Alia Moses
How Judge Moses rules, drawn from 13 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Moses
Alia Moses is a judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Judge Moses received a commission on November 15, 2002.
Judge Moses's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Moses's own (checked October 8, 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 8, 2026).
- Standing Order Regarding Joint or Unopposed Request to Change Deadlines ↗
- Order Regarding Procedures for the Filing, Service and Management of Highly Sensitive Documents ↗
- General Order Regarding Electronic Filing of Transcripts ↗
- Standing Order Regarding Attorney Admissions and CLE Requirements ↗
- Privacy Policy and Public Access to Electronic Files ↗
- Standing Order Regarding the Electronic Submission of Sealed Civil Documents ↗
How Judge Moses decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In a State of Texas suit against federal border authorities she granted a temporary restraining order on a common-law trespass-to-property theory, restraining destruction of state-owned barrier fencing where the State showed a likelihood of success and irreparable harm.
“it is ORDERED that the Plaintiff's Emergency Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order or Stay of Agency Action (ECF No. 5) is GRANTED on October 30, 2023 at 9:30 a.m.”
Procedural preferences
In United States v. Croft, she denied a recusal motion because it was untimely and the supporting affidavit did not establish bias.
“[Recusal was] not warranted because [Croft]'s motion and supporting affidavit under Sections 144 and 455 were untimely filed, and because the affidavit is not legally sufficient to establish that Judge Ezra is actually biased against [Croft].”
Cautions
In Jimenez v. Eagle Pass Independent School District, she denied the employer’s summary-judgment motion on the surviving ADA claim.
“For the reasons discussed herein, the Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is in all things DENIED.”
In Lopez, she adopted a recommendation to dismiss a former Air Force mechanic’s claims and declined to create a new Bivens remedy because statutory employment-review routes were available.
“There are no additional routes of recovery that may be afforded to the Plaintiff.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“it is ORDERED that the Plaintiff's Emergency Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order or Stay of Agency Action (ECF No. 5) is GRANTED on October 30, 2023 at 9:30 a.m.”
“Upon careful consideration of the record and relevant law, the Court DENIES the motion for preliminary injunctive relief.”
“the opposed section of the Defendants' motion concerning a stay of district court proceedings pending appeal is DENIED”
“the unopposed section of the Defendants' motion concerning a 30-day time extension to respond to the Complaint is GRANTED”
“the November 9, 2023 order of this Court shall not be modified except to order that all document production cover March 6, 2021 inclusive to November 9, 2023 inclusive, thereby granting in part and denying in part the Defendants' motion”
“the Court ADOPTS the Report and Recommendation... DENIES the Plaintiff's and Defendants' respective Motions for Summary Judgment [ECF Nos. 23, 24, 25, 26] as MOOT.”
“For the reasons discussed herein, the Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is in all things DENIED.”
“On October 2, 2023, the Court entered an Order (ECF No. 30) dismissing some claims against Zeiss and all claims against former Defendant De Lage Financial Services (‘De Lage’). The Order left the following claims active as to Zeiss: (1) breach of contract; (2) violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (‘DTPA’)...; and (3) negligent hiring/training/supervision/retention.”
“Zeiss's Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 29) is GRANTED as to all remaining claims -- namely, Dr. Kaiser's claims for breach of contract and negligent hiring/training/supervision/retention. This case is therefore DISMISSED.”
“The Court hereby finds the Report and Recommendation is ADOPTED, the Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED, and Plaintiff's objections to the Report and Recommendation are OVERRULED.”
“For the following reasons, it is recommended that the Defendant's Motion [ECF No. 14] be DENIED.”
“[Recusal was] not warranted because [Croft]'s motion and supporting affidavit under Sections 144 and 455 were untimely filed, and because the affidavit is not legally sufficient to establish that Judge Ezra is actually biased against [Croft].”
“ORDER GRANTING 7 Motion for Entry of Default Signed by Judge Alia Moses.”
After no party objected, Moses reviewed and accepted the magistrate judge’s recommendation and accepted the defendant’s guilty plea to Count One. This substantive criminal order contains no separately decided motion and is excluded from motion statistics.
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Judge Moses's Del Rio caseload is predominantly criminal. Several prominent civil matters, including the Uvalde-school-shooting suits and a CBP records-access case, remained pending with dispositive motions unresolved during the evidence period.
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 | 238 |
| 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 | 4 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 238 | 4 |
| Sep 2025 | 233 | 1 |
| Mar 2025 | 114 | 2 |
| Sep 2024 | 42 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 32 | 1 |
| Sep 2023 | 28 | 6 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2021 | 1 | 2 |
| Sep 2020 | 2 | 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 Texas, not for Judge Moses: 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 | 3,691 | 7.7 months |
| Closed with no court action | 1,171 | 5.5 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 2,115 | 7.5 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 366 | 14 months |
| Closed during trial | 39 | 30.6 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 3,691 | 7.7 months |
| Sep 2024 | 3,440 | 7.8 months |
| Sep 2023 | 3,823 | 7.2 months |
| Sep 2022 | 3,633 | 8.3 months |
| Sep 2021 | 3,178 | 8 months |
| Sep 2020 | 2,990 | 6.4 months |
| Sep 2019 | 2,854 | 7.1 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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