conviction DNA testing procedures violate due process, that court order would eliminate the state prosecutor’s justification for denying DNA testing. It is “substantially likely” that the state prosecutor would abide by such a court order. Utah v. Evans, 536 U. S. 452, 464 (2002) (internal quotation marks omitted). In other words, in “terms of our ‘standing’ precedent, the courts would have ordered a change in a legal status,” and “the practical consequence of that change would amount to a significant increase in the likelihood” that the state prosecutor would grant access to the requested evidence and that Reed therefore “would obtain relief that directly redresses the injury suffered.” Ibid.

Second, Texas invokes the State’s sovereign immunity. But the Ex parte Young doctrine allows suits like Reed’s for declaratory or injunctive relief against state officers in their official capacities. 209 U. S. 123, 159–161 (1908).

Third, Texas contends that Reed’s procedural due process claim contravenes the Rooker–Feldman doctrine. See