John Kenneth Bush
How Judge Bush rules, drawn from 84 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Bush
John Kenneth Bush is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Appointed by President Donald J. Trump, Judge Bush received a commission on July 21, 2017.
Judge Bush's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Bush'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 Bush decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In EMW, Bush applied NIFLA and Casey to reverse the injunction against Kentucky’s abortion informed consent law, holding that its truthful, relevant disclosures did not violate the physician’s First Amendment rights.
“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.”
In Smith v. Miami Valley Hospital, Bush vacated an order allowing discovery before a qualified-immunity ruling because the district court had not identified a material factual dispute that required discovery.
“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.”
In Clemons v. Couch, Bush reversed summary judgment for the trooper on the community caretaker theory after Caniglia clarified that it did not independently justify a warrantless home entry.
“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.”
In his separate concurrence in Boddy v. Grech, Bush stressed the importance of protecting Boddy’s speech at a school board meeting, even though the dispute concerned only five minutes of public comment.
“The dispute at issue here may not be the most important that we as federal judges will see in our time on the bench, but today we vindicate the right to speak.”
A person with joint access to a cell phone could consent to its search even though the defendant owned the device.
“Because we conclude that E.C. had common authority over the cell phone, she could consent to its search. Therefore, no Fourth Amendment violation occurred”
Procedural preferences
In Johnson v. Johnson, Bush affirmed dismissal of a petition to compel arbitration of a pending state probate proceeding because the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction.
“We hold that it did not and AFFIRM.”
In Smith v. Miami Valley Hospital, Bush vacated the discovery order and remanded for the district court to address qualified immunity on the existing summary-judgment record.
“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.”
In Baatz v. Columbia Gas, Bush considered an alternative ground for affirming the judgment without requiring Columbia Gas to cross appeal, because it did not seek to change the judgment.
“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.”
In Preçetaj v. Sessions, Bush remanded the denial of a motion to reopen because the BIA’s two-sentence explanation did not show that it had analyzed Preçetaj’s evidence of changed country conditions.
“In this two-sentence passage, the BIA failed to demonstrate that it evaluated or analyzed the evidence presented to it by Preçetaj.”
Cautions
In Asher, Bush vacated the convictions because evidence of a nearly identical prior act had limited probative value on intent and posed a substantial risk of unfair prejudice.
“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.”
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