Joshua Dale Dunlap
How Judge Dunlap rules, drawn from 20 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Dunlap
Joshua Dale Dunlap is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Appointed by President Donald J. Trump, Judge Dunlap received a commission on November 7, 2025.
Judge Dunlap's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Dunlap's own (checked October 11, 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 11, 2026).
How Judge Dunlap decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Sargent v. Collins, he held that the False Claims Act did not expressly waive sovereign immunity for retaliation suits against federal employers.
“Our role, prescribed by Article III of the Constitution, is to 'declare what the law is, not what we think the law should be'”
In Putnam v. EPR Properties, he denied jurisdictional discovery as to EPR because the plaintiffs had not made a colorable jurisdictional claim against that defendant.
“Because Plaintiffs have not made a 'colorable claim of jurisdiction,' we conclude that jurisdictional discovery is not appropriate as to EPR.”
Procedural preferences
In Kolackovsky v. Town of Rockport, Dunlap held that residents’ new assertions of property harm in appellate briefing could not cure the complaint’s inadequate standing allegations.
“Assertions of harm set forth in briefs cannot fill the void left by the lack of adequate allegations in the complaint.”
Cautions
In a maritime default-judgment appeal, he held that the defendant’s Rule 60(b)(4) challenge came too late after it waited nineteen months from the plaintiff’s attempted enforcement without a valid reason.
“Put simply, Amigos waited too long and without good cause.”
In Urizar-Mota v. United States, he vacated a homemaker damages award as unsupported by the evidence and excessive under the governing statute.
“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.”
The dissent would have denied late coram nobis relief because the petitioner had waited years after learning her conviction would trigger deportation.
“Because I conclude that -- under our case law -- Morillo did not challenge her conviction in a timely manner, I must part ways with my colleagues.”
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.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the district court's judgment is affirmed.”
“For the above reasons, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment on Farid's discrimination and retaliation claims under both federal and state law.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Not applicable to this circuit-court role.
Draft for Judge Dunlap with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Dunlap, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
Opens in Ezel Pro.
- Grounded in Judge Dunlap's own signed orders
- Cites every source it relies on, so you can verify it
- Chat, drafting and research in one workspace