Douglas Preston Woodlock
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and confirmed by voice vote, Douglas Preston Woodlock is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1975. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1947 · age 79
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1986
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Yale 1969 · Georgetown Law Center 1975
- Succeeded
- Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr.
- Succeeded by
- Angel Kelley
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | District of Massachusetts succeeded Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. | 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
| Yale University | B.A. | 1969 |
| Georgetown University Law Center | J.D. | 1975 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Woodlock was assigned 10,493 district-court cases (1978–2022). Median time from filing to termination: 506 days across 10,487 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 263 of Woodlock’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 212 were affirmed, 31 reversed or vacated, and 20 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, Woodlock authored 175 published opinions for the court (1987–2011). Most cited: Xuncax v. Gramajo (102 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Xuncax v. Gramajo | 886 F. Supp. 162 | 102 |
| 2004 | United States v. President and Fellows of Harvard College | 323 F. Supp. 2d 151 | 49 |
| 2000 | Northern Light Technology, Inc. v. Northern Lights Club | 97 F. Supp. 2d 96 | 49 |
| 1988 | Calamari Fisheries, Inc. v. the Village Catch, Inc. | 698 F. Supp. 994 | 47 |
| 1997 | Hasbro, Inc. v. Clue Computing, Inc. | 994 F. Supp. 34 | 43 |
| 1990 | A. Johnson & Co. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. | 741 F. Supp. 298 | 38 |
| 1989 | Allstate Insurance v. Quinn Construction Co. | 713 F. Supp. 35 | 36 |
| 2011 | United States Ex Rel. Nowak v. Medtronic, Inc. | 806 F. Supp. 2d 310 | 32 |
| 2005 | Stegall v. Ladner | 394 F. Supp. 2d 358 | 28 |
| 1996 | Wasylow v. Glock, Inc. | 975 F. Supp. 370 | 28 |
| 2010 | South Middlesex Opportunity Council, Inc. v. Town of Framingham | 752 F. Supp. 2d 85 | 27 |
| 1999 | Hasbro, Inc. v. Clue Computing, Inc. | 66 F. Supp. 2d 117 | 27 |
| 2009 | Vieira v. First American Title Insurance | 668 F. Supp. 2d 282 | 26 |
| 1997 | Strahan v. Linnon | 967 F. Supp. 581 | 26 |
| 2010 | NPS LLC v. Ambac Assurance Corp. | 706 F. Supp. 2d 162 | 24 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 175 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 Douglas Preston Woodlock?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed Douglas Preston Woodlock to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 1986.
- Was Douglas Preston Woodlock appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Douglas Preston Woodlock was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Douglas Preston Woodlock's confirmation vote?
- Douglas Preston Woodlock was confirmed by voice vote on June 13, 1986. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Douglas Preston Woodlock on?
- Douglas Preston Woodlock is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (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.
40 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).