Jeremy D. Peterson

United States District Court for the Eastern District of California magistrate 8 signed orders read

How Judge Peterson decides

Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

What persuades

In consent Social Security appeals he holds the ALJ to the 'specific, clear, and convincing' standard for rejecting a claimant's subjective symptom testimony, and reverses and remands where that standard is unmet -- stressing, for conditions like fibromyalgia, that everyday activities and a lack of objective corroboration do not by themselves undermine credibility. He remands for further proceedings rather than awarding benefits.

“Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 10, is granted.”

Procedural preferences

On multi-defendant civil-rights summary judgment he parses each defendant's individual knowledge rather than ruling collectively, denying summary judgment and qualified immunity only as to the officer with actual notice of the specific threat while granting it for those who lacked any pre-incident awareness.

“it is hereby RECOMMENDED that defendants' motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 51, be denied for McQuade and granted for Lewis and Pena.”

Cautions

On Section 2254 habeas petitions he enforces exhaustion and procedural-default bars, recommending dismissal and declining a certificate of appealability where the petitioner makes no substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right.

“We recommend that the court grant respondent's motion to dismiss. ECF No. 24.”

Signed rulings

A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.

Young v. Pfeiffer
1:18-cv-01339-DAD-JDP · 2020-02-25
Motions to dismiss (respondent) Granted

“We recommend that the court grant respondent's motion to dismiss. ECF No. 24.”

Stanford v. Pena
2:18-cv-03007-KJM-JDP · 2022-02-10
Summary judgment (defendant) Granted in part

“it is hereby RECOMMENDED that defendants' motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 51, be denied for McQuade and granted for Lewis and Pena.”

Mora v. Petras
2:20-cv-00749-KJM-JDP · 2022-02-24
Summary judgment (defendant) Granted

“Defendant's motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 38, be GRANTED and summary judgment be entered in his favor.”

Summary judgment (plaintiff) Denied

“Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 42, be DENIED.”

Motion to amend (plaintiff) Denied

“Plaintiff's motion to amend complaint, ECF No. 45, be DENIED.”

Cortinas v. Soltanian
2:20-cv-01067-JAM-JDP · 2022-03-01
Preliminary injunction (plaintiff) Denied

“it is RECOMMENDED that plaintiff's motion for injunctive relief, ECF No. 48, be denied.”

Young v. Commissioner of Social Security
2:19-cv-01952-JDP · 2022-03-31
Summary judgment (defendant) Granted

“the Commissioner's motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 19, is granted;”

Summary judgment (claimant) Denied

“claimant's motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 15, is denied;”

Fortunato v. O'Malley (Commissioner of Social Security)
1:23-cv-00119-JDP · 2024-03-19
Summary judgment (claimant) Granted

“Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 17, is granted.”

Summary judgment (defendant) Denied

“The Commissioner's cross-motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 19, is denied.”

Leighty v. O'Malley (Commissioner of Social Security)
2:22-cv-01598-JDP · 2024-03-19
Summary judgment (claimant) Granted

“Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 10, is granted.”

Summary judgment (defendant) Denied

“The Commissioner's cross-motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 11, is denied.”

Betancourt v. Bisignano (Commissioner of Social Security)
2:24-cv-02291-JDP · 2025-09-10
Summary judgment (claimant) Granted

“Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 13, is GRANTED.”

Summary judgment (defendant) Denied

“The Commissioner's cross-motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 15, is DENIED.”

Grady v. Gutierrez
1:18-cv-00922-ADA-HBK · 2019-04-15

During statutory screening of a pro se prisoner's civil-rights complaint, he construed the pleading liberally, allowed cognizable due-process claims to proceed against the personally involved defendants, and recommended dismissing the supervisory defendant and other claims without prejudice and with leave to amend. The recommendation stated: "Plaintiff's remaining claims and defendants should be dismissed without prejudice, and plaintiff should be granted leave to amend the complaint."

Caseload & timing

From public federal docket records for this judge.

Peterson is the consent (636(c)) assigned magistrate judge on a large Social Security disability docket; he enters the final consent judgment. His broader referral docket also carries prisoner civil-rights (42 U.S.C. 1983) and habeas (28 U.S.C. 2254) matters.

Put Judge Peterson's record to work

Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Peterson actually rules, not a generic AI guess.

Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Peterson's own signed orders and cites them.