Kevin R. Sweazea
How Judge Sweazea decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
Applies habeas gatekeeping doctrines strictly: recommends dismissing untimely 28 U.S.C. 2254 petitions under AEDPA's 1-year clock where no statutory or equitable tolling applies (a pro se petitioner's ignorance of the law or lack of counsel does not qualify as extraordinary circumstances), and recommends dismissing 28 U.S.C. 2241 sentence-credit petitions as moot once the petitioner is released and no redressable collateral consequence remains.
“the Honorable Kevin R. Sweazea, United States Magistrate Judge ... recommends dismissal with prejudice of the petition for writ of habeas corpus that Petitioner Santana Serrano filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254.”
On Social Security appeals (where he sits as consent judge of record) applies the substantial-evidence / correct-legal-standard test and will remand where the ALJ failed to discuss significantly probative subjective-symptom evidence or mischaracterized the record -- but expressly declines to reweigh evidence or substitute his judgment for the Commissioner's.
“the Court concludes that the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) erred in her decision and will therefore GRANT Montoya's motion and remand this case back to the SSA”
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.
| Habeas petition N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for tro N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Preliminary injunction N = 1 |
Denied: 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 magistrate judge recommended that Plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order (Doc. 3) be denied. ... 2. Plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order (Doc. 3) is DENIED”
“Judge Sweazea recommended that the Court deny Mr. Martin's motion for preliminary injunction (Doc. 18) without prejudice; grant Mr. Martin's motion for partial dismissal (Doc. 16) ... Mr. Martin's motion for preliminary injunction (Doc. 18) is DENIED”
“the Honorable Kevin R. Sweazea, United States Magistrate Judge ... recommends dismissal with prejudice of the petition for writ of habeas corpus that Petitioner Santana Serrano filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254. ... The Court will overrule Serrano's Objections, adopt the PFRD, dismiss ... [the] Petition Under 28 U.S.C. 2254 ... with prejudice, and deny the certificate of appealability.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 365.5 days (N = 10).
Judge of record by consent on a steady stream of Social Security disability appeals (DIWC/DIWW, SSID Tit. XVI; 42:405(g)); referral magistrate on state-prisoner 2254 / federal-prisoner 2241 habeas and prisoner sec.1983 dockets (the reasoning layer). NOT a grant rate -- role/composition only.