Guido Calabresi
How Judge Calabresi rules, drawn from 53 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Calabresi
Guido Calabresi is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Appointed by President William J. Clinton, Judge Calabresi received a commission on July 21, 1994. Judge Calabresi assumed senior status on July 21, 2009.
Judge Calabresi's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Calabresi's own (checked October 11, 2026), so the court's local rules and general orders are the place to look (court page ↗).
How Judge Calabresi decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In the consolidated Rutledge and Phippen appeals, the panel held that the district court erred in excluding the plaintiffs’ expert causation testimony as unreliable. It left the merits of the experts’ conclusions for a jury to consider.
“It bears repeating that this is not to say that we deem the opinions of those experts correct on the issue of causation, we hold only that the district court erred in deeming their testimonies unreliable and therefore not worthy of consideration by a jury.”
A mail- or wire-fraud charge can be supported when material lies induce customers to pay for promised personalized services and distinctive goods that the seller does not provide.
“And the indictment alleges that Runner’s scheme sought to induce customers to pay money. Kousisis held that this is enough to support a charge of mail or wire fraud.”
In Kurtz, the panel required the settlement court to compare the share of total recovery going to class members with the share going to class counsel when applying Rule 23(e). It vacated approval and left ultimate fairness for the district court to decide on remand.
“Today, we clarify that this tandem analysis of class relief and attorney’s fees requires courts to compare the proportion of total recovery allocated to the class to the proportion of total recovery allocated to class counsel.”
Procedural preferences
Before deciding whether a dispute falls within an arbitration agreement, a court must first determine who—the court or the arbitral tribunal—has authority to decide arbitrability.
“The question of who is to decide whether a dispute is arbitrable is one that must necessarily precede the question of whether a dispute is arbitrable.”
The default first-assistant route to acting federal office applies only when the first assistant was already in place when the vacancy arose; general delegation authority cannot be used to evade the vacancies statute's exclusive mechanism.
“We hold that Sarcone was not serving as Acting U.S. Attorney when he obtained the subpoenas because the FVRA permits only a First Assistant already in place when the vacancy arises to become the acting officer automatically.”
Cautions
A securities-fraud complaint needs facts connecting a corrective disclosure to the claimed loss. When the price decline is delayed and coincides with broader market losses, the pleading should explain both the delay and why market forces were not the cause.
“To establish plausibility, Huey must provide ‘some indication’ of why the loss was delayed and why it was caused by the corrective disclosure rather than intervening market forces.”
For the foreign-sovereign commercial-activity exception, isolated features resembling private market conduct do not control when sovereign coercion and emergency lawmaking fundamentally shape the overall transaction.
“We conclude that although Switzerland might have acted in the manner of a private market player in some respects, its use of sovereign authority to dominate Credit Suisse throughout the ‘brokering,’ plus its use of ordinances to push the merger across the finish line, were fundamentally different types of actions than those by which a private party engages in ‘trade and traffic or commerce.’”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“We have considered all of the appellee's arguments and find them meritless. We therefore REVERSE the judgment of the district court and instruct that court to enter judgment in favor of the appellants.”
“We find that the charter party was effectively incorporated. ... We therefore AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.”
“We have considered all of plaintiffs' claims and find them meritless. We therefore AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.”
“We have considered all of Petitioner's claims and find them to be without merit. We therefore AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.”
“For all these reasons, the instant appeal fails to present a live case or controversy as required for jurisdiction under Article III. The appeal is therefore dismissed as moot.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the petition for review is DENIED, and the outstanding motion for a stay of deportation is DENIED.”
“The judgment and sentence of the district court are therefore Affirmed.”
“Because Ojeikere has not demonstrated that his victims lost ill-gotten gains, or that they were in pari materia with the scheme of which he was convicted, we AFFIRM the restitution order.”
“We have reviewed all of Defendant/Appellant's claims and find them meritless. Accordingly, the judgment of the District Court is AFFIRMED.”
“Because the district court has not yet determined whether the parties in this case agreed to an arbitration clause that clearly and unmistakably entrusted questions of arbitrability to the Arbitral Tribunal rather than to the court, its judgment is VACATED and the case REMANDED in order to provide the district court an opportunity to make this determination in the first instance.”
“For the foregoing reasons, we again find SORNA constitutional -- at least as applied to those, like Robbins, whose failure to register follows interstate travel -- and therefore AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.”
“The judgment of the District Court is, therefore, AFFIRMED.”
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