Howard Frederic Sachs
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and confirmed by voice vote, Howard Frederic Sachs is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1950. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1925 · age 101
- Appointed by
- Jimmy Carter, 1979
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Williams College 1947 · Harvard Law School 1950
- Succeeded by
- Ortrie D. Smith
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Western District of Missouri | 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
| Williams College | A.B. | 1947 |
| Harvard Law School | J.D. | 1950 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Sachs was assigned 5,809 district-court cases (1981–2025). Median time from filing to termination: 248 days across 5,764 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 247 of Sachs’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 231 were affirmed, 14 reversed or vacated, and 2 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, Sachs authored 129 published opinions for the court (1979–2008). Most cited: United States v. Johnson (36 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 | United States v. Johnson | 682 F. Supp. 1033 | 36 |
| 1981 | Lovett v. Beneficial Finance Co. (In Re Lovett) | 11 B.R. 123 | 36 |
| 1989 | Kroh Bros. Development Co. v. Kroh Bros. Management Co. (In Re Kroh Bros. Development Co.) | 117 B.R. 499 | 22 |
| 1988 | United States v. Standard State Bank | 91 B.R. 874 | 22 |
| 1981 | Carter v. Van Buskirk (In Re Carter) | 16 B.R. 481 | 20 |
| 1981 | Heitman v. Gabriel | 524 F. Supp. 622 | 20 |
| 2001 | Porter v. Berall | 142 F. Supp. 2d 1145 | 18 |
| 1985 | United States v. Spector (In Re Booth Tow Services, Inc.) | 53 B.R. 1014 | 18 |
| 1982 | Graphic Arts International Union v. Graphic Arts International Union, Local 529 | 529 F. Supp. 587 | 18 |
| 1988 | Independent Federation of Flight Attendants v. Trans World Airlines, Inc. | 682 F. Supp. 1003 | 17 |
| 1997 | Parker v. Bowersox | 975 F. Supp. 1251 | 16 |
| 1987 | Komm v. McFliker | 662 F. Supp. 924 | 14 |
| 1982 | Sturm v. Clark Equipment Co. | 547 F. Supp. 144 | 14 |
| 1989 | Nodaway Valley Bank v. Continental Casualty Co. | 715 F. Supp. 1458 | 12 |
| 1984 | Ruffalo v. United States | 590 F. Supp. 706 | 12 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 129 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 Frederic Sachs?
- President Jimmy Carter appointed Howard Frederic Sachs to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in 1979.
- Was Howard Frederic Sachs appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Howard Frederic Sachs was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Howard Frederic Sachs's confirmation vote?
- Howard Frederic Sachs was confirmed by voice vote on September 25, 1979. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Howard Frederic Sachs on?
- Howard Frederic Sachs is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Ann Thomson, Clerk of the Court (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- 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.
46 years on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).