Who appointed Gladys Kessler?

President William J. Clinton appointed Gladys Kessler to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1994.

Was Gladys Kessler appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

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

What was Gladys Kessler's confirmation vote?

Gladys Kessler was confirmed by voice vote on June 15, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of Columbia / Appointed 1994 / Served to 2023

Gladys Kessler

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

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, Gladys Kessler was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1962. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1938–2023
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1994
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Cornell 1959 · Harvard Law School 1962
Succeeded: Michael Boudin
Succeeded by: Amy Berman Jackson

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1994	District of Columbia succeeded Michael Boudin	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

Cornell University	B.A.	1959
Harvard Law School	LL.B.	1962

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Kessler was assigned 2,061 district-court cases (1982–2016). Median time from filing to termination: 288 days across 2,057 closed cases.

Civil rights23%

Other federal statutes20%

Prisoner & habeas17%

Personal-injury torts11%

Contract9%

Labor & ERISA8%

Other12%

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 93 of Kessler’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 57 were affirmed, 24 reversed or vacated, and 12 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, Kessler authored 751 published opinions for the court (1994–2017). Most cited: United States v. Philip Morris Inc. (186 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
2000	United States v. Philip Morris Inc.	116 F. Supp. 2d 116	186
2010	Bryant v. Pepco	730 F. Supp. 2d 25	121
2000	Salazar v. District of Columbia	123 F. Supp. 2d 8	116
2016	Nine Iraqi Allies Under Serious Threat Because of Their Faithful Service to the United States v. Kerry	168 F. Supp. 3d 268	110
2011	Amirmotazedi v. Viacom, Inc.	768 F. Supp. 2d 256	101
2011	United States Ex Rel. Head v. Kane Co.	798 F. Supp. 2d 186	61
2006	Smith v. District of Columbia	466 F. Supp. 2d 151	58
2002	Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development v. Ashcroft	219 F. Supp. 2d 57	56
2004	Holbrook v. District of Columbia	305 F. Supp. 2d 41	47
2011	Bucher v. District of Columbia	777 F. Supp. 2d 69	45
2016	Electronic Privacy Information Center v. United States Department of Homeland Security	218 F. Supp. 3d 27	44
1997	Defenders of Wildlife v. Babbitt	958 F. Supp. 670	44
2014	Hunter Ex Rel. A.H. v. District of Columbia	64 F. Supp. 3d 158	43
2003	American Rivers v. United States Army Corps of Engineers	271 F. Supp. 2d 230	42
2010	Cox v. District of Columbia	754 F. Supp. 2d 66	39

Showing the 15 most-cited of 751 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 Gladys Kessler?: President William J. Clinton appointed Gladys Kessler to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1994.
Was Gladys Kessler appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Gladys Kessler was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Gladys Kessler's confirmation vote?: Gladys Kessler was confirmed by voice vote on June 15, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Gladys Kessler on?: Gladys Kessler was 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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28 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).