Alex Robert Munson

District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands district Deceased Appointed by Ronald Reagan (Republican) 10 signed orders read

Judge Munson no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.

How Judge Munson decides

Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

What persuades

Munson rejected a filing barrier that treated nonimmigrant workers differently when the restriction had no rational connection to a legitimate territorial interest.

“No rational basis has been advanced for abrogating the right of access to the courts by nonimmigrant alien workers.”

Munson required compelling, case-specific reasons before overriding public access to documents that were integral to the dispute.

“Plaintiffs fear of being the target of criminal activity based on his tax records is not a sufficiently compelling reason to outweigh the public’s interest in access to judicial records.”

Procedural preferences

Munson assessed abstention by weighing the combined practical and legal circumstances rather than treating any single factor as controlling.

“More important than any one factor alone, moreover, is the totality of the circumstances.”

Munson treated credibility and coercion as evidence-dependent questions and applied an objective test absent proof of unusual susceptibility.

“whether police techniques were coercive is objective.”

Signed rulings

A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.

Commonwealth v. Tenorio
· 1989-03-14
Appeal (criminal defendant) Denied

“The trial court's conviction is AFFIRMED”

Commonwealth v. Bordallo
· 1989-05-08
Appeal (condemned landowners) Denied

“Borciallo's claims of error as to the valuation fixed by the trial court, and the court's methods of fixing it, must be rejected.”

Commonwealth v. Pangelinan
· 1989-06-01
Appeal (criminal defendant) Granted in part

“For the following reasons, we now affirm in part, reverse in part, vacate in part, and remand for sentencing.”

Tran v. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
· 1991-11-27
Motions to dismiss (territorial government officials) Granted

“Therefore, this court has no subject matter jurisdiction and the § 1983 claim is DISMISSED.”

Yang v. American International Knitters Corp.
· 1992-03-31
Motions to dismiss (employers) Denied

“AIKC’s alternative motion to dismiss pendent claims for failure to exhaust administrative remedies on the basis of that statute is DENIED.”

Motions to dismiss (employers) Denied

“Accordingly, because Plaintiffs are not acting in a representative capacity, Defendants’ motion to dismiss this case for failure to file a written ‘consent’ is DENIED.”

In re Realty Trust Corp.
· 1992-06-30
Motions to dismiss (court, sua sponte) Granted

“Accordingly, this case is DISMISSED.”

Motion for sanctions (debtor) Denied

“Realty Trust’s motion for sanctions is DENIED.”

Rayphand v. Sablan
· 1999-05-05
Summary judgment (voters challenging senate apportionment) Denied

“Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment is DENIED; Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED; and, Intervenor Eleventh Northern Marianas Commonwealth Legislature’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings is DENIED as moot.”

Summary judgment (election officials and government intervenors) Granted
Judgment on the pleadings (territorial legislature) Moot / procedural
Baldwin v. United States
· 2010-04-22
Motion to seal (tax-refund plaintiff) Denied

“Accordingly, the motion to seal is DENIED and the exhibit attached to the complaint shall be UNSEALED.”

Lu v. Star Marianas Air, Inc.
· 2015-05-12
Motions to dismiss (airline and related companies) Granted

“The SMA Defendants’ motion to dismiss is granted;”

Motions to strike (airline and related companies) Granted

“The SMA Defendants’ motion to strike is granted, and paragraph 25 is stricken;”

United States v. Jucutan
· 2016-05-26
Motion to suppress (criminal defendant) Denied

“For the foregoing reasons, the Court DENIES Defendant’s motion to suppress statements”

Caseload & timing

From public federal docket records for this judge.

The sampled historical matters included civil-rights, labor, contract, property, personal-liability, and government-defendant disputes, but the empty or mismatched timelines support no motion-rate or timing analysis.

A historical record

Judge Munson no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.