Bruce Gordon MacDonald
How Judge MacDonald decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
On referred dispositive matters his R&R is not rubber-stamped: in a Sec.1983 ADCS child-removal case the district judge adopted his Report in part and rejected it in part, resolving the motion to dismiss as granted in part / denied in part (some claims dismissed with prejudice, others allowed to proceed).
“The Report and Recommendation is ADOPTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART as described in this Order. ... AZDCS Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Default judgment N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to dismiss N = 1 |
Granted in part: 1 | counts only |
| Supervised release violation N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Magistrate Judge Macdonald's Report and Recommendation (Doc. 39) is ACCEPTED and ADOPTED as the findings of fact and conclusions of law by this Court. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Petitioner's Motion for Default Judgment (Doc. 33) is DENIED.”
“3) The Report and Recommendation is ADOPTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART as described in this Order. (Doc. 60.) 4) AZDCS Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART as described in this Order. (Doc. 44.) 5) Defendant Kot must ANSWER Claims One and Three. 6) Claims One and Three against Defendants Nido and Jimenez are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“IT IS ORDERED that Magistrate Judge Macdonald's Report and Recommendation (Doc. 202) is accepted and adopted in full, and Defendant's Objection (Doc. 204) is overruled. This Court finds that Defendant violated Special Condition No. 2 of his supervised release.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Tucson-division magistrate (2012-05-07 to retirement 2026-05-31). Enumerable assigned_judge slice (early 2026, pre-retirement) is dominated by criminal cr/duty-mj matters (border/immigration felony and petty-offense initial appearances/detention), Social Security disability appeals, and assigned/consent civil cases (product-liability, insurance). His habeas/civil-rights/criminal merits work was REFERRAL-based (R&Rs reviewed by the district judges, captured in the reasoning layer). Composition only; not a grant rate or base rate.