Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. She earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1957. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1932–2017
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1979
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Barnard College 1954 · Yale Law School 1957
- Succeeded by
- Marianne O. Battani
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Eastern District of Michigan | Carter (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
| Barnard College | B.A. | 1954 |
| Yale Law School | LL.B. | 1957 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Taylor was assigned 4,683 district-court cases (1978–2010). Median time from filing to termination: 207 days across 4,681 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 25 of Taylor’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 24 were affirmed, 1 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, Taylor authored 134 published opinions for the court (1980–2009). Most cited: Teachers Insurance & Annuity Ass'n of America v. Lake in the Woods (In Re Lake in the Woods) (39 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Teachers Insurance & Annuity Ass'n of America v. Lake in the Woods (In Re Lake in the Woods) | 10 B.R. 338 | 39 |
| 1982 | Hite v. Norwegian Caribbean Lines | 551 F. Supp. 390 | 26 |
| 1980 | Music Stop, Inc. v. City of Ferndale | 488 F. Supp. 390 | 23 |
| 1986 | Plaza Securities Co. v. Fruehauf Corp. | 643 F. Supp. 1535 | 22 |
| 1991 | Van Arnem Co. v. Manufacturers Hanover Leasing Corp. | 776 F. Supp. 1220 | 19 |
| 1981 | Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Leach | 525 F. Supp. 1379 | 19 |
| 1981 | Connellan v. Himelhoch | 506 F. Supp. 1290 | 19 |
| 1984 | Nolan v. Aetna Life Insurance | 588 F. Supp. 1375 | 17 |
| 1994 | Middleton v. McGinnis | 860 F. Supp. 391 | 15 |
| 1985 | In Re Long Distance Telecommunication Litigation | 612 F. Supp. 892 | 15 |
| 2006 | American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency | 438 F. Supp. 2d 754 | 14 |
| 2004 | Sellers v. United States | 316 F. Supp. 2d 516 | 13 |
| 1991 | Kelsey-Hayes Co. v. Maleki | 765 F. Supp. 402 | 13 |
| 1986 | Soutear v. United States | 646 F. Supp. 524 | 13 |
| 1985 | Hudson v. Johnson | 619 F. Supp. 1539 | 13 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 134 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 Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in 1979.
- Was Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor's confirmation vote?
- Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor was confirmed by voice vote on October 31, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor on?
- Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (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.
38 years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).