Cecilia M. Romero
How Judge Romero decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Procedural preferences
Applies Rule 15 futility rigorously: recommends denying leave to amend (and dismissing with prejudice) where the proposed claims would be subject to dismissal -- e.g. COVID mask-mandate Free Exercise claims against a facially neutral, generally applicable policy that survives rational-basis review.
“recommending that the court deny the Plaintiffs' motion to amend their amended complaint and dismiss the Plaintiffs' case with prejudice”
Cautions
On dismissals in this sample Romero favors WITHOUT prejudice with leave to amend (Reynolds: 30 days to replead after a parallel state case resolves), reserving WITH prejudice for claims she finds futile (Tracy). 'Replead carefully' is the operative signal in most of her recommended dismissals.
“the court ... adopts and affirms the Report and Recommendation in part and dismisses the complaint without prejudice as to all Defendants. Plaintiff will have 30 days after the underlying state case is fully resolved to file an amended complaint.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Motions to dismiss N = 2 |
Granted in part: 1Moot / procedural: 1 | counts only |
| Summary judgment N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for leave N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Screening dismissal N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Magistrate Judge Romero issued a Report and Recommendation recommending that the court grant in part Defendants' motions and dismiss the complaint without prejudice ... the court ... adopts and affirms the Report and Recommendation in part and dismisses the complaint without prejudice as to all Defendants. Plaintiff will have 30 days after the underlying state case is fully resolved to file an amended complaint. ... the court GRANTS Defendants' motions in part, and dismisses the case without prejudice.”
“United States Magistrate Judge Cecilia M. Romero issued a Report and Recommendation (R&R) recommending that the court deny the Plaintiffs' motion to amend their amended complaint and dismiss the Plaintiffs' case with prejudice. ... the court ADOPTS the R&R (ECF No. 69). The court DENIES the Plaintiffs' Motion to Amend (ECF No. 64) and DISMISSES this action WITH PREJUDICE.”
“United States Magistrate Judge Cecilia M. Romero issued a Report and Recommendation (R&R) recommending that the court deny Plaintiff Kathryn Betts's Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 27), finding that Ms. Betts failed to meet her burden that she was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on her claims. ... the court adopts the R&R ... in its entirety. ... The Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 27) is DENIED.”
“United States Magistrate Judge Cecilia M. Romero issued a Report & Recommendation (R&R) recommending that the court deny Plaintiff Robert Louis Brown's Motion to Dismiss Case in 4th District Court, Provo, UT (ECF No. 5) and dismiss this case without prejudice. ... the court adopts the R&R (ECF No. 11) in its entirety. ... The court DISMISSES this action without prejudice.”
“Magistrate Judge Cecilia M. Romero issued a Report and Recommendation that the court ... deny ... Club Pilates Millcreek's Motion to Dismiss, ultimately recommending that the entire action be dismissed without prejudice. ... The court DENIES Club Pilates Millcreek's Motion to Dismiss (ECF 20) as moot. ... The court DISMISSES this action without prejudice.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Salt Lake City magistrate (since 2019-06-01; Chief Magistrate Judge since 2026-01-05). Enumerable assigned_judge slice (2026 pending) is a broad civil mix where she is the assigned magistrate: Social Security disability appeals (Commissioner Bisignano), DHS/immigration, FDCPA consumer-credit, copyright, employment, and pro se police-civil-rights matters. Her referral merits R&Rs (MTD, MSJ, leave-to-amend, dismissals) are reviewed by the district judges and appear in the reasoning layer. Composition only; not a grant rate.