Jennifer Lee Mascott
How Judge Mascott decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Applies a strict clear-statement rule to sovereign-immunity waivers, reading a fee-shifting statute against the government only when the text is unambiguous, and treats a deep circuit split as itself evidence that the required clarity is absent.
“U.S. Supreme Court precedent instructs that we are to interpret statutes to waive federal sovereign immunity only if such a waiver is clear from the statutory text.”
Procedural preferences
Favors en banc review of exceptionally important, circuit-splitting questions before a panel holding hardens into binding precedent, pointing to the practical downstream effects of the ruling as a reason to rehear.
“This extension should be reviewed now, before being cemented as circuit precedent. These cases readily merit en banc consideration.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
Writing separately when the full court declined to rehear a panel decision awarding Equal Access to Justice Act attorney's fees to immigration detainees, Judge Mascott urged rehearing on the grounds that sovereign-immunity waivers require clear statutory text, that a deep circuit split showed the fee statute was not clear, and that the panel had effectively extended circuit precedent on when the government's position is not 'substantially justified.'
Put Judge Mascott's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Mascott actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Mascott's own signed orders and cites them.