Steven Michael Colloton
How Judge Colloton rules, drawn from 88 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Colloton
Steven M. Colloton is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Judge Colloton received a commission on September 10, 2003.
Judge Colloton's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Colloton'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 Colloton decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
A pre-enforcement First Amendment plaintiff established injury by alleging intended constitutionally protected conduct that the statute arguably prohibited and a credible threat that private defendants would enforce it.
“A plaintiff satisfies the injury-in-fact element if it alleges ‘an intention to engage in a course of conduct arguably affected with a constitutional interest, but proscribed by a statute, and there exists a credible threat of prosecution thereunder.’”
The reviewed campaign-finance restriction failed exacting scrutiny because the state had not shown a substantial risk of quid pro quo corruption from independent PAC-to-PAC contributions.
“In this case, Missouri has not demonstrated a substantial risk that unearmarked PAC-to-PAC contributions will give rise to quid pro quo corruption or its appearance.”
He requires spending-clause legislation to confer an individual right unmistakably before permitting private enforcement under Section 1983; a directive aimed at the administering agency and an aggregate-compliance regime do not suffice.
“It is now settled that nothing ‘short of an unambiguously conferred right’ will support a cause of action under § 1983.”
In Parents Defending Education v. Linn Mar, he found a school policy’s undefined command likely too vague to give students fair notice of prohibited speech.
“We conclude that Parents Defending is likely to succeed on its claim that this portion of the policy is void for vagueness.”
An insured allocating a global settlement between covered and uncovered matters need not prove the split with precision, but must offer a nonspeculative evidentiary basis tied to what the parties knew at settlement.
“To survive summary judgment, an insured need not prove allocation with precision, but it must present a non-speculative basis to allocate a settlement between covered and non-covered claims.”
Procedural preferences
Review of a labor-arbitration award was highly deferential: even serious contractual error did not justify vacatur when the arbitrator was arguably construing the agreement within the scope of authority.
“But ‘as long as the arbitrator is even arguably construing or applying the contract and acting within the scope of his authority,’ even a ‘serious error’ in construing the contract is insufficient reason to set aside the award.”
Issue preclusion did not apply where the decisive terrorism-inadmissibility issue had not actually been litigated in the earlier asylum proceeding.
“We conclude that the disputed issue was not actually litigated in an earlier proceeding, so issue preclusion does not apply.”
In Liggins v. Cohen, he separated assumed historical facts about the subject’s movement from the legal question whether those facts justified force.
“Once the court has assumed a particular set of facts about where and how B.C. was running in relation to Cohen’s position, whether B.C.’s actions rose to a level warranting Cohen’s use of force is a question of law for the court, not a question of fact.”
In BNSF Railway v. Department of Labor, Colloton held that the agency’s adjudication of a railroad worker’s retaliation claim violated the company’s Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial on liability and legal remedies.
“We conclude that the Seventh Amendment entitles BNSF to a jury trial on Gourneau’s claims for liability, backpay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages before any equitable claim to reinstatement is adjudicated.”
A federal-officer removal claim succeeded despite a state complaint’s disclaimers because the alleged pharmacy-benefit negotiations covered federal as well as private clients.
“the defendants have established that removal was proper under the federal officer removal statute”
Cautions
A cyberstalking conviction could not rest on a broad construction of harassment that swept protected political speech into the statute; the evidence had to satisfy a constitutionally sound interpretation.
“We conclude that the evidence was insufficient under a proper interpretation of the cyberstalking statute, and therefore reverse the conviction.”
Pre-enforcement standing cannot rest on a chain of contingent events, particularly where an internal agency directive imposes no obligation and the agency has never taken the predicted enforcement action against similarly situated institutions.
“In sum, the College’s alleged injury is too speculative to establish Article III standing.”
A detainee's medical-care claim requires proof approaching criminal recklessness; negligence or even gross negligence does not establish deliberate indifference.
“negligence or even gross negligence is insufficient to establish deliberate indifference.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the district court correctly dismissed Headbird's motion as untimely based on the limitations period of § 2255(f)(1).”
“The provision of the Medicaid Act does not unambiguously create a federal right for individual patients that can be enforced under § 1983. We therefore vacate the injunctions.”
“Because the City disclaims any sovereign immunity for itself, and seeks only to invoke the sovereign immunity of a nonparty, we dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.”
“The district court did not rule on Loftin's as-applied challenge to the statute because the issue could not be determined without a trial on the merits, and Loftin waived the as-applied challenge by pleading guilty.”
“For these reasons, the judgment of the district court is affirmed.”
“For these reasons, we reverse the judgment, vacate the injunction, and remand for further proceedings.”
“For these reasons, the judgment of the district court is reversed, and the case is remanded with directions to enter judgment for Travelers.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Circuit judges do not carry a trial caseload; not enumerated.
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