John Carbone Porfilio
How Judge Porfilio rules, drawn from 29 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Porfilio no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Porfilio decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
A void tax assessment prevented administrative collection but did not bar a civil action or proof of claim for the underlying tax liability.
“While the absence of an assessment prevents the IRS from administratively collecting the tax, it may still file a civil action, which is the functional equivalent to filing a proof of claim in a bankruptcy proceeding.”
The responsible agency's interpretation of its own salary-basis regulation controlled unless plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation.
“Because the salary-basis test is a creature of the Secretary’s own regulations, his interpretation of it is, under our jurisprudence, controlling unless ‘plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation.’”
Procedural preferences
A dismissal for failure to prosecute was reviewed for abuse of discretion and upheld after the appellant failed to comply with court orders.
“We review the district court's dismissal for failure to prosecute for abuse of discretion.”
At step four of Social Security disability analysis, the claimant retained the burden of proving disability.
“At step four, claimant retains the burden of proof to show that he is disabled.”
Cautions
A different or negligent medical diagnosis did not by itself establish an Eighth Amendment violation.
“Even if an independent examination yielded a different diagnosis, negligent diagnosis does not rise to a constitutional violation under the Eighth Amendment.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“we affirm the dismissal of this action notwithstanding the district court's mistaken reliance on the new rule and the government’s consequent concession of reversible error.”
“We therefore AFFIRM substantially for the reasons given by the district court.”
“Consequently, under Auer, we affirm the order of the district court granting summary judgment in favor of the City.”
“We therefore AFFIRM the order dismissing the action based on Younger abstention.”
“The dismissal was not erroneous because no justiciable controversy remained to be litigated.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Circuit judges review appeals rather than manage a federal trial docket, so trial-court caseload and motion-timing metrics do not apply.
A historical record
Judge Porfilio no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.