Eric Earl Murphy
How Judge Murphy rules, drawn from 40 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Murphy
Eric Earl Murphy is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Appointed by President Donald J. Trump, Judge Murphy received a commission on March 11, 2019.
Judge Murphy's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Murphy'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).
How Judge Murphy decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Pearson's prison-medical-care appeal, he reversed denial of qualified immunity to supervisory officials because existing precedent did not clearly prohibit their reliance on front-line medical staff.
“we agree with them that our precedent would not have clearly conveyed that their reliance on the front-line medical providers was so unreasonable as to violate the Eighth Amendment.”
In United Allergy's antitrust appeal, he affirmed dismissal because the company was an indirect seller two steps removed from the insurers accused of fixing reimbursement rates.
“United Allergy is also an indirect seller because it is ‘two’ ‘steps removed from’ the insurers in the distribution chain.”
In Olentangy's student-speech case, he ordered a preliminary injunction because the school district offered no evidence that students' use of biological pronouns disrupted school functions or constituted harassment.
“The school district may not skew this debate by forcing one side to change the way it conveys its message or by compelling it to express a different view.”
In Rahman's immigration appeal, he read the waiver statute's 'to the satisfaction of' language as committing the hardship determination to agency discretion and dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction.
“It shows that Congress committed the hardship inquiry to agency discretion in the waiver context.”
Procedural preferences
In Kloosterman's employment case, he held the hospital defendants lost their right to arbitrate by seeking a complete victory on the merits in court before requesting arbitration.
“we hold that the defendants lost their right to arbitrate under the Federal Arbitration Act because their conduct put them ‘in default in proceeding with [their requested] arbitration.’”
In Johnson's prison excessive-force appeal, he held that an officer's possible policy violation or state-law battery did not itself establish an Eighth Amendment violation and affirmed judgment for the officer.
“just because a correctional officer may have violated a prison use-of-force policy or committed a state-law tort does not necessarily mean that the officer violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on ‘cruel and unusual punishments.’”
Unrecoverable compliance costs from an order under appellate review can support interim relief while the court considers the appeal.
“In sum, an invalid judicial injunction or vacatur order can impose the same ‘compliance costs’ that an invalid executive regulation can inflict.”
Cautions
In Lovell's jail-suicide suit, he reversed denial of qualified immunity to a mental-health official because no clearly established precedent condemned her compromise placement decision.
“We agree with O'Neil that no case would have clearly established that her compromise placement decision showed deliberate indifference to the risk that Lovell would commit suicide.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“We thus reverse the district court's decision to dismiss this suit in favor of arbitration.”
“United Allergy is also an indirect seller because it is ‘two’ ‘steps removed from’ the insurers in the distribution chain. ... We thus affirm.”
“We thus reverse the district court's denial of qualified immunity and affirm its denial of state-law immunity.”
“We affirm the district court's judgment dismissing Schier's appeal.”
“Because the EPA has not justified its inconsistencies here, we vacate its disapproval of Kentucky’s plan.”
“We thus lack jurisdiction over the Board's hardship conclusion and dismiss Rahman's petition for review.”
“We thus reverse and remand for the entry of an appropriately tailored preliminary injunction barring the district from punishing students for the commonplace use of biological pronouns.”
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