Marcos E. Lopez
How Judge Lopez decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In criminal motions to dismiss, consistently frames disputed factual questions (like whether a firearm modification meets a statutory definition) as trial issues, not pretrial dismissal grounds -- a recommendation district judges in this district have adopted.
“Alicea's argument is not properly before the Court on a motion to dismiss the indictment; it requires either impermissibly assuming facts or weighing proffered facts before trial.”
Procedural preferences
In Social Security appeals, applies the deferential substantial-evidence standard rigorously, crediting an ALJ's persuasiveness analysis between competing medical opinions even where there is some tension in the ALJ's own reasoning.
“the court 'must affirm the [Commissioner's] resolution, even if the record arguably could justify a different conclusion, so long as it is supported by substantial evidence.'”
Cautions
District judges reviewing his R&Rs have twice, in this small sample, rejected a discrete portion of an otherwise-adopted recommendation -- once regarding claims against defaulting co-defendants, once regarding a retaliation-claim timeliness analysis -- suggesting his R&Rs are adopted in the great majority but not the entirety of their recommendations when multiple claims or parties are involved.
“The Court ADOPTS IN PART and REJECTS IN PART the R&R.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“After conducting a de novo review of the record, the testimonies at the evidentiary hearing and the R & R, the court finds no reason to depart from the Magistrate-Judge's recommendation. Accordingly, defendant's motion to suppress the pretrial identification(s) is DENIED. ... the court hereby ADOPTS the R & R in full.”
“For the reasons set forth above, the Court ADOPTS the magistrate judge's December 16, 2024 Report and Recommendation. (Docket No. 130.) Consequently, Alicea's motion to dismiss the indictment is DENIED. (Docket No. 119.)”
“The Court ADOPTS IN PART and REJECTS IN PART the R&R (Docket No. 28) and GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART defendant's motion to dismiss. (Docket No. 10.) The defendant's motion to dismiss is DENIED as to Ferrao's Title VII retaliation claim and his Title VII religious discrimination claim, and GRANTED as to his other Title VII claims, his ADEA claim, and his claims under Puerto Rico Law 100 and Puerto Rico Law 115.”
“the Court ADOPTS IN PART and REJECTS IN PART the magistrate judge's recommendations. All federal claims against defendants Jose Fuentes-Agostini, Pedro Toledo-Davila, Anibal Solivan-Solivan, Daniel Colon, Hector Tirado, Jose Figueroa, and Jose Capo are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. The section 1983 claims against defendants Francisco Baez-Quinones, Jesus Figueroa-Cruz and Gabriel Redondo under the Fourteenth Amendment are also DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“Subsequently, the Magistrate-Judge recommended: (a) recording at N-11 is to be suppressed (b) the request for suppression of N-14 is deemed Moot, inasmuch as the objections to the same were withdrawn by defendant(s) (c) the suppression of tapes at N-9, N-10, N-13, N-15 and N-18 be denied ... No objections to the Report and Recommendation were filed by the government nor by defendants. Accordingly, the Magistrate-Judge's Report and Recommendation is APPROVED and the recommendations therein ADOPTED.”
“WHEREFORE, it is recommended that defendant [7] Antonio De Jesus-Velazquez's motion to suppress (Docket 181) be DENIED, but that the transcript of recording N-26 be amended as suggested above.”
“The Court concurs with the R&R that: Under the totality of the circumstances, any comments by [DEA agents], in combination with Defendant's fatigue and inexperience with the American justice system, are not enough to outweigh the circumstances indicating Defendant's voluntary waiver... The Court agrees with this recommendation. Consequently, the magistrate judge's findings and recommendations are ADOPTED. The motion to suppress Rodriguez-Garcia's post-arrest statements is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The sampled consent Social Security docket includes two decisions affirming denials of benefits and one case resolved by an agreed remand to the agency, followed by an attorney-fee dispute. His criminal-duty work and referred reports and recommendations are represented separately in the reasoning sample.
Put Judge Lopez's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Lopez actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Lopez's own signed orders and cites them.