Dickinson Richards Debevoise
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, Dickinson Richards Debevoise was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. He earned a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1951. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1924–2015
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1979
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Williams College 1948 · Columbia Law School 1951
- Succeeded by
- Stephen Murray Orlofsky
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | District of New Jersey | Carter (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
| Williams College | B.A. | 1948 |
| Columbia Law School | LL.B. | 1951 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Debevoise was assigned 4,559 district-court cases (1982–2013). Median time from filing to termination: 232 days across 4,550 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 103 of Debevoise’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 86 were affirmed, 12 reversed or vacated, and 5 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, Debevoise authored 237 published opinions for the court (1979–2011). Most cited: Kounelis v. Sherrer (122 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Kounelis v. Sherrer | 529 F. Supp. 2d 503 | 122 |
| 1990 | Giangola v. Walt Disney World Co. | 753 F. Supp. 148 | 53 |
| 2008 | Sullivan v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. | 575 F. Supp. 2d 640 | 52 |
| 1981 | Guyette v. Stauffer Chemical Co. | 518 F. Supp. 521 | 49 |
| 2010 | Burrell v. DFS SERVICES, LLC | 753 F. Supp. 2d 438 | 41 |
| 1990 | In Re Midlantic Corp. Shareholder Litigation | 758 F. Supp. 226 | 37 |
| 2003 | P.N. v. Greco | 282 F. Supp. 2d 221 | 36 |
| 1998 | Jama v. United States Immigration & Naturalization Service | 22 F. Supp. 2d 353 | 36 |
| 1982 | Elin v. Busche (In Re Elin) | 20 B.R. 1012 | 36 |
| 1989 | Zenith Laboratories, Inc. v. Sinay (In Re Zenith Laboratories, Inc.) | 104 B.R. 659 | 34 |
| 1983 | Seville Industrial MacHinery Corp. v. Southmost MacHinery Corp. | 567 F. Supp. 1146 | 32 |
| 1980 | World Imports, Inc. v. Woodbridge Township | 493 F. Supp. 428 | 32 |
| 2008 | Travelers Indem. Co. v. Dammann & Co., Inc. | 592 F. Supp. 2d 752 | 31 |
| 1985 | Lone Pine Steering Committee v. United States Environmental Protection Agency | 600 F. Supp. 1487 | 31 |
| 1980 | Brown v. Hilton | 492 F. Supp. 771 | 30 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 237 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 Dickinson Richards Debevoise?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed Dickinson Richards Debevoise to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in 1979.
- Was Dickinson Richards Debevoise appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Dickinson Richards Debevoise was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Dickinson Richards Debevoise's confirmation vote?
- Dickinson Richards Debevoise was confirmed by voice vote on October 31, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Dickinson Richards Debevoise on?
- Dickinson Richards Debevoise was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- 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.
35 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).