District of New Jersey / Appointed 1986 / Served to 2001

Alfred James Lechner Jr.

Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and confirmed by voice vote, Alfred James Lechner Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. He earned a law degree from Notre Dame Law School in 1972. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born
1948 · age 78
Appointed by
Ronald Reagan, 1986
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Xavier, Ohio 1969 · Notre Dame Law School 1972
Succeeded by
Jose L. Linares

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1986District of New JerseyReagan (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, Lechner was assigned 3,979 district-court cases (1983–2009). Median time from filing to termination: 124 days across 3,975 closed cases.

Contract24%
Personal-injury torts15%
Civil rights12%
Prisoner & habeas11%
Labor & ERISA10%
Other federal statutes7%
Other20%

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.

In our data, Lechner authored 206 published opinions for the court (1986–2001). Most cited: Cammer v. Bloom (199 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

Showing the 15 most-cited of 206 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 Alfred James Lechner Jr.?
President Ronald Reagan appointed Alfred James Lechner Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in 1986.
Was Alfred James Lechner Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Alfred James Lechner Jr. was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Alfred James Lechner Jr.'s confirmation vote?
Alfred James Lechner Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on June 6, 1986. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Alfred James Lechner Jr. on?
Alfred James Lechner Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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15 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).