Myong Jin Joun
How Judge Joun decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In the Department of Education dismantling cases, Joun framed the dispute as an executive attempt to nullify a Cabinet department Congress created, and credited the detailed harm declarations of former employees, schools, unions, and educators in finding irreparable harm. Plaintiffs challenging agency restructuring before him should build a concrete, declaration-heavy record of operational harm tied to specific statutory functions.
“This case arises out of an attempt by Defendants to shut down the Department without Congressional approval.”
Procedural preferences
Joun will sanction counsel and refer them to the Board of Bar Overseers when he finds a filing frivolous and brought for an improper purpose (here, repeated suits to delay a scheduled foreclosure sale). Do not bring thin emergency-injunction filings aimed at delay; he treats them as bad-faith conduct, not zealous advocacy.
“Velocity's Motion to Dismiss and Motion for Sanctions are GRANTED ... The Clerk is also directed to provide the Board of Bar Overseers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a copy of this decision”
On ERISA disputes he favors procedural correctness by the plan administrator: where the administrator failed to comply with ERISA guidelines he denied both sides' summary-judgment motions and remanded for further review rather than awarding benefits or judgment.
“Where the plan administrator has failed to comply with the ERISA guidelines, remand for further review is appropriate.”
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 = 4 |
Granted: 2Granted in part: 1Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Summary judgment N = 4 |
Granted in part: 1Denied: 3 | counts only |
| Preliminary injunction N = 3 |
Granted: 2Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for sanctions N = 1 |
Granted: 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.
“Consolidated Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction, [Doc. No. 69; 25-cv-10677 Doc. No. 25], is GRANTED. The Department must be able to carry out its functions and its obligations under the DEOA and other relevant statutes as mandated by Congress.”
“Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction, [Doc. No. 18], is GRANTED. OCR must be able to carry out its functions and its obligations under the DEOA and other relevant statutes as mandated by Congress.”
“For the above reasons, Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is DENIED.”
“For the above reasons, Velocity's Motion to Dismiss and Motion for Sanctions are GRANTED, and Nantasket's Motion for Preliminary Injunction is DENIED. Nantasket's claims against Velocity are dismissed with prejudice.”
“Velocity's Motion to Dismiss and Motion for Sanctions are GRANTED ... Reasonable attorneys' fees and costs will be awarded to Velocity for the time and monies it was forced to expend to oppose Nantasket's Motion for Preliminary Injunction and filing its Motion to Dismiss and Motion for Sanctions.”
“Velocity's Motion to Dismiss and Motion for Sanctions are GRANTED, and Nantasket's Motion for Preliminary Injunction is DENIED.”
“Hartford's Motion for Summary Judgment, [Doc. No. 36], is DENIED. ... The case is remanded to the plan administrator for further review in accordance with this decision.”
“Ms. Butter's Motion for Summary Judgment, [Doc. No. 38], is similarly DENIED. The case is remanded to the plan administrator for further review in accordance with this decision.”
“RMB's motion for partial summary judgment, [Doc. No. 166], is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part”
“171 Atlantic's first and second motions for partial summary judgment, [Doc. Nos. 137 and 172], are DENIED.”
“For these reasons, Defendant's motion to dismiss, [Doc. No. 6], is GRANTED.”
“Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, [Doc. No. 8], is GRANTED. Counts I, IV, and V are hereby dismissed. Defendants WBZ, CBS, Paramount, Draper, and Roderick shall file an Answer to the remaining Counts in the Complaint within fourteen days.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median motion-to-ruling time: 203 days (N = 3).
Active U.S. District Judge, Boston (suffix -MJJ). Docket mix observed via search_dockets: nationally prominent APA/constitutional challenges to second-Trump-administration policy (State of New York v. McMahon 1:25-cv-10601 and Victim Rights Law Center v. U.S. Dept. of Education 1:25-cv-11042, Dept. of Education dismantling); False Claims Act / qui tam (United States v. President and Fellows of Harvard College 1:24-cv-10667, United States v. Teva Pharmaceutical USA 1:24-cv-10965); ERISA (Somers, Butter, Hoye); federal criminal (United States v. Patel, Garcia Rivera, Gordei); civil rights and a heavy load of 2026 alien-detainee habeas petitions; Social-Security appeals; real property and insurance. No quantitative nature-of-suit census computed this pass.