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Brian Edward Murphy

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts Appointed by Joseph R. Biden (Democratic) 29 signed orders read

How Judge Murphy decides

Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

What persuades

In the third-country deportation case Murphy reduced a politically charged dispute to a single due-process question and found the government's interpretation could not survive: a noncitizen must receive notice of the destination country and a meaningful chance to raise a fear-of-persecution claim before removal. Litigants before him should expect him to frame even high-profile cases around a narrow, dispositive legal question and to demand procedural fairness from the government.

“This case presents a simple question: before the United States forcibly sends someone to a country other than their country of origin, must that person be told where they are going and be given a chance to tell the United States that they might be killed if sent there?”

Procedural preferences

On Rule 12(b)(6) motions he resolves doubts in the plaintiff's favor and draws reasonable inferences pre-discovery rather than dismissing on factual gaps -- e.g., inferring that website tracking present in 2024 was also present during a plaintiff's earlier use. To win an early dismissal before him, attack legal sufficiency (here, choice-of-law and statutory scope), not the plaintiff's not-yet-discovered facts.

“That technology in use in October 2024 was also in use for some period of time between 2021 and 2023 is a reasonable inference the Court is permitted to make at this stage, before Portillo has had the benefit of discovery.”

Signed rulings

A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.

D.V.D. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security
1:25-cv-10676 · 2025-04-18
Class certification (plaintiff) Granted

“Plaintiffs' motion for class certification (Dkt. 4) is GRANTED and motion for a preliminary injunction (Dkt. 6) is GRANTED in part.”

Preliminary injunction (plaintiff) Granted in part
D.V.D. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security
1:25-cv-10676 · 2026-02-25
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted in part

“Defendants' motion to dismiss is GRANTED in part. Counts II and III are DISMISSED. Counts V and VI, including all claims against Defendant Antone Moniz, are DISMISSED without prejudice.”

Summary judgment (plaintiff) Granted

“Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment against the remaining Defendants is GRANTED as to Counts I and IV. Judgment will enter for Plaintiffs.”

Givens v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1:24-cv-10355 · 2025-09-15
Summary judgment (defendant) Granted

“For the foregoing reasons, MIT's motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”

Darden v. Colbea Enterprises, L.L.C.
1:23-cv-11540 · 2025-03-26
Summary judgment (defendant) Granted

“For the foregoing reasons, Defendants' motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”

Portillo v. Nebula Genomics, Inc.
1:25-cv-12288 · 2026-03-10
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Denied

“For the foregoing reasons, Nebula's motion to dismiss is DENIED.”

Ryan v. Quinlan
1:25-cv-11594 · 2025-09-19
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted in part

“Defendants' motion for to dismiss (Dkt. 22) is GRANTED in part. Counts VI and VII are dismissed, and Ms. Quinlan-Jaskot is dismissed from the case entirely. The motion is otherwise DENIED.”

Aquidneck Trucking, LLC v. Lightspeed Trucking, LLC
1:24-cv-12767 · 2025-06-20
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted

“For the foregoing reasons, SBA's motion to dismiss is GRANTED.”

C.E.B. Inc. v. HCL America Inc.
1:25-cv-13063 · 2026-05-07
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted in part

“For the foregoing reasons, Defendants' motion to dismiss is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.”

In re: Zelis Repricing Antitrust Litigation
1:25-cv-10734 · 2026-03-30
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Denied

“For the foregoing reasons, Defendants' motion to dismiss, Dkt. 96, is DENIED.”

Equitable Development, LLC v. Marshfield Airport Commission
1:25-cv-10736 · 2025-04-15
Preliminary injunction (plaintiff) Denied

“For the foregoing reasons, Equitable's motion for preliminary injunction is DENIED.”

Wyman v. New Era Technology, Inc.
1:24-cv-11450 · 2025-10-28
Summary judgment (defendant) Granted

“For the foregoing reasons, Defendant's motion for summary judgment, Dkt. 30, is GRANTED.”

Egypt House v. Kelley
1:25-cv-10597 · 2026-04-03
Motions to dismiss (defendant) Granted

“For the foregoing reasons, Defendants' motions to dismiss are GRANTED.”

Caseload & timing

From public federal docket records for this judge.

Median motion-to-ruling time: 110 days (N = 2).

Murphy's sampled docket includes immigration and habeas litigation, employment and civil-rights disputes, wage-and-hour and consumer class actions, credit-reporting claims, and commercial contract matters. Several sampled cases were reassigned to him early in his tenure. The examples describe the range of matters reviewed and are not a quantitative measure of his full caseload.

Put Judge Murphy's record to work

Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Murphy actually rules, not a generic AI guess.

Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Murphy's own signed orders and cites them.