Alan Cooke Kay
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and confirmed by voice vote, Alan Cooke Kay was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. He earned a law degree from University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 1960. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1932–2024
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1986
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Princeton 1957 · University of California, Berkeley, Law 1960
- Succeeded by
- John Michael Seabright
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | District of Hawaii | Reagan (R) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Kay was assigned 3,232 district-court cases (1986–2021). Median time from filing to termination: 246 days across 3,232 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
On appeal
Of 79 of Kay’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 68 were affirmed, 11 reversed or vacated. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.
In our data, Kay authored 271 published opinions for the court (1987–2011). Most cited: Leong v. Hilton Hotels Corp. (160 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Leong v. Hilton Hotels Corp. | 689 F. Supp. 1572 | 160 |
| 2005 | Hawaii Stevedores, Inc. v. HT & T CO. | 363 F. Supp. 2d 1253 | 85 |
| 2003 | Prindable v. Association of Apartment Owners of 2987 Kalakaua | 304 F. Supp. 2d 1245 | 50 |
| 1991 | United States v. All Monies ($477,048.62) in Account No. 90-3617-3, Israel Discount Bank, New York | 754 F. Supp. 1467 | 48 |
| 2010 | Smallwood v. NCsoft Corp. | 730 F. Supp. 2d 1213 | 44 |
| 2006 | White Ex Rel. Estate of Bournakel v. Sabatino | 424 F. Supp. 2d 1271 | 40 |
| 1996 | Rowland v. Novus Financial Corp. | 949 F. Supp. 1447 | 33 |
| 1995 | Pedrina v. Han Kuk Chun | 906 F. Supp. 1377 | 33 |
| 1988 | Lapinad v. Pacific Oldsmobile-GMC, Inc. | 679 F. Supp. 991 | 32 |
| 1994 | Linville v. State of Hawaii | 874 F. Supp. 1095 | 30 |
| 2000 | Pourny v. Maui Police Dept., County of Maui | 127 F. Supp. 2d 1129 | 29 |
| 2000 | Allstate Insurance v. Kim | 121 F. Supp. 2d 1301 | 22 |
| 2006 | Allstate Insurance v. Davis | 430 F. Supp. 2d 1112 | 20 |
| 1987 | United States v. Okuda | 675 F. Supp. 1552 | 19 |
| 1998 | Uarco Inc. v. Lam | 18 F. Supp. 2d 1116 | 18 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 271 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed Alan Cooke Kay?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed Alan Cooke Kay to the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii in 1986.
- Was Alan Cooke Kay appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Alan Cooke Kay was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Alan Cooke Kay's confirmation vote?
- Alan Cooke Kay was confirmed by voice vote on September 12, 1986. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Alan Cooke Kay on?
- Alan Cooke Kay was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States District Court for the District of Hawaii (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
37 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).