Southern District of New York / Appointed 1963 / Served to 1994

Charles Henry Tenney

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and confirmed by voice vote, Charles Henry Tenney was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1936. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1911–1994
Appointed by
John F. Kennedy, 1963
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Yale 1933 · Yale Law School 1936

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1963Southern District of New York
succeeded Alexander Bicks
Kennedy (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

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Tenney was assigned 72 district-court cases (1978–1993). Median time from filing to termination: 966 days across 72 closed cases.

Contract19%
Personal-injury torts18%
Intellectual property17%
Prisoner & habeas11%
Civil rights8%
Other federal statutes7%
Other19%

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, Tenney authored 382 published opinions for the court (1964–1994). Most cited: Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. United States Plywood Corp. (503 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 382 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 Charles Henry Tenney?
President John F. Kennedy appointed Charles Henry Tenney to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1963.
Was Charles Henry Tenney appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Charles Henry Tenney was appointed by President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Charles Henry Tenney's confirmation vote?
Charles Henry Tenney was confirmed by voice vote on December 5, 1963. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Charles Henry Tenney on?
Charles Henry Tenney was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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