Martin Donald Van Oosterhout
How Judge Oosterhout rules, drawn from 25 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Oosterhout no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Oosterhout decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Van Oosterhout applied intervening Supreme Court precedent even when it required reversal of a criminal conviction entered under the law understood at trial.
“a proper claim of the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination provides a full defense to prosecutions either for failure to register a firearm under § 5841 or for possession of an unregistered firearm under § 5851.”
He assessed administrative findings against the whole record and rejected conclusions unsupported by substantial evidence.
“Under the Universal Camera standard, we find the Board’s decision is not supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole.”
Procedural preferences
He generally required issues to be preserved in the trial court before they could be reviewed on appeal.
“Defendant’s failure to raise any objection to the question and answer in the trial court precludes review upon appeal absent plain error.”
He treated fact findings deferentially and did not retry credibility disputes on appeal.
“We do not try cases de novo upon appeal.”
Cautions
He invoked plain-error review sparingly, reserving it for a miscarriage of justice rather than ordinary unpreserved error.
“We have repeatedly held that the plain error rule should be applied with caution and should be invoked only to avoid a plain miscarriage of justice.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Accordingly, the judgment appealed from is affirmed.”
“The judgment is reversed and this case is remanded with directions to dismiss the action on its merits.”
“The judgment appealed from is affirmed.”
“The judgment appealed from is affirmed.”
“The judgment of conviction is affirmed.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Not applicable to this circuit-court record.
A historical record
Judge Oosterhout no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.