Anthony J. Powell
How Judge Powell rules, drawn from 19 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Powell
Anthony J. Powell has served as a United States District Judge for the District of Kansas since June 2026. He previously served on the Kansas Court of Appeals and as a Sedgwick County district judge. He earned degrees from George Washington University and Washburn University School of Law.
Judge Powell's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Powell's own (checked October 17, 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 9, 2026).
- Standing Order 26-04: Immigration Habeas Cases ↗
- Standing Order 26-01: Use of Artificial Intelligence in Court Filings ↗
- Standing Order 25-04: Access, Service, and Management of Sealed Documents ↗
- Standing Order 25-03: Suspension of Local Rule 79.4 for Civil Sealed Files ↗
- Standing Order 2021-1: Highly Sensitive Documents ↗
How Judge Powell decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Powell required the party seeking arbitration to establish its right to enforce the agreement before shifting the burden to the opponent.
“fails to meet its initial burden”
Procedural preferences
Powell considered where the events and witnesses were located when choosing the trial venue.
“Kansas City is substantially inconvenient”
In Lemen, Powell treated the defendant’s alternative dismissal request as a summary-judgment motion after considering the submitted agreements and the plaintiff’s cross-motion.
“the Court finds it more prudent to consider Defendant’s motion as one for summary judgment, particularly since Plaintiff responded to it and requested cross-summary judgment on her claims.”
Cautions
Powell rejected a default-judgment request where the record did not establish service on the defendants.
“there is no indication that any of the many Defendants have been served”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion to Reduce Sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) (Doc. 345) is DENIED.”
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendant’s Objection and Motion for Review of Magistrate Judge’s Order Granting Plaintiff L.Z. Leave to Amend Complaint (Doc. 363) is DENIED.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion for Relief from Orders Allowing Intervenor L.Z. to Proceed Under a Pseudonym Pursuant to Red. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(5) (Doc. 409) is GRANTED.”
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Plaintiffs EEOC and Zachariah’s Motion to Retain Redactions in ECF 409-1 (Doc. 413) is DENIED.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs EEOC and Zachariah’s Motion to Seal and Redact (Doc. 489) is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs EEOC and Zachariah’s Motion to Seal and Redact (Doc. 505) is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs EEOC and Zachariah’s Motion to Redact (Doc. 507) is DENIED.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs EEOC and Zachariah’s Motion to Seal and Redact (Doc. 524) is GRANTED.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs EEOC and Zachariah’s Motion to Seal and Redact (Doc. 536) is GRANTED.”
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendants’ Motions for Summary Judgment (Docs. 116, 118, 120, 122) are GRANTED.”
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 46) is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.”
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the decision of the Commissioner is AFFIRMED.”
The court adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation and dismissed the complaint after screening; no party motion was resolved.
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 14) is GRANTED.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 8) is DENIED AS MOOT.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED Plaintiff’s Motion to Grant Judgment in Favor of Plaintiff (Doc. 22) is DENIED.”
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Motion for Default Judgment (Doc. 11) is DENIED.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Motion for Permission to Email: Evidence of Police Harassment in the Form of Videos and Photos” (Doc. 19) is DENIED.”
“IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Motion to Withdraw Defendant (Doc. 23) is DENIED AS MOOT.”
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion to Determine Place of Trial (Doc. 31) is GRANTED and the Court designates Wichita, Kansas as the place of trial.”
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion to Compel Arbitration (Doc. 16) is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
All five sampled matters were pending when reviewed, so the sample supports no case-duration estimate.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, not for Judge Powell: 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 | 967 | 7 months |
| Closed with no court action | 225 | 4.8 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 645 | 6.9 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 83 | 18.3 months |
| Closed during trial | 14 | 22.5 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 967 | 7 months |
| Sep 2024 | 912 | 7.3 months |
| Sep 2023 | 909 | 7.7 months |
| Sep 2022 | 1,092 | 8.1 months |
| Sep 2021 | 1,063 | 8.2 months |
| Sep 2020 | 1,180 | 8.2 months |
| Sep 2019 | 1,884 | 20.7 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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