Royce C. Lamberth
How Judge Lamberth rules, drawn from 44 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Lamberth
Royce C. Lamberth is a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Judge Lamberth received a commission on November 16, 1987. Judge Lamberth assumed senior status on July 15, 2013.
Judge Lamberth's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Lamberth's own (checked October 8, 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 8, 2026).
How Judge Lamberth decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Abramowitz v. Lake, he granted partial summary judgment on a challenge to the attempted removal of the Voice of America director without the approval required by statute.
“the Court will GRANT the Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on Count I”
In Animal Legal Defense Fund v. United States Department of Agriculture, he declined to treat a tax-form response as dispositive of associational standing and found the organization's membership allegations plausible at the pleading stage.
“Defendants cite no authority for the notion that a Form 990 response is dispositive of whether an associational plaintiff is a ‘traditional membership organization’”
In Americans for Fair Treatment v. USPS, he denied the agency summary judgment without prejudice on part of a FOIA dispute where its explanations of foreseeable harm and segregability were insufficient.
“the Court will DENY WITHOUT PREJUDICE USPS's motion for summary judgment and GRANT IN PART AFFT's cross-motion for summary judgment.”
In Urquhart-Bradley v. Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., he denied dismissal of retaliation claims after drawing reasonable inferences for the plaintiff and declining to demand a complete prima facie case in the complaint.
“an employment discrimination plaintiff is not required to plead every fact necessary to establish a prima facie case to survive a motion to dismiss”
Procedural preferences
In Mobil Cerro Negro v. Venezuela, he set aside the foreign sovereign’s default and denied default judgment, then resolved the parties’ dispute through summary judgment. He explained that a prompt merits ruling would avoid default while protecting the petitioners from delay in enforcing the arbitration award.
“an expedient ruling on the merits would respect the judicial preference for avoiding defaults against foreign sovereigns”
In Estate of Yael Botvin v. Heideman, Nudelman & Kalik, P.C., he ordered remote depositions because the travel costs and burdens outweighed the stated benefits of in-person testimony in that dispute.
“the Court finds that any benefits from requiring the noticed depositions to take place in person are decisively outweighed by their costs.”
In Pearson v. Sunnova Energy International, he granted a motion to compel arbitration of the signatory homeowner's claims under the signed contract's arbitration clauses.
“the Court will grant the Motion in full and order that Clifford Pearson’s claims be submitted to arbitration.”
Cautions
In Reiter Consulting Services, Inc. v. Hildenbrand, he denied the plaintiff's late motion to amend and granted the defendant summary judgment after finding the plaintiff had not shown diligence or a justification for its delays.
“Ultimately, the disposition of both motions turns on the lack of diligence of the plaintiff.”
In Hillman v. American Federation of Government Employees, he dismissed the plaintiffs' case with prejudice under Rule 16(f) after repeated failures to meet pretrial obligations, and ordered their counsel to pay the defendants' reasonable expenses.
“the Court will GRANT defendants’ motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16(f) and ORDERS plaintiffs’ counsel to pay defendants’ reasonable expenses.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the reasons explained herein, the Court will GRANT the District’s Motion and DISMISS WITH PREJUDICE the plaintiff's remaining Title VI retaliation claim.”
“For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant the Motion in full and order that Clifford Pearson’s claims be submitted to arbitration.”
“the Court will DENY WITHOUT PREJUDICE USPS's motion for summary judgment and GRANT IN PART AFFT's cross-motion for summary judgment.”
“Before the Court is the Department's Motion for Summary Judgment, ECF No. 20. For the reasons that follow, the Court will GRANT that motion and ENTER JUDGMENT for defendants.”
“In consideration of defendant’s motion, the opposition, and the record therein, this Court will GRANT defendant’s motion for summary judgment.”
“Upon consideration of that motion, the opposition (ECF No. 71), and the reply (ECF No. 74), the Court will DENY the motion.”
“Because of these missteps, the plaintiff's motion for leave to amend will be DENIED and Sandra Hildenbrand’s motion for summary judgment will be GRANTED.”
“the Court will GRANT defendants’ motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16(f) and ORDERS plaintiffs’ counsel to pay defendants’ reasonable expenses.”
“the Court will GRANT the Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on Count I”
“the motion will be GRANTED IN PART ... and DENIED IN PART”
“the Court will GRANT IN PART and DENY IN PART plaintiffs’ Motion for Default Judgment.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- Sampled recent assignments (filed 2025-2026, all pending) are heavy on FOIA (895, National Student Legal Defense Network v. Dept of Education, Cole v. DOJ, Center for Investigative Reporting v. BOP), APA / 'Other Statutory Actions' incl. an OFFSHORE-WIND cluster (890/893, Sunrise Wind LLC v. Burgum, Green Oceans v. BOEM, State of New York v. Burgum; consistent with his Jan-2026 Revolution Wind preliminary-injunction ruling), MEDICARE-recovery contract disputes (151, Cape Canaveral Hospital / St. Marys Regional Medical Center v. Kennedy), FSIA foreign-state/terrorism actions (Estate of Yigal Wachs v. Syrian Arab Republic), immigration, and insurance/property matters.
- This is a qualitative character sample, NOT a counted nature-of-suit distribution.
Pending matters in the official report
Reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the Civil Justice Reform Act, as of March 31, 2026.
| Motions pending more than six months | 9 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 20 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 9 | 20 |
| Sep 2025 | 3 | 25 |
| Mar 2025 | 1 | 21 |
| Sep 2024 | 1 | 18 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 16 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 17 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 14 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 14 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 14 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 15 |
| Mar 2021 | 2 | 10 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 9 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of United States District Court for the District of Columbia, not for Judge Lamberth: median time from filing to disposition of the civil cases the court closed in the 12 months ending September 30, 2025, as reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
| Cases | Median time | |
|---|---|---|
| All civil cases closed | 3,347 | 7.7 months |
| Closed with no court action | 876 | 5.4 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 2,449 | 8.8 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 13 | 53.2 months |
| Closed during trial | 9 | not reported |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 3,347 | 7.7 months |
| Sep 2024 | 3,290 | 6.2 months |
| Sep 2023 | 3,288 | 4.7 months |
| Sep 2022 | 3,044 | 5.6 months |
| Sep 2021 | 3,408 | 4.8 months |
| Sep 2020 | 2,947 | 5.8 months |
| Sep 2019 | 2,963 | 5.1 months |
The table leaves out prisoner petitions, land condemnations, deportation reviews, recovery of overpayments and enforcement of judgments, and reports no median for fewer than 10 cases. A district that closed a large multidistrict litigation in the period shows very large counts and long medians for that year. Source: Table C-5, U.S. District Courts (spreadsheet).
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