Northern District of California / Appointed 1982 / Served to 1997

Eugene F. Lynch

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

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 and confirmed by voice vote, Eugene F. Lynch was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He earned a law degree from University of California Hastings College of the Law (now UC College of the Law, San Francisco) in 1958. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1931–2019
Appointed by
Ronald Reagan, 1982
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Santa Clara (now Santa Clara) 1953 · University of California Hastings College of the Law (now UC College of the Law, San Francisco) 1958
Succeeded by
Martin J. Jenkins

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1982Northern District of CaliforniaReagan (R)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, Lynch was assigned 2,271 district-court cases (1980–1997). Median time from filing to termination: 172 days across 2,270 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas29%
Contract15%
Civil rights13%
Other federal statutes9%
Personal-injury torts9%
Labor & ERISA9%
Other16%

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, Lynch authored 107 published opinions for the court (1982–1997). Most cited: Doe Ex Rel. Doe v. Petaluma City School District (82 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 107 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 Eugene F. Lynch?
President Ronald Reagan appointed Eugene F. Lynch to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1982.
Was Eugene F. Lynch appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Eugene F. Lynch was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Eugene F. Lynch's confirmation vote?
Eugene F. Lynch was confirmed by voice vote on March 4, 1982. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Eugene F. Lynch on?
Eugene F. Lynch was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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