John William Black
Judge Black no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Black decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In the one habeas discovery dispute in this record, he required more than a bare assertion that a witness's account had shifted -- he looked for whether the same factual dispute had ALREADY been tested at trial and on direct appeal before allowing any further discovery in a collateral proceeding.
“At trial, Garza was subjected to cross-examination. His testimony was evaluated by a jury which convicted Cisneros.”
Procedural preferences
As the consent judge on a fully-litigated civil case, he resolved discrete threshold legal questions (such as a plaintiff's public-figure status) on partial summary judgment well ahead of trial, narrowing what the parties would actually need to try, and took a contested summary-judgment motion under advisement after oral argument rather than ruling from the bench.
“The Summary Judgment were taken under advisement.”
Cautions
Once a consent civil case became heavily contested, he was willing to freeze the docket entirely rather than let filings accumulate: in the middle of the Sokolosky litigation he directed both sides, through his chambers, not to file anything further without the court's prior approval.
“DO NOT FILE ANYTHING IN THIS CASE WITHOUT APPROVAL OF THE COURT. All parties have been notified by Judge Black's Office.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“In the exercise of discretion, this Court finds that there is no good cause to allow discovery. For the reasons stated herein, the court DENIES Cisneros's Motion for Discovery. (Docket No. 9).”
“IT IS RECOMMENDED that Respondent's Motion to Dismiss (Docket No.5) be GRANTED and Petitioner's § 2255 motion (Docket No. 1) be DENIED.”
“IT IS RECOMMENDED that Petitioner's Application for COA (Docket No. 26) be DENIED on ALL ISSUES.”
Report and Recommendation following a felony guilty-plea allocution that the parties consented to conduct before the magistrate judge in an illegal-reentry case under 8 U.S.C. 1326. This was a routine recommendation concerning the defendant's consensual plea rather than an adjudicated motion outcome.
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The six cases with a usable docket-entry timeline span a wide nature-of-suit mix typical of a small border-division bench: a capital habeas/2255 collateral proceeding, a state pretrial-detainee habeas petition, an international extradition proceeding, a defamation case tried fully to consent-judgment, a satellite-signal-piracy dispute, and an FTCA/civil-rights suit against federal border agents. Case durations for these six ranged from about 4 months to just over 4 years, with a median of roughly 11 months -- consistent with a docket that included both quick, focused proceedings (the extradition case, the time-barred habeas dismissal) and one long-running, heavily-litigated consent civil trial.
A historical record
Judge Black no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.