David Singleton Doty
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and confirmed by voice vote, David Singleton Doty was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. He earned a law degree from University of Minnesota Law School in 1961. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1929–2026
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1987
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- University of Minnesota 1952 · University of Minnesota Law School 1961
- Succeeded
- Miles Welton Lord
- Succeeded by
- Donovan W. Frank
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | District of Minnesota succeeded Miles Welton Lord | 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
| University of Minnesota | B.A. | 1952 |
| University of Minnesota Law School | J.D. | 1961 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Doty was assigned 9,081 district-court cases (1978–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 171 days across 8,964 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 350 of Doty’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 313 were affirmed, 18 reversed or vacated, and 19 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, Doty authored 358 published opinions for the court (1987–2011). Most cited: Ossman v. Diana Corp. (60 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Ossman v. Diana Corp. | 825 F. Supp. 870 | 60 |
| 1993 | White v. National Football League | 822 F. Supp. 1389 | 60 |
| 1993 | Dale & Selby Superette & Deli v. United States Department of Agriculture | 838 F. Supp. 1346 | 56 |
| 2000 | United States v. Murphy | 109 F. Supp. 2d 1059 | 55 |
| 1994 | Thompson v. Campbell | 845 F. Supp. 665 | 45 |
| 2000 | Parkhill v. Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance | 174 F. Supp. 2d 951 | 44 |
| 1988 | John Deere Insurance v. Shamrock Industries, Inc. | 696 F. Supp. 434 | 43 |
| 1991 | American Computer Trust Leasing v. Jack Farrell Implement Co. | 763 F. Supp. 1473 | 41 |
| 1999 | Graff v. Qwest Communications Corp. | 33 F. Supp. 2d 1117 | 38 |
| 1993 | Banbury v. Omnitrition International, Inc. | 818 F. Supp. 276 | 38 |
| – | Opinion | 312 F. Supp. 2d 1165 | 38 |
| 1991 | Glass v. IDS Financial Services, Inc. | 778 F. Supp. 1029 | 36 |
| 2000 | VanDanacker v. Main Motor Sales Co. | 109 F. Supp. 2d 1045 | 35 |
| 1987 | FMC Corp. v. Northern Pump Co. | 668 F. Supp. 1285 | 35 |
| 1994 | James v. Ford Motor Credit Co. | 842 F. Supp. 1202 | 33 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 358 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 Singleton Doty?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed David Singleton Doty to the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in 1987.
- Was David Singleton Doty appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- David Singleton Doty was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was David Singleton Doty's confirmation vote?
- David Singleton Doty was confirmed by voice vote on May 7, 1987. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was David Singleton Doty on?
- David Singleton Doty was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota (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.
39 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).