Where can I find the official court docket or PACER filings for Michelle Obama v. John Kennedy?
Executive summary
The authoritative source for federal dockets and filings is the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system (PACER); users can search nationwide federal cases with the PACER Case Locator or by looking up a specific district or circuit court [1] [2]. If a search for "Michelle Obama v. John Kennedy" yields no federal docket entries, PACER guidance says to contact the federal court where the matter would be filed for help; absence from PACER does not prove the case never exists in another forum [2].
1. Where the official federal docket lives: PACER and the Case Locator
All federal court electronic dockets and filings are accessed through PACER, which provides online access to records from federal district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts and offers a nationwide Case Locator for party-name or case-number searches [1] [2]. Creating a PACER account is required to view documents; the service posts that most searches generate a per-page fee (commonly $0.10 per page) and that 75 percent of PACER users do not pay a fee in a given quarter because of low activity thresholds and exemptions [1].
2. Step-by-step practical search strategy
Begin at the PACER homepage and use the PACER Case Locator to search for party names, variations, or a presumed district if the national search turns up nothing; PACER explicitly instructs users to search the specific district court if the forum is known and to contact that court’s clerk when searches fail to locate a case [1] [2]. If the case is a state-court filing, PACER will not show it; PACER covers only federal courts, so a non-federal plaintiff—if the reports are accurate about venue—would require checking the relevant state court’s public docket system or contacting that clerk [2].
3. How to interpret media claims that a suit exists
Several online stories and aggregators have published dramatic accounts claiming Michelle Obama sued Senator John Kennedy, but at least some of those pieces have been identified as fictitious or unverified narratives that spread on social media and blog sites rather than through primary court records [3] [4]. Given that PACER is the authoritative federal record repository, any credible federal lawsuit should produce a PACER record; where press reports rely on social posts or anonymous uploads, users should triangulate those claims with PACER searches or direct court-clerk confirmation before accepting them as filings [1] [2] [3].
4. If PACER shows no docket: what that means and next moves
PACER’s guidance advises contacting the federal court where the case would be filed if the Case Locator returns no matches, because naming conventions, sealed filings, or state-court venue can obscure a public search [2]. Reporting that a suit exists on blogs or content farms does not replace a docket; in the absence of a PACER entry, the correct investigative next steps are to re-run party-name variations, search likely districts, check state court portals, or call the clerk’s office for confirmation rather than rely solely on secondary news items [1] [2] [3].
5. Practical links, costs, and transparency caveats
To locate the official docket, start at the PACER homepage and the Find a Case / Case Locator pages; create an account, conduct the party-name or case-number search, and, if needed, follow the court-clerk contact instructions on PACER for cases that do not surface [1] [2]. Remember the per-page access charge disclosure on PACER and that some sensational online articles claiming a high-dollar defamation suit exist appear on non-authoritative sites and should be verified against PACER or the court clerk rather than reported claims [1] [3] [4].