Paul B. Matey
How Judge Matey rules, drawn from 31 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Matey
Paul Brian Matey is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Appointed by President Donald J. Trump, Judge Matey received a commission on March 18, 2019.
Judge Matey's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Matey's own (checked October 11, 2026), so the court's local rules and general orders are the place to look (court page ↗).
Standing orders for every case in this court
Orders the court applies to all of its cases, whichever judge has them, as published on the court's website (checked October 11, 2026).
- Third Circuit Motions Practice ↗
- Motions to Exceed the Page or Word Limitations ↗
- Motions for Extensions of Time and Clarification of L.A.R. 110 ↗
- Vacating Option B for Filing of an Appendix ↗
- Reduced Number of Copies of Briefs Required ↗
- Stays in Immigration Cases ↗
- Submission of Audio and Video Files ↗
How Judge Matey decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Treats constitutional text as central but not exhaustive when interpreting a provision that recognizes a preexisting right.
“Text does not exhaust the law, but it cannot be ignored.”
Procedural preferences
In a religious land-use dissent, Judge Matey distinguished a precedent about election-law injunctions and argued that its status-quo concern did not govern the church’s request for preliminary relief.
“There are no comparable concerns in Holy Trinity’s requested relief, which merely asks for the restoration of neutral zoning treatment for religious purposes as already required under federal law, not a bespoke rule tailored to the interests of a political party on election eve.”
In his Migliori dissent, Judge Matey argued that any fee award should account for the voters’ limited success in their election-law litigation. The majority affirmed the award.
“A prevailing party’s fee award must be adjusted to reflect the degree of success in the litigation”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Because Appellants’ claims belong to the Plan, the Plan’s consent to arbitrate controls. So we will affirm the District Court’s judgment.”
“For these reasons, we will affirm the District Court's judgment.”
“For these reasons, we will deny the petition for review in part and dismiss the remainder.”
“The Appellants fail to establish their entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. We will affirm the District Court's order denying the motion to dismiss in favor of arbitration.”
“An application for cancellation of removal under NACARA is not an application for adjustment of status under § 212(h) of the INA. So we will deny Lopez’s petition for review.”
“Because considering the evidence underlying Doyduk's expunged charges fell within the IJ's broad discretion, we will deny the petition.”
“For these reasons, we will affirm the District Court's order denying Nichino's motion for a preliminary injunction.”
“Because Ellison failed to demonstrate that her attorney's alleged error affected the jury's verdict, we will affirm the District Court's denial of her petition for a writ of habeas corpus.”
“As those conditions do not exist here, we must affirm the District Court's decision to dismiss.”
“As a result, the Fund cannot recover the claimed withdrawal liability, and we will affirm the District Court's order vacating the Arbitrator's Award.”
“So we will affirm the decision of the District Court and grant the Government's motion to the extent the District Court's order is affirmed.”
“We agree and will reverse the District Court's order denying a writ of habeas corpus.”
Draft for Judge Matey with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Matey, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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