Is the district court required to determine subject-matter jurisdiction before reaching the merits?

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Is the first question to be answered by both the district courts and the courts of appeals, when a civil complaint is presented to them, whether they have subject-matter jurisdiction, and when the answer is NO, does either court have judicial authority to reach the merits of the case and to grant any motion other than pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(h)(8) Lack of SubjectMatter jurisdiction? | 2. Is petitioner, who is a born in America Fourteenth Amendment citizen, who has been convicted of a crime and sentenced to a Thirteenth Amendment punishment of public/government enslavement, upon payment in full of that judicially pronounced debt to American society, restored to his status of Fourteenth Amendment citizenship, which guarantees to him equal protection of the law? 3. Do the due process of law clauses of the Fifth and . Fourteenth Amendments allow the federal judiciary ; . to bar petitioner out of federal civil court based solely on his ethnicity, “Black descendant of American slaves”, and his race, “American Negro”? | | | | Bc | it ; COMPLIANCE WITH RULE 29.4(b)-(c) Pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 29.4(b)-(o), petitioner recites that 28 U.S.C. 2403(a)-(b) may apply and this document shall be served on the Solicitor General Of the United States, Room 5616, Department , of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, | DC. 20530-0001; Wisconsin Attorney General Josh | Kaul, Room 114 East Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin ; 53702. To the best of petitioner’s knowledge, neither the district nor the appeal court certified to the Solicitor General of the United States that the Constitutionality : of an Act of Congress was drawn into question; nor has either court certified to the Wisconsin Attorney General that the Constitutionality of a statute and Legislatively referred Amendment to Wisconsin’s constitution has been drawn into question. The notifications required by Rule 29.4(b)-(c) have been made. i] iii LIST OF PROCEEDINGS Direct Proceedings United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit No. 20-3363 Barry J. Smith, Sr., v. Community Care Inc. and Guardiantrac LLC, Date of Final Judgment: May 6, 2022 Date of Rehearing Denial: June 3, 2022 United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Case No. 20-CV-1482-JPS Barry Joe Smith and Francillya Blake, Plaintiffs, v. , Community Care, Inc. and Guardiantrac, LLC, doing , business as GT Independence, Defendants. Date of Final Order: December 1, 2020 . Prior