Ann Claire Williams
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1999 and confirmed by voice vote, Ann Claire Williams was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She earned a law degree from Notre Dame Law School in 1975. She previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1949 · age 77
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1999
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Wayne State 1970 · Notre Dame Law School 1975
- Succeeded
- Walter Joseph Cummings
- Succeeded by
- Amy Joan St. Eve
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Northern District of Illinois | Reagan (R) | Voice vote |
| 1999 | Seventh Circuit succeeded Walter Joseph Cummings | Clinton (D) | 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
| Wayne State University | B.S. | 1970 |
| University of Michigan | M.A. | 1972 |
| Notre Dame Law School | J.D. | 1975 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Williams was assigned 3,126 district-court cases (1977–2003). Median time from filing to termination: 124 days across 3,123 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.
In our data, Williams authored 429 published opinions for the court (1985–2018). Most cited: Miguel Perez v. James Fenoglio (3,534 citations).
Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Selected opinions
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Miguel Perez v. James Fenoglio | 792 F.3d 768 | 3,534 |
| 2016 | Tyrone Petties v. Imhotep Carter | 836 F.3d 722 | 1,624 |
| 2017 | Otis Grant v. Trustees of Indiana University | 870 F.3d 562 | 1,306 |
| 2015 | Melissa Varga v. Carolyn Colvin | 794 F.3d 809 | 855 |
| 2014 | Karen Murphy v. Carolyn Colvin | 759 F.3d 811 | 757 |
| 2013 | Anthony Hill v. Daniel M. Tangherlini | 724 F.3d 965 | 454 |
| 2016 | Curtis Ellison v. Dushan Zatecky | 820 F.3d 271 | 414 |
| 2016 | Betty Brown v. Carolyn W. Colvin | 845 F.3d 247 | 349 |
| 2014 | Nichols v. Michigan City Plant Planning Department | 755 F.3d 594 | 346 |
| 2014 | Rivera Petty v. City of Chicago | 754 F.3d 416 | 270 |
| 2015 | Alan Beaman v. Dave Warner | 776 F.3d 500 | 230 |
| 2015 | Stephen Sprinkle v. Carolyn Colvin | 777 F.3d 421 | 219 |
| 2015 | Anne Hill v. Carolyn Colvin | 807 F.3d 862 | 191 |
| 2017 | Estate of James Franklin Perry v. Cheryl Wenzel | 872 F.3d 439 | 166 |
| 2017 | Douglas Hicks v. Randall Hepp | 871 F.3d 513 | 164 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 429 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 Ann Claire Williams?
- President William J. Clinton appointed Ann Claire Williams to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1999.
- Was Ann Claire Williams appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Ann Claire Williams was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Ann Claire Williams's confirmation vote?
- Ann Claire Williams was confirmed by voice vote on November 10, 1999. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Ann Claire Williams on?
- Ann Claire Williams was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Administrative Office of the United States Courts (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.
18 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).