Who appointed Elaine E. Bucklo?

President William J. Clinton appointed Elaine E. Bucklo to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1994.

Was Elaine E. Bucklo appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Elaine E. Bucklo was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Elaine E. Bucklo's confirmation vote?

Elaine E. Bucklo was confirmed by voice vote on October 7, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Northern District of Illinois / Appointed 1994 / Senior status since 2009

Elaine E. Bucklo

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, Elaine E. Bucklo is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She earned a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law) in 1972. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1944 · age 82
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1994
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: St. Louis 1966 · Northwestern Law (now Pritzker School of Law) 1972
Succeeded: John Albert Nordberg
Succeeded by: Edmond E-Min Chang

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1994	Northern District of Illinois succeeded John Albert Nordberg	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

St. Louis University	A.B.	1966
Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law)	J.D.	1972

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Bucklo was assigned 8,329 district-court cases (1978–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 165 days across 7,832 closed cases.

Civil rights15%

Labor & ERISA15%

Other federal statutes14%

Other civil matters11%

Contract9%

Prisoner & habeas9%

Other27%

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 227 of Bucklo’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 169 were affirmed, 50 reversed or vacated, and 8 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, Bucklo authored 934 published opinions for the court (1994–2011). Most cited: Vandeveld v. Christoph (66 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	Vandeveld v. Christoph	877 F. Supp. 1160	66
2008	Hinman v. M and M Rental Center, Inc.	545 F. Supp. 2d 802	42
1995	College Craft Companies, Ltd. v. Perry	889 F. Supp. 1052	38
1995	Schmaltz v. Norfolk & Western Railway Co.	878 F. Supp. 1119	37
2010	Phipps v. Sheriff of Cook County	681 F. Supp. 2d 899	35
2007	In RE McDONALD'S FRENCH FRIES LITIGATION	503 F. Supp. 2d 953	35
2007	Gueorguiev v. Max Rave, LLC	526 F. Supp. 2d 853	33
1994	Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Sims	870 F. Supp. 870	31
2010	DeGeer v. Gillis	707 F. Supp. 2d 784	27
1995	Patterson Ex Rel. Patterson v. Xerox Corp.	901 F. Supp. 274	25
2002	Master Tech Products, Inc. v. Smith	181 F. Supp. 2d 910	23
2002	Jenkins v. Mercantile Mortgage Co.	231 F. Supp. 2d 737	22
2002	Amari v. Radio Spirits, Inc.	219 F. Supp. 2d 942	22
2007	Eclipse Manufacturing Co. v. M & M Rental Center, Inc.	521 F. Supp. 2d 739	21
2003	In Re Sears, Roebuck and Co. Securities Litigation	291 F. Supp. 2d 722	21

Showing the 15 most-cited of 934 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 Elaine E. Bucklo?: President William J. Clinton appointed Elaine E. Bucklo to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1994.
Was Elaine E. Bucklo appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Elaine E. Bucklo was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Elaine E. Bucklo's confirmation vote?: Elaine E. Bucklo was confirmed by voice vote on October 7, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Elaine E. Bucklo on?: Elaine E. Bucklo is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

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