Richard E. N. Federico
How Judge Federico decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
He resolves statutory questions with close textual work -- reading a disputed word in light of the surrounding provisions and the statute as a whole, and treating the ordinary meaning of a term as controlling unless context clearly displaces it -- and treats legislative history as a confirmation of a reading already reached from the text, not its foundation.
“Given the "presumption that a given term is used to mean the same thing throughout a statute," the preposition "in" does not preclude above-ground miners working in an underground coal mine from qualifying for the rebuttable presumption without a showing of substantial similarity.”
In construing remedial and exemption statutes he reads them in light of their protective purpose and, where a term is genuinely ambiguous, resolves the doubt in favor of the party the statute was enacted to protect rather than defaulting to the narrowest possible reading.
“The refundable child tax credit caused Garcia-Morales's refund, and we liberally define such causation, making the refund wholly exempt under Colorado law.”
Procedural preferences
On review of a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal, he draws every reasonable inference for the plaintiff and refuses to resolve a fact-bound affirmative defense, such as when a claim accrued, by filling gaps in the complaint against the pleader.
“on a motion to dismiss, when there are gaps in the plaintiff's complaint, we fill those gaps with reasonable inferences drawn in favor of the plaintiff, not against her. In disregarding these basic principles, the district court made the kind of fact- finding barred by Rule 12(b)(6).”
Cautions
He holds the government to its evidentiary burden with real bite in criminal cases: where the prosecution takes a shortcut on an essential element -- here, proving a jurisdictional fact through an unauthenticated, litigation-prepared document -- he will find the error not harmless and reverse the conviction outright, even in a case involving grave and sympathetic facts.
“Because the error applies to all four counts and negates an essential element in each count, the only proper remedy is for this Court to reverse the convictions because an element of each crime was not proved by legal and competent evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.”
He enforces preservation and waiver rules strictly: an argument raised for the first time in a reply brief, or pressed on appeal without a plain-error argument after being omitted below, will be deemed waived and go unreviewed, however meritorious it might have been if timely raised.
“When an appellant fails to preserve an issue and also fails to make a plain-error argument on appeal, we ordinarily deem the issue waived (rather than merely forfeited) and decline to review the issue at all”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“AFFIRMED.”
“The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“The district court's entry of summary judgment against Estrada is AFFIRMED.”
“The petition for review is DENIED.”
“We REVERSE the convictions and sentence and REMAND with instructions to the district court to vacate the judgment and conduct further proceedings consistent with this decision.”
“we reverse the district court's order and remand with instructions to dissolve the injunction.”
“we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
“we reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
“we affirm.”
“We REVERSE the Rule 702 Order and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
Put Judge Federico's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Federico actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Federico's own signed orders and cites them.