Rebecca Leigh Goodgame Ebinger
How Judge Ebinger decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Parses multi-theory civil-rights claims into their distinct doctrinal sub-theories and rules on each separately rather than wholesale; a single 'claim' can be granted on some theories and survive on others.
“The Court grants Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to Plaintiff's Title IX claim regarding Plaintiff's erroneous outcome and deliberate indifference theories, but denies Defendants' motion for summary judgment on Plaintiff's Title IX claim regarding Plaintiff's selective enforcement theory.”
Disfavors Rule 12(f) motions to strike affirmative defenses even while granting a co-pending Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss — the two vehicles get different treatment.
“and denies Summers's Motion to Strike Tri-County's second affirmative defense.”
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.
| Summary judgment N = 3 |
Granted: 1Granted in part: 1Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to dismiss N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to strike N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to continue or bifurcate 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.
“the Court grants Summers's Motion to Dismiss Tri-County's Counterclaims I, II, III, and IV for failure to state a claim”
“and denies Summers's Motion to Strike Tri-County's second affirmative defense.”
“the Court grants the Cities' motions for summary judgment”
“and denies Bellino's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment and the Cities' Motion to Continue or Bifurcate.”
“finds the Cities' motions to continue or bifurcate the trial are moot.”
“The Court grants Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to Plaintiff's Title IX claim regarding Plaintiff's erroneous outcome and deliberate indifference theories, but denies Defendants' motion for summary judgment on Plaintiff's Title IX claim regarding Plaintiff's selective enforcement theory. ... The Court denies Defendants' motion for summary judgment on some but not all of Plaintiff's alleged breaches of contract.”