George Steven Agee
How Judge Agee 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 from the words Congress used, gives undefined terms their ordinary meaning, and reads each provision alongside neighboring text so that no word is rendered superfluous.
“Under a plain reading of the Provision, the CBA’s expiration does not alter Just Born’s status as a bargaining party to that CBA.”
He applies the categorical approach with rigor in immigration and sentencing cases, asking whether the minimum conduct a statute reaches necessarily matches the federal generic offense, and declining to treat an offense as a crime of moral turpitude when it can be committed without base or depraved conduct.
“PETITION FOR REVIEW GRANTED; VACATED AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS”
Procedural preferences
He enforces the sentencing court's obligation to explain its reasoning, holding that a court must make specific findings and expressly balance the required statutory factors before it may deny a crime victim's restitution request, and reversing when that balancing is not articulated.
“By failing to do so, the court violated its duty under § 3663(a)(1)(B)(ii) to expressly weigh: the burden of adjudicating the restitution issue against the desirability of immediate restitution.”
He treats mandatory claim-processing rules as inflexible when timely invoked, holding that a late criminal notice of appeal must be dismissed once the government properly raises the point under the applicable rules.
“Therefore, the Government’s motion to dismiss Hyman’s untimely appeal is granted. The appeal is dismissed.”
Cautions
He confines his review to the record and arguments actually presented, refusing to let a party manufacture relevance or a defense from evidence untethered to the issues tried, and holding a litigant to the consequences of concessions and unpreserved arguments.
“Unless there is a connection between the external facts and the defendant’s state of mind, the evidence of the external facts is not relevant.”
He reads jurisdictional and remedial statutes for exactly what their text authorizes even when that forecloses relief, holding, for instance, that the narrow savings clause does not reach a prisoner's challenge to his sentence rather than his conviction.
“Surratt’s petition does not present one of the permitted circumstances. Accordingly, we agree that the district court lacked jurisdiction under § 2255(e) to consider Surratt’s § 2241 petition and affirm the judgment below.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the foregoing reasons, we dismiss the petition without prejudice. PETITION DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE”
“Because we agree with the district court that Plaintiffs have failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted with respect to either benefit accrual under Count One or backloading under Count Three, we affirm the district court’s judgment. AFFIRMED”
“For the reasons set forth above, the district court’s judgment is AFFIRMED.”
“For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court’s decision. AFFIRMED.”
“For the reasons set out above, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“The district court’s judgment is therefore AFFIRMED.”
“For all these reasons, Tang’s petition for review of the Board’s decision is DENIED.”
“PETITION DENIED”
“For all of these reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the district court’s decision is AFFIRMED IN PART, VACATED IN PART, AND REMANDED.”
“For these reasons, Marshall’s motion to use his forfeited funds to hire appellate counsel of his choice is DENIED.”
“Therefore, the Government’s motion to dismiss Hyman’s untimely appeal is granted. The appeal is dismissed. DISMISSED”
Put Judge Agee's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Agee actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Agee's own signed orders and cites them.