Who appointed David R. Thompson?

President Ronald Reagan appointed David R. Thompson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1985.

Was David R. Thompson appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

David R. Thompson was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was David R. Thompson's confirmation vote?

David R. Thompson was confirmed by voice vote on December 16, 1985. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Ninth Circuit / Appointed 1985 / Served to 2011

David R. Thompson

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

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 and confirmed by voice vote, David R. Thompson was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He earned a law degree from University of Southern California Law School (now Gould School of Law) in 1955. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1930–2011
Appointed by: Ronald Reagan, 1985
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of Southern California 1952 · University of Southern California Law School (now Gould Law) 1955
Succeeded by: Raymond C. Fisher

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1985	Ninth Circuit	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 Southern California	B.S., business	1952
University of Southern California Law School (now Gould School of Law)	LL.B.	1955

Judicial Record

In our data, Thompson authored 1 published opinion for the court (2008).

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

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2008	Perretta v. PROMETHEUS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, INC.	527 F.3d 853	0

Showing the 1 most-cited of 1 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 R. Thompson?: President Ronald Reagan appointed David R. Thompson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1985.
Was David R. Thompson appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: David R. Thompson was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was David R. Thompson's confirmation vote?: David R. Thompson was confirmed by voice vote on December 16, 1985. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was David R. Thompson on?: David R. Thompson was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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