S. Thomas Anderson
How Judge Anderson rules, drawn from 13 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Anderson
Stanley Thomas Anderson is a judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Judge Anderson received a commission on May 21, 2008.
Judge Anderson's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Anderson'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 Anderson decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
The judge treats a party's failure to respond to a summary-judgment motion, or to support objections with specific record citations, as effectively conceding the point: he does not independently build the non-movant's case for them.
“Plaintiff's blanket plea for discovery in his affidavit fails to meet this standard. Plaintiff did not show what material facts he hoped to uncover or why the facts would establish a genuine dispute for trial.”
Cautions
In one third-party complaint dispute, the judge rejected a limitations defense at the pleading stage because the date when the claimants discovered their injury remained fact-bound.
“the statute of limitations issue in this case depends on disputed questions of fact”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Having reviewed the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation de novo, Plaintiff's timely objections, and the entire record of the case, the Court hereby ADOPTS the Report and Recommendation. Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED.”
“As more than twenty-eight days have passed since Nino's Motion for Summary Judgment with no response on the record, the Court accepts Nino's factual allegations as true. Therefore, the Court GRANTS Nino's Motion for Summary Judgment in the amount of $5,600.00.”
“Plaintiff's motion to compel (ECF No. 61) is DENIED as moot.”
“Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED. The Clerk of Court is DIRECTED to terminate Carroll County, Tennessee and the Carroll County Civic Center as parties to the action.”
“The Court hereby GRANTS approval to Plaintiffs’ proposed long form notice and plan for sending notice of the class action.”
“The report and recommendation is hereby ADOPTED, and Defendant’s motions (ECF Nos. 307, 325, 342) are DENIED.”
“Because Defendant has been denied leave to file a motion for reconsideration, his Motion for Reconsideration (ECF No. 326) is also DENIED.”
“the report and recommendation is hereby ADOPTED, and the motion for judgment on the pleadings is DENIED as moot.”
“The parties’ request to have 45 days in which to file a joint motion for approval of their FLSA settlement is GRANTED.”
On initial review, the court adopted an unopposed recommendation dismissing a self-represented civil-rights complaint for failure to state a claim while allowing 28 days to amend and name the proper public entity for a disability claim.
“Judgment on the Pleadings is PARTIALLY GRANTED and PARTIALLY DENIED.”
“Accordingly, the motion to dismiss is DENIED.”
“Accordingly, the motion to dismiss is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The sampled caseload spans employment and disability-discrimination claims, personal-injury and product-liability suits, FLSA wage claims, prisoner habeas and Section 2255 petitions, insurance and contract disputes, county-jail wrongful-death Section 1983 suits, and government debt-recovery actions, drawn from both the Jackson (Eastern) and Memphis (Western) divisions.
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 | 1 |
| 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 | 6 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 1 | 6 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 6 |
| Mar 2025 | 1 | 3 |
| Sep 2024 | 1 | 1 |
| Mar 2024 | 2 | 1 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 5 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 4 |
| Sep 2022 | 2 | 5 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 2 |
| Mar 2021 | 5 | 4 |
| Sep 2020 | 1 | 2 |
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 Anderson: 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).
Draft for Judge Anderson with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Anderson, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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