Horace Taliaferro Ward
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, Horace Taliaferro Ward was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. He earned a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law) in 1959. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1927–2016
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1979
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Morehouse College 1949 · Northwestern Law (now Pritzker School of Law) 1959
- Succeeded by
- Willis B. Hunt Jr.
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Northern District of Georgia | Carter (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
| Morehouse College | A.B. | 1949 |
| Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) | M.A. | 1950 |
| Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law) | J.D. | 1959 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Ward was assigned 3,208 district-court cases (1979–2011). Median time from filing to termination: 310 days across 3,208 closed cases.
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 10 of Ward’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 9 were affirmed, 1 reversed or vacated. 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, Ward authored 56 published opinions for the court (1980–2006). Most cited: Prather v. Raymond Const. Co., Inc. (49 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Prather v. Raymond Const. Co., Inc. | 570 F. Supp. 278 | 49 |
| 1981 | Georgia Ass'n of Retarded Citizens v. McDaniel | 511 F. Supp. 1263 | 25 |
| 1985 | United States v. Carpenter | 611 F. Supp. 768 | 23 |
| 1981 | American Booksellers Ass'n v. McAuliffe | 533 F. Supp. 50 | 22 |
| 1986 | Chambers v. Kaleidoscope, Inc. Profit Sharing Plan and Trust | 650 F. Supp. 359 | 21 |
| 1991 | Confederation Life Insurance Co. v. Beau Rivage Ltd. | 126 B.R. 632 | 20 |
| 1986 | Pinkerton and Laws Co., Inc. v. Roadway Exp., Inc. | 650 F. Supp. 1138 | 20 |
| 1986 | Bostic v. McClendon | 650 F. Supp. 245 | 18 |
| 1984 | United States v. Sanchez Vazquez | 585 F. Supp. 990 | 16 |
| 1983 | Ryder Truck Lines, Inc. v. Goren Equipment Co. | 576 F. Supp. 1348 | 16 |
| 1991 | Smith v. Ortho Pharmaceutical Corp. | 770 F. Supp. 1561 | 14 |
| 1986 | Goldberg v. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp. | 650 F. Supp. 222 | 14 |
| 1983 | Blalock MacHinery & Equipment Co. v. Iowa Manufacturing Co. | 576 F. Supp. 774 | 14 |
| 1981 | Letson v. Liberty Mutual Insurance | 523 F. Supp. 1221 | 13 |
| 1991 | Ellenberg v. Bouldin | 125 B.R. 851 | 12 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 56 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 Horace Taliaferro Ward?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed Horace Taliaferro Ward to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in 1979.
- Was Horace Taliaferro Ward appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Horace Taliaferro Ward was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Horace Taliaferro Ward's confirmation vote?
- Horace Taliaferro Ward was confirmed by voice vote on December 5, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Horace Taliaferro Ward on?
- Horace Taliaferro Ward was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
36 years on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).