Who appointed Bernice Bouie Donald?

President Barack Obama appointed Bernice Bouie Donald to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 2011.

Was Bernice Bouie Donald appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Bernice Bouie Donald was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Bernice Bouie Donald's confirmation vote?

The Senate confirmed Bernice Bouie Donald 96–2 on September 6, 2011.

Sixth Circuit / Appointed 2011 / Served to 2023

Bernice Bouie Donald

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011 and confirmed by the Senate 96–2, Bernice Bouie Donald was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She earned a law degree from Memphis State University (now University of Memphis) Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in 1979. She previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1951 · age 75
Appointed by: Barack Obama, 2011
Confirmed: 96–2
Education: Memphis State (now University of Memphis) 1974 · Memphis State (now University of Memphis) Cecil C. Humphreys Law 1979
Succeeded: Ronald Lee Gilman
Succeeded by: Andre Bernard Mathis

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1995	Western District of Tennessee succeeded Odell Horton	Clinton (D)	Voice vote
2011	Sixth Circuit succeeded Ronald Lee Gilman	Obama (D)	96–2

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

Nomination Confirmed 96–2 on September 6, 2011 · 112th Congress, Roll Call 124. Each senator links to their judicial-voting record.

Voted to confirm · 96

50 D, 44 R, 2 I

Voted against · 2

2 R

James DeMint(R-SC)
David Vitter(R-LA)

Did not vote · 2

1 D, 1 R

Jay Rockefeller(D-WV)
Marco Rubio(R-FL)

Education

Memphis State University (now University of Memphis)	B.A.	1974
Memphis State University (now University of Memphis) Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law	J.D.	1979

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Donald was assigned 3,807 district-court cases (1963–2011). Median time from filing to termination: 198 days across 3,803 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas30%

Civil rights27%

Contract14%

Personal-injury torts10%

Other federal statutes4%

Labor & ERISA3%

Other12%

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 69 of Donald’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 60 were affirmed, 5 reversed or vacated, and 4 affirmed in part and reversed in part. 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, Donald authored 203 published opinions for the court (1996–2011). Most cited: United States v. Johnson (64 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
1996	United States v. Johnson	940 F. Supp. 167	64
2006	Brown v. City of Memphis	440 F. Supp. 2d 868	62
1999	Rienholtz v. Campbell	64 F. Supp. 2d 721	59
2000	Miller v. Campbell	108 F. Supp. 2d 960	45
2000	West Tennessee Chapter of Associated Builders & Contractors, Inc. v. City of Memphis	138 F. Supp. 2d 1015	30
2003	Signature Combs, Inc. v. United States	253 F. Supp. 2d 1028	29
1999	Drummer v. Luttrell	75 F. Supp. 2d 796	29
2000	Alley v. Bell	101 F. Supp. 2d 588	21
2011	Monroe v. FTS USA, LLC	763 F. Supp. 2d 979	18
2010	United States v. Gonzales & Gonzales Bonds & Insurance Agency, Inc.	677 F. Supp. 2d 987	18
2003	United States v. Haynes	269 F. Supp. 2d 970	18
1999	Tri-Star Airlines, Inc. v. Willis Careen Corp.	75 F. Supp. 2d 835	18
1999	Miller v. Federal Express Corp.	56 F. Supp. 2d 955	18
1997	Rowe v. Marietta Corp.	955 F. Supp. 836	18
2004	Cupp v. Alberto-Culver USA, Inc.	310 F. Supp. 2d 963	15

Showing the 15 most-cited of 203 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 Bernice Bouie Donald?: President Barack Obama appointed Bernice Bouie Donald to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 2011.
Was Bernice Bouie Donald appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Bernice Bouie Donald was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Bernice Bouie Donald's confirmation vote?: The Senate confirmed Bernice Bouie Donald 96–2 on September 6, 2011.
Which court was Bernice Bouie Donald on?: Bernice Bouie Donald was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

11 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).