John Kenneth Bush
How Judge Bush decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Reads controlling Supreme Court precedent to set the governing standard and applies it faithfully even to reverse -- in EMW he applied the intervening NIFLA decision plus Casey to hold abortion-informed-consent disclosures get no heightened First Amendment scrutiny so long as they are truthful, non-misleading, and relevant.
“even though an abortion-informed-consent law compels a doctor's disclosure of certain information, it should be upheld so long as the disclosure is truthful, non-misleading, and relevant to an abortion.”
Strong protector of qualified immunity as an immunity from suit -- district courts must decide QI at the earliest stage and may not dodge it by ordering open-ended discovery; unambiguous video (Scott v. Harris) constrains what counts as a genuine factual dispute.
“Officers are entitled to a decision on qualified immunity at the earliest stage in the litigation because qualified immunity is an immunity from suit, not an immunity from liability.”
Responsive to intervening Supreme Court precedent even when it requires reversing a qualified-immunity grant for a police officer -- in Clemons v. Couch he held Caniglia v. Strom foreclosed the community-caretaker justification for a warrantless home entry, and that the requirement of an ongoing threat to the community was already clearly established.
“Accordingly, we reverse the magistrate judge's grant of summary judgment to Couch based on the community-caretaker exception and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
Procedural preferences
Polices the limits of federal subject-matter jurisdiction -- will affirm dismissal where the federal court lacks jurisdiction (e.g. to compel arbitration of a pending state probate proceeding), and decides on the narrowest jurisdictional ground without reaching the merits.
“We hold that it did not and AFFIRM.”
On an interlocutory QI appeal he will correct the predicate error and remand rather than reach the merits in the first instance, leaving the qualified-immunity merits to the district court.
“our usual practice is to allow a district court, which errs on a predicate issue, to consider subsequent issues in the first instance ... There is no need to go any further.”
Applies procedural doctrines like the cross-appeal requirement flexibly rather than mechanically -- in Baatz v. Columbia Gas he held a company could argue an alternative ground for affirming a damages award without filing its own cross-appeal, so long as it was not seeking to change the judgment and the opposing party had fair notice of the argument.
“By arguing in support of the district court's judgment on an alternative basis, instead of arguing for the reversal of the judgment, we may consider Columbia Gas's alternative argument for affirmance sans cross-appeal.”
Insists that the Board of Immigration Appeals show its reasoning -- will remand where the Board's denial of a motion to reopen is conclusory and fails to engage with the petitioner's evidence, even while acknowledging the Board's broad discretion in the same opinion.
“In this two-sentence passage, the BIA failed to demonstrate that it evaluated or analyzed the evidence presented to it by Preçetaj.”
Cautions
Skeptical of prior-bad-act evidence that is nearly identical to the charged conduct, even when offered by the government against a defendant accused of a serious crime -- will vacate a conviction under Rule 403 where such evidence is only incrementally probative (given other proof already establishes intent) and creates a high risk the jury convicts based on propensity rather than the charged proof.
“Where, as here, the probative value of the evidence is modest due to alternative methods of proof, courts must be especially careful not to allow that evidence to reach the jury if the evidence is unduly prejudicial.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Because H.B. 2, like the statute in Casey, requires the disclosure of truthful, non-misleading, and relevant information about an abortion, we hold that it does not violate a doctor's right to free speech under the First Amendment.”
“We therefore DENY the motion to dismiss, VACATE the district court's order, and REMAND for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.”
“In this appeal we consider whether a federal district court had subject matter jurisdiction to compel arbitration of a pending state court proceeding to probate and determine the assets of a decedent's estate. We hold that it did not and AFFIRM.”
“We therefore hold that Durham has standing to sue the administrators... we REVERSE the district court's dismissal of Durham's case for lack of standing and REMAND for proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
“For all these reasons, the petition for review is DENIED.”
“For the above-mentioned reasons, the district court's judgment is AFFIRMED.”
“We AFFIRM the FAA's final determination and deny the petition for review.”
“We must therefore decline to review the question whether the BIA's changed-country-conditions determination was erroneous... we must DISMISS his petition as unreviewable.”
“For the reasons explained above, we AFFIRM the district court's judgment.”
“For the reasons stated above, we AFFIRM the district court's denial of Mitchell's [Section] 2254 petition.”
“For the reasons set forth above, we reverse and remand to the Board of Immigration Appeals for further proceedings consistent with this court's opinion.”
Put Judge Bush's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Bush actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Bush's own signed orders and cites them.