Jerome T. Kearney
How Judge Kearney rules, drawn from 25 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Kearney
Jerome T. Kearney is Chief United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock. He joined the federal magistrate bench in 2010 after serving in the federal public defender’s office. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Vanderbilt University.
Judge Kearney's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Kearney's own (checked October 9, 2026), so the court's local rules and general orders are the place to look (court page ↗).
Standing orders for every case in this court
Orders the court applies to all of its cases, whichever judge has them, as published on the court's website (checked October 9, 2026).
How Judge Kearney decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Blagg v. Saul, Kearney affirmed denial of disability benefits after comparing a treating physician’s checklist limitations with clinical records that described the claimant’s condition as stable and documented normal findings.
“Blagg’s treatment records do not conform with Dr. Collum’s assessment reflected in the MSS-P.”
Procedural preferences
In Poland v. Ford, Kearney denied a prisoner’s motion to compel without prejudice and invited a renewed motion that identified each unanswered request and explained its relevance.
“However, Plaintiff must be specific about the information requested and why such information is relevant to this case.”
In Troka v. McCown, Kearney rejected a requested stay and long deadline extensions, but set shorter new dates for discovery and dispositive motions.
“The Court will, however, extend the discovery deadline until November 20, 2025 and the dispositive motions deadline until December 22, 2025.”
Cautions
In Smith v. Payne, Kearney denied a federal habeas claim first raised in that proceeding because Smith had not shown cause for the procedural default or actual innocence as a gateway.
“Smith has not demonstrated cause to excuse procedural default, and he has not raised actual innocence as a gateway to consider the procedurally defaulted claim.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“IT IS, THEREFORE, RECOMMENDED that: 1. Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 29) be GRANTED. 2. Defendants Rogers and Does be DISMISSED without prejudice.”
“IT IS, THEREFORE, RECOMMENDED that: 1. Plaintiff's Motion to Withdraw Complaint (Doc. No. 61) be GRANTED. ... 4. Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment on the Issue of Exhaustion (Doc. No. 45) be DENIED as moot.”
“The Court has reviewed the Recommended Disposition (RD) submitted by United States Magistrate Judge Jerome T. Kearney (Doc. 6) ... the Court hereby approves and adopts the RD in its entirety ... Accordingly, the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus (Doc. 1) is DISMISSED without prejudice.”
“After considering the record, the arguments of the parties, and the applicable law, this Court affirms the Commissioner's decision.”
“For these reasons, Blagg's request for relief (Doc. 2) is DENIED, and the decision denying the application for benefits is AFFIRMED.”
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED THAT the Commissioner's decision is AFFIRMED, and judgment is entered for the Defendant.”
“it is CONSIDERED, ORDERED, and ADJUDGED that this case is reversed and remanded to the Commissioner for further proceedings pursuant to sentence four of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) and Melkonyan v. Sullivan, 501 U.S. 89 (1991).”
“it is CONSIDERED, ORDERED, and ADJUDGED that this case is reversed and remanded to the Commissioner for further proceedings pursuant to sentence four of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) and Melkonyan v. Sullivan, 501 U.S. 89 (1991).”
“it is CONSIDERED, ORDERED, and ADJUDGED that the final decision of Nancy A. Berryhill, Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, is REVERSED, and this case is REMANDED for proceedings specified in the Court's order.”
“it is CONSIDERED, ORDERED and ADJUDGED that judgment be entered for the Defendant, affirming the decision of the Commissioner and dismissing Plaintiff's case with prejudice.”
“The Court affirms the decision of the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, and plaintiff Ieashia Mashia Shelton's complaint is dismissed with prejudice.”
“For all the reasons stated, Smith's habeas petition fails and will be dismissed.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The reviewed Social Security matters lasted about three to four months, while search-warrant and initial-appearance matters often closed the day they were filed. These limited observations do not describe the full docket.
Pending matters in the official report
Reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the Civil Justice Reform Act, as of March 31, 2026.
| Motions pending more than six months | 0 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 1 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, not for Judge Kearney: median time from filing to disposition of the civil cases the court closed in the 12 months ending September 30, 2025, as reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
| Cases | Median time | |
|---|---|---|
| All civil cases closed | 726 | 10.4 months |
| Closed with no court action | 373 | 12.7 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 338 | 7.9 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 2 | not reported |
| Closed during trial | 13 | 30.9 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 726 | 10.4 months |
| Sep 2024 | 787 | 10.1 months |
| Sep 2023 | 995 | 12.4 months |
| Sep 2022 | 894 | 12.7 months |
| Sep 2021 | 845 | 11.2 months |
| Sep 2020 | 848 | 10.9 months |
| Sep 2019 | 878 | 10.5 months |
The table leaves out prisoner petitions, land condemnations, deportation reviews, recovery of overpayments and enforcement of judgments, and reports no median for fewer than 10 cases. A district that closed a large multidistrict litigation in the period shows very large counts and long medians for that year. Source: Table C-5, U.S. District Courts (spreadsheet).
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