David H. Coar
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, David H. Coar was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He earned a law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1969. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1943 · age 83
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1994
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Syracuse 1964 · Loyola Chicago Law 1969
- Succeeded
- Ilana Kara Diamond Rovner
- Succeeded by
- John Zihun Lee
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Northern District of Illinois succeeded Ilana Kara Diamond Rovner | Clinton (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
| Syracuse University | B.A. | 1964 |
| Loyola University Chicago School of Law | J.D. | 1969 |
| Harvard Law School | LL.M. | 1970 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Coar was assigned 4,296 district-court cases (1985–2010). Median time from filing to termination: 151 days across 4,292 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 74 of Coar’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 57 were affirmed, 14 reversed or vacated, and 3 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, Coar authored 71 published opinions for the court (1995–2010). Most cited: Martino v. First National Bank of Harvey (In Re Garofalo's Finer Foods, Inc.) (57 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Martino v. First National Bank of Harvey (In Re Garofalo's Finer Foods, Inc.) | 186 B.R. 414 | 57 |
| 2000 | Aiello v. Providian Financial Corp. | 257 B.R. 245 | 28 |
| 1995 | Blakemore v. Pekay | 895 F. Supp. 972 | 25 |
| 1996 | Codest Engineering v. Hyatt International Corp. | 954 F. Supp. 1224 | 21 |
| 2010 | Levin v. Madigan | 697 F. Supp. 2d 958 | 20 |
| 2009 | Reynolds v. Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair | 594 F. Supp. 2d 925 | 19 |
| 1997 | D 56, INC. v. Berry's Inc. | 955 F. Supp. 908 | 16 |
| 1998 | S Industries, Inc. v. JL Audio, Inc. | 29 F. Supp. 2d 878 | 14 |
| 1998 | American Broadcasting Co. v. Maljack Productions, Inc. | 34 F. Supp. 2d 665 | 13 |
| 1996 | Florez v. Delbovo | 939 F. Supp. 1341 | 12 |
| 1996 | Westinghouse Electric Corp. v. McLean | 938 F. Supp. 487 | 12 |
| 2005 | MacH Mold Inc. v. Clover Associates, Inc. | 383 F. Supp. 2d 1015 | 11 |
| 2003 | DirecTV, Inc. v. Perez | 279 F. Supp. 2d 962 | 11 |
| 2002 | United States Ex Rel. Madej v. Schomig | 223 F. Supp. 2d 968 | 11 |
| 1997 | Wittenberg v. Wheels, Inc. | 963 F. Supp. 654 | 11 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 71 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 David H. Coar?
- President William J. Clinton appointed David H. Coar to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1994.
- Was David H. Coar appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- David H. Coar was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was David H. Coar's confirmation vote?
- David H. Coar was confirmed by voice vote on October 6, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was David H. Coar on?
- David H. Coar was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Administrative Office of the United States Courts (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.
16 years on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).