Mary Helen Murguia
How Judge Murguia rules, drawn from 34 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
How Judge Murguia decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In a special concurrence addressing a vehicle stop near the border, Murguia stressed that reasonable suspicion must be particularized to the person stopped. Innocuous conduct and broad generalizations require close scrutiny when they would describe many law-abiding drivers.
“This particularized standard is not met when an officer relies solely on generalizations that affect large segments of the law-abiding population.”
In construing the federal sentencing safety valve, Murguia applied the ordinary conjunctive meaning of Congress's chosen word 'and.' Policy arguments about the statute's breadth did not permit the court to rewrite the connector as 'or.'
“For the reasons above, we affirm the district court's sentence and hold that § 3553(f)(1)'s ‘and’ is unambiguously conjunctive.”
In deciding whether an entertainment-industry relationship fell within California's civil sexual-harassment statute, Murguia identified the shared principle behind the enumerated examples. The alleged professional relationship qualified because one party's position created an inherent capacity for coercion or leverage over the other.
“It is clear that each of the enumerated examples consists of a relationship wherein an inherent power imbalance exists such that, by virtue of his or her ‘business, service, or professional’ position, one party is uniquely situated to exercise coercion or leverage over the other.”
Procedural preferences
In an asylum-termination proceeding, Murguia required enough information about the government's fraud investigation for the applicants to test its allegations. Reliance on a one-page report that omitted investigators, supporting exemplars, and witnesses denied a meaningful opportunity to respond.
“The report did not provide sufficient information about the fraud investigation, and the Grigoryans were not afforded a meaningful opportunity to rebut its allegations.”
Cautions
In an employee-stock-plan case, Murguia required allegations tied to the particular company and proposed corrective action. General economic propositions could contribute to the overall picture, but standing alone they could not satisfy the context-specific pleading standard.
“Accordingly, we join our sister circuits in concluding that the recitation of generic economic principles, without more, is not enough to plead a duty-of-prudence violation.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“None of these arguments survive as independent claims not inextricably linked to his order of removal. Nor does this action avoid the clear language of 8 U.S.C. 1252(a)(5), which eliminates jurisdiction over such claims. ... AFFIRMED.”
“Therefore, we vacate the district court's award of costs and fees and remand to the district court for an explanation of how it used the lodestar method to reduce Padgett's fees and how it calculated Padgett's reduced costs. ... VACATED and REMANDED.”
“Just as 11359 is categorically a 'controlled substance offense' for sentencing purposes ... it is categorically a crime 'relating to a controlled substance' for immigration purposes. PETITION DENIED.”
“The Miller Act's statute of limitations is a claim-processing rule, and ACT's complaint would have survived a 12(b)(6) motion. Therefore, the district court's order of dismissal is vacated, and the case is remanded for further proceedings. VACATED and REMANDED.”
“The district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence of the uncharged child pornography videos, and the evidence at trial was sufficient to support Hardrick's convictions. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the district court.”
“Because the district court did not abuse its discretion by approving the Consent Decree, we AFFIRM.”
“Because the immigration officer who conducted the proceedings failed to observe Raya-Vaca's due process rights, and because Raya-Vaca could plausibly have been granted relief in the form of withdrawal of his application for admission, we hold that his 2011 removal order is invalid and cannot serve as the predicate for his conviction under 8 U.S.C. 1326. ... REVERSED AND REMANDED.”
“For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the district court erred in dismissing Curiel's federal habeas petition as untimely. ... REVERSED and REMANDED.”
“We conclude that Pacifica is entitled to receive payment of the loan at the post-default interest rate. We therefore reverse the decision of the bankruptcy court and remand for further proceedings. REVERSED AND REMANDED.”
“But we agree with the district court that MOM Hui's appeal should have been made to this court and not the district court. AFFIRMED.”
“For the reasons stated above, the FSIS, AMS, FTC, and FDA each acted reasonably in denying Plaintiffs' rulemaking petitions. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment to Defendants. AFFIRMED.”
“The district court correctly applied 2X1.1, the general provision for inchoate offenses, to determine Simon's sentence and relevant sentencing enhancements because 2B3.1, the Robbery provision, does not expressly cover conspiracies under the Hobbs Act. We affirm the sentence of the district court. AFFIRMED.”
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