Jean-Paul Boulee
How Judge Boulee decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On qualified immunity he applies the arguable-probable-cause standard generously to officers: conflicting evidence or a possible defense (e.g. self-defense) does not defeat probable cause if a reasonable officer could believe a crime occurred. A recurring defense-favorable posture in §1983 arrest cases.
“So long as it is reasonable to conclude from the body of evidence as a whole that a crime was committed, the presence of some conflicting evidence or a possible defense will not vitiate a finding of probable cause.”
Aggressively enforces the abandonment/waiver rule at summary judgment: a party who fails to brief an argument with authority forfeits the claim, and the court will not construct the argument for them. Brief your opposition completely.
“A passing reference to an issue in a brief is not enough, and the failure to make arguments and cite authorities in support of an issue waives it... it is not the role of the district court to distill from the record and then consider arguments that the party could have made.”
Procedural preferences
Strict on jurisdictional pleading — particularly LLC diversity citizenship: a plaintiff must affirmatively list the citizenship of every member; negative averments ('not citizens of X') or pleading only the formation state/PPB are inadequate and draw a 12(b)(1) dismissal. He also enforces Local Rule 56.1 (deeming a movant's facts admitted absent specific record-cited refutation) and Local Rule 3.3 / FRCP 7.1 disclosure obligations.
“merely alleging the location of formation or the principal place of business is not sufficient to show citizenship of a limited liability company... only stating where a defendant is not a citizen is not enough.”
Liberally construes pro se pleadings and tends to grant a structured leave to amend (often with numbered repleading instructions) before dismissing with prejudice — but still holds pro se litigants to Rule 8 and the anti-shotgun-pleading rule.
“Before dismissing this case with prejudice and because Plaintiff has not given any indication that he does not wish to amend his Complaint, the Court will grant Plaintiff a final opportunity to amend.”
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: 1Granted in part: 1Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Summary judgment N = 2 |
Granted: 2 | counts only |
| Motions to compel N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Default judgment N = 1 |
Moot / procedural: 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.
“For the foregoing reasons, Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. 53] is GRANTED. The Clerk is DIRECTED to close this case.”
“Given that Battle's Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 39) is GRANTED in its entirety, the Clerk is DIRECTED to close this case.”
“Accordingly, B.T.'s Motion to Compel (ECF No. 32) is DENIED.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Respondent's Motion to Dismiss [Doc. 13] is DENIED.”
“Defendant's Motion to Dismiss [Doc. 4] is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART. Plaintiff's Complaint is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.”
“The Motion to Dismiss the First Amended Complaint [Doc. 5] is GRANTED. The First Amended Complaint [Doc. 2] is DISMISSED. The Motion to Dismiss the Second Amended Complaint [Doc. 17] is GRANTED. The Second Amended Complaint [Doc. 8] is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.”
“All other pending motions, [Doc. 10]; [Doc. 13]; [Doc. 18]; [Doc. 22], are DENIED AS MOOT.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 846 days (N = 8).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 188 days (N = 4).
Mix from search_dockets case-level rows (his earliest 2018-filed cohort) plus the reasoning-layer cases. General civil docket: employment, FCRA consumer-credit, FLSA, §1983 civil rights, insurance/contract diversity, prisoner. Referral magistrates seen on his current direct docket: Catherine M. Salinas, Russell G. Vineyard, Christopher C. Bly, Regina Diane Cannon, John K. Larkins III, J. Elizabeth McBath, plus newer MJs John H. Rains IV and Anna W. Howard (not yet in registry).