Who appointed Howard D. McKibben?

President Ronald Reagan appointed Howard D. McKibben to the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada in 1984.

Was Howard D. McKibben appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Howard D. McKibben was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Howard D. McKibben's confirmation vote?

Howard D. McKibben was confirmed by voice vote on October 4, 1984. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of Nevada / Appointed 1984 / Senior status since 2005

Howard D. McKibben

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

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and confirmed by voice vote, Howard D. McKibben is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. He earned a law degree from University of Michigan Law School in 1967. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1940 · age 86
Appointed by: Ronald Reagan, 1984
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Bradley 1962 · University of Michigan Law School 1967
Succeeded by: Brian Edward Sandoval

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1984	District of Nevada	Reagan (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

Bradley University	B.S.	1962
University of Pittsburgh	M.P.A.	1964
University of Michigan Law School	J.D.	1967

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, McKibben was assigned 4,197 district-court cases (1984–2025). Median time from filing to termination: 240 days across 4,162 closed cases.

Prisoner & habeas21%

Criminal20%

Civil rights14%

Contract13%

Other federal statutes10%

Personal-injury torts7%

Other14%

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 164 of McKibben’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 128 were affirmed, 21 reversed or vacated, and 15 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, McKibben authored 39 published opinions for the court (1986–2011). Most cited: Allstate Insurance v. Foster (40 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
1988	Allstate Insurance v. Foster	693 F. Supp. 886	40
2001	Morrow v. Putnam	142 F. Supp. 2d 1271	25
1990	Buchanan v. Henderson	131 B.R. 859	16
1998	United States v. Alpine Land and Reservoir Co.	27 F. Supp. 2d 1230	11
1991	United States Ex Rel. Electrical Workers Local Pension Fund v. D Bar D Enterprises, Inc.	772 F. Supp. 1167	11
1991	Layton v. Yankee Caithness Joint Venture, L.P.	774 F. Supp. 576	11
1989	United States v. Kimball	711 F. Supp. 1031	10
2005	Morin v. United States	534 F. Supp. 2d 1179	9
1995	Hopkins v. Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (In Re Hopkins)	192 B.R. 760	7
1990	Douglas v. Don King Productions, Inc.	736 F. Supp. 223	7
1992	National Collegiate Athletic Ass'n v. Miller	795 F. Supp. 1476	6
1988	Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. McIbs, Inc.	684 F. Supp. 246	6
1987	Animal Protection Institute of America, Inc. v. Hodel	671 F. Supp. 695	6
2011	Cloud Foundation v. United States Bureau of Land Management	802 F. Supp. 2d 1192	3
1996	Hampton International Communications, Inc. v. Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority	913 F. Supp. 1402	3

Showing the 15 most-cited of 39 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 Howard D. McKibben?: President Ronald Reagan appointed Howard D. McKibben to the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada in 1984.
Was Howard D. McKibben appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Howard D. McKibben was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Howard D. McKibben's confirmation vote?: Howard D. McKibben was confirmed by voice vote on October 4, 1984. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Howard D. McKibben on?: Howard D. McKibben is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

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