D. Edward Snow
How Judge Snow decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Social Security appeals, he checks whether a treating source's own examination findings actually support the limitations that source opined, and treats daily activities inconsistent with the alleged severity as undercutting the claim, rather than deferring to the treating relationship alone.
“Dr. Beene's musculoskeletal examination findings were, in fact, entirely normal except for decreased range of motion and strength in Claimant's right hip on September 30, 2016 ... Thus, the ALJ's determination that Dr. Beene's opinions were not supported by his own treatment notes is supported by substantial evidence.”
On a motion to dismiss a municipal defendant, he looks past labels ('cross claim' vs. 'third party complaint') to the substance of Oklahoma's requirement that suits against a county name its board of commissioners, and will find the board a proper defendant where the complaint plausibly links a known pattern of misconduct to inadequate training.
“Accordingly, the undersigned Magistrate Judge concludes, at this time, the Board of County Commissioners is a proper party to Plaintiff's Section 1983 claims.”
Procedural preferences
Qualified immunity does not excuse a defendant from discovery generally, only from discovery that is avoidable or overly broad -- a deposition of a fact witness proceeds even while her own immunity motion is pending.
“Qualified immunity 'does not shield [Defendant Officers] from all discovery but only from discovery which is either avoidable or overly broad.'”
In discovery disputes he places the burden of showing disproportionality on the party who holds more of the relevant information, and will overrule blanket relevance objections that ignore how merits and class-certification discovery overlap.
“recognizing that 'the burden of responding to discovery [properly] lies heavier on the party who has more information,' the Court overrules Crawley's objections based on the requested discovery's disproportionality.”
Cautions
A pro se litigant who misses a filing deadline because he says he did not receive a mailed order gets no relief -- he treats docket-monitoring as the litigant's own responsibility, not the court's or the clerk's.
“'[a]s a party representing himself, it [is Plaintiff's] responsibility to keep himself apprised of the status of his case.'”
A party who misses the 14-day local-rule deadline to respond to a summary-judgment motion waives the right to controvert the movant's facts at all -- he will deem the movant's undisputed-fact statement admitted outright rather than excuse a late, unexplained response.
“a party who fails 'to file a response within the time specified by the local rule . . . waives the right to respond or to controvert the facts asserted in the summary judgment motion.'”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the reasons set forth below, Defendant's Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff's First Amended Complaint (Docket No. 59) be DENIED.”
“As such, Defendant's Motion to Quash the Deposition is DENIED.”
“For the reasons set forth below, Defendants' Motion to Dismiss should be DENIED.”
“Accordingly, Plaintiff's Motion for Spoliation Sanctions against Defendant Terry Park, in his official capacity, (Docket No. 192) is hereby DENIED.”
“IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Plaintiff's Motion to Reconsider and Allow Plaintiff to Amend Complaint and to Request Additional Time to file Amended Complaint (Docket No. 55) is hereby DENIED.”
“Accordingly, Plaintiff's Complaint against Defendants Marrs, Fevig, and Curtis be dismissed for lack of personal or subject matter jurisdiction.”
“Accordingly, the undersigned Magistrate Judge recommends Plaintiff claims against Defendants the County of Muskogee, the City of Muskogee and the City of Fort Gibson be dismissed pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6).”
“For the reasons set forth herein, IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendants Missy St. Clair, Charlie Rosenblum, Matthew Wollaston, and Hali McMillen's and Defendants Oklahoma Department of Human Services and Deborah Shropshire in her official capacity's Motions to Dismiss (Docket Nos. 14 and 15) are hereby GRANTED.”
28 U.S.C. Section 1915A screening order on a pretrial detainee's pro se Section 1983 complaint over inadequate medical care for a broken arm and denial of religious access. The court found the complaint failed Rule 8/Twombly pleading standards against a group of defendants without individualized allegations and ordered Plaintiff to file an amended complaint on the court's form within 21 days, warning that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
“Accordingly, the Court finds a Receiver is appropriate in this case and Defendants' Motion to Vacate the Receiver Order is hereby DENIED.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Commissioner's decision finding Claimant not disabled is AFFIRMED.”
“For all the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS Defendant's Motion to Compel (Docket No. 41).”
“For the reasons set forth below, the undersigned Magistrate Judge recommends Plaintiff's Motion to Remand and Defendant's Motion to Withdraw Notice of Removal should be GRANTED, and this case should be remanded to State Court for further proceedings.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The caseload sample is dominated by consent Social Security disability appeals decided under 28 U.S.C. § 636(c), along with civil-rights and prisoner suits, removed insurance and commercial-contract disputes, and referred federal criminal matters. Snow inherited part of Kimberly E. West's pending civil docket after taking office in May 2023; later fee and case-management orders are attributed to him, while earlier merits rulings remain attributed to West.
Put Judge Snow's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Snow actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Snow's own signed orders and cites them.