Mary Kay Vyskocil

How Judge Vyskocil rules, drawn from 7 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

Court
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Position
district
Appointed by
Donald Trump (Republican)
Commissioned
2019-12-20
Education
Dominican College (B.A., 1980); St. John's University School of Law (J.D., 1983)
Signed orders read
7

How Judge Vyskocil decides

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

What persuades

On summary judgment in fact-intensive areas (here a multi-factor trademark likelihood-of-confusion analysis), she will deny the motion where the non-movant raises genuine disputes across the governing factors rather than resolve confusion as a matter of law.

“Because Groq raises disputes of material fact as to virtually all of the factors set forth in”

Procedural preferences

On a Rule 12(b)(6) motion she holds parties to the four corners of the pleadings: she denied a motion to dismiss outright where the defendant's only argument relied on a document outside the complaint, declining to convert or consider extrinsic material. A movant before her should ground a dismissal argument in the pleading itself, not in attached evidence.

“Defendant’s sole argument for dismissal is based entirely on a document outside”

She enforces arbitration agreements and the delegation of arbitrability to the arbitrator, and where claims are arbitrable she stays the case pending arbitration rather than dismissing it.

“case is stayed pending arbitration”

Signed rulings

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

Pfizer Inc. v. United States Department of Health & Human Services
1:20-cv-04920 (MKV) · 2021-09-30
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted in part

“Defendants’ motion to dismiss is granted”

Motion to voluntarily dismiss (plaintiff) Denied

“41(a)(2) is denied”

Summary judgment (defendant) Granted

“motion is granted.”

Summary judgment (plaintiff) Denied

“Pfizer’s motion is denied”

Brevet Holdings, LLC v. Enascor, LLC
1:21-cv-01540 (MKV) · 2022-08-31
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted in part

“grants in part and denies in part Defendants’”

Motion to seal (plaintiff) Denied

“denies Plaintiff’s request to maintain under seal”

Bayne v. Target Corporation
1:21-cv-05938 (MKV) · 2022-09-23
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted in part

“GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.”

Cordero v. Polar Electro Inc.
1:22-cv-05688 (MKV) · 2023-08-22
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Denied

“For the foregoing reasons, the motion to dismiss is DENIED.”

Harris v. F. Schumacher & Co., LLC
1:23-cv-05676 (MKV) · 2024-09-19
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Denied

“Defendant’s motion to dismiss is DENIED”

Motion for sanctions (plaintiff) Denied

“Plaintiff’s cross-motion for sanctions is DENIED.”

Hickey v. Smith
1:23-cv-02538 (MKV) · 2025-03-03
Motion to stay pending arbitration (defendant) Granted

“this case is STAYED pending arbitration.”

Groq, Inc. v. Groq Health Inc.
1:23-cv-08325 (MKV) · 2026-03-16
Summary judgment (defendant) Denied

“motion for summary judgment is DENIED.”

Caseload & timing

From public federal docket records for this judge.

  • A case-level sample of 21 dockets, dominated by very recent (2026) filings still pending, so this reflects her current intake, not a tenure-wide mix or grant context.
  • A notable 2026 cluster is alien-detainee habeas corpus (28 U.S.C. 2241) and other immigration actions, which terminate fast: Arellano v. Warden (1:26-cv-03433, filed 2026-04-24, terminated 2026-05-06, ~12 days), Gomez-Gomez v. Mullin (1:26-cv-03427, filed 2026-04-26, terminated 2026-04-28, 2 days), Doe v. Borgen (1:26-cv-03718, filed 2026-05-05, terminated 2026-05-29, 24 days).
  • These fast procedural terminations are not a basis for grounded dispositive-motion latency.
  • Separately, a set of her 2019-2020 terminated civil dockets was reviewed to build the motion timeline below; those older commercial, securities, and defamation cases are where her contested dispositive rulings sit.

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