Who appointed Beryl Alaine Howell?

President Barack Obama appointed Beryl Alaine Howell to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2010.

Was Beryl Alaine Howell appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Beryl Alaine Howell was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Beryl Alaine Howell's confirmation vote?

Beryl Alaine Howell was confirmed by voice vote on December 22, 2010. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of Columbia / Appointed 2010 / Senior status since 2024

Beryl Alaine Howell

Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010 and confirmed by voice vote, Beryl Alaine Howell is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She earned a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1983. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1956 · age 70
Appointed by: Barack Obama, 2010
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Bryn Mawr College 1978 · Columbia Law School 1983
Succeeded: Paul L. Friedman
Succeeded by: Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
2010	District of Columbia succeeded Paul L. Friedman	Obama (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

Bryn Mawr College	B.A.	1978
Columbia Law School	J.D.	1983

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Howell was assigned 2,128 district-court cases (1989–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 214 days across 1,551 closed cases.

Other federal statutes28%

Other civil matters20%

Criminal14%

Civil rights9%

Antitrust, securities & banking5%

Contract4%

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.

On appeal

Of 220 of Howell’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 159 were affirmed, 48 reversed or vacated, and 13 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, Howell authored 1,221 published opinions for the court (2011–2026). Most cited: National Security Counselors v. Central Intelligence Agency (144 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
2013	National Security Counselors v. Central Intelligence Agency	960 F. Supp. 2d 101	144
2012	National Security Counselors v. Central Intelligence Agency	898 F. Supp. 2d 233	130
2012	Peters v. District of Columbia	873 F. Supp. 2d 158	127
2017	Braun v. Islamic Republic of Iran	228 F. Supp. 3d 64	120
2016	Thuneibat v. Syrian Arab Republic	167 F. Supp. 3d 22	99
2017	Hardy v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives	243 F. Supp. 3d 155	78
2013	Mohammadi v. Islamic Republic of Iran	947 F. Supp. 2d 48	66
2013	National Security Counselors v. Central Intelligence Agency	931 F. Supp. 2d 77	65
2013	Mobley v. Central Intelligence Agency	924 F. Supp. 2d 24	64
2011	Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of the Treasury	796 F. Supp. 2d 13	64
2015	Liberation Newspaper v. U.S. Department of State	80 F. Supp. 3d 137	63
2011	Thompson v. Linda and A., Inc.	779 F. Supp. 2d 139	61
2013	Muttitt v. United States Central Command	926 F. Supp. 2d 284	59
2015	Agility Public Warehousing Company K.S.C. v. National Security Agency	113 F. Supp. 3d 313	54
2014	Slate v. Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia	31 F. Supp. 3d 277	54

Showing the 15 most-cited of 1,221 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 Beryl Alaine Howell?: President Barack Obama appointed Beryl Alaine Howell to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2010.
Was Beryl Alaine Howell appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Beryl Alaine Howell was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Beryl Alaine Howell's confirmation vote?: Beryl Alaine Howell was confirmed by voice vote on December 22, 2010. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Beryl Alaine Howell on?: Beryl Alaine Howell is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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.

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