OPINION
Mark A. Hughes, an inmate confined in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, filed this civil rights action against Loyd Massey and persons identified only as “John Doe(s).” See 42 U.S.C.A. � 1983 (West Pamph. 2001). Hughes alleged that either Massey or a John Doe authorized the removal of the door to the restroom in the unit’s kitchen. When Hughes used the facility, he was exposed to female officers in violation of his First Amendment right to Christian modesty. Before service of process, the trial court dismissed Hughes’s petition for failure to file a trust account statement with his petition. Hughes raises five points of error, which we shall address out of order.
Point of error one challenges the constitutionality of the statute that requires an inmate who files a suit as an indigent person to provide a copy of his trust account statement. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. � 14.006(f) (Vernon Supp. 2001). Hughes suggests that the statute violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution. U.S. Const. Art. VI, cl. 2. Absent federal preemption, a State may apply its own neutral procedural rules to federal claims. Howlett v. Rose, 496 U.S. 356, 110 S.Ct. 2430, 110 L.Ed.2d 332 (1990). Section 1983 claims brought in federal fora are subject to the provisions of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which also requires the filing of a certified copy of the inmate’s trust account statement. 28 U.S.C.A. � 1915(2) (West Supp. 2000). Considering federal law imposes substantially similar requirements on inmates litigating in forma pauperis, we conclude Section 14.006(f) does not offend the Supremacy Clause. Next, Hughes argues that Section 14.006(f) violates the Open Courts Provision of the Texas Constitution. Tex. Const. Art. I, � 13. We apply a two-prong test in an open courts challenge: First, does the litigant have a “cognizable common law cause of action that is being restricted;” and if so, is the restriction “unreasonable or arbitrary when balanced against the purpose and basis of the statute.” Sax v. Votteler, 648 S.W.2d 661, 666 (Tex. 1983). As has been recognized in the context of other requirements for inmate in forma pauperis suits, the strong temptation to file a frivolous suit is reasonably controlled by a statute that requires the inmate to support his allegation of pauper status. See Spellmon v. Sweeney, 819 S.W.2d 206, 209-10 (Tex. App.–Waco 1991, no writ). Assuming Hughes has a cognizable common law cause of action that is being restricted, we nevertheless find that Section 14.006(f) serves a legitimate purpose of controlling the flood of frivolous lawsuits by requiring that the inmate substantiate his pauper’s status with a trust account statement. Hughes argues that either the clerk should have refused to file his suit until the trust account statement was filed, or the trial court should have required special exceptions. An inmate-filed in forma pauperis action may be dismissed under Section 14.003 either before or after service of process. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. � 14.003(a) (Vernon Supp. 2001). Therefore, the inmate had no right to notice of a motion to dismiss or to an opportunity to amend. See Bohannan v. Texas Bd. of Criminal Justice, 942 S.W.2d 113, 116 (Tex. App.–Austin 1997, writ denied).
