Stephanie Dawn Thacker
How Judge Thacker decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
She resolves statutory questions from the words Congress used, giving undefined terms their ordinary, everyday meaning read in the full context of the surrounding provisions rather than by guesses about purpose.
“When, as here, Congress has not provided a definition for a statutory term, we give the term its ordinary, everyday meaning.”
She reads a governing precedent as a coherent whole rather than parsing one sentence in isolation, declining to give a single line of boilerplate or one prong of a test a rigid, literal effect that would defeat the doctrine's purpose.
“We hold, however, that a single line from a plea agreement cannot bear the weight the Government would like.”
Procedural preferences
She reads administrative claim-processing prerequisites as non-jurisdictional and gives statutory alternatives their plain effect, so a party who satisfies one of two textual routes may proceed even without exhausting the other.
“The text of section 3582(c)(1)(A) plainly provides that a defendant may file a motion on his own behalf 30 days after the warden receives his request, regardless of whether the defendant exhausted his administrative remedies.”
She insists on the process the Constitution and precedent require before a claim is resolved, holding that certain juror-bias claims cannot be dismissed as a matter of law without the evidentiary hearing the governing authorities demand.
“In dismissing the actual bias claim, the district court failed to recognize the applicability of Supreme Court precedent requiring a hearing in these circumstances.”
Cautions
She enforces the presumption against retroactivity to protect settled expectations, refusing to let a later statute attach new legal consequences to conduct completed before its enactment absent a clear congressional directive.
“A lawful resident who has lived in the United States long enough to merit consideration for relief from removal has a settled expectation in his opportunity to request such relief. Courts may not disturb that expectation absent clear evidence that Congress intended that effect.”
She keeps discretionary-review and jurisdiction-stripping statutes to their text: where Congress commits a decision to an agency's sole and unreviewable discretion, the courts have no jurisdiction to second-guess it.
“Pursuant to 8 U.S.C. section 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii), "no court shall have jurisdiction to review" certain discretionary decisions made by the USCIS, which here includes the no-risk determination. Therefore, the district court lacked jurisdiction to review that determination.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Pursuant to the foregoing, the district court's award of summary judgment to Appellees is affirmed, its ruling that the Chapter is an "employer" under the ADA is vacated, and the cross-appeal is dismissed.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“For the forgoing reasons, the judgement of the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“For these reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“We therefore hold double jeopardy bars Appellant's follow-on prosecution in the Western District of Virginia for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. section 846.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“We reverse the district court's judgment and remand to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
“For all of the reasons detailed herein, the district court did not err in denying summary judgment to Appellants. The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“Based on the foregoing, we affirm Appellant's sentence.”
“In light of the foregoing, the decision of the district court is AFFIRMED.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the district court's dismissal of Appellant's section 3582(c)(1)(A) motion is vacated, and we remand for consideration of the merits.”
Put Judge Thacker's record to work
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Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Thacker's own signed orders and cites them.