Southern District of Florida / Appointed 1979 / Served to 1991

Eugene P. Spellman

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, Eugene P. Spellman was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He earned a law degree from University of Florida College of Law (now Fredric G. Levin College of Law) in 1955. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1930–1991
Appointed by
Jimmy Carter, 1979
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
University of Florida 1953 · University of Florida College of Law (now Fredric G. Levin College of Law) 1955

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1979Southern District of FloridaCarter (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, Spellman was assigned 1,037 district-court cases (1968–1991). Median time from filing to termination: 193 days across 1,037 closed cases.

Contract30%
Prisoner & habeas17%
Personal-injury torts10%
Other federal statutes9%
Forfeiture & penalty7%
Intellectual property5%
Other23%

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, Spellman authored 195 published opinions for the court (1979–1991). Most cited: Pepper's Steel & Alloys, Inc. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. (46 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 195 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 P. Spellman?
President Jimmy Carter appointed Eugene P. Spellman to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 1979.
Was Eugene P. Spellman appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Eugene P. Spellman was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Eugene P. Spellman's confirmation vote?
Eugene P. Spellman was confirmed by voice vote on October 4, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Eugene P. Spellman on?
Eugene P. Spellman was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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