Samuel H. Mays Jr.
How Judge Mays rules, drawn from 20 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Mays
Samuel H. Mays, Jr. is a judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Judge Mays received a commission on May 10, 2002. Judge Mays assumed senior status on July 1, 2015.
Judge Mays's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Mays'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 Mays decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In American Clothing Express v. CloudFlare, Mays dismissed the defendant's declaratory-judgment counterclaims because the noninfringement question would be resolved through the plaintiffs' copyright claims and the counterclaims added no independent issue.
“Defendant's Amended Counterclaim asserting that it did not infringe will necessarily be resolved by resolving Plaintiffs' claim.”
In Tatum v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Mays denied a Rule 41(b) dismissal motion over a late fact sheet. He found dismissal inappropriate because Tatum had not previously been warned that failing to file it could end the case.
“The Court has not previously warned Tatum that failing to file the PFS would result in dismissal. Because Tatum was not previously warned, dismissal would not be appropriate.”
Procedural preferences
In United States v. Davis, Judge Mays denied a compassionate-release request without prejudice because Davis supplied no proof that he had exhausted the prison administrative process.
“Davis does not submit any proof that he has exhausted his administrative rights with the BOP. The Court lacks the authority to consider his motion for compassionate release.”
In Stewart’s civil-rights case, Judge Mays allowed her additional time to seek counsel after her attorney withdrew, including a 60-day extension at a telephone status conference.
“Pltf indicates to the Court she has not obtained Counsel. With no objection from the defense, the Court grants 60 days for the plaintiff to continue efforts in seeking Counsel.”
In Coleman, the judge declined to consider new objections raised in a reply brief where they did not identify a report error or explain how a correction would affect the result.
“Plaintiff’s new arguments do not cite the R&R and, like many arguments discussed above, do not state why or how, even if accurate, the arguments would change the legal conclusions the Magistrate Judge reaches.”
Cautions
In Benson’s closed case, Judge Mays warned that further baseless motions could be summarily dismissed and draw a $100 sanction per violation.
“The Court hereby WARNS Benson that if he continues to file baseless motions in this case, the Court may summarily dismiss the motion(s) and impose a monetary sanction of $100.00 per violation.”
In Coleman v. Kellogg’s Co., Judge Mays vacated his earlier summary-judgment order after finding that mail service likely made the self-represented plaintiff’s objections timely.
“Because it is likely that Plaintiff received his physical copy of the R&R at least one day after the Court entered its Order, Plaintiff's objections likely came within the 14-day period he had to file them.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court ADOPTS the Report and the Complaint is DISMISSED.”
“Defendant’s Motion for Sanctions (ECF No. 88) is GRANTED. This action is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“Because the Court has adopted the Report and Recommendation recommending dismissal, Plaintiff’s pending motion (ECF No. 110) is DENIED AS MOOT.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) and (b)(7) is DENIED.”
“For the following reasons, the Motion to Remand is DENIED.”
“As this motion relies entirely on the City’s second, renewed motion, the second motion to dismiss filed by defendants Boyce, Holquin, and Wallace is DENIED.”
“The motion for sanctions is DENIED.”
“The Court ADOPTS the Report and Recommendation and DENIES Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment.”
“Davis’s motion is DENIED without prejudice.”
“The Court DENIES the Motion with leave to renew if Booker exhausts his administrative remedies with the BOP.”
“Plaintiffs’ May 25, 2020 Motion to Dismiss the original Counterclaim is DENIED as moot.”
“Plaintiffs’ Motion is GRANTED.”
“Therefore, the Motion is GRANTED. The Court awards final judgment by default in favor of First Horizon on its claim for declaratory judgment (Count I of the Verified Complaint) against Quality Leasing.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Defendant’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, ECF No. 112, is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
- The sampled caseload spans nursing-home negligence, mortgage and foreclosure disputes, employment discrimination, prisoner federal habeas and post-conviction motions, and product-liability claims.
- Several prisoner filings were resolved on jurisdictional or procedural grounds without reaching the merits, and one long-running copyright dispute produced a substantive dismissal ruling in a published order.
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 | 2 |
| 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 | 2 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 4 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 3 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 5 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 5 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 3 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 5 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 2 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 1 |
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 Mays: 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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