Heather L. Kennedy
How Judge Kennedy rules, drawn from 2 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Kennedy
Heather L. Kennedy serves as Clerk of Court and part-time United States Magistrate Judge for the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. She previously worked as counsel for the Commonwealth’s public school system and judiciary.
Judge Kennedy's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Kennedy's own (checked October 10, 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 10, 2026).
- General Order 25-00002: Sealed Documents No Longer Accessible in CM/ECF or PACER; New Procedures for Access and Management of Sealed Matters ↗
- General Order 24-00002: Procedures for Requesting, Filing, and Management of Highly Sensitive Documents ↗
- General Order 25-00003: Policy Allowing Remote Audio Access to Court Proceedings in Civil and Bankruptcy Cases ↗
How Judge Kennedy decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On an unopposed motion touching a defendant's Fifth Amendment rights, the judge still worked through the substantive privilege analysis and grounded the ruling in it, rather than granting the motion solely because the government did not object.
“A ‘lead or clue’ that tends to incriminate the accused may be sufficient for the accused to avail of the Fifth Amendment privilege.”
Cautions
In the Lao PDR discovery application, Kennedy rejected a broad request whose link to a contemplated foreign proceeding was not shown with concrete detail. She also found the proposed subpoenas too sweeping for the stated investigation.
“Yet even accepting GOL’s application at face value, it appears to be nothing more than a fishing expedition.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“The Court agrees with Qiu that he may invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege as applied to his financial affidavit and moving papers. Given the alleged offense and a review of Qiu's moving papers and related documents, the Court finds that sealing these documents until after judgment is warranted. Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Qiu's motion to seal his financial affidavit and related documents until after the Court issues judgment.”
“GOL’s application (ECF No. 1) is denied;”
“Bridge Capital’s motion to strike (ECF No. 37) is granted, and GOL’s submission of supplemental evidence (ECF No. 36) is stricken;”
“GOL’s motions for leave to file supplemental evidence (ECF Nos. 39 and 41) are denied.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- As Clerk of Court and the district's sole magistrate judge, Kennedy's docket involvement is broad but mostly procedural: settlement conferences, scheduling orders, CJA appointments, and referred non-dispositive pretrial matters.
- The one other case sampled in the record reviewed, Commonwealth Ports Authority v. Phoenix Services, Inc. (a maritime-contract dispute removed from CNMI Superior Court), was assigned to her but resolved by the parties' stipulated dismissal before any motion reached a ruling, so it added no additional grounded ruling.
Pending matters in the official report
Reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the Civil Justice Reform Act, as of March 31, 2026.
| Motions pending more than six months | 0 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2020 | 3 | 0 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, not for Judge Kennedy: 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 | 9 | not reported |
| Closed with no court action | 7 | not reported |
| Closed before pretrial | 2 | not reported |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 9 | not reported |
| Sep 2024 | 13 | 8.3 months |
| Sep 2023 | 24 | 15.8 months |
| Sep 2022 | 19 | 11.1 months |
| Sep 2021 | 29 | 6.7 months |
| Sep 2020 | 15 | 9.6 months |
| Sep 2019 | 20 | 12.3 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).
Draft for Judge Kennedy with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Kennedy, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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