Jon A. York
How Judge York rules, drawn from 37 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge York
Jon A. York is a United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Tennessee, where he has served since March 2019. He earned a political science degree from Lambuth University and a law degree from the University of Memphis. Before joining the bench, he clerked for a federal district judge and practiced civil and criminal litigation in Tennessee.
Judge York's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge York's own (checked October 9, 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 9, 2026).
How Judge York decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In a Social Security appeal with a long history of repeated agency remands, the judge treated the vocational expert's own hearing testimony as dispositive once it was read in combination with the ALJ's own residual-functional-capacity finding, rather than sending the case back a third time for the agency to resolve an ambiguity the judge found the record did not actually contain.
“Rather than expediting administrative review as the Commissioner claims, a third remand would further extend the timeline of this already lengthy case. This judge is flummoxed as to why it would take three voluntary remands to ensure that Plaintiff's claim has been properly considered.”
On a defense motion to exclude an expert whose own deposition undercut his report's conclusions, the judge treated the plaintiff's failure to respond as effectively conceding the motion, and did not require the defense to independently prove unreliability once the plaintiff let the point go unopposed.
“Judge York, citing the absence of a response and for good cause shown, excluded Prosser from making any reference at trial to an opinion that hail strikes occurred during the two-year period from 2018 to 2020.”
Procedural preferences
Faced with three unrelated cases sharing the same plaintiffs' counsel and the same pattern of missed Rule 26 disclosure deadlines despite extensions, warnings, and a prior fee award, the judge treated the repetition across cases itself as evidence of contumacious conduct that excused the usual requirement of a prior explicit warning before dismissal.
“Although the Court has not specifically warned Plaintiffs in these Orders to Compel that dismissal may be forthcoming, the Court cannot in good conscience allow this type of blatant defiance to continue.”
On a motion to compel an informal document (a medical-records release form) that was never the subject of a formal Rule 34 production request, the judge held the requesting party to the formal discovery rules even though the informal route would have been faster, while flagging that a properly framed request for the underlying records would likely succeed.
“the Court agrees with Plaintiffs. Although the Release Forms serve as the key to unlock access to Plaintiff's medical records, these forms are not the same as the actual medical records themselves.”
Cautions
In Horan v. McGee, Magistrate Judge York recommended dismissal of the claims after examining the limits on each theory, including limitations, immunity, and the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.
“the only claims that survive the statute of limitations are vague allegations of contract interference relating to Defendant Parish.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“his motion for a preliminary injunction (D.E. 2) is DENIED AS MOOT.”
“Because Plaintiffs present no facts or law to show that the Report and Recommendation should not be adopted, the Report and Recommendation is ADOPTED in its entirety. Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED.”
“Based on the forgoing analysis, the Magistrate Judge recommends that all of Plaintiff's claims against all Defendants be DISMISSED with prejudice.”
“the undersigned RECOMMENDS GRANTING Defendants CBP and DHS's motion to dismiss.”
“the undersigned adopted the report and recommendation on July 6, 2022 ... Judge York, in a report and recommendation entered July 10, 2023, recommended that the motion be granted and this matter be dismissed.”
Screening report and recommendation under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1915(e)(2)(B) recommended dismissal with prejudice as frivolous, a filing restriction against the pro se plaintiff, and certification that any appeal would not be in good faith; adopted without objection. The adopting order quotes the recommendation at length.
“On May 5, 2021, Magistrate Judge York granted Defendant's motion to bifurcate SCF's claim for breach of contract from those for bad faith and punitive damages.”
“As the other pending motions referred to the magistrate judge related to discovery on these claims, he denied them without prejudice.”
Report and recommendation, signed directly by Judge York, recommending sua sponte dismissal without prejudice under Rule 41(b) for the plaintiff's repeated failure to update his mailing address or respond to two show-cause orders over roughly two months, despite the court's own efforts to locate him.
“the Magistrate Judge recommends that the settlement agreement be enforced and grant both Defendants' Motions to Dismiss.”
“Because Plaintiff's 'Motion' fails to show the reasons he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment should be denied.”
“the Court DENIES Defendants' Motion to Compel production.”
“a report recommending that the Court deny the Commissioner's opposed motion to remand for additional administrative proceedings pursuant to sentence four of section 205(g), 42 U.S.C. Sec. 405(g), reverse the final decision of the Commissioner, and award benefits to the claimant.”
“Judge York, citing the absence of a response and for good cause shown, excluded Prosser from making any reference at trial to an opinion that hail strikes occurred during the two-year period from 2018 to 2020.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
York's consent docket is dominated by Social Security disability appeals and also includes premises-liability, civil-rights, insurance-coverage, and contract matters. He issues recommendations in cases referred by district judges and handles criminal-duty matters such as initial appearances, search-warrant applications, and petty offenses.
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 | 1 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 1 | 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 | 0 | 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 Western District of Tennessee, not for Judge York: 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 | 893 | 8.6 months |
| Closed with no court action | 381 | 8.6 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 489 | 8.3 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 10 | 25.8 months |
| Closed during trial | 13 | 26.7 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 893 | 8.6 months |
| Sep 2024 | 737 | 9.4 months |
| Sep 2023 | 755 | 9.9 months |
| Sep 2022 | 782 | 10.3 months |
| Sep 2021 | 792 | 10 months |
| Sep 2020 | 766 | 8.7 months |
| Sep 2019 | 780 | 9.7 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).
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