Who appointed Donetta W. Ambrose?

President William J. Clinton appointed Donetta W. Ambrose to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in 1993.

Was Donetta W. Ambrose appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Donetta W. Ambrose was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Donetta W. Ambrose's confirmation vote?

Donetta W. Ambrose was confirmed by voice vote on November 20, 1993. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Western District of Pennsylvania / Appointed 1993 / Senior status since 2010

Donetta W. Ambrose

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1993 and confirmed by voice vote, Donetta W. Ambrose is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. She earned a law degree from Duquesne University School of Law in 1970. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1945 · age 81
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1993
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Duquesne 1967 · Duquesne Law 1970
Succeeded: Gerald Joseph Weber
Succeeded by: Mark Raymond Hornak

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1993	Western District of Pennsylvania succeeded Gerald Joseph Weber	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

Duquesne University	B.A.	1967
Duquesne University School of Law	J.D.	1970

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Ambrose was assigned 4,984 district-court cases (1987–2021). Median time from filing to termination: 263 days across 4,981 closed cases.

Civil rights18%

Social Security16%

Prisoner & habeas15%

Contract13%

Personal-injury torts9%

Labor & ERISA9%

Other20%

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 205 of Ambrose’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 184 were affirmed, 16 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, Ambrose authored 71 published opinions for the court (1994–2011). Most cited: Williams v. Shenango, Inc. (34 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
1997	Williams v. Shenango, Inc.	986 F. Supp. 309	34
2005	El-Daour v. Chertoff	417 F. Supp. 2d 679	22
2011	Andrako v. United States Steel Corp.	788 F. Supp. 2d 372	21
2002	Hohl v. Bastian	279 B.R. 165	21
1995	Ford v. Johnson	899 F. Supp. 227	21
1994	Randolph v. Cooper Industries	879 F. Supp. 518	21
2001	Wilson v. Lemington Home for the Aged	159 F. Supp. 2d 186	20
2010	Miskovitch v. Hostoffer	721 F. Supp. 2d 389	18
2006	Gallatin Fuels, Inc. v. Westchester Fire Insurance	410 F. Supp. 2d 417	17
2001	O'HARA v. Indiana University of Pennsylvania	171 F. Supp. 2d 490	16
1995	IBM Credit Corp. v. Compuhouse Systems, Inc.	179 B.R. 474	15
2009	Andrako v. United States Steel Corp.	632 F. Supp. 2d 398	10
2007	B & B MICROSCOPES v. Armogida	532 F. Supp. 2d 744	10
2006	Totty v. Chubb Corp.	455 F. Supp. 2d 376	10
2006	Samsung SDI Co. v. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.	524 F. Supp. 2d 628	10

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 Donetta W. Ambrose?: President William J. Clinton appointed Donetta W. Ambrose to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in 1993.
Was Donetta W. Ambrose appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Donetta W. Ambrose was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Donetta W. Ambrose's confirmation vote?: Donetta W. Ambrose was confirmed by voice vote on November 20, 1993. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Donetta W. Ambrose on?: Donetta W. Ambrose is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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32 years on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).