Eighth Circuit / Appointed 1987 / Served to 2025

Clarence Arlen Beam

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

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and confirmed by voice vote, Clarence Arlen Beam was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He earned a law degree from University of Nebraska College of Law in 1965. He previously served on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1930–2025
Appointed by
Ronald Reagan, 1987
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Nebraska 1951 · University of Nebraska College of Law 1965
Succeeded by
William Jay Riley

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1981District of NebraskaReagan (R)Voice vote
1987Eighth Circuit
succeeded Donald Roe Ross
Reagan (R)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

In our data, Beam authored 30 published opinions for the court (1982–2008). Most cited: Petznick v. United States (40 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

Showing the 15 most-cited of 30 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 Clarence Arlen Beam?
President Ronald Reagan appointed Clarence Arlen Beam to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in 1987.
Was Clarence Arlen Beam appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Clarence Arlen Beam was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Clarence Arlen Beam's confirmation vote?
Clarence Arlen Beam was confirmed by voice vote on November 6, 1987. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Clarence Arlen Beam on?
Clarence Arlen Beam was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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.

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