He was noted for issuing the opinion in ACLU v. Clapper in 2013 concerning the legality of the National Security Agency's bulk collection of metadata, as well as sentencing Michael Cohen to three years in prison in 2018.

Pauley was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 21, 1998, and received his commission the next day.

"[5] In December 2013, Pauley dismissed a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the National Security Agency, ACLU v. Clapper, over the NSA's bulk collection of metadata on nearly every phone call made in the United States being legal under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

[6][7] The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Pauley's ruling in May 2015 and remanded the case for further consideration.

Pauley criticized the city's mismanagement of NYCHA, and suggested that the federal United States Department of Housing and Urban Development had also failed to perform its legal responsibility.

[14] Pauley died on the morning of July 6, 2021, at his home in East Quogue, New York, from bile duct cancer.