Who appointed Emmet G. Sullivan?

President William J. Clinton appointed Emmet G. Sullivan to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1994.

Was Emmet G. Sullivan appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Emmet G. Sullivan was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Emmet G. Sullivan's confirmation vote?

Emmet G. Sullivan was confirmed by voice vote on June 15, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of Columbia / Appointed 1994 / Senior status since 2021

Emmet G. Sullivan

Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, Emmet G. Sullivan is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He earned a law degree from Howard University School of Law in 1971. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1947 · age 79
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1994
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Howard 1968 · Howard Law 1971
Succeeded: Louis Falk Oberdorfer
Succeeded by: Jia Michelle Cobb

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1994	District of Columbia succeeded Louis Falk Oberdorfer	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

Howard University	B.A.	1968
Howard University School of Law	J.D.	1971

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Sullivan was assigned 3,467 district-court cases (1977–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 255 days across 3,276 closed cases.

Other federal statutes26%

Civil rights20%

Prisoner & habeas10%

Personal-injury torts10%

Contract8%

Labor & ERISA7%

Other19%

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 212 of Sullivan’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 155 were affirmed, 37 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, Sullivan authored 1,376 published opinions for the court (1967–2026). Most cited: Artis v. Greenspan (114 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
2002	Artis v. Greenspan	223 F. Supp. 2d 149	114
2013	Turner v. Astrue	964 F. Supp. 2d 21	104
2013	Shurtleff v. United States Environmental Protection Agency	991 F. Supp. 2d 1	67
2007	People for the American Way Foundation v. National Park Service	503 F. Supp. 2d 284	65
2002	Judicial Watch, Inc. v. National Energy Policy Development Group	233 F. Supp. 2d 16	63
2009	Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics v. U.S. Department of Justice	602 F. Supp. 2d 121	61
2009	Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics v. U.S. Department of Justice	658 F. Supp. 2d 217	60
2002	Judicial Watch, Inc. v. National Energy Policy Development Group	219 F. Supp. 2d 20	58
2006	Shays v. Federal Election Commission	424 F. Supp. 2d 100	55
2011	Parker v. District of Columbia	832 F. Supp. 2d 32	54
2010	Newby v. Obama	681 F. Supp. 2d 53	54
2007	DSMC, INC. v. Convera Corp.	479 F. Supp. 2d 68	51
2014	Texas Children's Hospital v. Burwell	76 F. Supp. 3d 224	49
2007	C & E SERVICES, INC. v. Ashland, Inc.	498 F. Supp. 2d 242	49
2016	Electronic Privacy Information Center v. United States Drug Enforcement Agency	192 F. Supp. 3d 92	48

Showing the 15 most-cited of 1,376 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 Emmet G. Sullivan?: President William J. Clinton appointed Emmet G. Sullivan to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1994.
Was Emmet G. Sullivan appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Emmet G. Sullivan was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Emmet G. Sullivan's confirmation vote?: Emmet G. Sullivan was confirmed by voice vote on June 15, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Emmet G. Sullivan on?: Emmet G. Sullivan is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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