Joshua Dale Dunlap
How Judge Dunlap decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Begins with statutory text and applies its ordinary meaning before turning to policy considerations.
“Our role, prescribed by Article III of the Constitution, is to 'declare what the law is, not what we think the law should be'”
Requires a concrete factual basis and a focused request before allowing jurisdictional discovery.
“Because Plaintiffs have not made a 'colorable claim of jurisdiction,' we conclude that jurisdictional discovery is not appropriate as to EPR.”
Procedural preferences
Confines dismissal review to well-pleaded allegations and does not treat facts supplied only in briefing as part of the complaint.
“Again, facts asserted only in briefing do not suffice.”
Cautions
Treats unexplained delay in seeking relief from judgment as a serious finality problem, even for an assertedly void judgment.
“Disagreement with a federal court's finding is no justification to ignore it.”
Will vacate a damages calculation when the statutory prerequisites lack evidentiary support, even if some recovery may remain available on remand.
“The plain language of Section 9-1-47 requires us to vacate the district court's homemaker damages award as both unsupported by the evidence and grossly excessive.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the foregoing reasons, Mr. Del-Valle-Camacho's sentence is affirmed.”
“For all these reasons, the sentence imposed by the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“We affirm the district court's judgment dismissing the action for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.”
“Accordingly, the district court's judgment is affirmed.”
“For all these reasons, the district court's judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part.”
“We reverse the dismissal of Plaintiffs' claims against Premier and remand with instructions to the district court to permit jurisdictional discovery into Premier's relationship to VVV and involvement in the Hotel Valcartier's operations, including advertising and room booking activities. We affirm the district court's dismissal of Plaintiffs' claims against EPR for want of personal jurisdiction but modify the designation to be without prejudice.”
“For the above reasons, we affirm both Defendants' convictions and Sepetu's sentence.”
“Having concluded that Deschambault's arguments are unpersuasive, we affirm.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Not applicable to this circuit-court role.
Put Judge Dunlap's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Dunlap actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Dunlap's own signed orders and cites them.