Western District of Arkansas / Appointed 1977 / Served to 1990

Elsijane Trimble Roy

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

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 and confirmed by voice vote, Elsijane Trimble Roy was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. She earned a law degree from University of Arkansas School of Law in 1939. She previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1916–2007
Appointed by
Jimmy Carter, 1977
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Arkansas Law 1939
Succeeded
Oren Harris

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1977Western District of Arkansas
succeeded Oren Harris
Carter (D)Voice vote
1977Eastern District of Arkansas
succeeded Oren Harris
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

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Roy was assigned 1,725 district-court cases (1981–1999). Median time from filing to termination: 254 days across 1,725 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas41%
Civil rights18%
Contract10%
Personal-injury torts9%
Real property7%
Social Security7%
Other9%

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.

In our data, Roy authored 125 published opinions for the court (1978–1998). Most cited: Backus v. Baptist Medical Center (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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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

Showing the 15 most-cited of 125 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 Elsijane Trimble Roy?
President Jimmy Carter appointed Elsijane Trimble Roy to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas in 1977.
Was Elsijane Trimble Roy appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Elsijane Trimble Roy was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Elsijane Trimble Roy's confirmation vote?
Elsijane Trimble Roy was confirmed by voice vote on November 1, 1977. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Elsijane Trimble Roy on?
Elsijane Trimble Roy was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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