Roger L. Gregory
How Judge Gregory decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In immigration and refugee cases he holds the agency to its duty of reasoned decision-making: where the record contains credible, legally significant evidence of persecution or government acquiescence, he treats the agency's failure to engage with it as reversible error rather than a permissible exercise of discretion, and reads binding precedent to mean that a death threat, standing alone, is persecution.
“Because Tairou received multiple, explicit threats of death both during and after the village gathering, the BIA's conclusion as to past harm contravenes our express and repeated holding that the "threat of death" qualifies as persecution.”
He applies the categorical approach with care and resolves genuinely close questions of an offense's reach through close reading of the statute's text and elements rather than deference to a conclusory agency label, refusing to let an ambiguous crime sweep in ordinary or even morally-motivated conduct.
“Because § 18.2-460(A) prohibits conduct that does not necessarily involve moral turpitude, it sweeps more broadly than the INA's definition of a CIMT, and Ramirez's convictions thereunder do not qualify as CIMTs.”
Procedural preferences
He guards the integrity of the process below and the availability of judicial review: he will not let a court prematurely resolve the merits under the guise of a jurisdictional ruling, and he reads jurisdiction-stripping statutes to leave pure questions of law reviewable even when the underlying grant of relief is discretionary.
“Absent such allegations, the court should have accepted the Ministry's alleged damages as the amount in controversy in this case.”
He treats the safeguards owed a party -- the chance to testify, to take discovery before summary judgment, or to a de novo look at a magistrate judge's recommendation -- as non-negotiable, vacating and remanding when those steps are skipped rather than excusing the shortcut as harmless.
“Without first providing Farabee with an opportunity to conduct discovery or ensuring that he was properly informed of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 56's ("Rule 56") requirements, the district court granted Appellees' summary judgment on all of his claims”
Cautions
He enforces the government's burden and the limits on sentencing enhancements with real bite in criminal cases: a bare recitation of facts untethered from the governing legal test, or an enhancement resting on a single act of possession dressed up as a separate felony, will not survive, and he will reverse or vacate rather than fill the gap for the government.
“He therefore cannot be subject to a sentencing enhancement based solely on the fact that he falls into more than one class of prohibited persons under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g).”
In civil-rights and employment cases he insists that a court reviewing a motion to dismiss or summary judgment take the non-movant's evidence as true and draw every reasonable inference in the non-movant's favor, and he treats a district court's decision to resolve genuine factual disputes -- on comparators, pretext, or the reasonableness of a seizure -- against the plaintiff as reversible error.
“Taking these factual allegations as true and drawing these reasonable inferences in Ray's favor, Roane's seizure of Jax was unreasonable because Jax no longer posed any threat to Roane.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“PETITION FOR REVIEW GRANTED AND REMANDED”
“PETITION FOR REVIEW GRANTED; VACATED AND REMANDED”
“PETITION FOR REVIEW GRANTED, ORDER OF REMOVAL VACATED, AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS”
“PETITION FOR REVIEW GRANTED; VACATED AND REMANDED”
“PETITION FOR REVIEW GRANTED; VACATED, AND REMANDED”
“Petition for review granted; vacated and remanded”
“REVERSED AND REMANDED”
“affirm the judgment of the district court dismissing this action for lack of jurisdiction”
“we reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment and remand the case for further proceedings.”
“We therefore reverse the district court's decision and remand for further proceedings.”
“we affirm the district court's dismissal of Laurent-Workman's discrete-act retaliation claim, but we vacate its dismissal of her race-based hostile work environment and retaliatory hostile work environment claims.”
“Therefore, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.”
Put Judge Gregory's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Gregory actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Gregory's own signed orders and cites them.