Craig B. Shaffer
How Judge Shaffer decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Enforces the PLRA exhaustion requirement strictly on prisoner suits: unexhausted claims are dismissed, and a prisoner's belief that grievance procedures would be futile is not a recognized exception (only genuine unavailability -- officials thwarting the process -- excuses exhaustion).
“futility is not a recognized exception to the PLRA's exhaustion requirement”
Applies res judicata / claim preclusion to bar repeat pro se filings, treating government officers and board members as in privity with the government entity, so suing the individual members does not escape preclusion from a prior suit against the entity.
“Because the board members are in privity with the RTD, plaintiff's claims against them in their official capacity are barred by the doctrine of res judicata.”
Procedural preferences
Construes pro se filings liberally but resolves dispositive motions on settled threshold doctrines (PLRA exhaustion, res judicata, supplemental-jurisdiction declination) rather than reaching the merits where a gateway bar disposes of the case.
“Because the Court has independently determined that plaintiff's federal statutory claims are barred by the doctrine of res judicata, the Court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over plaintiff's state law claim, and dismisses this claim without prejudice.”
Cautions
Both recommendations in this small sample were adopted in full by the district judge even over the pro se plaintiff's objection and de novo review -- but the sample is only two prisoner/pro se cases resolved on threshold bars, not a grant rate or a cross-section of his (large) civil referral docket.
“Magistrate Judge Shaffer's Report and Recommendation is AFFIRMED and ADOPTED as an Order of this Court (Doc. # 64);”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Motions to dismiss N = 3 |
Granted: 3 | counts only |
| Summary judgment N = 2 |
Granted: 1Denied: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Defendant's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (Doc. # 47) is GRANTED;”
“Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (Doc. # 48) is GRANTED; ... Plaintiff's Claim Two is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE”
“Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. # 32) is DENIED.”
“defendant Regional Transportation District's Motion to Dismiss [Docket No. 10] is GRANTED.”
“defendants Charles L. Sisk, Bruce Daly, Natalie Menten, ... and the (15) Board of Directors' Motion to Dismiss [Docket No. 31] is GRANTED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Flagged for deepening: pull -CBS terminated dockets (2010-2018) for case durations and page get_docket_entries for grounded motion-to-ruling latencies; sample his 636(c) consent civil cases.