Fifth Circuit / Appointed 1936 / Served to 1961

Edwin Ruthven Holmes

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

Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 and confirmed by voice vote, Edwin Ruthven Holmes was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He earned a law degree from University of Texas School of Law. He previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi and U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1878–1961
Appointed by
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Texas Law

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1918Northern District of MississippiWilson (D)Voice vote
1918Southern District of MississippiWilson (D)Voice vote
1936Fifth CircuitF.D. Roosevelt (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

Judicial Record

In our data, Holmes authored 8 published opinions for the court (1927–1946). Most cited: Norris v. United States (48 citations).

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

Showing the 8 most-cited of 8 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 Edwin Ruthven Holmes?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Edwin Ruthven Holmes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1936.
Was Edwin Ruthven Holmes appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Edwin Ruthven Holmes was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Edwin Ruthven Holmes's confirmation vote?
Edwin Ruthven Holmes was confirmed by voice vote on March 19, 1936. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Edwin Ruthven Holmes on?
Edwin Ruthven Holmes was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Sources

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

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