Ellen Bree Burns
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and confirmed by voice vote, Ellen Bree Burns was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. She earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1947. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1923–2019
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1978
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Chief judge
- District of Connecticut, 1988 to 1992
- Education
- Albertus Magnus College 1944 · Yale Law School 1947
- Succeeded
- Mosher Joseph Blumenfeld
- Succeeded by
- Alvin W. Thompson
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | District of Connecticut succeeded Mosher Joseph Blumenfeld chief judge 1988 to 1992 | Carter (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
| Albertus Magnus College | B.A. | 1944 |
| Yale Law School | LL.B. | 1947 |
Before the bench
Professional career before and outside the federal bench, as recorded by the Federal Judicial Center.
| Special assistant, Commission to Revise the Connecticut General Statutes | 1947-1948 |
| Attorney, Legislative Legal Services, Connecticut General Assembly | 1949-1973 |
| Judge, Connecticut Circuit Court | 1973-1974 |
| Judge, Connecticut Court of Common Pleas | 1974-1976 |
| Judge, Connecticut Superior Court | 1976-1978 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Burns was assigned 1,764 district-court cases (1969–2014). Median time from filing to termination: 751 days across 1,760 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 30 of Burns’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 26 were affirmed, 3 reversed or vacated, and 1 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, Burns authored 155 published opinions for the court (1978–2011). Most cited: Stewart B. McKinney Foundation, Inc. v. Town Plan & Zoning Commission (48 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Stewart B. McKinney Foundation, Inc. v. Town Plan & Zoning Commission | 790 F. Supp. 1197 | 48 |
| 1978 | Goodson v. Searle Laboratories | 471 F. Supp. 546 | 41 |
| 1991 | MMR/Wallace Power & Industrial, Inc. v. Thames Associates | 764 F. Supp. 712 | 40 |
| 1983 | Nelson v. Regan | 560 F. Supp. 1101 | 39 |
| 2008 | Messier v. Southbury Training School | 562 F. Supp. 2d 294 | 29 |
| 1989 | Ackley v. Gulf Oil Corp. | 726 F. Supp. 353 | 29 |
| 2004 | Scott v. Town of Monroe | 306 F. Supp. 2d 191 | 28 |
| 1990 | Cacace v. Lucas | 775 F. Supp. 502 | 27 |
| 1980 | Data General Corp. v. Citizens National Bank | 502 F. Supp. 776 | 26 |
| 1991 | Connecticut Coastal Fishermen's Ass'n v. Remington Arms Co. | 777 F. Supp. 173 | 22 |
| 1982 | Annunziato v. New Haven Board of Aldermen | 555 F. Supp. 427 | 22 |
| 1979 | Dandorph v. Fahnestock & Co. | 462 F. Supp. 961 | 21 |
| 2004 | Coger v. Connecticut | 309 F. Supp. 2d 274 | 20 |
| 1985 | Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan v. City of West Haven | 600 F. Supp. 1427 | 20 |
| 1997 | Crocco v. Xerox Corp. | 956 F. Supp. 129 | 19 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 155 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 Ellen Bree Burns?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed Ellen Bree Burns to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut in 1978.
- Was Ellen Bree Burns appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Ellen Bree Burns was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Ellen Bree Burns's confirmation vote?
- Ellen Bree Burns was confirmed by voice vote on May 17, 1978. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Ellen Bree Burns on?
- Ellen Bree Burns was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Administrative Office of the United States Courts (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.
41 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Data as of 2026-09-28. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).