Middle District of Florida / Appointed 1991 / Senior status since 2006

Harvey Erwin Schlesinger

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

Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and confirmed by voice vote, Harvey Erwin Schlesinger is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He earned a law degree from University of Richmond T.C. Williams School of Law (now University of Richmond School of Law) in 1965. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born
1940 · age 86
Appointed by
George H.W. Bush, 1991
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
The Citadel 1962 · University of Richmond T.C. Williams Law (now of Richmond School of Law) 1965

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1991Middle District of FloridaG.H.W. Bush (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, Schlesinger was assigned 8,592 district-court cases (1979–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 156 days across 8,358 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas35%
Civil rights13%
Contract12%
Personal-injury torts9%
Other federal statutes6%
Labor & ERISA6%
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 187 of Schlesinger’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 170 were affirmed, 12 reversed or vacated, and 5 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, Schlesinger authored 67 published opinions for the court (1991–2010). Most cited: Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Frena (37 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 67 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 Harvey Erwin Schlesinger?
President George H.W. Bush appointed Harvey Erwin Schlesinger to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in 1991.
Was Harvey Erwin Schlesinger appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Harvey Erwin Schlesinger was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Harvey Erwin Schlesinger's confirmation vote?
Harvey Erwin Schlesinger was confirmed by voice vote on June 27, 1991. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Harvey Erwin Schlesinger on?
Harvey Erwin Schlesinger is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle 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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35 years on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).