Donald L. Graham
Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and confirmed by voice vote, Donald L. Graham is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He earned a law degree from Ohio State University College of Law (now Michael E. Moritz College of Law) in 1974. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1948 · age 78
- Appointed by
- George H.W. Bush, 1991
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- West Virginia State College 1971 · Ohio State College of Law (now Michael E. Moritz College of Law) 1974
- Succeeded
- Sidney Myer Aronovitz
- Succeeded by
- Beth Francine Bloom
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Southern District of Florida succeeded Sidney Myer Aronovitz | G.H.W. Bush (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
| West Virginia State College | B.A. | 1971 |
| Ohio State University College of Law (now Michael E. Moritz College of Law) | J.D. | 1974 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Graham was assigned 8,104 district-court cases (1985–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 164 days across 8,065 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 280 of Graham’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 233 were affirmed, 36 reversed or vacated, and 11 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, Graham authored 51 published opinions for the court (1992–2011). Most cited: Castro Bobadilla v. Reno (205 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 | Castro Bobadilla v. Reno | 826 F. Supp. 1428 | 205 |
| 2008 | Stiefel Laboratories, Inc. v. Galderma Laboratories, Inc. | 588 F. Supp. 2d 1336 | 26 |
| 2008 | Nirvana Condominium Ass'n, Inc. v. QBE Ins. Corp. | 589 F. Supp. 2d 1336 | 19 |
| 2010 | Mid-Continent Casualty Co. v. Basdeo | 742 F. Supp. 2d 1293 | 18 |
| 2001 | Niles Audio Corp. v. OEM Systems Co., Inc. | 174 F. Supp. 2d 1315 | 18 |
| 2003 | Larsen v. Carnival Corp., Inc. | 242 F. Supp. 2d 1333 | 13 |
| 1997 | Response Oncology, Inc. v. MetraHealth Insurance | 978 F. Supp. 1052 | 13 |
| 1998 | A Choice for Women v. Butterworth | 54 F. Supp. 2d 1148 | 12 |
| 2010 | United States v. Faxon | 689 F. Supp. 2d 1344 | 10 |
| 2010 | Miranda Construction Development, Inc. v. Mid-Continent Casualty Co. | 763 F. Supp. 2d 1336 | 9 |
| 2003 | Brown v. Crosby | 249 F. Supp. 2d 1285 | 9 |
| 2005 | Bagwell v. Florida Broadband, LLC | 385 F. Supp. 2d 1316 | 8 |
| 1993 | Cambridge Capital Corp. v. Halcon Enterprises, Inc. | 842 F. Supp. 499 | 8 |
| 1998 | Cason Enterprises, Inc. v. Metropolitan Dade County | 20 F. Supp. 2d 1331 | 7 |
| 1996 | Paldano v. Althin Medical, Inc. | 974 F. Supp. 1441 | 7 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 51 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 Donald L. Graham?
- President George H.W. Bush appointed Donald L. Graham to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 1991.
- Was Donald L. Graham appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Donald L. Graham was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Donald L. Graham's confirmation vote?
- Donald L. Graham was confirmed by voice vote on September 12, 1991. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Donald L. Graham on?
- Donald L. Graham is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
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.
34 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).