Lewis Render Morgan
Judge Morgan no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Morgan decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Morgan treated prior resolution of the same legal issues between the same parties as a strong reason to foreclose relitigation even though the later dispute involved a different transaction.
“The same parties, issues, arguments, and law were involved in an earlier suit which has been decided. We can think of no reason to repeat the process.”
He required defense strategy to rest on a reasonably diligent investigation, particularly when the proposed defense depended on the defendant's medical history.
“The error in this argument is that Mauldin’s attorney failed to conduct a legally sufficient investigation which would allow him to make such a strategy decision.”
Procedural preferences
Morgan declined to invalidate a policy in the abstract when the evidentiary record instead showed that the government had failed to justify applying it to the litigants before the court.
“The board simply produced insufficient evidence to justify its application in this case.”
Cautions
He would not attribute private misconduct to the government for suppression purposes without evidence of government knowledge or participation.
“Without such proof, the fifth amendment does not authorize the suppression of these depositions.”
Morgan checked an agency's characterization of testimony against the record and rejected a finding that the cited testimony did not support.
“This simply is not true.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“The convictions are accordingly AFFIRMED IN PART and REVERSED IN PART.”
“AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED AND REMANDED IN PART.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Not applicable to this circuit-court record.
A historical record
Judge Morgan 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.